Crimson Innocence Part 2

“Yep, she was definitely raped but there was no semen found, the perp obviously wore a condom,” Li said as Jamie and Mark stood in front of the observation window of the interrogation room of the police station.
“That’s no help,” Jamie said almost giving up.
“But... at least she is ready to tell us what happened, that shows that she’s accepting her mother’s death and she’s reasonable. She’s the total victim, she’ll be as cooperative as possible,” Li assured Jamie.
“Okay, let’s go in,” Mark said pulling Jamie by the arm to the door of the interrogation room.
“Good luck,” Kellman said as Li opened the door for Jamie and Mark.
The three went into the interrogation room. Jamie and Mark sat in the chairs on the opposite side of the table from Rebecca and Li stood further away near the corner holding the case file.
“Hi Rebecca, we met before, I’m Detective Stanton, you can call me Jamie if you want, this is my partner Detective Greene and that’s the station’s psychiatrist Dr. Li,” Jamie said trying her best to be friendly. “Is it okay if he stays in the room while we talk?” Rebecca nodded, smiling politely at Li as he returned the friendly gesture. Jamie turned to nod at Li and turned back to Rebecca, “So Rebecca can you tell us what happened Monday morning?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said in a quiet, modest voice. “I woke up that morning and went out to the store like my mother had told me. When I came back my mother had gone back to sleep, she gets tired fast,” she explained quickly, “and I decided to take a shower before she woke up again. So I got everything together for my shower and I had the phone on the edge of the kitchen table just in case someone calls so that I could catch it before it could wake my mother up, she gets angry when she’s disturbed,” she looked at the table sadly. “I was in the middle of my shower when I heard something at the back door. I had been outside on the back porch watching the birds in the tree across the alley from us before the shower so I had left the back door open with the screen door locked.
“I heard the back door open and then someone walking around the kitchen. I stepped out of the shower to see who it was, I held on to the soap rack for support, so I wouldn’t fall,” Rebecca gestured with her hands how she held onto the soap rack, “And I leaned out to see into the kitchen and I,” she looked at her hands now back down in her lap, “I saw him, he saw me and he came at me, I screamed but he just yanked me from the tub and everything on the soap rack just fell and burst open on the floor. I slipped and fell backwards, I don’t know why, but he stormed out of the bathroom towards the front room. I heard my mother’s voice, and then there was something like a yelp. I tried to close and lock the bathroom door but I could barely move, I had fallen on my back and it really hurt, I couldn’t breathe.
“So when I finally got up to close the door, he came back, he grabbed me and picked me up. I fought him but I couldn’t handle him, he slammed my face into the sink and threw my head into the tub,” Rebecca started to cry and Jamie considered letting her stop and take a break but she started again before Jamie could stop her. “He kept hitting me in the face until I just stopped fighting. He stuck his hands,” she sobbed gently, “he stuck his hands between my thighs to pry them apart, no matter how hard I fought,” Rebecca started to cry, “and then he, he raped me. I don’t remember it much because I blacked out.” Rebecca shook her head, “that’s all I remember until I woke up and I was alone, I pulled myself into the kitchen to the phone and called the police.”
“That’s good Rebecca, that’s good enough,” Jamie placed her hand over Rebecca’s. Rebecca looked up at Jamie and gave her a thankful, polite smile. Jamie looked deep into Rebecca’s tearful but empty eyes and she could see the hurt.
“So Rebecca,” Mark started, “you saw the intruder’s face?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said quietly breaking eye contact with Jamie and pulling her hand back into her lap.
“Did you recognize him, was he someone you know?” Mark asked eager, but sympathetically.
“Yes,” Rebecca nodded gently, “he’s usually around the bus stop in front of the record store across the street from the Walgreen’s on the corner down the street from our house. He’s about 28 or 29, he has black hair and he keeps his hair cut short. He’s around 5’11, 210 lbs, dark skinned, brown eyes, and always wears a navy blue or black hooded sweatshirt with jeans.”
Jamie’s eyes lit up with hope and she turned to the two way mirror in the wall to her and Mark’s left, to Kellman and the uniformed officer waiting on standby and gave them the signal to go. Jamie looked back to Rebecca as she knew the officer was gathering back up and heading to the very spot Rebecca had described.
“Rebecca, do you have any idea why he would do something like this?” Mark asked.
“He looks at me, every time I’m at the bus stop, he looks at me smiling,” Rebecca looked around the room not meeting Jamie’s eyes.
“Have you ever spoken to him?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, all the time, he’ll say something to me, and I’ll say something back just to be polite. But he’ll ask me for my phone number, or if he could come over my house, or if we could go out sometime or something. I always say no but that doesn’t stop him, he keeps talking and the question comes up again,” Rebecca shook her head at the floor, but then looked up at Jamie, “sometimes when I’m coming from the store he’ll try to help me with my bags, or if I’m getting off the bus, he’ll follow me home, still asking if we could hang out or something.”
Jamie took both Rebecca’s hands in hers and looked her deep in her eyes, “We are going to catch him and we are going to put him away so he can never hurt you again.”
Rebecca smiled and embraced Jamie’s hands, “Thank you.”
Kellman opened the door and stuck his head in, “Um, detectives can I have a word with you?”
Jamie gave Rebecca a reassuring smile and followed, Mark and Li out to the hall. Jamie closed the door behind her, “So, have we found him yet?” she asked eagerly.
Kellman shook his head, “No but we’re still looking.” He turned to Dr. Li, “How are we doing in there?”
“Just fine,” Li smiled and looked through the two way mirror at Rebecca as she stared at the table and then at the mirror directly at him. “But I would like to have a private talk with her, she seems very complex behind that sad smile. You can tell she’s very shaken by what happened and her mother’s death, but there’s something about her that I would like to pursue, there’s pain in her eyes.”
“Okay, Li you can have your private session with her now, Stanton, Greene, you should take one more sweep over the crime scene before they clean out,” Kellman directed, “okay, break.”
“Wait,” Jamie said quickly just as Kellman turned to leave, “doesn’t she have any family that can be here with her, I haven’t seen anyone with her since we brought her to the hospital.”
Kellman gave a sad sigh, “No, we can’t find anybody, she’s an only child, we can’t find any other relatives, if any we can’t contact them.”
“So what now?” Jamie asked sadly, already knowing the answer.
“Well, now, she gets put into the system,” Kellman said sadly.

“Nope,” Dave said leading Mark and Jamie around the crime scene again, “nothing new.” He walked them to the back door, “And there is no sign of forced entry, although with these weak doors...” Dave locked the screen door then stepped outside on the porch and closed it, with one hard pull the door yanked open, “you can open them too easily.”
“Yeah,” Mark said shortly.
“Now, with daughter’s story, everything comes together,” Dave started to walk down the back stairs down to the back walkway. Mark and Jamie followed Dave down to the backyard, “But we haven’t been able to find any evidence on the bat.”
“What do you mean?” Mark asked.
“Well, there’s no traces of blood or hair, right now I’m not even sure this is the right bat,” Dave said desperately.
“Wow,” Mark thought for a moment. “What could have kept blood from getting on the bat?”
Jamie went over to the bat in its evidence bag sitting on a table on the grass. She picked it up smiled and waved the plastic evidence bag at Mark and Dave.
The men smiled. Dave smacked his head with his hand and took the plastic covered bat out of Jamie’s hands, “Of course, I can’t believe we didn’t think of that.” He turned to a member of his team looking intensely at a clipboard and waved the bat at him, “Hey Jeff, turns out plastic makes perfect.” Mark and Jamie gave each other condescending smiles. Dave turned back to the detectives, “So, do you have a time frame for any of this?” he asked them.
“Well,” Mark started.
“The only witness, Mrs. Mills the woman who lives under Rebecca,” Jamie gestured to the downstairs’ apartment’s backdoor, “is disillusioned, so...”
“We don’t really have a time,” Mark said tiredly.
Jamie looked on the side of the house at the walkway going to the front of the building, “What are these?” Jamie pointed to muddy smudges on the cement walkway, she had seen the same marks on the carpet of the living room in front of the apartment’s front door, “They come from the lower backstairs there,” she pointed back at the last three steps from Mrs. Mills’ back porch.
“Those are shoe prints from the mud,” Dave explained as Mark took a closer look.
“Whose are they?” Mark said squatting to see the prints better.
“We matched them to Rebecca’s gym shoes in her room,” Dave explained shrugging, “they must be from earlier that day, or the day before. Some of the people on my team talked to some of the people around the neighborhood, you know at the stores and restaurants when they’re getting lunch or something, the folks’ll ask about the girl, they’re really worried about her, she must be a great girl.”
“Yeah, everybody loves her,” Jamie sad looking down sadly.
“We hear nothing but great things about her from everybody,” Mark added crossing his arms over his chest.
Dave nodded, “Wow, how is she?”
“Oh, much better, the hospital released her, we’re still looking for relatives,” Jamie said optimistically.
“Yeah, well I hope she gets better real quick,” Dave said as a young woman from his team brought him a clipboard that demanded his attention.
“We’ll check in later,” Mark said following Jamie to the front of the house.
“Yeah, uh huh,” Dave called after him distractedly.

“So have we caught the intruder yet?” Jamie asked Kellman as they waited in front of the interrogation room two way mirror where Li was talking to Rebecca.
“Yeah, we got a guy that matches her description perfectly,” Kellman said with a small, yet rare smirk, “I guess we solved this one.”
Jamie let out all of the tension and frustration that had built up since Monday, go with one long sigh, “Yeah.”
After a few minutes Li came out of the interrogation room and out to Jamie, Kellman and Mark in the observation room. “Well, she seems eerily stable. But there’s still something behind her eyes I can’t quite make out, it’s kind of a willingness.”
“Willingness?” Mark asked seeking more of an explanation.
“Yes, a will to sacrifice and survive, it’s most likely coming from her mother’s loss. Her mother died from practically the same brutal attack she had, but unlike her mother, she survived. Now she just has to learn to cope and get along with the fact that she’s still here without her mother,” Li explained.
“Everyone we talked to always said how sweet she is and how her mother worked her,” Jamie said looking through the mirror at Rebecca sitting with her hands folded on top of the interrogation table.
“Her passiveness and acceptance to orders shows that she’s accustomed to authority and by now that’s the only way she can live, with someone telling her what to do all the time. That was her way of being close to her mother, that was her mother’s affection to her,” Li elaborated.
“By bossing her around?” Jamie said disgusted.
“Well, yeah,” Li said hopelessly.
“That’s not all,” Kellman said as a uniformed police officer handed him a folder full of medical records.
“What’s that?” Mark asked looking at the folder in Kellman’s hands.
“Medical records from times before when Rebecca’s mother would take her to the hospital and from Rebecca’s school nurse,” Kellman leafed through the pages of the folder, “seems mom showed Rebecca affection in many ways,” he handed Jamie the folder.
Jamie looked at the photos and summaries, “Bruises? Her mother beat her?” she let Li and Mark see the pictures.
“Looks like it,” Kellman said sadly.
“Well...” Li said knowingly, “that could be the reason why she’s so humble and self conscious. It all makes sense now, maybe... well no, I’m sure it isn’t.”
“What?” Jamie asked curiously.
“Well maybe, the intruder did actually really care about Rebecca but then found out her mother was abusing her and decided to save her. That could certainly be why he attacked her so fiercely,” Li said holding back slightly.
Jamie looked at Mark, “Daniel, the dollar store clerk.” Kellman nodded in agreement but before he could give the order to get Daniel, Mark interrupted him.
“But then why would he rape her?” Mark figured.
“That’s the problem I came to,” Li shrugged, “I thought maybe the will in her eyes was to keep a secret, maybe to keep Daniel safe.”
“Right, I didn’t think about that,” Jamie leaned on the wall helplessly. A uniformed officer peeked into the small room and gave Kellman a nod. “Well, at least we have the real murderer.”
“Yeah and the line ups ready for Rebecca,” he nodded at Jamie, “why don’t you bring her in the room to identify the guy.”
“Okay,” Jamie said as Mark, Li and Kellman left out into the hall. Jamie went into the interrogation room where Rebecca sat with her head in her arms on the table, “Rebecca.” Rebecca’s head shot up in surprise, “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Jamie said apologetically.
“Don’t be, it’s okay,” Rebecca said in a soft, quiet voice.
Jamie smiled sweetly, “They’re ready for you,” she extended her hand to the shaken girl. Rebecca looked up at her with a sweet smile Jamie seemed to recognize. As Rebecca took Jamie’s hand she led her to the line up room. Jamie put an arm around Rebecca’s shoulders, “Now remember Rebecca none of these men can see you so don’t be scared. Tell us what man attacked you.”
Rebecca looked at each man carefully then started to cry, “No, I can’t.” She shrunk away from Jamie and doubled over in sobs.
“Rebecca, no one can hurt now, we won’t let them,” Jamie tried, “please, let us help you, tell us which man hurt you.”
“No, I can’t do it,” Rebecca cried looking up at Jamie and searching her eyes for sympathy.
Li, Mark and Kellman came into the room and stood on the opposite wall. “Rebecca, we are here to protect you,” Jamie reassured her.
Rebecca looked at Jamie and wiped at her eyes, she straightened her shirt and nodded, “Yes, okay.”
Jamie smiled and put her arm back around Rebecca’s shoulders, “Okay Rebecca.”
Rebecca looked closely at each man, finally she said, “That one, number three.”
Jamie looked at Mark who showed the same look of confusion, Jamie looked back at Rebecca and asked in her best neutral voice, “Rebecca, are you sure?”
Rebecca nodded strongly, “Yes, I’m sure.” She looked up at Jamie with a confident half smile.
Jamie smiled as best she could, “Okay, now...” she pointed to the uniformed officer who had just entered the room, “This is officer Thompson, she’s going to take you back to the interrogation room, my partner, Detective Greene, and I will be there in a few minutes to take you back to the group home.” Rebecca smiled thankfully and left the room with Officer Thompson.
Mark waited until the door had shut completely before he pushed off the wall and walked over to Jamie who had dropped her face in her hands. “That’s not the guy they picked up yesterday,” he said to Jamie.
“I know,” Jamie said through her hands, thinking in despair.
Mark looked back at Dr. Li, “She wouldn’t lie would she?”
Li shrugged, “I don’t know, I don’t see why she would be protecting anyone, especially...” Jamie interrupted him.
“Wait,” she said quickly, “Didn’t it rain Monday?”
Mark looked at Kellman and Li and nodded, “Yeah, but briefly.”
“When?” Jamie said eagerly.
Mark looked at Li and Kellman confused and thought, “At about 12:30 for like five or ten minutes though.”
“And didn’t Dave say he found two different samples of blood in the tub drain? One from the mother, the other from Rebecca?” Jamie asked already knowing the answer.
“Uh, yeah,” Mark said carefully.
“Yeah, and Sonya said the person who swung the bat had a grudge, Mrs. Mills wasn’t wrong about the times,” Jamie started out the room angrily.
“Hey, Jamie, what’s wrong?” Mark called after her completely confused.
“Plastic makes perfect,” she called behind her. She tried to calm herself before she entered the interrogation room, when she opened the door Rebecca looked up from the he table. Jamie looked into her empty eyes without sympathy, “Rebecca, is there anything else you would like to tell us?”
Rebecca looked back at Jamie hardly confused, “Why? Is there something wrong?”
Jamie looked at her silently for a moment then walked over to the table and sat down across from Rebecca, “This is your last chance, is there anything you would like to tell me?”
Rebecca looked down at her hands in her lap and said weakly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jamie covered her eyes in disgust and let out an angry sigh, “Why?” Rebecca started to cry, Jamie looked up and saw the tears falling from her face, “Oh, don’t cry now.” Rebecca sniffled and looked up but avoided Jamie’s eyes. “I feel so stupid, I can’t believe I believed you,” Jamie said angrily.
Rebecca sobbed and looked back in her lap, “You don’t understand.”
“You killed your own mother, what don’t I understand?” Jamie almost shouted. “And you thought I was too dumb to figure it out!”
“No, I didn’t,” Rebecca cried.
“You almost had me fooled, but you screwed up with the line up,” Jamie got up from her chair and started to pace her side of the room thinking up the completion of the plan out loud. “But you know where you really messed up, I just thought about it. It rained Monday. You had all of this planned out so carefully, but you hadn’t expected that quick little pour of rain. Your mother was asleep, you dragged her out of her room and beat her to death with a baseball bat. You wrapped the bat in plastic so there would be no evidence on the bat, you used old shoes and gloves so you could throw them away and it wouldn’t look suspicious that you didn’t have shoes. Then you took the plastic from the bat washed it off in the tub and wrapped garbage in it so it wouldn’t look suspicious. You purposely ran down the back steps noisily so that Mrs. Mills would hear and tell the police later. Then, not thinking about how you messed up the timing, you changed into your own shoes on Mrs. Mills’ porch steps, then went down the street and dumped the gloves, bat and shoes in a random dumpster. When you came back to the apartment you had mud on your shoes and had tracked the walkway and the stairs up to the apartment but hadn’t noticed until you got in the living room and took off the shoes. You went in the bathroom and took a shower... but how did you get beat up?” She turned to Rebecca’s downward head thinking.
Rebecca looked up to see Jamie staring at her inquisitively and quickly looked away in shame. Jamie gasped in shock, “Oh my God, you did that to yourself, and you’ve been faking sad all this time,” she looked at Rebecca in disgust and walked over to the table, “you would do all that just to...”
“You don’t understand!” Rebecca shouted in a weak, shaky voice.
“HOW DO I NOT UNDERSTAND!” Jamie shouted back at her, “Make me understand, Rebecca, make me understand how you could brutally beat and murder your own mother...”
“You don’t know what she did to me!” Rebecca shouted in a much louder but still shaky voice. “It was self-defense, she was killing me, everyday, killing me more and more.” Rebecca cried openly and rapidly now. “What I had to go through everyday, and how no one knew. The loneliness, the sadness, it makes you think of all kinds of horrible things. The times when I thought I would go insane, and how I had to pretend none of it ever happened,” Rebecca spoke quietly, “how I hated her.” She shook her head and spoke louder, “The fierce, passionate hatred, it made me think so many things, sometimes when I laid in bed at night, not able to sleep because of the pain, I would put together little by little, little stories and fantasies of me, being away from her, and how great it would be.”
Jamie started to soften and relate to Rebecca’s built up anger and rage, she looked over at the two way mirror where she knew Li, Mark and Kellman were watching. Rebecca continued, “I would just start to have fantasies about watching her die, and then it turned into me killing her. I thought of so many ways I could do it without getting caught, but I had never considered ever actually doing it, I came home one day and just found myself doing it. It was just that one day I came home and when I went to tell her I was back, she was asleep,” Rebecca stopped crying and her eyes started to go vacant. “She just looked so peaceful, and I knew she shouldn’t be.” She looked up at Jamie desperately searching for sympathy, “She didn’t deserve peace,” Rebecca looked at the floor with a new rage in her eyes, “she deserved pain.”