Page 5 of A Constant Reminder
Chapter 4 – Sam
The two cops entered the room and introduced themselves as Detectives Macintosh and Brown. They seemed nice enough, but in the past law-enforcement hadn’t proven super helpful for me, so I had my doubts. I tried not to hold it against the men standing across the room from me though. After all, it wasn’t their fault the cops in my small town could be easily bought off.
“Miss Flemming, can you walk us through exactly what happened?”
Although everything wasn’t one hundred percent clear, most of my memory had come back. Even my panic attack in the back of the ambulance came screaming back full force. The slew of drugs the doctors had me on seemed to give me a perpetual state of calm though…which I was grateful for. I didn’t know if I could have made it the next few minutes without them.
“I got home from dinner with Tyler’s parents, and I saw the flowers sitting on the counter. Everything seemed normal until I noticed the flowers were destroyed, and WHORE was written on the card.
“I heard footsteps behind me, and he said hello calling me by name.”
“Do you know who it was, Miss?”
I nodded. “His name is James Sinclair. He lives in a small town called Armstrong in Kansas…or he did.I don’t know where he actually lives now.”
“And you saw his face?” Macintosh said while scribbling some notes.
“He had a mask on, but I know it was him,” I said firmly.
The detective stopped writing. “How are you so sure it was him?”
“Because the asshole has done this before!” Tyler interjected.
I took his hand in mind and squeezed giving him a silent plea to please calm down.
“Is that true, Miss?”
I nodded. “Yes. About four years ago back in Kansas. We dated. It ended badly, and he beat me up and raped me with a couple of his friends.”
They looked shocked by how matter of fact I was about the whole situation, but I had told this story to police enough to not have it affect me much.
“Did you file a report?”
“Yes. But I was told there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward. He was the mayor’s son, so the investigation didn’t get a lot of traction from the start.”
The men exchanged a quick glance before turning their attention back to me.
“Can you tell us what happened after you realized he was in the house?”
Taking a deep breath, I continued to tell my story. “I heard his footsteps and his voice, but before I could turn around or run, he hit me over the head with a metal bat. At least I think it was a bat. After he hit me, my vision was a bit fuzzy.
“I fell down, grabbing my head. When I lifted my arm is when he hit me again.” I glanced at my brace. “Guessing he did some damage.”
I paused for a moment attempting to find my words, but the cops spoke first.
“Did he sexually assault you?”
“He tried….but let’s just say he couldn’t rise to the occasion. He said it was because I was a dirty whore. He tried shoving it in my mouth, but I resisted…until he smacked me with the pipe again. And then he kicked me…down there. He said that he couldn’t fuck me because I was just too dirty, but he’d use the bat to teach me a lesson.”
I saw Tyler’s face go stark white, and his hand became a vice around mine squeezing until his knuckles went white.
“But before he could go any further with the bat, we heard keys in the front door, and he ran out the back. I blacked out after that.”
Tyler spoke again. “That was our housekeeper Jacinda Guarez. She left her phone in the house earlier in the day and was going back to get it when she found Sam. Thank God she forgot her phone,” he said while rubbing my hand.
“Do you have her name and phone number? We’d like to speak with her to see if she can give us any details?”
Tyler quickly stood up and pulled his phone giving them all the information they’d asked for.