Inked Temptation [a Damian Priest story]

14 Evidence

Ellie POV

With my eyes closed, I lay in the hospital bed and tried to breathe deeply. The oxygen mask helped, but my lungs hurt with every breath. It was almost as if I could feel flames in my airways.

Damian held my hand the whole time or supported me when I was shaken by a coughing fit. Slowly it began to sink in what had happened today. And what else could have happened.

"Miss Robertson? We need to talk to you about what happened today." said a voice from the door.

Slowly, I turned my head and saw the cop from earlier standing in the room. Scott's partner. He had some nerve showing up here with a new colleague.

"I would prefer to talk to another officer. You are clearly biased in this matter." I replied as I pulled the mask off my face.

"What do you mean, Miss Robertson? Detective Lopez is one of our best officers. You can rely on him 100%." said the other cop.

"Yeah right... But he's also Lieutenant Henderson's partner. And Scott was the one who set the truck on fire. Why else would he have run off so fast? And you, Detective, wouldn't have another partner on your side so quickly for this investigation," I replied strained as I kept getting interrupted by coughing.

"Those are pretty strong accusations, Miss. Do you have any evidence? I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding," Lopez replied.

"Misunderstanding my ass! He tried to kill my girlfriend! Don't you care about that? Just because he's a cop doesn't mean he's an innocent!" growled Damian as he jumped to his feet.

"Calm down Sir, it is after all possible that it was a technical malfunction. I can't think of any reason why Lieutenant Henderson would do something like that," Lopez said.

"Oh there's a whole lot of reasons. And he figured he was killing two birds with one stone. He would have killed Ellie because she wouldn't take him back and thus his dirty business wouldn't get out to the public. And at the same time, he's now destroyed any evidence she had of his actions," Damian yelled at the cops.

"So that means that you have no evidence of any wrongdoing by Lieutenant Henderson. Is that correct Miss Robertson?" asked Lopez without responding to Damian's tone.

"That's probably what Scott is thinking. But fortunately, I'm smarter than he'll ever be. Every conversation has been recorded by me. My apartment building has security cameras he doesn't know about. And I have photos.... compromising photos that show him having sex with not only the commissioner's wife, but also me the mayor's wife. If that's not a motive, I don't know what is.

And since he sent me those photos by accident and that's how I found out about his affairs, he knew I could be damaging to him and his career. He thought that by burning everything that belonged to me to the ground, the evidence would be destroyed. But I uploaded every video, all photos, all messages and conversations to my cloud. So I still have access to it despite his efforts. And that includes his final threat just minutes before the fire that.... it could... backfire on me if I do anything," I explained to them.

It was very exhausting. My whole body hurt. And my lungs burned like hell. But it was important to get all this straight. I pulled the oxygen mask back over my face as I leaned back into the pillows. This time he had gone too far. He would pay for this. I would make sure of that.

"Well...that's quite a lot. I would like you to give us your... evidence as soon as possible." the other cop said as he and Lopez exchanged a meaningful look.

"That's out of the question. She won't give either of you anything. We want neutral investigators who are not personally involved with Lieutenant Henderson. Or are you perhaps willing to risk your careers for that son of a bitch if I sue your entire precinct?" replied Damian quickly before I could say anything.

It was exactly what I would have said. Damian knew as well as I did how important that was.

For a few minutes the room was quiet. Well, except for my labored, raspy breathing. The cops just looked at each other in silence.

"All right Miss Robertson. We'll send over other colleagues. I hope you get better soon." Lopez finally said and then left the room along with the other one.

"How are you feeling?" asked Damian as he carefully stroked my forehead and looked deep into my eyes.

"I'll be fine... As long as you're with me, nothing will happen to me. I can't wait to get out of this town, though," I replied, giving him a tired smile.