by Stacey Mewse
The door swung open to reveal the figure of detective Truman backlit by the harsh lighting from the hallway.
‘Come with me please Mr. Johanson.’ He commanded firmly, waiting and watching like a hawk as Hunter rose and moved towards the door. He was led down the hall in silence and ushered into a clinical looking, starkly furnished room. Here the walls were painted white and there were small windows with wire mesh running through the glass near the ceiling. These ran along the top of one wall and through them he could faintly see the outside world. In the centre of the room stood a sparkling medical table, and along the four walls ran a row of cupboards with shining locks and pristine clean worktops sitting atop of them. In the far corner by a door with the word ‘toilet’ clearly emblazoned on it stood a middle aged woman in a white lab coat. Her red hair was scraped back into a neat bun and a set of delicately framed spectacles balanced on her button nose, shielding a set of cold grey eyes. She nodded to Truman and stepped away from what she had been doing on the counter top to the middle of the room. Hunter awkwardly half smiled as Truman closed the door behind them. He was unsure of what was about to occur, but almost certain in his paranoid mind that the tests would be invasive. He had hoped by some miracle that she would be one of his kind, but as she stepped forwards her scent hit him as distinctly human. She smelled strongly of medical disinfectant and a floral perfume that he found too strong and a little unpleasant. There was definitely no wolf in her. As she opened her mouth to introduce herself, he found himself desperately hoping that the pack would find a way to get their hands on whatever samples she was about to request.
‘Hello Mr. Johanson’ she kept her hands by her sides as she spoke, and her face remained impassive. ‘My name is Dr Amberly and as I’m sure you have guessed you have been bought to me so that we can take some samples from you.’
Hunter nodded dumbly as she addressed detective Truman over his shoulder.
‘I trust he has not been allowed the opportunity to wash?’
Although Hunter did not hear a vocal response from the old male detective, he guessed he must have shaken his head as Dr Amberly nodded curtly in response.
She turned her attention back to him and gestured to the table behind her. ‘If you would please take a seat Mr. Johanson while I prepare to take some specimens from you.’
Hunter nodded and sat himself heavily onto the tabletop with his legs hanging off the side and his feet planted firmly on the floor. He had a feeling he wouldn’t remain seated for long.
Truman glared at him whilst the Doctor prepared her things, Hunter ignoring the other man and watching her nervously.
When she finally turned around after what seemed like an eternity, she held a tube containing a swab in one freshly gloved hand. Advancing towards him she unscrewed the cap on the tube and instructed him to open his mouth. He did as he was bidden, and endured the swab being stuffed into his mouth and rubbed roughly between his gums and the inside of his cheek. When she withdrew the swab she briefly inspected it and sighed. Sealing it in the tube she threw the whole thing in the hazardous waste bin in the corner.
‘Your gums are bleeding.’ She explained agitatedly. ‘I’ll have to take another couple of samples, that one will have been no good to us.’
Hunter nodded blankly and allowed her to take two more swabs from his rapidly drying mouth. The first she carefully rubbed only against his inner cheek. For the second she hooked his lip out of the way with her left hand, and carefully blotted at the blood seeping from the roots of his teeth. She muttered to herself as she sealed and labelled the second specimen, something about no evidence of gum disease and a healthy mouth otherwise. She was glad she had chosen thicker gloves for this one. She suspected some kind of nasty, underlying ailment.
Hunter’s mind suddenly filled with panic that she would send the blood for a more thorough examination, and he found himself jabbering something about needing to visit the dentist. She nodded in response but did not answer; picking up another tube and swab and moistening the end with a liquid he wasn’t familiar with. She then rubbed this into the hair on his chest and popped it back into the tube. Repeating this process with an obvious bloodstain on his trousers she then carefully labelled each tube. Then she handed him two sample pots and instructed him to go to the bathroom.
‘Why two?’ He asked.
‘We need both a urine and a semen sample from you Mr. Johanson.’ She stated flatly.
Hunter’s face screwed into a look of confusion. ‘Semen?’
Dr Amberly nodded. ‘Yes. Very rarely semen does not match other samples routinely collected by the police for our database. As I’m sure you can imagine in a case as high profile as this one and with so much at stake, the usual rules do not apply.’
Hunter struggled to formulate a response for a moment, she had as good as told him that taking this sample was against the rules. ‘That can’t be correct?’ He eventually spluttered.
She nodded unsympathetically. ‘Do a little research into famous murder cases and you’ll see that it is. Now please collect our samples Mr. Johanson.’
In disbelief Hunter stepped into the toilet and locked the door behind him; looking about the tiny, brightly lit room in disbelief. How did they honestly expect him to…? It was hardly an arousing situation! Urine he could provide but he was certain that semen would be an impossibility.
Slowly lowering the toilet seat lid he seated himself heavily on it and put his head in his hands. Things were getting worse and worse…
*****
On the far side of the door Amberly and Truman stood in tense silence for a while, Amberly eventually breaking the quiet with a small cough. Tapping her chest with a loosely clasped fist she quietly muttered ‘excuse me.’
Truman nodded slightly, silently allowing the intrusion into the quiet to be excused.
Amberly shifted her weight from one foot to the other and sighed.
‘Do you think perhaps we should have given him some kind of material to use?’ She questioned ‘it’s imperative we get that sample.’
Truman scowled and shook his head firmly ‘why should we give him the luxury? We’ll wait it out as long as it takes and I’m sure if he can’t manage it there’s some other method of extracting it?’
Amberly scowled slightly, not sure what was being suggested to her ‘what do you…’
Truman cut her off ‘don’t tell me you can’t stick a needle in it and draw some out?’
Amberly shuddered ‘how would you like a large gauge needle shoved into one you your testicles Mr. Truman?’
Truman stared at her blankly. ‘Murderers, especially of this sort don’t get the same luxuries as the rest of us.’
Amberly returned his glare, unconsciously backing away a step and coming to rest with her rear propped against the medical table. ‘We can’t be certain –’
Truman’s scowl deepened ‘Surely in some instances its better to be safe than sorry though Miss Amberly.’
Amberly looked away from his gaze and glanced briefly at the door to the toilet before scanning over the specimens she had already collected. ‘How long shall we leave it before we knock?’ She asked.
Truman took this as a hint and stepped towards the door, rapping sharply on it with his knuckles. ‘What are you doing in there?’ He called ‘we don’t have all day!’ He then turned and began to make his way towards the door to the exam room, calling over his shoulder as he went. ‘I’m off to get us a cup of tea each Amberly, we could be here a while.’
On the far side of the door Hunter lifted his head from his hands and stared in the direction of the voice. He had to give them something or they’d never let him leave.
Standing slowly he lifted the toilet seat and began to unzip his trousers. Lifting his head he suddenly noticed the air vent above the cistern, and the dust that had fallen from it clinging to the porcelain there.
Leaning forward he lent against the wall with one hand and ran his fingers along the bottom of the rusted grating with
the other. It had been tampered with, and judging by the looseness of the dust, which fell at the slightest touch of his work haggard hand, it had happened recently.
Carefully he hooked his finger into the grating and tugged gently, he was instantly rewarded by the grating pulling away from the wall. The sound it made seemed loud to him but he knew that the humans on the far side of the door had no chance of hearing it… Though he still looked over his shoulder as he carefully placed the metal sheet down onto the cistern as a precaution.
Standing on his toes he tried to look into the vent but found he was marginally too short. Instead he carefully began to explore the space with his fingers; conscious that if he knocked anything over onto the metal it would alert them he was up to something. For a moment it seemed there was nothing to be found, and then all of a sudden his fingertips brushed against something smooth and curved… Carefully he grabbed the item and lifted it down, shocked and vaguely disgusted by what he held in his hand. It was a small pot, another sample jar, only this one had been filled and the sticky white liquid within was clinging to the sides of the plastic in a way that made him feel slightly nauseous.
How the hell? It must have been the pack… They were proving to be far more resourceful than he could have hoped for. How they had gotten hold of a fresh semen sample that was not from a shape shifter he had no idea… But he was so thankful that he couldn’t contain the sigh of relief that escaped him.
Feeling hopeful that they would have provided both pots he again fished around in the vent and was rewarded by another three specimens. Urine that was so fresh it was still warm in his hand within the pot; and two samples identical to the ones he had taken in the lab itself.
Placing both empty pots in his pocket he carefully crushed them with one hand until his pocket was full of shattered plastic fragments, which would not be visible to the detective or the doctor. Then he placed the vent covering back where he had found it and screwed the bolts back into place as best he could with his fingers. Brushing away the dust that had collected beneath the opening carefully. Then he pulled off a large strip of toilet paper and dropped it into the toilet, flushing the chain and then fastidiously washing his hands. He needed to make everything seem normal, they’d soon clock that something was amiss if there was no water in the sink. Finally he stuffed the two samples that he would have to switch with the ones the doctor had taken into his pocket, and picked up the remaining two in one large hand.
Unlocking the door he swung it open, suddenly realising he had not re-zipped his fly and fumbling with it as he walked back into the lab room.
Dr Amberly scowled at him, no doubt thinking this was some kind of exhibitionism on his part. She moved towards him and took the two samples from his outstretched hand, turning and moving to the far side of the room where she bustled about labelling them. This gave Hunter the opportunity to switch the samples in his pocket with the ones she had previously taken from him. He did so quickly and smoothly, moving to the centre of the room and leaning against the table just as she began to turn around.
Se crossed the room and picked up the pots he had just put down, scowling to herself as she noticed the labels were unfilled.
‘I’m sure I wrote your details on these a moment ago…? She muttered questioningly to herself.
Hunter shrugged, hoping she would put this down to slackness on her part. For a moment she looked blankly at them before grabbing a pen and scribbling on the labels. Inwardly the werewolf male breathed a sigh of relief, they had done it!
Amberly placed the specimens all together on the counter top and turned back to Hunter, drawing her pen back out of her pocket where she had placed it jut moments before and handing it to him. Grabbing a sheet of paper from a notepad, which she also pulled out of her pocket, she handed it to him and instructed him to write a few sentences onto it.
‘What should I write?’ He asked.
‘Just a couple of lines’ she replied curtly, obviously eager to be rid of him. ‘I’d like you to write down your name and age, and a couple of random statements about yourself, please include numbers not just written words. I’d also like you to write out the words Sir suture, blood, stitching and pain.’
Hunter did as he was told, scribbling away on the paper in his characteristic scrawl; even doctors had more legible writing. He was anything but worried about his note matching Varulv’s.
Amberly hung over his shoulder as he wrote, her perfume getting to his sensitive nose and drawing a sneeze from him. She stepped back abruptly as he rubbed at his nose, just as Truman came back through the door with two steaming mugs of tea in his hands.
‘We’re about done here Inspector.’ Amberly informed him, moving across the room to collect her drink. ‘I think you can safely take him back to his cell, we have everything we need.’
Truman nodded and placed his own mug down upon the countertop by the door. ‘I’ll return him to his cell and then I’ll be back.’ With that turned and walked back to the door, opening it wide and beckoning to Hunter to get moving with the wave of an arm.
Hunter obeyed without complaint at the other mans rudeness. He knew there was no point in making things more difficult for himself no matter how much Truman grated on him.
He was led back to his cell without any attempt at conversation. In fact besides the constant prodding of him to keep him moving, the other man seemed to be barely aware of his presence. When they reached his cell his cuffs were removed and the door was slammed in his face.
As he listened to the inspector retreat back down the corridor towards the exam room he sighed, there was nothing he could do now but wait. Slumping onto the cot he stretched out on his back and absent-mindedly crunched at the fragments of plastic in his pocket through the fabric. He hoped Audra would make an appearance soon… It would be useful to know how long he could expect to be detained for.
Chapter 18
Audra had hoped to remain about the station whilst Hunter was undergoing his tests, but had quickly realised that this was not a viable option. She had sat in the reception room for a while and ruffled through some of her papers but soon became aware of the receptionist glaring at her suspiciously. Only then did it strike her that perhaps this looked unprofessional, and so she returned her things to her briefcase and strutted up to the desk with authority.
Addressing the woman behind the counter she used her most authoritarian tone, which made her Italian accent all the more noticeable. ‘I would like to know when I can expect to return, and how long your officers are planning on detaining my client. Bearing in mind they have no solid evidence against him which is not purely circumstantial.’
The woman behind the counter nodded vacuously as she was spoken to, obviously ignoring the vast majority of what she was hearing and only hearing the key words she felt were important. ‘Of course, I shall find out for you right away Miss…?’
For a moment Audra inwardly raged that she was referred to as a miss when she had been playing her character imagining her as a married woman, and then she realised she had no ring on her finger… ‘Accorsi. My name is Accorsi, I take it you are aware of whom my client is?’
The receptionist nodded ‘of course, you’d have to be living under a rock not to have noticed the media furore created when he was bought in last night.’ She almost giggled at the idea the woman thought she did not know of Mr. Johanson; and then noticed the stern face staring down at her and quickly realised how unprofessional she was being. Standing abruptly she quickly left the room before she could be called up on this, as from the look she was getting she fully expected the woman to tear into her at any moment.
Audra waited impatiently, tapping one heel against the floor and scowling at the door the young woman had disappeared through. She would have to get back to the pack as soon as possible, to leave her open to return and keep at her plan to have Hunter released sooner rather than later.
The woman was not gone long. She re-appeared after just a few minutes and took her seat agai
n before addressing who she thought was the solicitor before her. ‘I’ve spoken with the inspectors and they have agreed that they would like to wait for the results of his tests to come back before any more questioning commences.’
Audra scowled. ‘That can take weeks they cannot detain a man who has not been proven guilty for that long.’
The receptionist shrank away from her a little as she replied. ‘They are having them rushed through, it will be a maximum of 48 hours.’
Audra scowled deeply ‘that’s not good enough. I would like to speak with detective Truman or jaunt please.’
The receptionist looked uneasy. ‘I’m not sure I can arrange that for you at present Miss Accorsi…’
Audra was in no mood to argue, the plan had to go smoothly or she would not get what she wanted out of it. ‘I’m afraid that you will have to, I have places to be and I will not be delayed by your refusal to let me speak with one of the detectives. I’m sure they will have time for a brief conversation about their most high profile arrest in years?’
