Chapter 1: Aftermath
Chapter 1:
Luis watched the tiny drops of rain splash onto the windshield of the police car as he sat at a stoplight. He turned around and looked into the backseat. Sheridan was sleeping soundly with her head leaned up against the window. During most of the drive back to Harmony from the Crane cabin Sheridan had just stared out the window. She hadn’t said a word once Luis started driving and since she told Luis he couldn’t talk to her, the car had been filled with complete silence. About halfway back to Harmony she fell asleep and she was still sleeping when they pulled into the parking lot of the Harmony Police Department.
Luis turned the engine off sand just sat in the front seat watching Sheridan sleep. He thought back to when he found Sheridan on the floor of the cabin. It looked like she had been shot and Luis’ heart sank. When he saw that she hadn’t been shot and she was ok, all he wanted to do was hold her and never let go. But as usual they started to fight again. The last thing he wanted to do was fight with her but he couldn’t help it. He thought about her all the time and couldn’t keep himself from caring about her and it hurt to know that she hated him. When he would see her and want to hold her and kiss her he would get mad at himself and start to fight with her.
Luis snapped out of his thoughts and got out of the car. The rain had finally stopped but Luis could still smell it in the air. He opened Sheridan’s car door slowly to make sure she didn’t fall out. He picked her up and carried her into the station. She didn’t wake up so Luis carried her into one of the cells and laid her down on the bed. When he laid her down she moved around a little and let out a sigh. Luis covered her with a blanket and then went to find Sam.
“Hey Sam, I’m back,” Luis called out as he approached Sam’s desk.
“Glad to see you’re in one piece,” Sam said, “where’s Sheridan?”
“She fell asleep on the way back. Where’s Antoine?”
“He’s still at the hospital,” Sam answered, “as soon as their done patching him up they’ll bring him over here.”
Sheridan slowly opened her eyes as she began to wake up. The last thing she remembered was being in the car with Luis. She sat up on the bed and looked up and saw the bars.
“LUIS,” She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Luis jumped a little when he heard her scream his name. He turned and ran off towards the cell where he left her. She sat on the bed and glared at him as he ran up to the cell. “Are you ok?” Luis asked concerned.
“No I’m not ok, why would I be ok,” she yelled, “I can’t believe you are trying to lock me up again. As if my day hadn’t been bad enough without almost being killed by a hitman, now you are arresting me again. And I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count if you read someone their rights while they are asleep.” Sheridan kept rambling on, barely stopping to breathe.
“Sheridan shut up!” Luis yelled, startling her enough that she stopped talking. “First of all the door isn’t even shut all the way,” Luis said pushing on the door slightly, causing it to slide all the way open, “and you are not under arrest. You fell asleep in the car and this was the only place in the station with a bed.”
“Oh,” Sheridan said quietly, looking down at the floor, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, but why are we here? I thought you were taking me back home?”
“We have to get your statement so we can process Antoine’s arrest, and I would have told you where we were going but I wasn’t allowed to speak remember. Why don’t you come out of there and we’ll get started ok.”
“Ok,” Sheridan said. She got up and walked out of the cell with Luis into the squad room.
“ Hello Sheridan I heard you were awake,” Sam said trying not to laugh. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Sheridan why don’t you go sit over at my desk until we are ready to start,” Luis said.
“Ok,” Sheridan said and went over to Luis’ desk. She sat down in his chair and tucked her feet up into the chair.
“Luis are you sure she’s ok?” Sam asked, “she looks kind of upset.”
“She said she was, but in the car before she fell asleep she just stared out the window,” Luis answered, “she does look kind of cold though. I’ll be right back.” When Luis came back he was carrying a sweatshirt. He took it over to Sheridan.
“Here,” he said handing it to her, “you looked cold.”
“Thanks,” she said putting the sweatshirt on. It was navy blue with the Harmony Police Department logo on the front and Lopez-Fitzgerald on the back. It was way too big for her.
“I need to talk to Sam for a minute and then we’ll get started.” Luis walked back over to Sam. “I think you’re right Sam. Something isn’t right with Sheridan. She’s not yelling or arguing with me. In fact, she’s barely even talking. She got checked out at the scene and she’s not injured. Maybe she’s in shock.”
“Did she tell you what happened up there?” Sam asked.
“No, she started to but we got into a fight.”
“Why am I not surprised,” Sam laughed.
While Sam and Luis were talking Hank walked into the station. He saw Sheridan sitting at Luis’ desk and walked over to her. “Hey Sheridan, I’m glad you’re ok. I heard what happened on the radio.” He leaned down to give her a kiss.
“NO, don’t touch me,” Sheridan screamed. She jumped out of the chair and backed away from Hank. Luis ran over to her. She turned to him and he wrapped his arms around her.
“Shh, it’s ok Sheridan, you’re fine. Nobody’s going to hurt you,” Luis said trying to comfort her. She was limp in his arms for a moment and then she pushed back from him.
“I’m fine,” she whispered, “You don’t need to take care of me.”
“Sheridan why don’t you come with me to the interrogation room and we can get started on your statement,” Sam said leading Sheridan away.
As soon as Sheridan was out of earshot, Luis grabbed Hank. “What the hell did you do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything Luis,” Hank said, jerking away from Luis, “I just came in and said hi and started to give her a kiss. It’s not like I haven’t kissed her before buddy.”
“Yeah well maybe you should stay away from her for a while. She’s been through enough today and I don’t want her to get upset again.”
“You can’t keep me away form her Luis.” Hank said, “besides she doesn’t want anything to do with you, so why does it matter to you?”
“Look Hank, clearly Sheridan did not want to see you tonight and she’s going to be busy with her statement tonight so why don’t you go home.”
“Fine,” Hank said, “I’ll go for now but I will see her tomorrow.” Hank left the station and Luis went back to the interrogation room.
“Are you ok Sheridan?” Luis asked as he walked in.
“I told you I’m fine,” Sheridan answered, “please tell Hank I’m sorry for yelling at him.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Luis said, “if Hank tried to kiss me I’d be upset too.” Sheridan laughed a little at Luis’ comment.
“Do you want something to drink before we get started?” Luis asked her.
“No thanks.”
“Ok Sheridan, why don’t you start at the beginning,” Sam said starting the tape recorder.
“Well I had just gotten out of the shower. I had my robe on and Antoine grabbed me from behind. He drug me into the living room and threw me in a chair. He had a gun,” Sheridan began, “he tried to kiss me and I saw a knife on the table so I let him kiss me while I grabbed the knife and stabbed him in the arm. Then I ran into the bedroom and locked the door. I put some clothes on while I tried to call 911 but Antoine started to come in the window. I ran into the other room and got the gun out of the cabinet and loaded it. When Antoine came into the room I pointed the gun at him but then my cell phone rang and Antoine grabbed the gun. It went off but it didn’t hit either of us. Antoine got the gun and then he tied me to the chair.”
“Go on,” Sam said. Luis just stood there listening to Sheridan’s every word. He had wanted to jump in and say it wouldn’t have happened if she’d had her bodyguard with her but he managed to stop himself.
“Sheridan looked at the wall not saying anything for a second while she thought about the rest of what happened. Then she looked up at Luis; “I changed my mind, could I please have a glass of water?”
“Sure,” Luis said and he left the room.
“Sam do you think we could do the rest of this without Luis?”
“Why? You two seem to be getting along ok, at least for the last fifteen minutes.”
“I would just feel more comfortable if Luis weren’t here,” Sheridan pleaded.
“Ok, I’ll be right back.” Sam stepped into the hallway and closed the door.
Sheridan pulled her knees up to her chest and slid Luis’ big sweatshirt over her legs. She crossed her arms over the top of her knees and laid her head on her arms.
When Luis came back with Sheridan’s water he was surprised to see Sam standing outside the door. “What’s going on?” He asked.
“Sheridan wants to finish her statement without you there Luis.”
“What? Why?” Luis asked, “she’s not mad at me again is she?”
“No Luis, I don’t think she’s mad at you,” Sam said, “she just isn’t comfortable talking about this with you there.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know yet but I think something definitely happened up there,” Sam said, “Look how upset she got about Hank touching her.”
“But I touched her and she was fine,” Luis said.
“I know, but look at her now,” Sam said, pointing at the two-way mirror that looked into the interrogation room, “she was clearly traumatized by whatever happened and we need her to tell us about it.”
“Ok Sam. I’ll go out and wait for them to bring Antoine back.”
“That’s a good idea Luis.”
When Sam came back into the room Sheridan straightened back up in her chair. Sam handed her the glass of water.
“Ok, I sent Luis to do something else,” Sam said, “why don’t you finish telling me what happened. You stopped when Antoine tied you to the chair.”
“He started saying stuff about how he was going to kill me but first he was going to have me,” Sheridan began again. She kept talking but she never made eye contact with Sam, she just looked down at her hands the whole time. “His cell phone rang. It was Roger, Antoine told him that he had me and that the police were too busy investigating Crystal’s murder and hadn’t figured out that she was killed because Antoine thought she was me.” Sheridan started to cry, “that poor woman.”
“It’s not your fault Sheridan,” Sam said, “there’s nothing you could have done to prevent them from killing her.”
“I know, I just feel so terrible that she was killed because of me,” Sheridan said, wiping away her tears, “I don’t understand why Antoine thought she was me.”
“It seems that Crystal was wearing a raincoat with a hood that was similar to yours and she was wearing the same scarf you were,” Sam said, “if Luis hadn’t remembered seeing you wearing that scarf we wouldn’t have know you were in danger.”
Sheridan rubbed her wrist. “Antoine used that scarf to tie my hands,” Sheridan said sadly. “I told Antoine that Luis would figure it out and come looking for me and then the phone rang. It was Luis saying that I was in danger. I used my feet to knock the phone off the table but Antoine pulled the plug out of the wall before I could say anything. He was angry that Luis had found out that he killed Crystal and knew where I was. He untied me from the chair but he left my feet and hands tied up. He picked me up and carried me into the bedroom and threw me on the bed. He said it was time for him to have a little fun with me before he killed me and that it didn’t matter that Luis knew where we were because he would never get there in time to help me.”
Tears started to roll down her cheeks and her voice was a little quieter but she continued on, “he started kissing me and grabbing me. I tried to get away from him but he was on top of me and he was too strong. Then he cut the ropes off my feet and I tried to kick him. He told me not to make him angry or he would make things very painful for me. When he leaned down to kiss me again I hit him and knocked him off me and ran to the front door. Antoine grabbed me before I could open the door and I hit him again. Then I saw the gun sticking out of the back of his pants and I grabbed it but he turned around and grabbed the gun too.
I managed to get the gun pointed at him before it went off and he got shot in the shoulder. When the gun went off I must have gotten knocked back and hit my head because the next thing I remember is waking up on the floor with Luis.” Sheridan’s tears had almost subsided and she wiped their remnants from her face.
“Are you sure you’re ok?” Sam asked. He touched her hand, but she jerked it away. “Antoine didn’t hurt you?”
“No I’m fine,” she answered, “do you have any more questions about what happened?”
“I think that’s good enough for now,” Sam said. “Why don’t you go to the ladies room and splash some water on your face.” Sam gave her a reassuring smile and left the interrogation room.
While Sam was finishing Sheridan’s statement Antoine was brought back from the hospital. Luis put him in a chair next to Officer Jones’ desk, who was filling out the paperwork on Antoine’s arrest.
“Where is the lovely Madamoiselle Crane?” Antoine asked, “it is a shame that the two of you can’t stop fighting with each other. She is such a beautiful woman.”
“Shut up,” Luis said, glaring at Antoine from his desk.
“She has such a beautiful body,” Antoine sneered, “you know she likes to sunbathe topless. What a beautiful sight.”
Luis was getting angry now, “I said that’s enough.”
Then Sam walked into the squad room.
“Where’s Sheridan,” Luis asked.
“She’s in the bathroom, she’ll be back in a minute,” Sam said walking over to Officer Jones’ desk. “We need to amend the charges against Antoine.”
“What?” Luis said, getting up from his desk and walking over to Sam, “why are you amending the charges?”
“Luis why don’t you go grab a cup of coffee, Jones can handle this,” Sam said, knowing that Luis’ reaction wouldn’t be good.
“I don’t want any coffee Sam, I want to know what’s going on.”
“We need to add a charge of attempted rape,” Sam said.
“You little bastard,” Luis yelled and he yanked Antoine out of the chair and threw him across the room. Antoine tried to get up off the floor but Luis hit him before he could get up. “How dare you touch her.”
Sam and a couple other officers pulled Luis back and Officer Jones picked up Antoine off the floor and put him back in the chair.
“Luis you need to calm down,” Sam said, “you can’t go beating up a prisoner.”
“You know she cried for you while I was kissing her,” Antoine taunted, “begging for you to come and save her.”
Luis walked over to Antoine and pulled his arm back about to hit him when a hand grabbed his arm from behind.
To Be Continued...
