Due Process (Joe Dillard #9)(5)

“So she has mental issues? Has she been committed?”

“A couple of times, both involuntary and short term. I don’t have official confirmation of that, no records. Just going by what my guy in Carter County told me.”

“And who is your guy?”

“I talked to the Chief Deputy of the Sheriff’s Department. Name’s Clinton Drake. Known him a long time. Good guy.”

“Yeah, I know Drake,” Riddle said. “Does this woman have a criminal record?”

“Minor stuff. Drug and alcohol related. She’s on probation for a possession charge right now, plus she has one D.U.I. and two public intoxication charges. Drake said she came up really rough. Sexual abuse by her father. Mother wouldn’t intervene. She was removed from her home when she was fourteen and the father went to prison, but then she was raped by a foster father and a foster brother. The foster father went to prison. The brother went to juvy.”

“Good God,” Riddle said. “She must be the personification of jail bait.”

“She’s good looking. I spent a couple of hours talking to her. She’s been a stripper since she was eighteen and has done some hooking through the escort service. She has two young kids but no man. What’s weird is that she managed to earn an associate’s degree from a junior college and is enrolled at ETSU part-time.”

“What is she majoring in?” Riddle said.

“Psychology. I guess she’s trying to figure some things out.”

“Who’s doing the rape kit?” Riddle asked.

“A nurse named Franklin and a doctor named Bosco. Don’t know either one of them, and they don’t seem too friendly. So how about getting here as soon as possible and helping me out? I don’t want this woman to get away. She might be nuts, but she might have been raped. If she was, I want whoever raped her held accountable.”

“I’ll call Judge Murphy and go by his house. We need an order for a blood draw that we can send to an independent lab for Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault analysis,” Riddle said. “The TBI isn’t set up for that kind of test. I’m sure they’ve done a tox screen, but from what you’ve told me, that might not be enough. We’re going to need to know exactly what was in her system and how much.”

“I already did that,” James said. “I did it as soon as I brought her in and they started the exam. I didn’t go to Murphy, though. I woke up Judge Tinker. He’ll sign anything and he’s friendlier than Murphy. I figured we’d need the blood before so much time passed they couldn’t get a reliable result from the test. They drew the blood about 2:30 a.m., two-and-a-half hours after this alleged party.”

“Well, aren’t you just an up and comer?” Riddle said. “Nice work. I can be there in about thirty minutes, but don’t get too close to me because I’m not gonna take a shower.”

Riddle arrived at the emergency room exactly thirty minutes after he hung up the phone.

“Morning,” Tonya James said. She introduced Riddle to Sheila Self, who was sitting in a chair wearing a paper gown covered by blankets. Riddle was immediately struck by how pretty she was, although it was a rough kind of pretty. He guessed she was quite a bit younger than she looked. Still, she had long, striking red hair and clear, blue eyes, cream-colored skin and full, sensuous lips.

“I’m going to talk to Officer James out in the hall for a minute, Miss Self,” Riddle said. “I’ll be right back. Just sit tight.”

“What do the nurse and doc say?” Riddle said when he and James were outside.

“The nurse told me the vic had definitely been involved in sexual activity. There was some swelling of the vagina and a couple of bruises, but the bruises were minor. No cuts, no tearing of the vagina or anus. She obviously didn’t fight them, or at least she didn’t fight them hard, and they didn’t beat her. The rape examiners got a bunch of hairs and fibers and she had sperm in her, so there will be DNA.”

“What did the nurse say about rape?”

“She said it was possible.”

“Possible? Is that a strong possible? A probable? Or anything is possible?”

James shook her head. “I pressed her, but that’s as far as she’d go.”

“What about the doctor?”

“He left at six. The nurse said he’d tell me the same thing, though. Based on their observations, the swelling, the sperm, the bruising, and the victim’s account, it’s possible that a rape occurred.”

“Talk to the vic any more about descriptions, who the perps might have been?”

“She said somebody gave her a drink when she got there and it must have had something in it. She said she doesn’t remember much after the drink. I asked her to sign a consent form so we could get a copy of her tox screen and see what kind of drugs or how much alcohol she had in her when I brought her in, but she wouldn’t sign it.”

“Doesn’t really matter if we got blood for the DFSA,” Riddle said, “but I think I can get a look at it anyway.”

“How’s that?”

“I’ve been at this a long time, James. I have friends in low places.”

James shrugged.

“She’s not a suspect in a crime unless maybe it’s for filing a false report, so I guess there’s no harm in you going around the rules. It isn’t like we’re going to use the results against her in court.”