“No, I’m sorry, she didn’t. Three?”
“Three.”
“Did all three achieve penetration?”
Her lower lip began to tremble. She caught it between her teeth. “Yes.”
“You’re certain?”
“Yes!”
“Did all three ejaculate?”
She was almost sick again. Swallowing another mouthful of bitter bile, she croaked, “Yes.”
“Are you sure, Ms. Sperry?” he asked skeptically. “I mean, if you were a virgin, you might not be able to tell.”
She glared at him but couldn’t muster the energy to maintain the outrage for long. Her shoulders slumped forward in defeat. “They all three… did that.”
He let the cover fall back over the chart and repocketed his pen. Poking his head around the curtain, he called for the nurse to assist him. She helped Jade to lie down, then guided her feet into frigid metal stirrups. The doctor worked his hands into a pair of rubber gloves, snapping them at his wrists. He sat down on a low stool at the end of the examination table and adjusted a blindingly bright light. He touched her bruised thighs and spread them wider. She made a small sound of protest.
“I warned you this would be uncomfortable, Ms. Sperry. I’ll try not to hurt you.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes where he looked up at her from between her thighs. Instead she pinched her eyes shut as she felt him insert something hard, cold, and intrusive into her. She gripped the edges of the padded table.
“Try to relax. You did the right thing, you know. It’s good that you didn’t run home and shower before coming here.”
She couldn’t carry on a conversation, not while she was so thoroughly exposed to him and the nurse. Her skin was cold and clammy to the touch, but a red tide of embarrassment had heated her veins. Her head was pounding, and she could feel each heartbeat strike her eardrums.
“Do you think you can identify the men?”
“Oh, yes. I can identify them.”
“Well, that’s good, at least. They’ll pay for it. That is, if you don’t lose your nerve and drop the charges before the case comes to trial.”
“I won’t lose my nerve,” she vowed, her jaw clenched and set.
“There, I’m finished. Except for the public hair. Not all of it is yours. I’ll just collect some here. It’ll go to the lab, too.”
Jade cringed and kept her eyes tightly shut until she felt the nurse lowering her feet from the stirrups, helping her to sit up. The doctor cleaned beneath her fingernails with an orangewood stick, then peeled off his gloves and dropped them into a trash bin.
“Just stand there in front of the curtain,” he said to Jade as he reached for a Polaroid camera. He instructed the nurse to help her adjust the gown.
For the next several minutes, she was photographed front and back. She was never completely naked, but she might as well have been. He took pictures of her face, her shoulders, breasts, belly, thighs, buttocks, any place where there was a scratch or a bruise. There weren’t many. Neal had been careful about that.
“What about those scratches on your arms and knees?”
She shook her head. “I got those later, crawling along the highway.”
“Okay. I’ll fill out my report and get this stuff to the lab. There won’t be anybody there at this time of night, but they can get on it first thing in the morning. The nurse will take you to a shower. We’ll give you a set of OR scrubs to put on. Your clothes will go to the lab, too.”
Jade nodded. “Thank you.”
He bustled out, taking the laboratory evidence with him.
“Come with me, honey.” The nurse pulled back the curtain and moved toward the door.
Jade hesitated, self-consciously tugging on the brief gown. “Like this? It barely covers my bottom.”