The Evil Men Do by H. Paul Doucette

Author:H. Paul Doucette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: alcohol resulting in serious injury to servicemen and merchantmen, businessmen who conspire to profit from the war, dealing in inferior materials that ultimately lead to the death of a man, moonshiners and bootleggers dealing in poison, the rape of a young girl
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.

* * *

When I arrived at the hospital the next morning, I got lucky and found a parking spot close to the entrance. Once inside, I headed up to the ward where Stella Marchand was located. I met with the duty nurse who led me down the hall to her room. She said the doctor was not in at the moment but told me the girl had regained consciousness during the night and that she was doing well.

“That’s great news,” I said. “Is she up to some questions?”

“Well, she’s still pretty weak and shaken up,” she said.

“I understand and I’ll try to go as easy as I can. It will really help if I can talk to her.”

“I know you need to talk to her, and I really want that animal caught so, I think she might manage a couple of questions. I’ll have to stay in the room and will need you to stop if I say so.”

“Okay,” I said.

We entered the room. I stepped to the bed and looked down at the girl. The bruises on her face were still visible but not nearly as bad as when I first saw her. At the moment she looked peaceful with her eyes shut.

“How’s she doin’?” I asked, quietly.

“She’s coming along as well as can be expected. As you can see, the bruises are beginning to fade. As to the other issues, well, her tests came back showing good results, you know, no infectious diseases. We won’t know for a while yet if she was impregnated.”

“That’s somethin’ at least,” I said. “Has her mother been in?”

“Uh-huh. Her mother comes in every day.”

I nodded.

The nurse went around to the other side of the bed and leaned down, placing a hand gently on Stella’s shoulder.

“Stella, honey,” she said, softly. “Are you awake?”

Stella slowly opened her eyes and focused on the nurse.

“There’s a policeman here who wants to talk to you. Is that okay with you?”

Stella turned her head on the pillow to look at me.

“Hi. My name is Detective Robichaud,” I said gently, looking down at her. “I’d like to ask you some questions about what happened to you, if you’re up to it.”

She slowly nodded and started to re-adjust herself on the bed. The nurse helped by propping her up a little onto the pillow.

I pulled a visitor’s chair closer and sat down, setting my hat on the bed and taking out my notebook.

“Good for you,” I said. “First, anytime you feel you don’t want to talk about that night let me know an’ we’ll stop, okay?”

“Okay,” she said in a quiet voice.

“Right. Why don’t we start with you tellin’ me what you remember ‘bout that night an’ the two men you went away with?”

I was mildly surprised when I noticed the look of pain and anger on her face as she collected her thoughts. After a moment passed, she began. She said she could only remember parts of what happened but what she could recall she told me.

She had snuck out and met up with her friends to go ‘cruising’ down by the hill.

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