Chapter 2
Judson stayed with her all night, holding her hand and making sure that she was warm after the exploratory surgery to repair the damage that had been done by the attack. He had called his parents and told them what had happened and they told him to stay by her side. It didn’t matter to him. He would’ve done it anyway. He watched her sleep like an angel and then he laid his head on her stomach, as a form of solidarity.
A couple of hours later and Samantha roused from her slumber to see that Judson had not left her side. She saw the figure of a police officer by her door, but she had no idea why they were there. It came to her in a burst of memory the way that she had been attacked and left for dead. “I don’t know exactly what happened and why I was the target. I don’t like hospitals and the sooner that I get out of here, the better off everybody will be. I’m just going to become a nuisance and a pain in the ass. I remember how it was when I went to get my tonsils out. They were pushing me out the door after the second day because of my attitude. I was worried about catching something and not leaving here under my own free will. My grandmother went in for a common surgery that had turned out to have complications in the operating room.”
Samantha sat up and looked at the prone form of Judson lying on top of her. She actually had to smile at the bit of drool that was falling from his mouth and onto the sheet. He looked peaceful, but underneath it all he was still that callous kid that thought that the world owed him something. The universe had a funny sense of humor and why it decided that she had to get stabbed was beyond her.
The door opened and that same police officer in a crisp blue uniform had stuck his head in to give a noncommittal smile. He indicated with his hand that he needed some kind of statement, but it could wait, until such time that she didn’t have the company of a male companion. She motioned for him to come closer and took the pad and the pen out of him grip. She told him without saying anything that she was going to write down her recollections to the best of her ability. He backed away holding onto his hip and moving back into position at the front of the door, as some sort of shield against anything else that was going to try to harm her.
It was still fresh in her mind and she scribbled madly, until she had five pages that were pretty much saying the same thing on the first page. She was trying to be, as detailed as possible, using her journalism training to come to the rescue. “I know how important it is to get these things down, while they are still fresh in the mind. I have seen my fair share of police dramas to know that the first 24 hours is the most important to finding the attacker. Then again, maybe that’s when somebody is kidnapped. I suppose it really doesn’t matter and as long as I make my statement quickly, I can try to put this past me.”
Judson started to wake, as the door closed and he looked up to see that Samantha was awake and writing something on a note pad. He was about to interject his own thoughts, but the exhaustion of the night had crept up on him. His eyes felt heavy and then they closed with no more fanfare than a flutter of his lids.
An hour later and he felt somebody shaking him awake and then he looked to see that the staff had now come to change her dressing. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. This is not for the faint of heart and I really don’t want to clean up after you, if you know what I mean.” Nurses Able was vividly aware that something like this took a strong stomach and most people just didn’t have it in them. There were only a few cases that surprised her, but this young man showed that he probably wasn’t going to be able to take the sight of the wound being exposed. “We won’t be more than a minute. You can stand outside in the hallway with police officer. They have some more questions for you anyway.” In his exhausted state, he saw that Samantha was looking at him, but he didn’t have the strength to utter a single word.
Walking on shaky legs, he opened the door to the hallway to be accosted by two detectives that were waiting patiently to talk to the patient. The door got caught on a piece of fabric from the curtain surrounding her cubicle. This made it easy to hear everything that was being said between the officers and Judson.
“I’m afraid that we have some distressing news. We’ve gone over the details of what you said and what Miss Maxwell said and we believe that she was purposely attacked. Do you know of any enemies that she might have that would want to do her harm? Is there more to your story than you have been straight with us about? I hate to put you on the spot, but this is important. We’ve gone over the scene with a fine tooth comb and the attacker did not leave any prints or even the weapon behind to indicate that this was the spur of the moment. We believe that it was a calculated attack and that somebody was purposely trying to hurt her. We also found your letters and let’s just say that they were a bit disturbing to say the least.”
“Officer, I really don’t know what you want me to say. I get death threats all the time and it comes with the territory with being an athlete like myself.” He didn’t want to be pompous, but he also wanted them to know that he was somewhat of a big deal. “I really don’t take those things seriously and sometimes I have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.” He felt like a celebrity and he was going to milk it for all that it was worth.
To distract her from the nurses working on her fresh bandages, she used a certain technique to block out any kind of distraction. It allowed her to hear every word. It was possible that the attacker had come after her precisely for the reason of getting even with Judson. It could be a disgruntled ex girlfriend or lover or maybe even a boyfriend or brother of one of those lovers that didn’t take kindly that she was used, as a piece of discarded tissue paper. “I couldn’t possibly fathom any reason why somebody would have it out for me. I don’t think that I have rubbed anybody the wrong way and I’m usually one to stay under the radar, as much as possible. I don’t want to be in the limelight and having a boyfriend will only keep me from the path that I want to be on. I may be unable to commit and some of the boys that I’ve gone out with in the past didn’t take that very well sometimes. I’ve even had a couple that actually cried and I felt sorry for them for a second, but I knew that I was doing the right thing about cutting them loose. They were clingy and I really didn’t need the hassle or the drama of holding their hand and telling them that I would stay with them, despite the fact that I didn’t feel anything more than a friendship.”
“I’m surprised that you didn’t scream or thrash about like a fish out of water. You’re not even on that many pain medications and I believe that you are on the road to a rapid recovery. The Dr. will be in, but I don’t see any reason why they won’t be able to discharge you by the weekend. I’m sure that they will want to monitor you for the first couple of days, but the knife went in clean and out the same way. You should count yourself lucky that the attacker moved on quickly and didn’t stay around to finish the job.” Nurse Able had never had a more cooperative patient. It was almost like she wasn’t even there. It made her job easier to get done and out of the room and onto the next one that was begging for her attention.
Samantha wasn’t really paying attention to what the nurse said. The most that she got was that the wound was not, as serious as they once thought. The surgery went well and she might have to walk gingerly for a while, but for the most part she was going to come out of it the same person that she was before the attack. “I commend the nurses and doctors for working in my best interest. They don’t get enough credit and I think that it’s high time that somebody praise them for their efforts. I’m going to make it my mission to sit down with one of the local papers and give them a story that has a bit of meat on the bone. The main purpose will be to give these nurses and doctors the accolades that they so rightly deserve. In the meantime, I can also use that, as a platform to reach out to the attacker and make them realize that I wasn’t going anywhere. I can only hope that will be enough to draw him out. I don’t want to use myself as bait. I’m sure that the police and even Judson would beg me to reconsider.”
“Mr. Nielsen, we know all about your exploits on the field and off. My daughter was one that…you slept with. Let’s just say that I tell myself that I’m one of the lucky ones that don’t hold a grudge. There are others that feel differently and I’ve heard some disgruntled voices in various bars that have directed their comments directly at you. I would be careful about stepping on toes and you never know when somebody is going to step back. There’s one person in particular that we think might be the culprit for all of this. He’s an old teammate and a brother of one of the girls. He has been very vocal about his displeasure He threatened your life more than one time. We’re going to have to bring him down to the station and have a discussion with him. Under the hot lights, we might be able to even get a confession and put this one to bed, as quickly as possible. We know that it’s not going to be easy and that you have a tendency to make enemies wherever you go.”
“I don’t think that that’s true. It’s not against the law to sleep with women and I have a healthy obsession for anything that attracts my eye. It shouldn’t come, as any big surprise that they want me and will do practically anything to have me. I’ve had girls show up in my locker room in the shower completely naked and soaping themselves up in front of me. What is a man to do when he is accosted in that way? I become powerless and it’s not like they don’t know about my reputation. Some even think that they can change me, but I’m not about to think of them, as a long-term commitment. I want a little bit more substance than some bimbo with nothing between the ears.” Judson didn’t mean to make it sound like he didn’t care about any of them, but mostly they were a way to make the time go a little bit quicker.
“Believe me, I understand your predicament, but we would like you to rack your brain and come up with some suspects. We don’t know what’s going on in your head and maybe if you put down some of those thoughts on paper we might be able to make heads or tails out of any of this.” Officer Cameron really didn’t like Judson, but he also knew that women could be emotional at the best of times. His daughter was not immune to feeling that sense of rejection. He didn’t like seeing her cry and there were times that he wanted to go by Judson’s house and give him a reminder that people had feelings.
Samantha was able to listen, concentrating on the voices outside the door and not on the various stimuli all around her. The noise of the air conditioner or the beeping of the machines beside her was secondary to the conversation that she was overhearing. It was one of her gifts that she utilized any time that she was put on to a story. Most assignments that she had were trivial. This one was something that she could seriously sink her teeth into, even though she was the main subject on the byline. “They might be on to something. I warned Judson that his actions could come back and find a way to hurt him. I had no idea that they would come after somebody like me. They must’ve been in a position to see me satisfy his otherwise carnal craving for my mouth on top of him. They took that, as a license to do something about it. Instead of standing up to the true enemy, they decided to make me suffer for no good reason other than I was stupid enough to fall for his lame come ons.”