Confidential

by Jack Parker

  He sat me down, in an office, on a nice chair that swiveled. "I'm just going to get some water okay?" He looked at me but I shook my head.

  "Please don't leave me, don't leave me here. Don't leave me here alone." I pulled my knees close to me, hiding my face. So embarrassed. I must look a mess. My lip quivering, not even control what I was saying, couldn't even stop crying.

  "Okay." He just sat down next to me. I could feel him watching me. But I wouldn't look up.

  My tears started to dry, and I could feel my body relaxing a bit, and I worked up the courage to look over at him. He raised his eyebrows asking a question all themselves.

  "Thank you."

  "Of course."

  "You called the police?"

  "They should be here any second." He patted my leg, and it involuntarily twitched. He pulled back his arm, afraid I might start freaking out or something I'm sure.

  I smiled at his reaction "I'm fine." I wasn't.

  "What did they do to you?" he asked softly, his brown eyes searching my face.

  I opened my mouth to say something but closed it soon after, just shaking my head in response. I couldn't answer. I didn't even know.

  The knock at the door saved me from silence. Two officers came in.

  I had never been in a situation like this. I had never even needed to call 911 before. The officers were calm and composed; one got me water while the other questioned the guy that worked at the Laundry Mat.

  "Hello." The man said that got me water. "My name is Officer Parker, we've called an ambulance, and they are on their way to pick you up, okay?"

  I nodded, my body aching all over.

  "Can you tell me what happened?" He put a hand on top of my own, looking up with kind eyes. Officer Parker was young. Probably not even 30. He was dark skinned with pretty eyes, eyes that were warm and inviting, just a like a cop who wants information should be.

  But this was not some assault. Not some mugging or gang incident. I had walked in on something big, I could feel it. "Do I have to talk now?" I asked, my voice coming out a little weaker than I wanted it too. I'd have to work on that.

  "It would be best if you did, so that you don't forget anything." He moved his chair a little closer to mine, "I understand this must be very difficult for you, but can you describe your attacker?"

  "There was two. No- Three." I caught myself. Starting to explain the story before I was interrupted.

  "I see it was a very confusing time for you, just concentrate and try to remember how many people there were."

  This got me a little angry. "I am not" I looked at him pointedly "confused."

  He gestured for me to go on.

  "I got home from school, and when I came inside my house, I heard people talking in the house." I could see officer parker scribbling down what I was saying.

  "They were already inside your house?" He asked, his eyebrows raised, a little surprised

  "Yes." I said. Now I had calmed down a little. I had time to have anger simmer inside me, and feel a little ashamed. I was ashamed at how they found me. I was ashamed I couldn't fight back, I was ashamed that they made me feel ashamed, and as I looked down at myself, I was pissed they ruined my shirt. I got this in a farmers market in California, it WAS pretty, a silky t-shirt with Indian style designs. One of my favorites.

  "Ms…." Officer Parker nudged me to continue. I hadn't realized how much time I spent thinking.

  " Van Dauson" I clarified. "My name is Heidi."

  "Well Heidi, it looks like the ambulance is here, would you mind if I rode with you and we continued our talk?"

  "Sure." I wasn't sure what I should do, if I should even tell them. The whole thing was confusing, and as ambulance people rushed me, and poked and prodded me this way and that, I became exhausted, and I hurt all over.

  Eventually, they gave me something, and shooed the Officer away before he could continue to pester me. I slipped off into sleep; the last thing I saw was the inside of the ambulance truck.

  "Will you call me when she wakes up?" I could hear my dad talking to my mom, who I could hear having lots of sniffling and fake cries. "Of course."

  I mentally rolled my eyes. My mother is so dramatic. "I need to call Shannon, she'll have to hear this. And please call John and Maria too, they'll want to know what happened."

  "Lisa," My dad's tone was irritated "We don't even know what happened, lets not publicize this, Heidi may not want us to-"

  "Colin, please." My mom interrupted curtly. "This is a really stressful time for me, I need support."

  I heard nothing else from my dad, and assumed he left. Meanwhile my mother could be heard on the phone crying to the latest recipient. "Heidi... Heidi honey, are you awake?" She would ask occasionally, conveniently right as the person on the other line would answer the phone.

  I honestly could not take it sometimes. And I couldn't sit here and listen to her whine when she had no idea what happened. I had no idea what happened. A part of me didn't want to tell the police, what if they found me? They didn't kill me the first time but I'm sure they would if I caused any more trouble.

  My mom dramatically cried a little into the phone " I know. I know. It's hard to come to terms with that no matter how much I protect her, things can go wrong. It's so horrible to deal with. What am I going to do? Now I'm afraid to go for walks!" There was a slight pause before my mother continued, "I know it! Ugh. Well at least they caught the man."

  That spiked my interest, and I listened intently.

  "Uh huh… yeah, he came forward and confessed. I know, I was shocked too. Apparently he made a plea bargain with the police already. Yes, they found evidence and everything." My mother paused while there was murmuring from the other line "Oh you know. Typical young Mexican gang initiation or something"

  … what? They definitely weren't Hispanic. At all. Blonde and blue eyed. Short and dark features… and that red headed woman. Not Mexican at all. I decided my mom definitely wasn't leaving soon anyway. So I opened my eyes.

  "Oh sweetie!" My moms voice rang high and shrill. "I've been here for hours waiting for you to wake up! I haven't even been able to do anything else but worry about you- Joan I'll have to call you back, my daughter's awake".

  She came and sat on my bed and played with my hair annoyingly. "Now, don't worry about a thing, I'm organizing a little fundraiser for you, and people will bring everything-"

  "Mom." I said. Trying not to sound as harsh as I knew I could have, "I don't want people to know."

  I saw a 'oh shit' look on her face. Great. "Well… honey. I was so worried, and your school would have needed to know where you were, because I assumed you wouldn't have wanted to go to school today, so..."

  "Are you serious?" I groaned.

  "What did you expect?! This is really hard for me too you know." she looked at me hotly.

  When times like these happen, I usually prefer not to say anything at all. Usually because I'm so angry that I know I'll end up offending her and she'll just do something else even more dramatic before I can even tell her why I'm upset.

  "This whole thing is just so horrible." My mom's eyes welled up with tears and her hands went to her face.

  Now you need to understand my mom. Shit like this is bait, and you have to take it. I mean, my mom is crying for God sakes, what am I supposed to do? So I reluctantly gave her the attention she wanted.

  "It'll be fine mom." I patted her arm.

  My mom likes to pretend she's mega-mom in front of people but usually I have to fend for myself. I'm seventeen, I'm a big girl, so it's not a big deal. It's actually kind of nice not to have someone on my case 24/7, but she is can be really fake. It bothers me. She dyes her hair a billion shades of red and blondes, when it's naturally a dark brown, so she needs touch ups every two weeks. Waxes, nails, a new wardrobe every season- you can say she got me into the whole 'buying clothes when you're feeling down' deal. It's a lot to maintain my mother. She's always out entertaining my dad's clients, bragging about something o
r making others feel insignificant in comparison to our life, luxuries, and problems.

  It's a miracle we're not broke, actually. My mom is one of those people that buys things because they have a sale, or a new model car. She gets these ideas in her head that if we don't have it, then our family will be looked upon with shame. It's a little tiring. So as deranged as this sounds, I bet she's really excited that this happened to me. She can drag this event out for months. This is a million excuses to spend more money.

  "I don't even feel safe in that neighborhood anymore…that's why I've talked to your father about moving into a gated community." See? There it is. Luckily the door opened and a nurse came in.

  "Oh good. Your awake." She smiled kindly. "Here, I'm just gonna move these around. I hope you don't mind. And an officer will be in here for a little bit." She left the room only to have Officer Parker come back in a couple moments later.

  "Mrs. Van Dauson, " Officer Parker said politely. "Would you mind if I talked to your daughter a bit?"

  "Of course." She gestured to me. More sniffles.

  "Um. Mrs. Van Dauson-"

  "Call me Lisa, Please."

  "Lisa, " He corrected himself, "It's usually easier for victims to talk without family members present."

  "Without…" My mom slowly comprehended "Oh. No. Heidi won't mind. I'm her mother. We're very close"

  Ugh.

  "Mom, its just easier," she looked at me, clearly hurt.

  "No! I am not leaving. Are you even allowed to question my daughter without me present?"

  Officer Parker looked a little annoyed. Welcome to my world. "I'm trying to help the situation. And I am not questioning her, simply trying to make this easier."

  "You have the mugger already, you don't even need to talk to my daughter. I'm very insulted. I suspected that I, as the parent of a daughter who just got assaulted would be treated a little better. This isn't easy for me you know."

  I looked at Officer Parker "Why don't I get your card and I'll call you later." I suggested, a nice little solution.

  He was reaching into his pocket, obviously liking my idea better, when my mom interrupted, "Excuse me, but no you won't, I'm your mother, and you'll do as I say."

  It's embarrassing to fight in front of people, but sometime's necessary. "Mom. Go call someone or something. This didn't happen to you it happened to me."

  "Are you joking?!" She exclaimed, feigning shock. I pressed the help button on my bed and a nurse ran in. "My mother is distressing me." I said in the most monotone bored voice possible. Knowing it would piss her off even more.

  ".Not." She huffed, "Kick me out of my own daughters room."

  But the nurse did. Thank god.

  After my mom's performance I apologized to Parker "Sorry, she's a little high maintenance at times."

  "I can see that." He said, his eyes following my mom while she was being escorted out the door by security guards. Clearing his throat he continued, "Unfortunately, we have to get your account of what happened, as part of clearance, we identified your attacker, and after a brief hearing for finalities we can put him away."

  "Um... Officer Parker, I heard my mom on the phone, you said it was a gang initiation or something?"

  "That's what it appears to be, yes."

  "I don't think you have the right guy." I looked at him intently, I wanted him to know that I was serious, "I told you, there were three people in my house, I walked in on them talking."

  "Look, Ms. Van Dauson,"

  "You can call me Heidi."

  "Okay... Well Heidi, between you and me, I'm supposed to get your account of the story, but the department is a little curious as to how there is a man who has confessed to the assault, knows in detail the place where he allegedly injured you and how your injuries came about, but you claim there was more than one attacker. I noticed you were confused when I first questioned you, you weren't even sure how many people where there."

  "You don't understand-"

  "No, no, maybe I do, it's often very confusing for a victim of assault, it happens so quickly it may seem as if there is more than one attacker-"

  "No, you need to listen to me." I said, very frustrated "Did you ask the laundry mat guy? Because I know he scared them off before they could do any more damage."

  "We did, and he hadn't seen anything, just heard someone run away."

  I let out an angry breath " Will you listen to me please? Let me tell you what happened. Then call me a 'confused victim'. " I said with a little venom.

  "Of course, that's why I'm here," He put his arms up as a sign of peace, "but you have to realize we do have someone who confessed-"

  I just started talking over him, too impatient to listen to his doubts any longer. "I came into my house and I heard people upstairs, so I took a big metal pan, went up there, and found three people talking-"

  "And what were they talking about?" Officer Parker had his notebook out and was lazily writing a couple words down, pissing me off. He couldn't take me seriously?

  "I don't know… they had just found something they were looking for…" I squeezed my eyes shut trying to remember. "I remembered how they were sitting, both the short man and the big guy around the women, talking about…what time to be someplace or something? I don't know, they were going to meet a couple people and trade whatever they had for something else. They noticed me in the middle of talking, and I wasn't really thinking about what they were saying."

  He looked at me a little strangely. "And why would they be in your house?"

  "That's what I was wondering! As soon as they saw me, that 'ho hurled her little body guards at me!" I shouted. Using my hands to show that I had no idea. He was totally blowing me off!

  "Whoa whoa whoa," He started to chuckle before I gave him a glare. He straightened up a bit. "Slow down." He shifted and flipped a new page in his notebook. "I need to know what they looked like, and anything you can remember them saying."

  A little happy that he was finally taking me seriously I gladly started telling him "One was really tall-"

  "How tall exactly?"

  I glared at him. How was I supposed to know? "Like 6'3, 6'4 ish?, He had blonde hair-"

  "Short or long?"

  "Short, and a little fluffy-"

  "What do you mean by fluffy?"

  "Will you give me a little time to explain?"

  "Go on." He gestured.

  "Fluffy as in wispy, feathery, like he was trying to suppress his jew-fro or something" This got a glare from the officer "What? I'm not a racist or anything that's just what they call it."

  "It's called anti-semitic, racist is for race"

  "Right, whatever, anyway, he had blue eyes, and was kinda buff. Actually…" I took shaky breathe, it was hard to explain some parts "He wasn't really the one that hit me, he just kind of…"

  Officer Parker patted my hand. "Take your time."

  I shifted in the hospital bed. "He just kind of dragged me around. The other one, the short one, he…"

  "Why don't you just keep describing their features? We'll get to that later."

  It was a lot easier to describe what they looked like, easier to focus on something else "He was darker-"

  "Hispanic?" the officer asked, hopeful that he could match up his guy to mine.

  "No." I said, instantly killing the look on his face, "Darker, like Italian or something. He had dark hair, thick eyebrows, and tan skin. And he was really short, like shorter than me short. 5'4 maybe. But he was really… aggressive, I guess? Like when he talked he always shouted in his input, in fact the only time I heard him shut up was when the lady started talking."

  Officer Parker was frowning, staring down at his notes. The look on his face changed from confusion, to puzzlement, to realization.

  "Did you get any names?" He asked looking up at me intensely.

  "Um… just one"

  "And?"

  "Mickey."

  He was silent. Taking a deep inhale, he spoke. "When you're released from the hospi
tal, we're going to need you to come down to the station."

  Chapter 3

  "Is everything okay? Did I say something wrong?"

  "No, no. Continue"

  But he still frowned down at his notebook, tapping his pen against it. I hesitantly kept going. "Well, the two men came after me, and when I tried to run one of them grabbed my ankle, and I fell forward." I touched a part of my head, "That's how I got this," wincing as I touched it, "But I kicked him square in the face," I said a little proudly, "I bet I got his nose good too."

  "Hmmm." The Officer said

  "And then I got up but ran into the short one, when I fell down I hit my head pretty good."

  "Yes you have a bit of whiplash from your head snapping back like it did. We thought it occurred when you were on your walk and the attacker first pushed you."

  I stared at him "I wasn't going for a walk."

  "Then how did you end up in the alleyway?"

  I paused, gathering my thoughts together. "After I fell, I was laying on the ground and the women came up and started talking to the men."

  "What did she look like?"

  "She was older. Like in her mid 40's. She had bright red hair, I bet she dyes it, she can't be that age and not have gray…" I side tracked, not really wanted to think about it. "Um. She thought I was passed out, and one of them called her Mickey, that's how I knew her name-"

  "Mickey is a woman?" He asked in disbelief.

  "Well…yeah. I know it's a strange name but I bet its short for something."

  "Like what?" He asked a little flustered and I could tell kind of angry, but I had no idea why.

  "Michaela?" I said in an 'um… duh!' voice.

  He frowned, "What did she say?"

  I stopped, getting a little choked up, trying to find the words. "One of them suggested killing me. I can't remember what one," I closed my eyes. It was easier to remember this way, "and Mickey got angry… yelling at them."

  "And what did she say exactly?"

  "She said 'Kill her? Why? So the police can look into this more than they already have?' so she told them to make it look like a mugging, and that's when they threw me in a car and drove me somewhere… and uh… took care of the rest there."