Episode I – Assault
The door slammed shut to Jenny Green’s one bedroom council flat. On auto pilot she put the door chain on and slowly turned around and closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
She looked a complete wreck
Her right eye was swollen and her left eye was not much better, in a day or so she would have very severe black eyes, but at the moment she just had difficulty seeing.
Dried blood had run down the side of her head from a head wound, and she had had a severe nose bleed, but thankfully that had been cleaned up at the hospital.
She had a fat lip
She had needed four stitches to a severe gash over her right eye
Her arms felt bruised, in fact she hurt all over, but she was on auto pilot now and was almost numb, it was almost she was outside her own body.
Slowly she removed her scuffed knee length sheepskin coat; underneath she was only wearing a tight “trainee barista” T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, as her button up shirt, she normally wore as part of her uniform as a coffee shop manager had been ripped off of her as well as her bra. Her skirt and panties were gone as well. Those shredded clothes were in the hands of the police.
She turned to the coat pegs and hung her coat up on a wooden coat hanger at the clothes pegs in the hall. A cold draft through the letter box blew on her, and she shivered.
Her knees were badly scraped and her right leg hurt a lot and she was limping
It was just around mid afternoon
Jenny the previous evening had spent a couple of hours at the casualty unit of the local hospital and then an amount of time, she did not recall how much, with a police scientific officer swabbing every part of her anatomy for any evidence he could find and photographing her injuries, and then worst of all in the aftermath, a disinterested and impatient male CID officer who was just taking her statement out of routine and eager to get home as he was due to go on holiday.
Jenny had so wanted a hospital gown to take to the police station, but had been refused, she was not told why.
She had wanted to be interviewed by a woman police officer, but none seemed to be available
Cutbacks?
Her protests at the hospital prior to coming to the police station, that she was naked fell on deaf ears, she was just asked if she knew any friends who could lend her some clothes, but it was too late at night by then and she did not have any credit on her mobile phone. Fortunately, someone had brought her coat along, so this and a thermal blanket, given to her by a police officer who had attended her at the scene of her attack, that was all she had to wear.
Even the police scientific officer had been male, and he was embarrassed about processing her and had asked for a female officer to do it, but again Jenny seemed to be out of luck and there was none available. He even asked for another female to be present, but he too was told none were available and was told he had to get on with it by the CID officer. The male PSO apologised and Jenny had to admit, he was professional in the way he did his job and did his best to make the best of a bad situation. He also told her that in the morning he would be putting in an official complaint that there should have been a female PSO on duty as well and about the attitude of the CID officer, but did not hold out much hope that anything would be resolved. When he had finished, she had discovered that someone else had reclaimed the thermal blanket. All she had now was her coat
Her degradation was continuing, even after her attack
The police had then wanted to take her coat away as evidence too, even though that would mean she would be totally naked. They only relented when Jenny told them that along with her handbag, she had dropped it on the floor when the assailant attacked her just as she was locking up the coffee shop where she was manager and that there was no evidence they could get from it. Even so it was a close run thing. It was even suggested that she spend the night locked in the police cells with a blanket wrapped around her, until someone came with clothes to collect her.
So she is attacked in the middle of the street, battered and stripped of her clothes and she is to be treated as the criminal?
So Jenny was now back home, shivering in the hallway of her flat, leaning against the wall; eyes closed thinking about how things had gone down hours earlier when the man attacked her
The man who attacked her came out of nowhere and was strong and brutal. He must have been, as he had hit her around the head and knocked her flying to the ground, ripped open her shirt, grabbed her bra cups and pulled the bra apart
at the front! as if it were wet tissue paper.
He had hit her around the head again, probably her fault, because she was screaming for help, and it had hurt really badly, as if he had been using a mallet and not his fists.
His grip on her arms was like a vice, even for a man of his size, and that was what had caused the severe bruising.
He had even ripped off her skirt, and panties in one go, causing injuries to her lower abdomen.
He was ever so strong, for a man of his size
She was certain she was about to be raped and murdered outside her coffee shop, in a public street, when out of nowhere another man came and hit the attacker with a solid oak curtain rail. Her rescuer had used so much force that the curtain rail had broken in two over her attacker, but he had not flinched, as if the curtain rail was merely balsa wood. The attacker just looked up, blinked and then fled very rapidly into the twilight.
She must have been hallucinating because of the pain; but as she lay in agony on the ground, the attacker suddenly looked like some grey skinned and tall skinny creature
And then it seemed there was some other man running away.
Another man had also come up running behind the person who had beaten off her attacker; he was fat and over weight and looked familiar. He was wheezing and offered his mobile to the other guy, to ring the emergency number. The guy who beat off her attacker wanted to put his coat around Jenny, but some old woman who had come to the scene, blocked him say, “Don’t you ever watch those CSI programmes, you might contaminate evidence”
Jenny had been cold hurt, violated and exposed, and all this old lady cared about was some TV programme.
It had taken eight minutes to respond and Jenny was going into shock, with the woman even stopping Jenny reaching for her own coat, still insisting she wait until she was processed, just like they did on CSI. All Jenny had near her were the shredded remains of her clothes, but she was too afraid now of the old lady who just went on about not contaminating a crime scene.
When the police arrived, the old woman proudly exclaimed how she had been helping preserve the crime scene just like in her favourite CSI programme, but was speechless when she was rebuked by the senior police officer attending for making matters worse for Jenny. The police officer told the old woman that care of victims always came before gathering evidence and that she should not believe everything she saw on CSI.
As Jenny was making an effort to stand up, the police officer stopped her and another officer wrapped her in a thermal blanket and they made her stay there, sitting against the wall of the coffee shop, until the ambulance arrived.
”If only those kind police officers had been allowed to go with her to the hospital” Jenny had thought
Jenny thought she would be kept in overnight because of her head injury and possible concussion, but the CID officer who had come down to the casualty department was in a hurry had insisted that she be processed as soon as possible. The CID officer even threatened the junior doctor that if she did not discharge her there and then she would face charges of obstruction of justice. The junior doctor had not been in casualty before and because the X-ray did not show any fractures on first inspection, she caved in to the CID officers demand and Jenny was discharged to be taken to the police station.
After being made to remove the hospital gown, she was given her coat and the thermal blanket, and the CID man drove her back to the station, all the while complaining that a case like this, just before he went away was the last thing he wanted thank you very much.
Jenny tried to apologise, but she felt very weak and woozy from the attack
She was now going through the motions, even when she asked for a female officer, she felt out of it and meekly accepted the comment that none was available and she was stuck with the CID officer.
As she was going through processing by the police scientific officer’s processing, she had to be reminded that he did not mind her using her arms and hands to try and cover her private parts.
While she was trying to plead for her coat not to be removed, she felt weak and still woozy. At least she had been given a blanket from the cells to wrap around herself, when the custody sergeant realised all the remains of her other clothes had been collected as evidence
Then she had to sit in a cold interview room and made to feel like dirt as the CID officer belittled her as she found it hard to stay focused whilst giving her statement. He kept asking her had he known the attacker, did she know why he attacked her and what she was not telling the CID officer.
She just kept repeating “Sorry sir, I don’t know”. She may have been crying as well, as the CID officer made her feel small but she had trouble remembering.
She had been assaulted, sexually assaulted as well, and she was made to feel like it was all her fault
Thank G-d for the police surgeon; the PSO had called him because he was not happy at how Jenny had been dragged from the hospital and how she was when he had to process her. The police surgeon had come as soon as he could, and had had to get a more senior officer on duty to interrupt the interview with the CID officer, who was not best pleased. One cursory examination by the police surgeon and Jenny was re-admitted to hospital in spite of protests by the CID officer. The surgeon may have told her that he would be putting in a complaint about the CID officer, but she could not be sure.
It was a relief to have a hospital gown, even if her back was completely exposed, and a hospital issue cardigan and then they managed to find her a bed, although it was in another hospital, as the first one did not have any beds spare at that time.
In the morning, she was reassessed by a doctor, who was angry with the CID officer for throwing his weight around and at the other junior doctor for not putting the needs of the patient first and standing up to the CID officer.
The hospital chaplain came round, and Jenny apologised for not attending church as much as she would like, because of her job at the coffee shop meant she sometimes had to work on Sunday’s. Like many people in the UK, Jenny was a nominal Anglican. She mentioned her lack of clothes to the chaplain and that she had no way of contacting her friends for any fresh clothes. The chaplain told her he would see what he could do but could not promise anything. That was the last Jenny saw of him
At mid morning another police officer, a female one this time came to see her, in case there was anything else she could remember, which was not much. Jenny just kept apologising for not being as helpful as the CID officer had expected of her the night before and ended up breaking down and crying. The female police put her arm around her insisted that she had nothing to apologise for, the CID officer would find that when he got back from holiday that he was on report for exceeding his authority at the other hospital, and that her colleagues would find who ever attacked her.
Once again Jenny mentioned that the only clothing she had to wear was her coat, the female police officer told her that see would see if she could get a message through to another branch of the coffee shop chain Jenny worked at, because the shop where she worked was cordoned off by the police, maybe they would have a replacement uniform of some kind she could wear to go home in.
That afternoon, Stephanie, an assistant manager from another branch came at the beginning of visiting time with a spare trainee barista t-shirt, and a pair of boxer shorts. (There were no spare skirts or trousers so Stephanie had got them from a
Primark store).
The T-shirt was one size too small tight, and when Jenny, in much pain put it on, it was obvious she was braless, but it was better than nothing. The boxers felt good even though they were really menswear, it was just wonderful to have something to wear down there.
Stephanie and Jenny were good friends, and had even served as assistant managers together in another branch, before their current assignments, and Stephanie spent ages, just gently hugging her friend Jenny.
Stephanie then stayed with Jenny while a doctor assessed her in the afternoon and told her she could go home. Stephanie then drove her back to her council flat. Stephanie had even offered to come in with Jenny, but Jenny just wanted some time to herself.
And so now she was back, standing in the hall.
Slowly Jenny moved through her flat, still in pain, in spite of the pain killers they had given her at the hospital, still on semi auto pilot. She went into her living room and noticed that her answer phone light was blinking so she hit the play back button
BEEP “First message” intoned the telephone, then played a call from a friend of Jenny’s at a night club “Jenny we’re having a great time, where are you?”
BEEP “Second Message” Again from the night club “Jenny we have found this great guy for you, you really need to start going out again”
Jenny put her face in her hands, sobbed briefly, breathed in deeply and continued to look at the telephone with tears in her eyes as it continued to play back her messages.
“BEEP “Third Message” this time from the father of her former boyfriend and fiance “Jenny, we have just got the date of the funeral, it is this Saturday, ten o’clock at St Stevens, as you were engaged to our son, we thought it was only right to let you know, if you felt up to coming. We would love to have you here”
Jenny picked up a picture of Darren, they were supposed to be discussing wedding plans next month when he came home on leave after a six month tour of duty with the army, but he had fallen prey to a road side bomb whilst serving in Afghanistan two weeks previously.
Jenny just felt blank
BEEP “Fourth Message” From one of the coffee shops at the chain where she worked “Jenny, Trevor here, are you ok, we just heard. Our branch is closed at the moment while the police process the area. I have just called head office and they don’t expect you to return to work this week and have granted you paid sick leave. They have agreed to turn over the CCTV footage and are offering a reward for a successful prosecution, maybe we can nail this B******d for you. Let us know if you need anything”
Trevor was a nice guy, he was gay as well which kind of made him special and he had been a rock and a great comfort when she had been told about Darren’s death.
BEEP “No More Messages”
Without thinking, or to be more accurate, whilst on auto-pilot, Jenny pressed the button on the telephone to erase the messages. After which the light on the phone stopped blinking and resumed a steady red glow.
All Jenny wanted to do now, was shower and get the smell of the hospital off of her. She slowly removed the T-shirt, although she was relieved not to have to go home naked, it was tight and it hurt. Even though it hurt to remove it, it was a blessed relief to take it off. She would wash it and return it to the store. She needed to contact head office for a new manger’s shirt, although she did have a spare. Harsh as it sounded, life had to go on.
Jenny moved into the bedroom and slowly removed the boxers, then made her way to the bath room and turned the shower on.
The quiet of the flat was unsettling, so she put on the radio to a music station as she got into the shower. The water stung at first, but she was determined to wash the hospital, the police station and that man off of her.
While she was showering, she noticed the cut over eye was starting to bleed a bit, possibly when she had put her head in her hands when she listened to the second telephone message, and she just stood there in the shower, watching it catch in the bottom and wash away. There was not much further bleeding and Jenny resumed showering,
Then on the radio came the song “How to save a life” by the Fray
Jenny listened to the song as it got under way, then it got to the lines,
Quote:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
|
At this, the events of the last twenty four hours hit home and she started shaking again, and her legs became like jelly as she sank down in the shower, sobbing uncontrollably.
Darren was not just her fiancé, the one she had wanted to spend her life together with, Darren was her
Friend as well and she had lost him to a road side bomb in Afghanistan
If only Darren had been alive, he would have been at the shop when she was closing up and she would not have been attacked. Why did he have to die, Why did he have to leave her
Jenny so much wanted to feel his embrace, she always felt safe with him, now he was gone, and she was alone, scared, hurting and cold.
(By the time the water from the shower head reached the bottom of the shower cubicle it had lost its heat, or so it felt )
BANG BANG BANG
Someone was banging on the front door
Quickly Jenny recovered from her sobbing fit, stood up, shut off the radio and the shower and grabbed a bath towel to wrap around her; all the while the banging on her door became more persistent.
Who was it?
The police, a concerned friend, the man who attacked her coming back to finish the job
Slowly, just wearing the bath towel she crept to the front door and called out “Who is it?”
No answer
“Hello, who is it?”
Suddenly the door was smashed in. Jenny jumped back just in time, it looked to be several men dressed in black, with balaclavas and riot helmets.
Jenny screamed and turned to run, but she suddenly felt two sharp objects hit her in the back through the bath towel, and then suddenly she could not stand as she felt some kind of electric shock run through her body.
Jenny Green had just been tasered.
While she lay on the ground, one of the men in black came over and held her down, while she felt the sting of a hypodermic needle being inserted into her arm. The last thing she felt before the darkness hit her, was someone removing her towel.
+ + + +
Jenny started to come round; she could feel she was on some kind of bed, under restraints. It also sounded like she was in some kind of helicopter. She also felt that there was some needle in her left hand; for some reason she could not open her eyes. She felt cold, it seemed like, she was being transported naked, obviously by the friends of the person who attacked her the previous day.
Jenny heard a voice, “These creatures can sure mimic fine detail, are you sure she is not human” Then she felt a hand on her right breast, and then felt as whoever was abusing her again move up and start squeezing the nipple.
Jenny wanted to scream, but was paralysed by fear – who ever attacked her had obviously tracked her down
Suddenly the hand was snatched away.
There was another voice, “Don’t do that, if she is human you could get into serious trouble and if it is an eye dee ee, it could get your DNA to mimic you. Remember we are not authorised for eye dee ee examination, leave that to the experts at the Facility”
The Facility? – Jenny remembered that place name sounded vaguely familiar, her former boss’s husband had mentioned it but she could not remember what it was, she was still feeling groggy
Jenny tried to speak, “Please, I’m sorry I spoke to the police, I won’t press charges if he was one of your lot, please don’t hurt me”
Suddenly she heard the first voice panic, she tried to open her eyes again, but she suddenly realised she was blindfolded, and she was even more terrified and just started screaming for help although it was quite weak, and came out as a murmer
“It’s woken up” she heard the first voice over
“Another 10 milligrams of propofol” came the second voice
Another voice, “I’m putting a blanket over it, it looks like it is cold or going into shock, we need to “
Darkness – she was out for the count.
+ + + +
Jenny was coming round again.
She was cold
She was shivering
She was afraid
She was still blindfolded, and it hurt, especially as she was severely bruised around the eyes by the first attack
She was naked and her arms were numb as her hands were tied behind her back with a cable tie. Her feet were restrained by cable ties as well, and it felt like the cable ties around her hands were tied by a cord to the cable ties around her feet. Jenny was lying on what felt like a tiled floor.
“Darren” she wailed “Darren, I miss you, why did you leave me” she whispered, then, started to sob uncontrollably.
Just then, Jenny heard a door open, and somebody came into the room.
“Please don’t hurt me” Jenny pleaded, “I won’t testify against him, please I promise” If the people who had taken her were her attacker’s friends, or even the attacker himself, it was the only thing she could think of. Even then she did not think that would be enough. They had left her in a prone position and vulnerable, they could do anything they liked.
Maybe they had while she was unconscious the thought sickened her, she had been saving herself for Darren.
“So came” the voice of the man who had come into the room. It sounded like an American accent “How come you are still alive?”
“Still alive?” she thought, it sounded like he expected her to be dead, it was obvious now, their friend had assaulted her and now they were planning to kill her, using a government agency, to protect their friend.
To be continued