Free Bad Behavior by Cristina Grenier

throat was still throbbing from the abuse, had her eyes filling with tears and she turned away. Trying to hide the shaking in her hands by burying them in the white blanket covering her body. Detective Richards sat beside her bed and leaned forward so that she could see his face.
    “Did you know the man who attacked you, Ms. Donovan?” his words were soft and she thought of the face of the man who’d tried to kill her. She’d only gotten a glimpse of him after she’d regained consciousness and by then Justin had trussed him up like a pig with a length of extension cord.
    Her attacker had been young, barely out of high school. Dark hair and an unremarkable face. When she shook her head she was just as confused now as she had been then.
    “No. I’d never seen him before in my life.”
    “Can you think of a reason why anyone would want to hurt you?”
    Stan.
    His name came to her immediately and she hesitated.
    It couldn’t be.
    But then, why not? If he was capable of embezzling what else was he capable of?
    Richards angled his head so that he could look her in the eye.
    “It’s alright Ms. Donovan.” He told her. “If you can think of something, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, it could be extremely helpful to our investigation.”
    “What investigation?” She asked, guarded. “It’s pretty open and shut right? Some thug came in, probably looking for money, and attacked me. You have the person who did it, so what else are you trying to find out?”
    Warren exchanged a look with her partner before answering.
    “The thing about your case Ms. Donovan is that it has a lot of holes. A lot of loose ends. We have the perpetrator, but we also have a lot of unanswered questions. Why you, why Reese’s personal secretary? Why was he waiting for you to come in? How did he know you would be there?”
    “He could have been there for anybody.”
    “Doubtful. There were hundreds of other employees in various departments who came in long before you did. If he were searching for someone random he would have gone after one of them. No. He waited there, in your office, for you to show up. Then he attacked. The question at this point is why?”
    Rei bit her lip and her fingers twisted the blanket into an unrecognizable lump. She didn’t want to think that Stan had tried to have her killed, but it was the only thing that made sense.
    “I started working for Justin earlier this week.” She stated. “I noticed some…discrepancies in his paperwork the first day I was there.”
    “What sort of discrepancies?”
    “His financial records didn’t make any sense.”
    Warren lifted a brow. “Are you saying that you think Mr. Reese-”
    “No.” Rei interrupted quickly. “Of course not. I found out last night that Justin is basically bankrupt. I don’t think he’s stealing, I think someone is stealing from him.”
    “You have a name?”
    She winced, but squared her shoulders. “I have a name.” she assured them and things progressed very quickly after that.
     
     
    ♀♂
     
     
    It was late afternoon when her door opened and Bethany Marcus stepped into Rei’s hospital room. To say she was surprised to see the other woman would have been an understatement and she gaped rudely as Bethany carried a vase of flowers over and set them on her bedside table.
    “I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to drop in and see how you were doing.”
    It took Rei a moment to find her voice. “No. That’s alright. I appreciate the company. You’re Bethany right?” she voiced the question as if she wasn’t already aware of the answer.
    Bethany smiled, “In the flesh.”
    “Not that I don’t appreciate you coming but…why are you here?”
    The woman laughed and sat in the same chair that Detective Richards had vacated just an hour ago.
    “I was curious about you. Justin talks about you all the time and when I heard about what happened this morning…” she placed a hand against her breastbone and shook her head