Chapter 22: Case Solved
The immediate events following her close escape from death were a blur for April. After realizing that the danger was over, her mind had kind of shut down and April had sat on the ground, completely apathetic and indifferent to the things happening around her.
One of the few things she remembered was Elena throwing her jacket over her to cover her nakedness, at least as much as it was possible. Reinforcements arrived indeed, they had missed the showdown only by a couple of minutes. An ambulance for April followed shortly after, taking her to the next hospital without further delay. She didn't even get a chance to thank Elena and Lucas or to ask them how they had found her before the medics put her on a stretcher and wheeled her off. At least, with the help of her two friends, she had been able to undo her remaining bondage and finally remove the ballgag from her mouth, just to be stapped down again to secure her for transport.
April did not remember much of the ride. She either had fallen asleep from her exhaustion or someone had administered an anesthetic. When she woke up after that, she found herself in a hospital room in the ICU, with an IV coming from her right elbow and cables with sticky pads on her chest, hooked up to a computer monitoring her heartbeat.
The clock on the wall told her that it was close to 3:00 p.m., which meant that she must have been knocked out for over 18 hours. April felt like going back to sleep right away and sleep for another 18 hours, but now that she was awake, she thought that it was better to assess her current situation.
Someone had washed her and put her in a hospital gown. When she peeked through the wide collar, she spotted countless sticking plasters and bandages all over her body. All the places where her skin had been opened either by the whip or by other abuses. Strangely, she did not feel any pain. That was probably due to painkillers coming from the IV.
A nurse came in a short while later and when she saw that April was awake, she left to get a doctor. When the doctor arrived to update her on her health status, he did not really tell her anything that April had not already figured out by herself in the meantime: When she had arrived at the hospital, she had been dehydrated to a dangerous level. They had taken care of that by feeding her the required electrolytes intravenously. Her injuries were severe, but not life threatening. Most of the wounds had only been inflicted to the upper layers of her skin, without damaging any underlying tissue.
Over the course of the next hours, blood tests were taken and April was examined further with an ultrasound machine. After that, the doctor was glad to inform her that none of her internal organs had suffered and all were still functioning properly. The only question he could not give his all-clear about was, if Zach's rape had gotten April pregnant. It was way too early to tell if his semen had successfully impregnated her. She made a note in her mind to see her gynecologist in 14 days or so and ask her for an abortion consultation, if the worst should have happened.
The next day, April was moved from the ICU to a normal hospital room and after staying another night for further monitoring, the doctor said that she could go home, since none of her wounds were showing any signs of infection. Of course, he put her on sick leave until further notice and prescribed her some strong antibiotic that she would have to take three times a day for the next ten days. And painkillers, that she should take whenever she felt the need to. He warned her, though, that she had to come back to the hospital immediately if she was getting a fever within the next couple of days.
Of course, April knew that the healing of her physical wounds would not suffice if she wanted to get back into service again. Her Captain would certainly require her to see a pschycologist, like every cop was required to do if they were injured in service.
April was getting ready to go home. Paige, a close friend of hers who lived nearby and had a spare key for her apartment, had stopped by earlier and brought some clothes along. All the information that April had given her was, that she had had an 'accident' at work and had no normal clothes with her. Paige did not need to know all the details. Actually, no one who not already knew had to. April doubted, if she should even tell her parents about what had happened.
She had just stripped off her hospital gown and wanted to put on her underwear when there was a knock at the door. Before she could react, the door opened and Lucas stepped in.
"Ah shit, I am sorry April!", Lucas apologized, realizing that he was disturbing her in the worst possible moment.
"It's alright", she sighed. "It's not like you haven't seen me naked before."
"That was a different situation."
April kept dressing while Lucas acted like the stock painting decorating the wall was the most interesting thing he had seen all day. Only when April was back in her street clothes, Lucas dared to look at her again.
"I wanted to come by earlier", he began to explain. "But they wouldn't let us see you while you were still in the ICU. Neither me, nor Elena, not even the Captain."
There was an awkward moment of silence in the room. April had a feeling that this was not what Lucas wanted to tell her.
"How did you and Elena find me?", April asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Ah, yes!" Lucas' face immediately shone in excitement. "See, our 'friend' Parker got my suspicion. He pretended to be sooo worried about you having disappeared so suddenly and without a trace. But I didn't buy it."
"Why?"
"Well, you remember me being assigned to the team that was trying to find the computer the 'Dark Room' website was operating on? Parker came into our office like every two hours and asked about our progress. I mean, the last time I had seen him before you joined the force, he didn't even know how to hold a computer mouse the right way around. And now, all of a sudden, he was interested in our computer stuff? Unlikely! But what was even more weird: Every time when he heard that we weren't making any real progress, he seemed relieved."
"And then you figured that he was involved?"
"Yes, and I had a feeling that I might even have the luck to catch him red-handed. So I secretly followed him to the toilet. And while he was taking a leak at the pissior, I dropped a little tracking device in his pocket."
"Where did you get this?" April could not help but to snicker. Lucas having a tracking device was so nerd-like.
"At the electronic store. See, I recently bought a pair of those really expensive bluetooth in-ears. They allow you to track them with your phone if you should ever lose them. And I just happened to 'lose' one in Parker's pocket. So when the tracking app told me that he was driving off into the desert, I went to your friend Elena. Knowing that you and her got along well, she was the most logical choice to share my suspicion with. She agreed to come with me, we followed Parker and hence, well..."
"...you found me", April finished his sentence. "Thank you, Lucas."
For a moment, April felt like this was the right time to hug him. But she hesitated for a moment too long so that the situation became awkward again. But this time, It was Lucas who broke the silence.
"I have brought you a gift", he said, handing her a small box that was encased in colorful wrapping paper.
April thanked him meekly and accepted the gift. She opened it right away, revealing what looked like a simple box of chocolate.
"Look inside", Lucas urged her, showing a faint smile.
The box of chocolate contained... well, chocolate. But one piece had been removed and replaced with an SD card.
"Is that...?"
"Yes", Lucas nodded. "This is the SD card they had in their camera. When we searched their camper, we found the computer they had used to produce and upload their videos to the 'Red Room' website. On the computer, there were the videos of Dakota Morales and Millicent Harper. But not yours. Which means..."
"...they were not yet copied from the SD card, and this is the only place were they are stored."
"Yes! That's what I figured when we were done searching the computer. We haven't gotten around investigating the camera, so no one else has seen your videos. Neither have I. I promise you this, April. When I was tasked to store the camera in the evidence locker, I took the chance to replace the SD card with a corrupted one. The offical result of the investigation will be, that your videos are lost."
The thought of other people from the precinct, colleagues of hers, watching the footage of her being abused and humiliated, had horrified April. It was reassuring to know that this would never happen.
"Thank you, Lucas!"
This time, she did not hesitate to embrace him. Lucas responded by getting all tense. Certainly, it had been a while since he had had such close contact to a woman of his age that he was not related to. But after the initial moment of surprise had passed, he returned the hug.
"So, how do you get home?", he asked after they had parted again.
"I was going to call a taxi..."
"Would you like me to drive you?"
"Sure, thank you!", she smiled.
"Would you, uhhh, mind if we stopped for a coffee on the way or something?"
"Lucas... I am sorry", April responded uncertainly. "The last time a colleague took me out, it did not end so well for me..."
"I understand", he replied, the disappointment evident in his voice.
"I was just joking", April laughed. "But please take me to a real cafe. You don't want to find out what they are selling as 'coffee' here at the hospital cantina."
To be concluded.
(A short epilogue will follow!)