Awash (The Forgotten Coast Florida Suspense Series Book 6) (4 page)

She was proven right when they’d parked, and the aunt was the first one out of the vehicle. As soon as the back door slammed, Maggie turned to Zoe.

“You get along okay with your aunt?’ she asked quietly.

Zoe looked at her a moment, then shrugged. “She’s okay,” Zoe answered.

Maggie decided to accept that for now. She turned in her seat so she could face Zoe.

“Okay, listen. Dr. Broderick is on today, and she’s very good, very nice,” Maggie said. “She’s handled sexual assault cases before.”

“Okay,” Zoe said, but she didn’t look at Maggie, looked instead out the windshield.

“She’s going to check you for cuts and bruises, that kind of thing, then she’ll need to do a gynecological exam. She’ll be looking for signs of assault and checking for DNA. Okay?”

Zoe looked down at her lap, where her hands began twisting around each other. “Okay.”

“You’ll be covered, and she’ll get it over with as quickly as she can,” Maggie said. “Your aunt can go in with you.”

Zoe looked over at Maggie then, and Maggie swallowed when she saw the girl blinking tears away.

“Can you come with me instead?” Zoe asked quietly.

“Your aunt is your guardian,” Maggie answered. “I can’t tell her not to be in the room. But yes, I can be with you if you want.”

Zoe nodded and looked back down at her hands. “Thanks, Coach.”

Maggie felt her throat thickening. She glanced over her shoulder at the closed back passenger window, saw that the aunt had wandered a few yards away to a grassy median to smoke. Maggie had yet to see the woman hold or even touch her niece. The closest they’d gotten physically was in the car.

Maggie looked back at Zoe. “Zoe, why did you call me?” she asked.

Zoe glanced up at her, but then ducked her head again. “You were really nice to me when I was little. I knew you cared about me. My mom liked you a lot.”

Maggie felt her throat thickening. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke.

“I still care about you,” she said. It took her a moment to speak again. “Zoe, I’ve been through what you’re going through. Please don’t be embarrassed in front of me.”

Zoe looked up quickly. “It happened to you?”

Maggie nodded. “When I was fifteen.”

“I’m sorry,” the girl said softly, and Maggie’s soul wept. “But you’re okay now?”

That morning’s nightmare flashed into Maggie’s head. “Yes,” she said anyway. “And you’ll be okay, too. Different from yesterday, but okay.”

Maggie sat next to the exam table, on the little stool with wheels, as she watched Dr. Broderick. The doctor’s ash-blond ponytail hung over her shoulder as she held Zoe’s right hand and gently scraped under each fingernail. Zoe sat straight as a board in her thin hospital gown, staring without expression at the wall behind Maggie.

Lynette Boatwright had quickly opted out of accompanying her niece during the examination. Her relief at having a stand-in was obvious, but Maggie didn’t know if it was because it gave her the chance to take smoke breaks, or because she was uncomfortable with the proceedings. It occurred to Maggie that she just didn’t care, but she tried to push that thought into a corner of her mind. It wouldn’t be helpful to build a bias against the woman.

Maggie was glad that they’d gotten Valerie Broderick. Maggie didn’t know her socially, but they’d crossed professional paths many times. She was in her early thirties, pretty but not in a distracting way, she knew her stuff, and she treated victims with respect.

“All right, Zoe,” Dr. Broderick said gently. “I’m going to have you lie down now so that I can conduct a vaginal exam. Have you had one yet?”

“No, ma’am,” Zoe answered. When she glanced at Maggie, her eyes showed her anxiety.

Dr. Broderick put a hand on Zoe’s upper back. “I’m not going to start without telling you first, okay?”

Zoe nodded, just barely.

I’m going to have to use a speculum to enable me to see any signs of injury. Do you know what a speculum is?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then I’m going to use one of these to swab for any semen,” the doctor said, holding up a long disposable swab.

Zoe nodded. Dr. Broderick moved her hand to Zoe’s shoulder. “Listen to me,” she said. “You didn’t make an appointment for this. It’s an invasion and you’ve already had enough invasion. I’ll be as gentle and as quick as I can, all right?”

“I’m okay,” Zoe said to the wall.

“Okay, let’s go ahead and lie down,” the doctor said gently, and she laid a folded blanket across the girl’s slim hips before moving to stand at the foot of the exam table.

Maggie was surprised when Zoe reached out and took her hand. She scooted her stool closer to the table and covered their clasped hands with her free one.

“Okay, Zoe,” the doctor said softly. “I’m just going to take your foot and lift it into the stirrups, okay?”

Zoe nodded sharply, staring stoically up at the ceiling.

“And now the other foot.”

The reaction was so sudden that Maggie jumped just a bit. Zoe yanked her hand from Maggie’s, covered her face with both hands, and let out a sob that was raw and feral. Dr. Broderick rested a hand on Zoe’s knee, and Maggie let Zoe go a minute before she put a hand over Zoe’s.

“Zoe, look at me,” she said gently. “Look right at me.”

After a moment, Zoe’s cries turned to great, heaving breaths, and she took her hands from her face. Maggie gently curled her fingers into Zoe’s as the girl turned her head to look at her. Maggie leaned toward her, put her face just inches from the girl’s.

“Where do you look first when you stop a ball?” Maggie asked her gently.

“First base,” Zoe whispered immediately.

“When can you steal?”

“When the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand.”

“What if you steal early?”

“Dead ball.”

“Good girl,” Maggie said quietly.

“Are you okay for me to begin, Zoe?” the doctor asked gently.

“Yes, ma’am,” Zoe answered, still staring into Maggie’s eyes.

“Who was the best base stealer on my team?” Maggie asked her.

Zoe’s lower lip trembled. “Me.”

“You were a fearless little thing,” Maggie said quietly.

From the foot of the table, she heard the rustling of paper, and saw Zoe’s eyes widen again.

“Fearless,” Maggie repeated.

Fewer than thirty minutes later, Maggie had helped Zoe up and into the adjoining bathroom to change into clean sweats they’d brought from Zoe’s home. She’d explained to Zoe that she’d take her home so that she and her aunt could pack a few things, then take them both to the Best Western, where Zoe could take a long, hot shower and get some rest and something to eat. Once she’d closed the bathroom door, Maggie joined Dr. Broderick out in the hallway. There were two chairs just outside the exam room door. The aunt wasn’t in either one of them, but Broderick was leaning against a wall, waiting.

Maggie closed the exam room door behind her, then stood in front of the doctor, arms folded across her chest. Broderick sighed before she spoke.

“I recovered some semen. Hopefully that’ll help you at some point,” she said. “There was some bleeding, but that was because her hymen was intact at the time of the assault.”

“Okay,” Maggie said, more as a prompt than anything else. The other woman pushed some stray hair behind her ear and blinked up at the ceiling a moment. Maggie waited.

“She was full of leaves,” she said finally.

“What?”

“He filled her full of leaves,” Broderick said quietly.

T
he Best Western Apalach Inn was located on Highway 98, about a mile outside of town, on the way to Port St. Joe, Panama City and other points elsewhere.

Maggie checked in Zoe and Paulette Boatwright, securing them a second floor room for the next three days. Once the arrangements were made they went back outside and Maggie pulled her car around to the side parking lot, then led them up the exterior stairs to room 212.

Zoe and her aunt stepped aside as Maggie unlocked the room, then she handed them each a key card, held the door open for them, and watched as they took in their surroundings.

The room, with its dark-stained wooden furniture and heavy draperies, would’ve looked more at home in Atlanta or Savannah, but it was nice and it was clean. There were two double beds, a small table and chairs, a dresser with a flat screen TV, and a microwave oven over a mini fridge. There was also a small writing desk next to the dresser and it was there that Zoe placed her bookbag. Once Maggie closed the door, Zoe looked over at her, as though looking for instruction.

“Zoe, I know you need to take a shower. Why don’t you go ahead and get cleaned up and change into some clean clothes,” Maggie said. “Take as much time as you need. Your aunt and I will wait here until you’re ready to go.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Zoe said quietly. She carried her overnight bag over to the further of the two queen beds, placed it on the foot of the bed. Maggie watched as she pulled out a change of clothes and a plastic grocery bag in which she had packed her shampoo and other toiletries. Zoe moved slowly, and seemed to have to think about what to do next. After a moment’s hesitation, she started toward the bathroom. She flipped a few switches in the dressing area before finding the light for the bathroom.

“Zoe?” Maggie said. Zoe glanced back over at her. “Take as much time as you need, okay?”

The girl nodded and then quietly closed the bathroom door behind her. The aunt had set her purse and her pack of cigarettes on the table, then sat down at one of the two upholstered chairs. Maggie walked over to the table and sat down in the other one.

“Ms. Boatwright, I’d like to ask you a few questions while Zoe takes her shower,” she said.

“Yeah, all right,” the woman said, nodding.

Maggie pulled a small spiral notebook and a pen out of her purse, then dropped the bag down on the carpet beside her.

“What time did you say you got home last night?” Maggie asked her.

“I don’t know exactly,” she answered. “I think it was around one.”

“Is that pretty common?” Maggie asked as she jotted down her notes.

“What you mean?” Paulette asked. She didn’t seem nervous about the question, perhaps just slightly resentful.

“Are you usually home in the evenings, do you go out, do you work nights?”

“I go out some,” Paulette Boatwright answered. “It ain’t every night, but I have a life.”

“I’m not being judgmental, Ms. Boatwright.,” Maggie said. “Some rapes are a matter of seized opportunity. But in a lot of cases, the victim is watched for a while before the rapist makes a move.”

“I’m not a homebody,” Paulette said. “I work hard. I work all day. I like to visit with my friends, sometimes we go out.”

“I understand,” Maggie said, as she scratched in her notebook. She looked up and Paulette held her gaze almost defensively. “This guy didn’t seem to know that you were home. I’m trying to establish your normal routines. Maybe he’s been watching your house, maybe he hasn’t.”

Maggie heard the shower turn on in the bathroom. She glanced over towards the bathroom for a moment, and remembered her first shower after she’d been attacked. The last half of it had been in cold water. Maggie’s showers were still longer than most. She didn’t expect Zoe out anytime soon.