Free Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) by Debra Trueman

me.  I
reached out and tilted her chin up so that I could look into her eyes.   “Landra,
its Sam.  Come on, now.  You’ve got to snap out of this.  Come on, Landra.”  Nothing.  “Landra!” I said louder.  I took her by the shoulders and shook her and the
jolt did the trick.  The vacant stare was replaced by a look of confusion, then
immediately by stark realization of what had just happened.  She broke down
sobbing uncontrollably.  “It’s okay, Landra.  Everything’s going to be okay.”
    “He tried to rape me,” she sobbed.
    “It’s okay.  He’s not going to hurt you any more.”
    At that point, two policemen walked in the room.  The elder
took one look at Landra and picked up his radio and stepped back out into the
hall.  The second officer approached us and I got up and took off my coat and
wrapped it around Landra.
    “How is she?” the officer asked in a hushed tone.
    “I don’t know yet. She needs to get to a hospital.”
    “I’m going to need to ask her some questions.  Are you her
husband?”
    “No.  I’m her friend.  And her lawyer,” I added.  “You can talk
to her after she’s been checked out by a doctor.”
    Landra had been sitting there staring at the floor, still
crying, but she looked up when I said that.  “No, it’s all right.  I’ll talk to
him.”
    “I want to talk to her first,” I told the officer.  I could
tell he was miffed, but there was nothing he could do.  “Could we have some
privacy please?”
    “It’s okay Sam,” Landra said.  “I’ll talk to him.”
    “Landra, I’m speaking to you in my capacity as your attorney
right now.  And I’m telling you that you and I are going to talk in private
before you speak to anyone.  Do you understand?”  She nodded her head without
speaking.  “Come on.  We’ll go in the next room.”
    I helped her to her feet and she slipped her arms into the
sleeves of my coat and wrapped it tightly around her body.  I put my arm around
her and led her to a bedroom across the hall and motioned for her to sit down
in the only chair in the room, then I sat down on the bed facing her.
    “Are you hurt?” I asked her.
    “I’m okay,” she sniffed, but she wouldn’t even look at me.
    “Well, you don’t look like you’re okay,” I told her.
    “Is he dead?”
    “I think so.”  I moved over in front of her and got down on my
knee so that we were eye level.  “What was your relationship with Drake Reeds?”
    “We dated.”  Then she looked at me for the first time. “We were
engaged.”  She must have seen my shock because she immediately clarified, “We used
to be engaged.  We broke up back in November.”  She was biting her bottom
lip, trying not to cry.
    “All right, I want you to tell me exactly what happened up here
and don’t leave anything out.”
    “Okay.”  She took a deep breath before she started.  “I came up
here to use the restroom and someone was already in the one by the stairs, so I
came down the hall to find another one.  I guess Drake followed me up here
because when I came out of the bathroom, he was in the room waiting for me.  He
grabbed my arm and tried to kiss me but I pushed him away.  He said that he
knew I wanted him and he started grabbing me and touching me and groping me.  I
was fighting to get away from him and I slapped him across the face and I think
he just snapped.  He reached out and ripped my dress and he threw me on the
ground and was trying to get my dress up, but I was fighting him, kicking and
punching at him.  I managed to get up and to the door but he grabbed me and
carried me back into the room.  When he walked past the dresser I picked up a
vase and hit him over the head and he let go of me and I shoved him.  He
stumbled into a chair and knocked it over and then he fell against the window
and crashed right through it.”  She looked at me again and this time she
couldn’t hold back her tears.  I put my arm around her and she