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Another slow day in Putnam and Sheriff Jacob Creech sat at the house behind the Sheriff's Office he's lived in for decades now. This house has been good to him, he was a young man here - Sarah lived here with him before the Lord took her home 8 years ago. He raised Elaine here, she moved out and had kids on her own. At this point he's not sure any other place could ever feel like home. Definitely not without wood panel walls and thick brown carpet everywhere.
Funny, when he got the house he was worried it was kind of small. Now it felt too big with him here by himself. He sighs, and goes back to eating some canned chili and watching Wheel of Fortune. Shaping up to another slow night in Putnam, he'd put on a normal button up shirt and just laid back, wondering if he was going to fall asleep in the chair again to the sounds of the wheel spokes hitting the needle over the sounds of Pat Sajak's voice.
Then the phone rang. Jacob paused, honestly too surprised to move to answer it for two rings. He wasn't unfamiliar with the concept, in theory sometimes you needed a sheriff outside of regular office hours. Its just that - in Putnam? He answers on the fourth ring after seeing the caller ID.
Dr. Angela Crowe, "Angie" to her friends. A nice lady who worked under Doc Stevens - the one man still working in Putnam older then Jacob was. Technically a full doctor but Angie and Doc seem to have worked a deal to work together so that she gets the clinic when Doc does retire. So for now she's acting more like the head nurse, but a damn fine one. He answers the call quickly, if just out of curiosity more then anything.
"Angela, how's life treating you?"
"Sorry, Jacob - but this is for business. I'm going to need you to come to me and sign some legal things. Biological materials are involved so it can't wait, but I don't think it would be a good idea to bring Alan."
Jacob paused, wondering what this could be but already feeling that this could be bad, "Alright, I'm getting my keys- though if I need to put on a uniform it could take a minute. The Clinic?"
"No need for the uniform, just need your signature. But I'm not at the Clinic. Do you know Natalia Youngblood?"
"Only by reputation, teaches at the Elementary School, right? Don't know where she lives but I've got a GPS in my car." he says, getting ready to fetch the address from the computers, "What's this about?"
"I don't think I should talk about it over the phone, but thanks Sheriff."
Sure, he didn't know where Natalia lived but he was still in front of the small house 10 minutes later, the cooler evening air making a walking cane needed. Still, not bad shape for a man so close to retiring. He breathes in the night air as he walks up to the door and knocks.
Angie answers, and smiles though she's wearing a lab coat and gloves over a blouse and knee skirt. She's wearing light colors as always if to contrast with her darker skin and hair. Supposedly, Crowe isn't a coincidence and she's got quite a bit of Native American blood in her. Jacob never asked, never seemed like any of his business. She holds her hands out to point him toward a box about half-again the size of a shoebox on the dinning room table with a clipboard on it, a thick pen resting on top with x's already placed where he's supposed to sign.
"Hello, Angie - where's Natalia?"
"Upstairs, taking a long bath. Just need you to sign the seal and a few of the papers, already marked out where."
"What am I looking at?"
Angie sighs a bit herself, looking down a bit as she decides what she's going to say.
"Officially. It's an Anonymous Physical Evidence Recovery Kit."
"I'm sorry, I don't know what that is."
"It's a Rape Kit. Sheriff."
Jacob is stunned into silence at the idea of such a thing happening in Putnam as Angie keeps going.
"Officially, all I can tell you is that in my professional opinion somewhere in your jurisdiction there was a sexual assault, but the victim has decided to not file charges or fill out any sort of official report. She has however agreed to allow for collection of evidence for use in any other legal action against her attacker."
He might of been born in the dark, but it wasn't last night. Jacob gets it, officially - that's all he knows. What he official knows and what he actually knows can be very different things.
"If she's not willing to file a report there's no a whole lot we can do for Natalia."
"Officially, I can't confirm that the victim was Natalia Youngblood." Angie replies, looking a bit depressed.
"But Unofficially, we wouldn't be standing in her house if it wasn't."
"Speaking entirely off the record- you got it. She told me that at about 10 this morning she was running in Heavenly Kingdom Park when a large man with she didn't recognize ambushed her, knocked her off the trail, then raped her."
"Dear God. How bad off is she?"
"Some scrapes from the ambush, and quite a lot of bruising. Her attackers don't seem to have been out to hurt her, but there's even a hand shaped bruise on her face from where they held her mouth shut."