Running with Secrets

Untitled Part 2

Jeanie didn't open her eyes right away, but she felt the needles in her arm and on the back of her hand first. Then she heard the click and whoosh of the machines. She hadn't imagined things. Someone did find her and someone had brought her to a hospital. Jeanie lifter her hand to her neck, certain it was swollen. As she touched her neck, she choked out Matther's name.

"What did you say?"

The woman's voice startled her. Jeanie opened her eyes. There was a woman standing next to her, wearing a police uniform. Her brown hair was nice and tidy, and she could have sworn her headache hadn't gone anywhere since yesterday. With one hand, she held her forehead and with the other, she cradled her neck. It was swollen, like she suspected and she remembered what Matther did and the dangerous men he was with. Jeanie tried to size up the woman standing next to her, but her eyes felt the throbbing of her aching head, and she closed them again.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

The woman sighed, "you are at Peace River Community Hospital, and I am Detective Sally Loveridge."

"Don't detective wear street clothes?" Jeanie asked.

"My uniform?" Sally looked down at it." Yes, well, the captain decided it would be better if I dressed for you when you woke up." I just happened to be checking in on you for the day. My partner is getting some snacks." With what seamed like a mother's touch, Sally leaned over and stroked her hair. Jeanie flinched a little as the woman's hand reached her scalp. Jeanie didn't remember being hit on the head, but she could feel the bump as Sally stroked her hair. "What did you say when you woke up?"

"Matther," she repeated as her eyes filled with tears.

"What does Matther have to do with any of this?" Sally asked. "Was he with you?" Was he special to you?"

"I thought he was special." Jeanie said, looking at her hands in her lap. Her shoulders began to shake, maybe out of residual fear, or from uncontrollable sobbing, "Matther tried to kill me." Jeanie dropped her head back on to the hospital bed and let the wave of sadness over take her.

She heard Sally on the phone, calling her office, telling someone, presumably the captain, "she's awake and she's talking." There was a pause, then "Yes, Sir. I'll do that, Sir." She paused again, then, "I'll take care of it, Sir."

Jeanie watched as Sally Loveridge pressed the end call button on her phone. "That was the captain. He want's me to find out what happened to you and what does your mother call you?" Sally tried hard not to smile as she asked.

"What?"

"Your name. No one knows who you are because you didn't have any ID on you when they found you. Why did Matther try to kill you?"

"My mom calls me Jeanie Pollard. Matther Benson tried to choke me to death and stopped because I made myself go limp and forced myself to wet my pants. I think he said sorry. I think. tears came again at the the realization that the man she was planning her future with tried to murder her and most likely thought he succeeded. Jeanie wiped her nose with the back of her hand that didn't have tubes and needles sticking out of it and sobbed out loud.

"Does our mystery guest have a name, Loveridge?" A man's voice came from the doorway and she turned away from the door as best she could.

"Heath Johnston, Jeanie Pollard." She heard Sally make introductions. "Detective Johnston is my partner."

"Do we know who put those hand prints around her neck: I'm assuming they are not a token of affection." Heath put his hands on his hips, parting the suit coat he was wearing. He chose not to wear his uniform. He didn't like it very much.

Jeanie kept her body facing away from the two detectives so she had no idea what the man looked like. He sounded young. Maybe. Voices weren't usually a good indicator of age though. But he did sound kind. Matther sounded kind, too.

"She said it was a guy named Matther Benson. Have you heard of him?" Sally looked at her partner as she crossed her arms.

"Matther Benson?" Heath looked at Sally. "You sure?"

Instead of confirmation from his partner as he was expecting, Jeanie spoke. "Yes, Matther Benson, with whom I was planning a future, tried to strangle me to death in a cold, dark warehouse, egged on by at least three other men who were there. I didn't see them, but they did say their names at one point, and I'm absolutely certain one of them was going to finish me off if I hadn't wet myself when I went limp and held my breath!" Jeanie wiped at the tears that came freely now. She didn't bother trying to hold them back. Two perfectly complete strangers were watching her eyes puff up with tears, and she didn't care they were watching her become a vulnerable mess. She could only assume that was because her hair was mated and she had bruises all over, because Matther's friends beat her before he tried to kill her. That much, she did remember. One hand still on his hip, Heath raised the other to his face and motioned to Sally with a nod of his head to the door. Jeanie turned her back again as they left her room.

"What is it?" she asked. "Who is Matther Benson? Can we look for him and bring him in?"

Heath waited for a kitchen worker with a trolley of lunch trays to pass before he quietly asked, "Have you ever met Detective Michael Paul?" his hand had never left his face.

"Michael Paul?" Sally matched his volume. "Isn't he in UC?"

"UC." Heath finished the sentence with her. "Yeah. Matther Benson is only one of his aliases." Heath rubbed his face again. "I worked with him for a little while in the same department. Moved to detective at the same time he was given the assignment to infiltrate."

"This is going to be bad--" Sally said as she realized a fellow officer nearly killed an innocent.

"Yeah," Heath said, looking over her shoulder. "Captain Vanderson." Heath said straightening up his posture. Sally turned to see her boss. "Nice of you to come see our Jane Doe."

The other man gave a faint smile. "I deserve that. I think this girl might know things. We found a calling card."

Understanding the gravity of what her partner had just told her and the revelation of a calling card from her boss, she turned and went back into the room with Jeanie.

"What kind of calling card? Heath asked.

"Well, it's worse than anyone would want, but one we need," the captain said. Detective Johnston looked at his boss with raised eyebrows. "A three-foot length of  industrial extension cord." The captain said. He waited on his detective to fill in the unspoken blanks.

Heath crossed his arms in front of his chest. "This is much worse than we thought." He looked inside the room where his partner was sitting next to the victim, no doubt making small talk. She had a special knack for that.

The captain turned into the room and Heath followed. As Captain Vanderson entered the room ready for a carefully worded interview, he began, "How is our patient?" he asked, stopping short as he looked a little more carefully at the young woman in the hospital bed. "Jeanie!" He exclaimed.