That night she woke up in an ambulance and then the hospital, thankfully she did not have to stay there for long, she did not like hospitals much. The police came to ask her some questions while she was though, mostly about what she was doing in the building, her relationship with Theo and if he did anything, aside from giving her a concussion, bruising her throat, arms and left butt cheek-how mortifying-, trying to drink from her and making murderous threats.
Or if she knew about any of the underground things that were happening in the building or were set to happen in the building because of the engagement party. Apparently the vampires were going to have a blood party, the drinks, so to speak, were coming from people. There was going to be a lot of neck biting, if they went for the neck anyway, with a lot of sex and death involved too. Some of it had already happened.
The only reason she was in this station with more cameras and eyes right now was because they searched through Theo’s apartment and found…the materials. So here she was sitting in the waiting area after telling them everything and by everything, she meant everything from when he tried to kiss her to his sexcapade in the closet to that Friday when he blackmailed her and that Saturday, and by them that meant, an investigator and anyone else beyond the glass window she could not see, probably an inspector, a few police officers and FBI agents.
Safe to say Rita did not feel comfortable at all, not only did she have the trauma Theo caused, being in that position of sextortion, nearly being preyed upon both figuratively and literally and listening to explicit death threats, her panic and shame although dulled somewhat was still there. Theo had shared those things to someone or some people and it most possibly were more than two given the fact he could not be trusted.
There were still some people out there who had pictures and videos of her naked and masturbating. Would she live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder at snide remarks wherever she heard her name or be afraid if what some guy was watching on his phone was her on some xx site?
She felt like waking up from whatever horrible nightmare this was. Unfortunately, she was not dreaming. She was still lost in her own thoughts when an officer came to call her, snapping her out of it.
The officer looked asian, a little chubby in the middle maybe thirty something years old, chinese with dark brown hair gelled into little spikes with eyes the colour of flame, Rita could not tell if he was some sort of wizard or a shifter, maybe he was both or maybe he was neither, his name tag identified him as Tian Pirel.
“Miss, are you alright?” He asked, concern written in his voice. His accent, like the last name indicated, was American.
Rita nodded gently, her voice hoarse and speaking slightly painfully as the last few days. “Yes, I’m alright.”
He did not seem very convinced but he passed on his message anyway. “The Inspector wants to see you in her office. Please come with me.” He said, waiting for Rita to get up and follow him. He seemed slightly doubtful that she would.
Rita raised herself off the seat, officer Tian hovering gently beside her in case she fell. When he was sure she could stand and walk on her own, he walked ahead of her directing her up the four flights of stairs to the top floor.
The climb left her a little winded nothing that got her head spinning but she needed to sit down soon. She had caught her reflection in the glass while they had been climbing up, not even the layers of foundation could completely cover the bruises on her face and on her neck, the bandage on her head looked small and less serious compared to them.
Even though she could not see Theo he sure left something for her to remember him by and these were just the physical ones. She was not sure if she would ever feel comfortable with her body for a very long time, if not ever. That was why was and had been wearing clothes that hid her figure and covered her entirely, no matter what the colour was or what it was made of, she even wore her hair down to cover most of the bruises on her neck.
Most of the staff on the floor were buried in their own work but she could not drop the feeling that someone was looking at her, grading her body or talking about a picture or a video with her explicitly shown in it.
Whatever confidence and comfort she had in her body was shattered, gone and she was not sure if she would ever get it back.
Rita continued to follow officer Tian through a hallway till when he paused at a door, presumably the inspector’s office, and knocked.
The Inspector’s voice came through the door. “Come in.” She said and officer Tian complied, taking the door knob and twisting it, opening the door. The door opened inwards, allowing both officer Tian and herself into the Inspector’s office.
The office was spacious, nothing too big but enough space to fight or escape without feeling cornered. Now why had she thought of that?
“Miss Anozim, Ma’am.” He announced while she walked in. The Inspector, Jane was her name, she remembered from when they were introduced a week ago.
She was sitting on the black wood desk with a file open in her hand, her dark brown gold highlighted hair was left to fall in curled waves, the gold contrasting with the royal blue blouse she wore, her black fitted pants perfectly blended in with the table. She looked to be a woman of average height, all though she looked small, dainty even. She looked french even.
She looked up from the file, her light brown eyes finding Rita’s in seconds.
The Inspector’s eyes left hers and settled on officer Tian. “Thank you Pirel, you may go.”
Officer Tian nodded and closed the door behind him as he left. Rita did not wait to be told to sit down, wove her way around the small glass table, lowered herself on the small blue sofa and rested her back and head against it, her breathing slowing, more calm and her head less dizzy.
“I’m sorry if the stairs left you winded Mrs Anozim, we’re trying to crack down on officers with a bit too much love for bagels and donuts.” The inspector said followed by the sound of the files hitting the desk with a gentle pat sound.
“It’s okay, just a little tired.” Rita said.
The click of heels going round the desk and a drawer opening, made her eyes and lift her head slightly just in time to see the inspector bring out two small transparent bags before closing the drawer.
Inspector Jane walked over to her with them in hand and the closer she got, the clearer the contents were. Inside one of the transparent bags were three flashdrives and a thick brown envelope, the other bag had another flash drive and a few other envelopes inside.
The flash drives got her attention first and she slowly sat upright while the inspector dragged a chair over, so it was facing opposite her. Inspector Jane sat down and placed both bags on the small table acting like a barrier between them.
Rita recognized one of the flashdrives, it was from that Friday two weeks ago, the one Theo had given her. She gulped just before the inspector spoke, her accent laced with a little french.
“We found some material that Friday and during the sweep of Arsen’s apartment. I’m sure you recognized the flashdrive from Friday.”
Rita just nodded, ugly memories resurfacing.
“These flash drives contain images and videos of you prior to and after Arsen set cameras in your apartment, the thick envelope contains some printouts he made.”
Good God, the envelope was thicker than her three fingers placed side by side to each other which spoke of the possible number of photographs that were in there. Worse still, someone had to have looked over these things. She felt like she could throw up but she also felt too numb to do it.
“The other flash drive contains everything of you on his laptop. We also tracked down who he sent some of the material to, thankfully neither of them sent it out and have promptly deleted it all, we thoroughly checked. Six out of the seven will be facing charges, the third one just met Arsen and hadn’t opened any of his messages.”
Rita felt like curling up into a ball and just staying that way and shrivel out of existence.
“We have sufficient evidence against Arsen to keep him locked up for a pretty long time, so we’re giving his victims the photos he took, we will need you for the trial though. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do with them, mostly destroy them but we’ll completely understand if you don’t want to see them, they will all be immediately destroyed.”
No.
“I’ll destroy them myself.” She said quickly, quietly. She would destroy them herself. No one else was going to have another look at those things ever again.
“Ok then.” The inspector said, getting up and getting the shredder, placing it infront of her. “You can start with the photos and you can chuck them down the chute, it leads to the incinerator. Take your time.”
Those were the last words the inspector uttered before she left the room.
Rita opened the first bag and withdrew the thick and heavy brown envelope. She opened it and took just one and looked at it. Her breath stilled, the picture was three weeks after she had started working at the company. She dropped that one and picked another, the photo was of her in a restaurant with Penny. She took out more photos, the more she saw, the harder it was for her to breathe.
She tossed those ones into the shredder, watching as the machine turned them into little strips instantly. She picked up one more photo and decided that she did not need to see anymore, she took handfuls of the envelope’s contents and placed them in the shredder till nothing was left.
She opened the other bag and took out one of the little white envelopes, tore it open and took the pictures out of that too, she looked at one and nearly screamed. It was one from her cousin’s bachelorette, anyone could see through the stream of different coloured lights, it was her with one of the male strippers grinding into her through their clothes except the stripper’s face was gone and rendered with Theo’s. She tossed itand the entire envelope into the shredder.
Rita opened the other envelopes desperately hoping that whatever puzzle that was coming together was not true. Envelope after envelope, picture after picture her hope dashed to the cold ground repeatedly. She put them all into the shredder and watched them slice to strips.
Hurt, indignation and Fury racked her body making her tremble with the force of the emotions. She took the shredder off the trash bin it was attached to, placed he machine on the glass table and headed to the chute. It was on the left side of the room just beside the small shelf nailed to the wall, she opened it and chucked the little strips in fistfuls at a time. She could not get them in fast enough, she was shoving with a fury that paled a demon’s by comparison, she never wanted to see those pictures again, even their useless strips.
She made sure not one little piece was left in the bin or on the floor and then turned to the flashdrives on the table. She did not even take them out of the plastic bags they were in, she just grabbed them and chucked them down the chute too.
Tears slid from her eyes down to her checks but she quickly wiped them away, she would not cry. Not for them. Now she understood why they had not bothered to answer any one of her calls or texts. Not once. Why they had not even come to see her once after that Friday or anytime during the two weeks she was recovering.
More tears slid down her face and she continuously and harshly kept wiping them away. The tears held more fury than sadness. They were going to pay for all they did. She walked out the door, spinning head or not, she had a few more charges to press…before going back to her hotel room to cry.