Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

Sunday. We went on a back trail and suddenly Roscoe took off into the bushes. When I went to get him, I found a clearing, and Kelly was sitting there in high heels and evening clothes. When Roscoe licked her face, she threw her arms around his neck and started bawling. She was in bad shape.”
    “And she just blurted out to you that she’d been raped?” Veronica looked skeptical.
    “Of course not. I sat down with her and we talked for a while. Roscoe is a great icebreaker, you know. One hundred pounds of pure Labrador therapy at work.”
    “Roscoe is an oaf,” Ronnie said with a smile. On their first meeting he had taken her down and licked her face clean of makeup in five seconds flat.
    “He really likes your moisturizer, what can I say? Anyway, after an hour or so of chitchat, I asked Kelly what she was doing crying in the park. She said she’d had a bad date, but I could see in her eyes it was more than that. She looked like a wounded animal. Her posture, body language—everything was screaming out that this girl had gone through something horrible.”
    Veronica had worked with numerous victims of sex crimes in her job with the LAPD, so she understood well the nonverbal clues Tessa had picked up. “Did she finally admit what had happened?”
    “Yes. She said she went out on a date with this hotshot quarterback and after dinner he brought her to his house. He then gave her a drink, sat down on the couch next to her, and started making his moves. She was okay with it for a while, but when she asked him to stop he ignored her.”
    Veronica winced, knowing what was coming next.
    “Kelly said she was sure he would stop if she kept asking. He didn’t. She said she began crying and fighting, but it didn’t even slow him down. She’s a tiny little thing,” Tessa said as she crumpled her napkin in her fist.
    “I’m sorry. It sounds like a classic date-rape situation.”
    “That’s what I told her. She was shocked—she didn’t even know there was a name for this type of attack, let alone that it happens to young women all too often. She asked how I knew about stuff like that.”
    “And you told her you were a prosecutor with the D.A.’s Office?”
    Tessa nodded. “When she found out, she just about bolted. She said she didn’t want to cause any trouble, she just wanted to go home. I convinced her this was a serious crime and that she had to report it, or it might happen to another girl. She said no one would believe her because of the guy who was involved.”
    “Who is he?”
    “He’s the quarterback for the LA Waves,” Tessa said, naming one of Los Angeles’s two professional football teams.
    Veronica coughed as she inhaled her iced tea. “Holy shit! Sledge Aiken? He’s the man Kelly is accusing of raping her?”
    Tessa nodded, cynically watching the expression on her friend’s face change to one of utter disbelief. She’d seen the same thing happen with the first officers in charge of investigating Kelly’s allegations of rape.
    “Don’t look at me like that,” Veronica said, wiping tea off her blouse. “You have to admit it’s a tough sell. Sledge Aiken is the single hottest commodity in sports right now—he probably has to beat women off with a stick.”
    “You know rape isn’t a crime of sex. It’s about power,” Tessa insisted.
    “Yes, it is. But I also know that in order to prosecute, you have to make a convincing argument of why the crime was committed. That’s going to be very difficult with a celebrity of Aiken’s stature.”
    Tessa looked stubbornly at her plate. “I can do it.”
    “I’m not doubting your abilities as a prosecutor. I’m just saying that now I understand why the other officers involved have been proceeding cautiously. And to be honest, Ed and I will have to continue in the same vein.”
    Tessa rubbed her forehead. “I know. But it’s so frustrating to watch the police tiptoe around this case just because the accused rapist happens to make his living running around throwing a ball to grown men in tight pants.”
    Veronica cleared her throat and went back to the important details of the case. “What kind of physical evidence do we have so far?”
    Trust Ronnie to go right to the weakest part of the case, Tessa thought.
    “Not much, I’m afraid,” Tessa said. “I need to get copies of the file for you, but Kelly said Aiken used a condom. I was able to talk her into having a medical exam at the hospital, but they didn’t get much with the