The telephone awoke the three some two hours later. It was Jonas: "Ian, I need for you to come to my headquarters right away. I know you just got off work, but I need to talk to you." Ian, still in a sleep-induced stupor, merely grunted his assent. "Be here in an hour." And with that, Jonas was gone.
Dinah, who had gotten up and taken the baby into the other room, returned and asked: "Who was that, honey?"
"Jonas. He wants me to come to his headquarters."
"Are you going?"
"I have to run an errand first. Remember Ariel? She got a job at the same hospital as I did, and it just so happened to be in the lab. I asked her if she could get me a copy Aurora's rape kit results and she said she would. She was going to swing by and stick them under our door on her way home ..."
Ian got up from bed and went into the living room. Sure enough, a plain manila envelope lay just beyond the door.
Dinah came up behind her husband and kissed his shoulder. "So, what do Aurora's rape kit results have to do with your meeting today?"
"Well, if my hunch is correct, the police recommended that they run DNA as well. I'm sure they had to send that off, but by now, the results would've been returned and added into this kit as evidence should they find a suspect. Copies of everything will be turned over to the police at the time of prosecution, so not even the police have privy to this. Only the lab, Aurora, and now me."
He slid the papers from their sheath and looked through them. "Damn. Whoever Jonas hired did a number on her! They split her uterus, damaged her bladder, ripped open her anus, and evidently left her that way for days before dumping her at the hospital. When she arrived, she was nearly comatose from pain, completely consumed by infection. They had to do a blood transfusion, massive doses of antibiotics. Looks like her heart stopped a time or two. Jesus."
Dinah sank down onto the couch. "I hated her. I really hated her. But I never in a million years wished that kind of torture on her. How can someone be that ..." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"Shhhh, little girl. It's okay. I'm going to take care of this."
Ian smoothed his hands in her hair and she turned her face up to look at him. Tears glistened on her cheeks. Ian took his thumb and wiped them away.
"I'm going to get into the shower and then go. I will be back soon."
She nodded at him, watching him walk away. But inside, her heart was heavy. She worried for Ian and now, for her baby and for Aurora.
The drive to Jonas' headquarters was long, but Ian's mind continually rolled around all the facts: 1. Jonas is a cruel bastard, much more so than he ever suspected. 2. There is a distinct possibility that Jonas' sperm made contact with an egg in his wife's womb the other night. 3. Aurora deserves to be set free, too. 4. Jonas has been kind to him ... so far ... but at what cost?
Each time a new idea rolled through his head, Ian tried to balance the pros and cons. It all continued to add up to one thing: Ian couldn't risk having Jonas close, and Ian couldn't walk away from Jonas without knowing for sure that he and his family and friends would be safe.
Ian fingered the edge of the envelope as he drove. The tests only showed enough information for a positive profile or two, but truly pointed the finger at no one. Only by having definitive DNA matches from the other side could a true conviction be locked down, so now Ian had to pull off an amazing bluff. His life, and the life of his family, just may depend on it.
Ian pulled into a parking spot and stopped the car. He sat there for a few moments to gather all the confidence he could muster. He had spent his life looking into womens' eyes and lying to them. He only hoped that his skills as a con man would translate over to the situation he now found himself in.
Taking a deep breath, Ian swung the door to the campaign headquarters open. He was greeted by larger-than-life effigies of his smiling uncle hanging from the ceiling and plastered on all the walls. There were workers readying poster, workers stuffing envelopes, workers manning the phone lines, workers tabulating contributions. A center isle lead to the back of the room where the door to his uncle's private office closed him off from the near-deafening noises in "command central".