Lance wondered if the rapist had forced his way in the front door or if Arykah knew the person and had let him in. He didn’t wait around to get answers or ask questions when he had sped away from home. His main priority at the time was to get to the hospital and see about Arykah.
“Baby, I’m so sorry this happened to you. I thought you’d be safe there. I really did. I thought you’d be safe at home.”
Arykah squeezed Lance’s hand lightly. He gasped and looked at her eyes. They were still closed, and she wasn’t moving. Her steady breathing hadn’t changed.
“Cheeks?”
She lay motionless on the bed. Lance looked closely for her eyelids to flutter. Maybe he had only imagined her squeezing his hand.
“Cheeks, baby, can you hear me? Please squeeze my hand again if you can hear me.” Lance waited. He prayed out loud, “Oh, God, please make her squeeze my hand. Please, Jesus, please. Wake her up.” More tears fell from Lance’s eyes. He put his head down on Arykah’s bed.
She squeezed his hand again. That time more firmly. Lance looked up and saw Arykah’s left eye was open. He stood up. “Baby, I’m here. I’m here, my love.” Lance kissed her forehead. “Can you see me? I’m right here.”
Arykah slowly turned her head in Lance’s direction. Her left eye looked at him. She didn’t try to speak. Lance wasn’t sure if she was looking at him or through him.
“Cheeks, can you see me?” he asked her again. She didn’t blink or move. Lance became nervous. Does she have amnesia? Could she have forgotten him? “Do you know who I am?” Lance held his breath. He didn’t know how he’d react if the doctor told him that Arykah couldn’t remember him.
She squeezed his hand a third time. A single tear ran down Lance’s face and snot was running from his nose. But he grew hopeful. “Do it again, baby. Squeeze my hand if you know who I am.” He needed confirmation.
She did it. Arykah squeezed Lance’s hand and held it tightly.
“Oh, thank God,” he cried out. “Father, I thank you.” Lance sat down in the chair and put his head down on Arykah’s bed again. He sobbed loudly. “I’m so sorry, Cheeks.”
Arykah released Lance’s hand. She raised her arm and placed her open palm on the back of Lance’s head. She couldn’t console him, but she wanted Lance to know, through her touch, that he should stop crying. He shouldn’t blame himself. What had happened to her wasn’t his fault. She couldn’t speak or move, but Arykah wanted her husband to know that she didn’t hold him responsible for her pain and suffering. She could do nothing but lay still and listen to Lance cry.
A nurse came into the room and stood by Arykah’s bed. She saw that she was awake.
“Well, hello there,” she smiled at Arykah.
Lance looked up at the sound of the nurse’s voice. He hadn’t heard anyone enter the room.
The nurse patted Arykah’s shoulder. “It’s good to see that you’re awake. I’m here to take your blood pressure. Is that okay?” The nurse knew Arykah couldn’t consent or prevent her from taking her blood pressure. The question was merely a courtesy question. As she prepared to take Arykah’s blood pressure, the nurse looked across the bed at Lance.
“And how are you, Mr. Howell?”
“Better now that she’s awake.”
“It was touch and go there for a while, but I knew she’d pull through. We’re gonna take Mrs. Howell to another room and administer the rape kit her doctor ordered. It’s only a fifteen-minute procedure. After that she’ll be brought back here, and I’ll give her a sedative through her IV.”
“Um, what exactly do you do with a rape kit? Will it be painful for her?”
Arykah had been through enough trauma already. Lance didn’t want her to experience more pain than she had to.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, Mr. Howell,” the nurse said. “There’s a lot of scraping and digging involved while administering a rape kit.”
Lance frowned. “Scraping and digging? What are you scraping?”
“We’re gonna scrape where she was raped. Front and back.”
Lance knew exactly what the nurse meant. “Is that really necessary?”
“I’m afraid so. Semen samples, hairs, fingerprints, and skin cells are evidence that rapists leave behind. A rape kit must be used if you wanna catch the guy that violated your wife.”
Lance looked at Arykah’s battered face. “She’s been through so much already.”
“Yes, I know,” the nurse agreed. “But afterward, Mrs. Howard will be given a sponge bath, and then the sedative will make her sleep.”
“A sponge bath? Who’ll give her a sponge bath?”
“Another nurse will do that.”
“Uh-uh,” Lance said. He didn’t have a choice but to agree to the rape kit. He wanted Arykah’s attacker caught, but knowing that another stranger would be bathing her while she’s vulnerable and probably unresponsive, Lance wasn’t having that. “I’ll bathe my wife.”
“Yes, sir,” was all the nurse said.
Lance leaned over Arykah and kissed her forehead. “I’m gonna go and talk with our friends who are waiting outside.” He kissed her forehead again. “I’ll be right back, Cheeks.”
Lance left the nurse alone to tend to Arykah, and he went to the waiting room and saw that Minister Weeks and Adonis had arrived at the hospital.
As soon as Monique saw Lance, she jumped up from her chair and hurried to him.
“How is she?”
Lance kissed Monique’s cheek and hugged her tightly. “She’s awake. She squeezed my hand. The nurse is with her now.”
Lance put his hand on the small of Monique’s back and escorted her back to where Carlton and Adonis were waiting. Both men stood when Lance got near.
Adonis was the first to embrace his friend. “I’m here for you, brother. Anything you need.”
Lance was happy to have Adonis there. He knew he could count on him. “Thanks, Adonis.”
Carlton stepped to Lance when he let go of the embrace from Adonis. “Bishop, is there anything the church can do for you or Lady Arykah?”
Lance shook Carlton’s hand, then sat down in a chair. “No, not at the moment. As a matter of fact, Weeks, I don’t want Arykah’s accident to be made known to anyone other than the three of you.” Lance looked at Carlton, Adonis, and Monique. “This must be kept under wraps. I’m sure Arykah wouldn’t want to be the gossip of the church.”
“Of course, Bishop,” Carlton said.
“Absolutely,” Adonis agreed.
Lance told Adonis and Carlton that Arykah was awake and the nurse was caring for her.
“That’s good news,” Adonis said. “Was she able to say exactly what happened at home this morning?”
Lance leaned back and crossed his left leg over his right knee, then exhaled. “No, not yet. Her top lip was busted. Her teeth had been knocked out. There are stitches. She can’t speak. She can barely move.”
Lance looked down the hall and saw the female detective heading his way. “Here comes that lady cop that was at the house.”
When she had gotten close, Lance stood.
“Mr. Howell?”
“Detective? How are you?”
“I’m good, sir. But more important, I am wondering how Mrs. Howell is doing?”
“Well, she’s awake. That’s about all that I can tell you.”
The detective pointed to a chair. “Please sit.”
Lance sat and introduced the detective to Arykah’s visitors.
She greeted Carlton, Monique, and Adonis, then turned her attention back to Lance. “Mr. Howell, does your wife have any enemies?”
That question threw Lance off. He looked up at the detective and frowned. “Enemies?”
“Enemies,” she stressed the word. “People who hate your wife. Anyone who dislikes her for whatever reason. Can you think of someone who may have wanted to hurt her?”
“No,” Lance said quickly.
“No one at all? Try to think if you overheard your wife arguing with anyon
e lately. Did she have any disagreements with anyone?”
Lance shook his head from side to side. “No.”
“Well ...” Monique chimed in.
The detective, Lance, Carlton, and Adonis all looked at Monique.
“Well, what?” the detective asked her.
Monique sat silent. She didn’t know if she should reveal anything or not.
“What’s your name again?” the detective asked when she saw that Monique had paused.
“Monique Cortland.”
The detective wrote on a notepad she held in her hand. “Mr. Howell introduced you as his wife’s best friend.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Monique confirmed.
“Well, I trust that if you have any information that would help solve what happened to your best friend, you would tell it.”
Monique got offended at the way the detective spoke to her. Of course she would do all she could to help bring Arykah’s assailant to justice. And as Arykah’s best friend, Monique didn’t need to be told that. “Of course.”
“Okay, well, what were you gonna say?”
Monique shifted in her chair. “When you asked Lance if Arykah had any enemies, my mind went to the members of our church.”
“Really?” the detective asked with raised eyebrows.
“The church?” Carlton asked out loud.
“Not the entire church family, but I could name some folks that I think would want to see Arykah hurt.”
“You’re not suggesting the mothers did this to Arykah, are you?” Lance asked Monique. Yes, Mother Pansie and Mother Gussie had pulled some tricks, and they let it be known that they didn’t care for Arykah. Lance would even go as far as to say that the mothers actually hated his wife, but they weren’t capable of rape. They couldn’t be that evil and relentless. He’d known the mothers his entire life. He refused to believe it.
“Not physically do it themselves. Of course not. But they could’ve gotten someone to do it,” Monique stated as a matter of fact.
Carlton sat in disbelief at Monique’s accusations. Just like Lance, he had grown up at Freedom Temple. Both Mother Gussie and Mother Pansie were like his own mothers. He remembered them pulling on his earlobe when he was caught misbehaving in Sunday School when he was a boy. He remembered them pinching his arm and twisting his skin whenever he acted out at church. Discipline, the mothers were capable of, but hiring a rapist was out of the question. It didn’t happen. It could never happen.
The detective jotted down the mothers’ names on her notepad. “Is there anyone else?”
“I can’t think of anyone,” Monique stated.
“Neither can I,” Adonis said.
“No one at all,” Carlton added. He wanted to tell the detective to scratch the mothers’ names off her list.
The detective looked at Lance. “Anyone else, Mr. Howell?”
Lance leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and exhaled. Monique had given him something to think about. The mothers’ hatred for Arykah was evident. He thought about Mother Gussie setting Arykah up to fail with the Cartwright family. He remembered firing Mother Pansie and replacing her with Arykah. Mother Pansie was extremely angry at him for that. He recalled the red ink that was put in Arykah’s office chair at church. Lance believed the mothers were responsible. And he believed they were responsible for sending him the photo of Arykah and her client having dinner. Arykah had never gotten around to asking Lance about the photo. And Lance didn’t bother bringing the subject up because he knew that Mother Gussie was trying to set Arykah up. And when Arykah shared with Lance Mother Gussie’s stunt with the dry cleaners, Lance was too outdone. He knew that the mothers didn’t approve of his marriage to Arykah. From the moment he brought her to Freedom Temple, they had turned every female against his wife. Lance concluded that Monique was right in suspecting the mothers.
“I believe the mothers are responsible,” Lance finally uttered.
“Bishop?” Carlton yelled out. “What are you saying?”
“There’s a lot that you don’t know, Weeks.”
Carlton opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. He had no words.
The detective stood to leave. “Thanks, everyone.” She put the notepad inside her interior coat jacket. “I’ll be in touch.” She turned to leave, then stopped and turned around. She looked at Adonis. “Where were you at approximately nine this morning?”
Adonis cocked his head to the side, and so did everyone sitting. “I was at work,” he answered sarcastically. How dare she treat him as a suspect? He loved Arykah and would never hurt her.
“And you, Mr. Weeks?”
“At work,” he answered.
“If need be, I trust that both of you have alibis?”
“Detective, you’re not suggesting that either of them had anything to do with—”
She cut Lance’s words off. “And where were you, Mr. Howell?”
Lance stood up. “Excuse me?” First she questioned Adonis and Carlton’s whereabouts, but now she had the gall to ask him his whereabouts as well.
“The next of kin is always a suspect in a crime such as this.”
“So, what are you saying?” Lance asked. Was she accusing him of raping and brutally beating his own wife?
“I’m saying that I need to know your whereabouts at nine this morning.”
“I was at church when Arykah called to tell me that she had been raped. Feel free to check our phone records.”
“I absolutely will, Mr. Howell. My best to your wife.” With that said, the detective walked away and left Lance and everyone else with their mouths hanging open.
Slowly, Lance sat down. He looked at Carlton. “Can you believe that?”
“Tell me what I don’t know.” Carlton needed to know why Monique and Lance believed the mothers were responsible for Arykah’s rape.
Lance leaned back and exhaled. “I can’t get into it right now, Weeks.”
“Well, somebody is gonna tell me something. Bishop, you know that I’ve always had your back, and I’ve been rolling with you ever since you became the pastor of the church. But you gotta tell me why you think the mothers are responsible for this.”
Lance knew he owed Carlton an explanation. He and Monique had just dropped a bomb. “You’re right, Weeks. But I gotta get back to Arykah right now.” Lance looked at Monique. “Tell him everything.”
Monique nodded her head.
Lance stood and said to Carlton, “What she’s gonna tell you has to stay here. Absolutely no one else can know. No one.”
“You have my word. Give Lady Arykah my love,” Carlton said.
Five hours later, on the south side of Chicago, she looked at him with fury in her eyes.
She couldn’t believe what he had just told her. “You did what? I told you to rough her up. You were only supposed to scare her.”
Streams of blood had dried along the lines of his jaws where Arykah’s acrylic fingernails had raked his skin.
“Look at your face. How are you gonna hide those marks?” she fussed. She began pacing her kitchen floor. “Oh my, now what am I gonna do?” She wasn’t remorseful that Arykah had gotten raped. She felt that Arykah really deserved everything that happened to her. Her worry was that she could possibly be found out.
“I couldn’t help it,” he said. “She was so pretty, and she was naked. I couldn’t help it.”
The woman stopped pacing and looked at him. “What the heck do you mean ‘she was naked’? She opened the door with no clothes on?”
He sat in a chair next to the table and rocked back and forth. He was nervous. “I hit her, and she fell. Her dress came open. She was naked. I couldn’t help it.”
She rushed over to him and slapped his face. “Do you realize what you’ve done? You raped a woman. You’re so stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You can’t do anything right. You’re dumb and stupid.”
He rocked back and forth again. “Stupid me, stupid me,” he sang.
“Shut up!” she screamed.
She began pacing the floor again.
“She wouldn’t stop crying and screaming. I had to shut her up.”
“I told you to rough her up. That’s it. I didn’t tell you to rape her.”
He continued to rock back and forth. “She was so pretty. And she smelled pretty. I told her she was pretty.”
She slapped his face again. “You’re a stupid boy. Stop that rockin’ and go take your crazy pills.”
Chapter 17
It wasn’t until two days after the rape that Arykah could move her lips and speak.
Lance had been by her side for the past forty-eight hours. He refused to leave her alone.
On the first night of Arykah’s hospital stay, a nurse had come into her room and announced to Lance that visiting hours were over.
“I’m not leaving her.”
“She’s in good hands, Mr. Howell.”
The only good hands that Lance felt comfortable leaving Arykah in were his own.
“My wife was raped and violently beaten. No one has called to tell me that the guy has been caught. She can’t move, and she can’t yell out, which means she’s extremely helpless. I am not leaving her alone.”
The nurse appreciated a faithful and loving husband. She didn’t argue with Lance.
“I’ll see to it that a cot, a blanket, and a pillow are brought in for you then.”
“Honey?”
Lance was lying on the cot beneath a blanket when he stirred. He opened his eyes and saw Arykah sitting up in her hospital bed staring at him. He smiled. “Look at you sitting up. How are you feeling?”
The stitches in Arykah’s top lip made it difficult for her to speak. The two front teeth that were missing caused her to have a lisp. “Better. Have I ever told you that you snore?”
Lance sat up on the cot. “Yes, you have. Many times.”
“Well, you need to do something about that. I was dreaming about a lawnmower; then I woke up and realized that it was you cutting the grass.”
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