Karin Slaughter - Blindsighted

Jeffrey stood with his back close to the door, obviously wanting to give the young girl space. He said, "I'm Chief Tolliver, Julia. Do you remember me from this morning?"

She gave a slow nod.

"You've ingested a drug called belladonna. Do you know what that is?"

She shook her head side to side.

"It causes you to lose your voice sometimes. Do you think you can speak?"

The girl opened her mouth, and a scratchy sound came out. She moved her lips, obviously trying to form words.

Jeffrey gave an encouraging smile. "Want to try to tell me your name?"

She opened her mouth again, her voice raspy and small. "Julia."

"Good," Jeffrey said. "This is Lena Adams. You know her, right?"

Julia nodded, her eyes finding Lena.

"She's going to ask you some questions, okay?"

Lena tried not to hide her surprise. She wasn't sure she could tell Julia Matthews the time of day, let alone question the young woman. Lena fell back on her training, starting with what she knew.

"Julia?" Lena pulled a chair up to the young woman's bed. "We need to know if you can tell us anything about what was done to you."

Julia closed her eyes. Her lips quivered, but she did not answer.

"Did you know him, sweetie?"

She shook her head.

"Was it someone from one of your classes? Had you seen him around school?"

Julia's eyes closed. Tears came a few seconds later. She finally said, "No."

Lena put her hand on the girl's arm. It was thin and frail, much as Sibyl's had seemed in the morgue. She tried not to think about her sister when she said, "Let's talk about his hair. Can you tell me what color it was?"

Again she shook her head.

"Any tattoos or marks that might help us identify him?"

"No."

Lena said, "I know this is hard, honey, but we have to find out what happened. We need to get this guy off the street so he can't hurt anyone else."

Julia kept her eyes closed. The room was intolerably quiet, so much so that Lena felt the urge to do something loud. The silence was making her nervous for some reason.

Without warning, Julia finally spoke. Her voice was husky. "He tricked me."

Lena pressed her lips together, letting the girl have her time.

"He tricked me," Julia repeated, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter. "I was at the library."

Lena thought about Ryan Gordon. Her heart thumped in her chest. Had she been wrong about him? Was he capable of doing something like this? Maybe Julia had escaped while he was in jail.

"I had a test," Julia continued, "and I stayed late to study." Her breathing became labored at the memory.

"Let's take some deep breaths," Lena said, then she breathed in and out, in and out, with Julia. "That's good, honey. Just keep calm."

She started to cry in earnest now. "Ryan was there," she said.

Lena allowed herself to look at Jeffrey. He was focused on Matthews, his brow furrowed. She could almost read his thoughts.

"At the library?" Lena asked, trying not to sound too pushy.

Julia nodded, then reached out for her glass of water.

"Here," Lena said, helping her lean up so that she could drink.

The girl took several swallows, then let her head drop back down. She stared out the window again, her mind obviously taking time to recover. Lena tried not to tap her foot. She wanted to reach over the bed and force the girl to talk. She could not understand how Julia Matthews could be so passive in her interrogation. If Lena were in that bed, she would be spitting out every detail she had. Lena would be pushing whoever would listen to find the man who did this. Her hands would be itching to rip his heart out of his chest. How Julia Matthews could just lie there, she did not know.

Lena counted to twenty, forcing herself to give the woman some time. She had counted in the Ryan Gordon interview; it was an old trick of hers and the only way she could make herself at least appear patient. When she reached fifty, Lena asked, "Ryan was there?"

Julia nodded.

"In the library?"

She nodded again.

Lena reached over, putting her hand on Julia's arm again. She would have held her hand if it had not been wrapped in tight bandages. She kept her tone even, putting in just a little bit of pressure, as she said, "You saw Ryan at the library. Then what happened?"

Julia responded to the pressure. "We talked a little while, then I had to go back to the dorm."

"Were you mad at him?"

Julia's eyes found Lena's. Something passed between them, an unvoiced message. Lena knew then that Ryan had some kind of control over Julia, but that she wanted to break it. Lena also knew that as much of a bastard as Ryan Gordon was, he had not been the man to do this to his girlfriend.

Lena asked, "Did you argue?"

"We kind of made up, though."

"Kind of, but not really?" Lena clarified, sensing what had happened in the library that night. She could see Ryan Gordon trying to push Julia into making some kind of commitment to him. She could also see that Julia's eyes had finally been opened as to what kind of person her ex-boyfriend was. Julia had finally seen him for what he was. But someone else more evil than Ryan Gordon could ever hope to be had been waiting for her.

Lena asked, "So you left the library, then what?"

"There was a man," she said. "On the way to the dorm."

"Which way did you walk?"

"The back way, around the agri-building."

"By the lake?"

She shook her head. "The other side."

Lena waited for her to continue.

"I ran into him, and he dropped his books, and I dropped mine." Her voice trailed off, but her breathing became loud in the small room. She was nearly panting.

"Did you see his face then?"

"I don't remember. He gave me a shot."

Lena felt her eyebrows furrow. "Like a shot with a syringe?"

"I felt it. I didn't see it."

"Where did you feel it?"

She put her hand to her left hip.

"He was behind you when you felt it?" Lena asked, thinking this would make the killer left-handed, just like Sibyl's attacker.

"Yeah."

"So he took you then?" Lena asked. "He ran into you, then you felt the shot, then he took you somewhere?"

"Yes."

"In his car?"

"I don't remember," she said. "The next thing I knew, I was in a basement." She put her hands over her face, crying in earnest. Her body started to shake with grief.

"It's okay," Lena said, putting her hand over the other woman's. "Do you want to stop now? You're in charge of this."

The room was quiet again but for Julia's breathing. When she did speak again, her voice was a hoarse, almost imperceptible whisper. "He raped me."

Lena felt a lump in her throat. She knew this already, of course, but the way Julia said the word stripped Lena of every defense she had. Lena felt raw and exposed. She did not want Jeffrey in the room. For some reason, he seemed to sense this. When she looked up at him, he nodded toward the door. Lena mouthed a yes, and he left without a sound.

"Do you know what happened next?" Lena asked.

Julia moved her head, trying to find Jeffrey.

"He's gone," Lena said, giving her voice an assured tone that she did not feel. "It's just us, Julia. It's just you and me, and we've got all day if you need it. All week, all year." She paused, lest the girl take that as encouragement to stop the interview. "Just keep in mind that the sooner we get the details, the sooner we can stop him. You don't want him to do this to another girl, do you?"

She took the question hard, as Lena expected she would. Lena knew she had to be a little tough or the girl would simply shut up, keeping the details to herself.

Julia sobbed, the noise filling the room, ringing in Lena's ears.

Julia said, "I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

"Me, either," Lena answered. "You have to tell me what he did to you." She paused, then, "Did you see his face at any time?"