"Sheriff Wynn, I'm here for some advice. I hope you'll respect my privacy in this because Momma doesn't know anything about it. Andre knows, and you remember my large friend, Lance from the memorial service? He knows because he, uh, found me the next day." Herb sat forward and nodded, bracing his arms on the blotter.
I reached for the bag and set it on Herb's desk. I opened it and began pulling out the bedding and the tape, placing them on his desk in front of him. He was studying me carefully, but he didn't ask any questions.
I took a deep breath. "I was raped in my dorm room on Halloween night. I'd been out with Lance to play pool," I began. I went on to tell him about leaving the bar, answering his questions regarding time and who would have seen me.
I reached over and took Andre's hand, holding it tightly for support. "I walked back to my dorm room and unlocked the door, noticing the light I always left on wasn't lit, which was unusual. I closed the door and reached for the overhead switch, and that's when…" I then told him and Andre for the first time what happened. I tried to gloss over some things, but Herb wouldn't let me. He was taking notes furiously as I was telling the story.
I could tell by his demeanor he was quite upset, and I was worried. "At some point, I blacked out. I woke up the next morning, and my hands weren't tied anymore. The ropes were gone as was whatever they put over my head. Lance, my friend, was who woke me and he tried to get me to go to the hospital but I was scared and humiliated so I refused. I see, now, that was a mistake but at the time, well I wasn't thinking clearly."
Herb coughed a bit and cleared his throat. "Okay, son. Do you know who it was?"
I looked at Andre and he squeezed my hand. "I think it was my former roommate. He and I didn't get along from the beginning and…" I told him about the initial meeting when the guy puked in the floor. I told him about the shower room incident which caused Andre to get up from the chair and pace the floor behind me. I told him about what Jamie had said to me before he violated me, and then I stood from the chair and took off my coat.
"I don't remember this, but Lance saw it first. It wasn't until he tried to clean off some ink from my back that we figured out it wasn't just writing with a marker. Oh, that's in the bottom of the bag." I turned my back to him and took off my shirt, showing him my greatest shame. By then, the calm exterior I'd been able to maintain as I explained everything to him was gone, and the pain was just as bad as when I'd discovered what they'd done to me that morning after...
Andre quickly took my hands and held them. "It's okay. You're doing the right thing," he whispered.
I heard coughing behind me and when I turned around, I saw Herb furiously gulping water, his back to us. Andre gently pulled my flannel shirt up my back and buttoned it with a soft smile. "I love you, Colt. I'm so proud of you."
I dried my eyes on my sleeves and turned to sit down. I saw Herb wiping his eyes discreetly before he turned around to face us again. "Okay. I'll be back in a second. I need to grab a camera because I'm going to need to take a picture of that, Colton. Can I get you anything? Soda? Water?"
"A couple of Cokes, maybe?" Andre asked as he looked at me. I nodded, and Herb excused himself, pulling the blinds closed before he left.
I turned to Andre. "Are you okay? I know I never told you all of this shit but I think you can understand why, now."
"I do, sweetheart, and I guess I should be grateful for you sparing me the details, but I'm glad at this point I know why certain things set you off. This is a discussion I should have pushed weeks ago, but now that I know, I'll better understand things in the future.
"For future reference, there's nothing you can't tell me, Colton. Nothing at all, okay?" He was quite earnest so I nodded in agreement.
"I'm curious. How did you know about Jamie's girlfriend and that guy you got arrested over?" It was something I'd never asked, and as I sat there, I wondered why.
"I have a friend who works in Student Housing. Actually, it’s Chip's sister, Lula. She looked up Jamie Turner's new residence because I had a bad feeling about him after you showed up in the library with that shiner from the shower incident.
"I started following him and saw Kamal DuBois come and go a lot along with Hannah Freemont. I saw the three of them together on several occasions, so when you said there were two of them who attacked you, I knew who it was. I waited outside McCarty Hall where Hannah lives and followed her and DuBois to the club the night I got arrested. I did what I did, but I'm not sorry, Colton.
"I only learned DuBois' name after I was arrested, but I've kept an eye on him and Turner. They're biding their time to get back at me for what happened with Hannah, and…" before he went any further, Herb returned.
"Okay," Herb sighed loudly. He handed us Cokes and sat down behind his desk, opening a folder and jotting down a number on a paper, handing it to me.
"This is your case number. It will remain a ‘John Doe’ for the time being, but eventually, I'll have to add your name to it when we have to take this to Seattle PD. I can do a lot of investigating before I have to do that, though. Now, I need to know who might have any information to corroborate your story. I need contact information, and I need to know anyone who had contact with any of this evidence," he stated as he pulled out rubber gloves from his desk and put them on to handle everything.
He placed tags on everything and made a list of all of it. I'd forgotten about my boxers and t-shirt that were in the bag, and I was embarrassed about him finding them and asking what they were. He only nodded and tagged them, placing them in bags of all sizes.
I told him who might have touched the things in the bag, and who might have any information regarding the shit that happened. Andre added his part by giving Herb the information from his arrest on campus. After we'd told him everything we could, he looked at the clock.
"Where does Chelle think you are? I know you haven't told her about this, but son, I think you need to." He was probably right, but I was dreading it.
"We have to go to the grocery store for the party. You're coming tonight, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, Bryana and I will be there. Will some of these people be there? Do you think I could get them alone and question them? I need to get cheek swabs from your roommate, Nick, and Lance so I can eliminate them. Andre, I'm planning to call SPD and get the record of your arrest, if that's okay. Even though the charges were dropped, there’s still a record."
"Whatever you need to do," Andre responded. He’d told the sheriff about is stupidity and his arrest the night at the club. He’d given him the name of the officer who arrested him, and Herb wanted to follow up to ensure the charges were still dropped.
"Do you need to get a cheek swab from me?" I asked.
Herb laughed. "Naw. Just give me that soda can. Actually, Andre, can I have yours as well? It's not that I think you had a hand in this, but if you were in Colton's dorm room and maybe sat on Nick's bed or something, I want to be sure we're not chasing unnecessary leads."
Andre and I placed the cans on the desk, and Herb put sticky notes on them regarding whose was whose. "Okay, get out of here. I'll talk to you tonight. And Colton, think about telling your mother. I'm not sure how we'll keep things from her because she's damn smart, that one."
I rose from my chair and nodded in agreement. Herb rose from the desk and walked around it. "Son, on a personal note, I knew your dad very well. Hell, he was one of my best friends when we were kids. He'd be proud of you for coming forward and taking this on. This isn't as hopeless as you might think. It's just a little more difficult, but I'll give it everything I've got, I promise." He didn't try to hug me. He just squeezed my shoulders and offered me the support I was grateful to have.
We left and went to the grocery store. Andre went inside to do the shopping, and I called Eve Brownley. "Colton, how are you?" she answered.
"I'm, uh, well, I'm not sure, Eve. I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I just took a bag of stuff to the Sheriff’s Office and reported my rape." I heard her suck in a breat
h, and I knew she was shocked because I'd been so adamant about not telling anyone. I knew she was surprised I'd changed my mind and hell, I was surprised as well, but after what had happened with Kelvin Polk, I knew how important it was to do it…I mean, if I ever wanted to move past it.
"What made you decide to do it?" Eve asked.
I thought for a minute, and I knew something else I had to do. "I appreciate you setting my feet on this path, Eve, and I'll never forget it but I need you to refer me to another therapist, someone local. I think it would be good for me to see someone face to face.
"I truly appreciate you going out of your way because Dr. Les asked you to take me on. I’m sure you usually counsel females who’ve been through…who’ve been raped. I also know it has to put a strain on your friendship with the Leslie because I’m dating her son and I’m sure she wants to know if I’m treating Andre right but you can’t tell her anything because I’m your patient. For the sake of all of us, I need to talk to a third-party about this shit. Today, when Andre and I went to talk to Herb, I realized the position you were in and it wasn't fair of me to do it to you, but…without Les’ and your push, I'd have never done it.
"I still need Dr. Les and Jean-Luc in my life without worrying whether I’m beating their son or if I’ve gone bonkers and am capable of a murder/suicide or something. Please tell them everything’s fine because it is. I’m finally in that place we talked about that day with the roses. I’m grieving the loss of Before Colton and I’m trying to do right by Present Colton while setting him up to be the best Future Colton he, I mean, I can be.”
I heard sniffles, so I laughed. “Now, I didn’t figure you for tears, Eve. I think this is what you would call the road to recovery, right?”
She laughed. "Colton, my heart is overflowing right now. I'll talk to Leslie on Monday and have her call you with the name of another therapist near you. If you ever need to talk to a friend, I hope you would consider calling me,” Eve instructed.
Suddenly, something popped into my head, and as much as I hated to ask, it was a concern. "Eve, I don't think my mother's insurance would cover a high-priced shrink. I can try to find someone through Student Health who might…"
"Stop that business right now. There’s a crisis center downtown and I believe Les might have gone to medical school with the director. She can contact the woman and get in touch with you. The money will not a problem, Colton. It's nothing you should worry about," Eve assured.
I didn't know if she was lying, but I had to hope she was being honest. I looked up through the windshield and saw Andre hurrying out of the store so I needed to go because I was pretty sure my mother was going to be pissed.
"Eve, I need to go. A very handsome Frenchman is wheeling out a full grocery cart, and he looks a little worried. I'll talk to you soon," I told her.
"Anytime, Colton. I'm still here for you." We said our goodbyes, and I tossed the phone on the seat as I hopped out to help him unload the cart.
I didn't see a pork roast, so I looked at him. "Where's the roast?" There was a lot of chicken, and I was pretty sure I was going to hear ten kinds of hell from my mother.
"There's not enough time for a roast to smoke and be done before people get there. Chicken, on the other hand, can smoke and be pulled. I'll just tell her there wasn't a good pork roast. Help me unload this and formulate some sort of alibi so she doesn't rip us apart when we get back to the house."
I laughed. "Well, she'll be pissed, but I'm gonna tell her we couldn't keep our hands off one another."
He laughed as well, and we went home to meet the wrath of my mother. When we arrived, she was definitely angry at first, but after Andre explained to her about the purchase of chicken instead of pork and made up a dry rub she seemed to like when she tasted it, she quit bitching and helped him prepare the chicken.
Dinner went on as scheduled. Everyone was having a good time at Mom’s house, and I noticed Herb Wynn covertly taking Lance and Nick aside to speak to them and then slip them into the downstairs powder room. I was going to owe Nick an explanation when we all returned to school, for sure.
People were drinking and talking, and I saw Andre speaking with a nurse from the hospital who remembered his father. I felt a tug on my shirt and turned to see my mother standing there. "You come with me right now, Colton Josiah."
I knew I was in trouble when she stopped in the kitchen and snuck a cigarette. I grabbed a pack of matches from another drawer and two beers. My time was up because my mother was far more astute than I’d given her credit. She knew something was going on and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. I hated to tell her that shit in the middle of a party, but Michelle Wixsom was out of patience.
We walked out onto the deck, and I led her to the yard, grateful for the glider that was as old as anything. We were bundled up, and I was thankful because it was cold as a block of ice that night because hopefully, I wouldn’t have to go into too much detail.
I lit her cigarette and opened a beer, handing it to her as I opened the other for me. It was time to tell her the truth, and I wished it could have been under other circumstances, but I'd watched her all night and she'd been watching everyone in the room, especially Herb. There was no way to avoid it.
"Momma, I know you've noticed things tonight and I guess I need to tell you something. This isn't the time or place, but I don't think I have a choice anymore, so…" I took a deep breath.
She exhaled the smoke and turned to stare at me with a look of concern. "Colt, anything you've done, we'll figure it out, son. There's nothing…"
I took her hand and held it. "Momma, on Halloween night I went out with Lance. We got dinner, played a little pool, and when we went our separate ways that night I went back to my dorm. Nick wasn’t there because he was in Georgia. His boyfriend was injured at practice so Nick went to check on him.
"When I opened the door, I knew in my gut something wasn't right but I didn't think things through before I went in. Daddy would have been disappointed in me because of my carelessness but I thought I was safe."
I then skimmed over what happened, leaving out a lot of details. It was hard enough to tell her the truth, and hearing her crying as I gave her information including what happened earlier that day when I went to talk to Herb had me a crying mess by the time I was finished with my beer.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and a beer in front of me, so I turned to see Andre standing there with a tender smile on his face. He handed a beer and a cigarette to my mother, and then he produced tissues from his pocket, sitting down on the arm of the glider with his hand on my shoulder in loving support.
"Miss Chelle, are you okay?" Andre asked kindly.
"Now, you stop that. You better start calling me Momma. You're a part of our family, Andre, and I'll deal with you just as I deal with Colton," she told him between the tears. He walked to where she sat and knelt down so she could hug him tightly, and he hugged her back.
It had gone better than I expected, though I didn't know what I actually expected. My mother wasn't judgmental at all, but I was worried about telling her what had happened because she was a fiercely protective Momma Bear. I should have told her when it happened, but I didn't. I'd probably regret it for the rest of my life if it damaged my relationship with my mother in any way.
Chapter Thirty
Kama Sutra
"Love you," I told my mother as we stood by the front door after breakfast. Andre and I were heading back to school, and I was anxious to get back to some sort of a routine.
After everyone had left the night before, Mom made Herb stay to talk to her. He'd already tracked down the town in Mississippi…Vicksburg…where Jamie Turner's parents still lived, and he'd put in a call to the chief-of-police down there because when he ran Turner's name through NCIC, whatever the fuck that was, there were a couple of hits. Because Turner had been a juvenile offender, Herb couldn't get any more information, but the fact the guy was in the system was a red flag, apparently.
&n
bsp; The other fucker, Kamal DuBois didn't have a record but Herb was able to track him to Tallulah, Louisiana. He’d also put in a call to the chief-of-police there, but again, he hadn't received a return call.
"Stop at the station and sign that waiver so I can keep after Herb about this, and here," she stated as she shoved something in my hand while Andre and Nick loaded the car. Since I was over eighteen, I had to give written permission for my mother to have any information regarding the investigation. Maybe it was a cop out for me to leave it to her to do the checking-in with Herb, but I felt like, for my own sanity, maybe it was the best thing to do.
I looked down at the paper in my hands and saw it was a check for a thousand dollars. "Momma, you can't afford…"
"Stop it right now, Colton Josiah. I won't have my son running through the streets without a dollar in his pocket, you hear me? You ever get low on money again and don't call me, well there'll be hell to pay, you understand me, boy? Now, gimme a kiss and get on out of here." I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, hugging her tightly. I had the saints to thank for being blessed with that woman for my mother.
I shoved the check in my pocket and grabbed my laundry bag to go to the car. Just as I tossed it in the back, Momma yelled, "Colt, I better see that check clear this week, ya hear?"
Nick was giggling at her chastisement, so I discreetly flipped him off and climbed into the car on the passenger side. Andre waved to her again, and we got on our way. After stopping at the station where I ran in and signed the paper for Herb, we got back on the road for the long drive back to school.
On the way to Vancouver to collect Brad, I turned to the back seat to see Nick was asleep, having stayed up for hours on the phone with Damon the previous night. Andre and I went straight to bed after Herb left, and unfortunately, nothing happened except a quick, chaste kiss goodnight when we got to my room.
Swim Coach: A Novel Page 25
