Free Shattered Shell by Brendan DuBois Page B

I liked seeing Diane's boat out there, for I had been on a number of enjoyable day jaunts with her and sometimes with Kara as an extra passenger ---and just seeing the empty cold waters was disturbing.
    Diane answered the door on the first ring, and she tried to smile as she took my coat, and failed. This wasn't going to be a smile-filled morning. I followed her up the carpeted stairs, which led to a kitchen on the left, overlooking the parking lot and the harbor. On the right was a small living room, with a low wooden counter holding up a television and stereo system, and a tan couch with matching chairs. There was another set of stairs that led upstairs to a bedroom and a study.
    The kitchen had white-tiled floor and a glass-topped table with white tubular chairs. On the refrigerator door were a number of photographs. Most either showed Diane with Kara or Kara alone, and there were a lot of smiles. I could not look at those happy pieces of paper for more than a few seconds before my throat started to ache. Diane draped my coat over one of the chairs and said, "Thanks for coming."
    "You're welcome," I said, still holding a small tan notebook in my hand. "How's Kara doing? Is she eating all right?"
    Diane shrugged, one hand on the back of the chair, leaning on it for support. "She's doing better, but she can only do soft foods, like scrambled eggs or soup. Her jaw's still pretty sore... And the bruises..."
    She paused, gave a quick nod. "It's the nighttime when it's worse. She doesn't sleep that well, and she wants all the lights on, and, well, most of the time she has a bad dream about every couple of hours."
    "She's upstairs?"
    "Yeah, she was reading when you got here." She folded her arms. "Can't watch too much daytime TV. Ever watch daytime TV? All the goddamn talk shows, most of them have to do with violence against women or some sexual freak show, or shows that make us look like crazed, man-hating deviants, and shit like that, Kara doesn't need to see right now."
    I kept my voice gentle. "Is she ready to see me? Does she know what I'm up to?"
    A curt shake of the head. "We've talked about it, and that hasn't been a wonderful topic to discuss, but yeah, she knows what you’re here for, what's going to happen." Her eyes filled a bit, and she turned to look at the harbor. "Oh, Christ, this is so hard... There's no way I can sleep at night, knowing he might get away wlth it, that he's laughing, telling his buddies about screwing Kara. I can't let him get away with it."
    I rubbed at the notebook. "I know. And Felix and me, we're going to do our best."
    She looked back at me, briefly rubbed at her eyes. "Felix Tinios is going work with you on this? Really? What was the jerk's price?"
    "Nothing you have to worry about," I said. "Look, let's get started."
    Diane nodded briskly, started walking around the kitchen table. "You're right. I have the incident report in my study. Do you want to look at that first?"
    "No," I said, following her to the set of stairs that went up to the next floor of the condo. "Later, but right now I want to hear it fresh, and from Kara."
    "I understand."
    My legs were heavy as I went upstairs, and I tried to concentrate on what I would be doing over the next few minutes. At the top of the stairs a door to the right led to Diane's study, and the opposite door opened up to a bedroom that had a grand view of the harbor, the marshes, and the boxy buildings of the Falconer nuclear power plant a couple of miles away. I was trying to smile as I went into the bedroom. There was a set of bureaus, two rocking chairs, a television, and sitting in bed, up against the pillows, was Kara Miles, friend and lover of one of my best friends, a talented computer programmer who enjoyed Cajun music and mountain climbing, and who was now known simply as a rape victim.
    And at that thought, I stopped pretending to smile.
    Though Kara did do her best to smile at me as I came in. A blue down comforter was pulled up to her waist