“Sperry,” she shouted.
“Miss Sperry, you can’t mean what you’re saying.”
“I mean every word of it.”
“You got things mixed up.”
“Neal, Hutch, and Lamar abducted me from my girl friend’s car, took me to that remote spot, and all three of them raped me. After that, they left me there.” She jumped to her feet. “Why are you just sitting there looking stupid? Find out about Donna Dee! Go after those boys! Put them in handcuffs! Take them to jail!”
“Miss Sperry.” The doctor took her arm. He guided her back dow
n to the sofa and signaled for the nurse. “Maybe you’d better bring her a Valium.”
“I won’t take it,” Jade snapped, shaking off his arm. To the deputy she said, “If you’re incapable of apprehending three criminals, call somebody who can.”
“Shit, lady. You just named my boss’s kid as a rapist.”
“That’s right. Hutch went second. He was the roughest. And the biggest. He nearly smothered me.” She didn’t realize she was clenching her hands so tightly, until they began to hurt. She glanced down at them and saw four half-moons gouged into her abraded palms.
“You’d better call the sheriff,” the doctor told the deputy.
“Christ almighty,” he said as he reluctantly stood up. He dragged his hand down his youthful, pudgy face. “I ain’t looking forward to this, a’tall. The shit’s going to hit the fan when I tell Sheriff Jolly that his and Ivan Patchett’s boy have been accused of rape.”
* * *
An hour later, Jade sat alone in the interrogation room. It smelled of stale tobacco smoke and anxious sweat. The deputy had driven her straight from the hospital to the courthouse and deposited her in the cubicle as though washing his hands of the whole nasty affair.
Jade was certain that before it was over with, things were going to get nastier. The legal ramifications were overwhelming, but they were diminished by the personal affronts she would have to endure. How would she tell Gary?
She couldn’t think about that now or she would go crazy. She had to deal with the here and now—Donna Dee, for instance. Jade was concerned for her safety. It was conceivable that after the boys left her, they had gone back and done the same thing to Donna Dee. Perhaps that had been Neal’s plan—to separate them and render them virtually helpless. Donna Dee could be severely hurt, lying unconscious somewhere along the highway. Even dead.
Her anxious thoughts were interrupted when Sheriff Fritz Jolly entered the room. Instead of his uniform, he was wearing blue jeans and a flannel pajama top beneath a camouflage hunting vest. Obviously he had been roused from his bed. Rust-colored whiskers sprouted from his chin and cheeks.
“Evenin’, Jade.”
“Hello, Sheriff Jolly.”
She frequently sold him chewing tobacco at the store. They were always friendly with each other. Now, he lowered his large, imposing frame into the chair across from hers and folded his hands on the scarred table between them. “I understand you got into some trouble tonight.”
“I didn’t get into trouble, Sheriff Jolly.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Can I wait until my mother gets here?” She didn’t want to have to tell her story more than once. “The doctor at the hospital promised to call her and tell her to meet me here.” The deputy hadn’t given Jade time to place the call herself.
“Velta’s already in the squad room, chomping at the bit,” he said. “But I’d like to hear what you’ve got to say before we bring her in.”
“Why was I put in this interrogation room?”
“ ’Cause it’s convenient and private.”
She gazed at him mistrustfully. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No one said you did. What happened?”
He won their staring contest. Jade glanced down at her tightly clasped hands and took a deep breath. “Neal, Lamar, and Hutch came up on Donna Dee and me where we had run out of gas. They took me away in Neal’s car against my will. They drove to a place where they had been drinking beer and fishing earlier this afternoon and they…” She raised her head and met his eyes. “They took turns raping me.”
He stared at her for several long moments but said nothing.