“I’m sorry I didn’t shoot him faster,” he replied. “Take care.” The orderly wheeled him out of the room, and she sat there for a few minutes just thinking about what he said. He didn’t blame her, and that surprised her a little. Everyone always blamed her, she couldn’t be trusted.
Finally, she picked up her brush and dried it off. The painting was finished an hour later. On the back, she wrote a note. “With love and appreciation to Chief Clarke, my hero. Treasure Olson 2016.”
She set it against the table to dry, she would give it to him if he stopped in again. Cleaning her supplies, she had everything put away before her late morning appointment. She threw herself into her therapy with renewed enthusiasm.
Two men opened the door to Treasure’s room after midnight, the dark corridors not enough to show their features on the second Monday night of February. “She’s out cold, right?”
“Yep, she got a heavy sedative at ten because she has been having nightmares. She won’t know a thing, I’ve done this for years, but they weren’t as young and tight as this one is. I’d have done this earlier but she had her mouth wired shut until a few days ago. If you can keep your fucking mouth shut, we can do this on a regular basis, fifty bucks a night. Did you take care of the camera?” He looked in the corner where the surveillance camera was pointed at the bed.
“Yeah, it’s frozen. Don’t worry, nobody ever looks at these things. If they do, they’ll just think it’s a computer problem.”
The men stepped over to the bed. The young woman was on her back, her wrists and ankles buckled into leather restraints that were strapped to the bed. It was enough to allow her to move slightly yet keep her and the staff safe. Treasure Olson’s history had been discussed with all the staff, and everyone knew about the girl she had almost killed with her teeth. Her history of nightmares and episodes led to the directions to keep her restrained at night for her own safety. The men hovered over her, then with a nod one of them pulled the sheet down.
She was dressed in a nightgown, and the bigger of the two leaned over and moved his hand under it. She didn’t move. “See? Dead to the world.”
“Good enough for me,” the second man said. He unzipped his fly as he watched the big man expose her body to them. He moved close to the bed, waiting for him to stand up so he could use that sweet little mouth.
The first man leaned down to lick her body as his hand wandered. She growled, and he moved his left hand to her mouth to keep her quiet, then screamed as the fingers that he put over her mouth were bit down on hard. “FUCK! Shit! Get her fucking mouth open, you idiot!”
The second man tried, but her head was shaking back and forth. The big man was trying to pull it free, but she was biting down hard. When he finally got his hand free, his left pinky and ring finger were missing. “Sonofabitch!” The second man grabbed the sheet, wrapping it around his bloody hand. The commotion attracted the attention of the night floor nurse, who took charge over the two orderlies. She sent them down to the emergency room while she checked Treasure.
The young girl’s face was covered with blood, and the finger with the wedding ring still on it lay by her head. The girl was still chewing something, then she spit a pinky onto her chest. As if a switch had been flipped, she stopped struggling and went back into a deep sleep. More people toarrived to help, and the chewed-up digits were placed on ice and sent down the Emergency Room.
“What the hell happened here, Nurse Morgan,” Doctor Thompson said as he rushed into the room.
“I don’t know, Collins said he was checking on her because she was making noise and she bit him,” she said.
“Unbelievable.” He looked over his patient, she was out cold, but her nightgown had been pushed down to expose her chest and the thin sheet over her was gone. “How the hell does she expose herself while in full restraints?”
“I don’t know, Doctor. The only thing I know for sure is that she bit his fingers off, because I found one in her mouth when I arrived.”
“Monitor her, but don’t touch her until I tell you it’s all right. Whatever you do, don’t go near her teeth.” He checked her chart, verifying her dosage. “She’ll be out for another four to six hours. When she wakes, we’ll see if she remembers anything about what happened. Don’t let anyone in the room until the police arrive.” He walked out of the room, heading to the front desk. His first call was to 911 to report a possible sexual assault, the second to the Hospital Duty Officer.
Treasure didn’t deserve this, none of his patients did. He was shaking as he hung up the phone; the hospital wouldn’t be doing the investigation this time, the police would. He went back to the room to check on his patient, who was still sleeping soundly.
When the detectives arrived, he could see the anger on their faces as he told them who the victim was. “God, can that girl catch a break,” Detective Jensen said.
“She doesn’t need this,” Detective Jones said as he got to the room. “I need a female nurse or officer in the room with me at all times.” He pulled out a camera, taking a number of photos of her and the room.
“I need the surveillance footage of the room,” Detective Jensen said to the security officer who had brought them up to the floor.
“It’s downstairs, I’ll show you,” he said and led him off.
When the photos were done, Detective Jones pulled out some evidence bags and a sealed packet of swabs. “I need to swipe for blood and DNA,” he said. “I’ll put it in the bag, then seal and sign it.” He put on latex gloves, then used cotton balls to swipe up some blood from her chin. One of the female patrol officers showed up, and he had her swab what looked like saliva tracks on her breasts. “Wasn’t there a sheet on the bed?”
“Yes, Mr. Collins had his hand wrapped in it.”
He sealed up that packet, then turned to the females, pulling out some larger evidence bags and placing them on the bedside table. “I’m going to go down to the ER to get statements and take that into evidence. Officer Williams, when the nurse changes her out of that nightgown and changes the sheets, I need them in evidence bags. Nurse, you can clean her face and chest, but I need a doctor to examine her and perform a rape kit if indicated.”
He left them to that as he walked to the elevator. The sight of her, unconscious and helpless in the restraints, had him shaking with rage. He was going to make sure the two men were convicted, and he hoped to hell Dawn Olson got herself a good lawyer and sued the hell out of this hospital for what they let happen to her.
—
Charles looked over the information on Charlotte, legal name Treasure Olson, that their investigators had uncovered. He shook with rage at the latest offense, two humans who had sexually assaulted her as she lay helpless in the hospital. He had been tempted to take her out of there himself if her mother had not immediately transferred her to St. Paul. Logging on to Skype, he called his son. “Hi Martin, did you get the latest on Charlotte?”
“I did,” he said with barely-controlled anger. “Dad, we need to get her out of there. The longer this goes on, the more damage is being done to her wolf.”
“I know, but the rules are strict. I can’t expose myself to humans and I can’t just take her, or I’m no better than Todd.”
“Don’t be a Todd,” Mitch said with a laugh. “Do you have what you need?”
“We’re keeping an eye on her and her mother, but there isn’t much going on while she’s in the hospital. We did manage to plant a listening device in her room, and we’ve got one of our men working as a janitor on that wing now. We’re set up in a nearby hotel.”
“Good, Dad. We can’t let anything happen to her now.”
“I just hope I can convince her to come home where she can be whole, maybe for the first time in her life.”
“I love you, Dad. I have to go, more Pack drama to deal with.”
Charles laughed. “I remember those days. Go, I’ll call you tomorrow night.”