A Necessary Struggle: Fall Semester

Part 52

Alyssa attempted to look for Lela after Jeff came back from his break. She checked Harmony's booth first but she wasn't there. She called her instead and finding out she was at Trey's house with Cairo and Lela was not finding solace in the kitchen. She dialed up Safiya and was disgusted to discover she had not made the soup they all requested and Lela was not locked away in her room. There was no way she was going over to Trevor's booth and ask if he saw Lela. She didn't feel like getting into a war of words with him, not tonight.

After a slip of the tongue, Alyssa didn't really want to talk to anyone. She wanted to be alone and clear her mind. Since the campus was dead because everyone was at the festival she claimed the sidewalks as her own; walking straight down the middle of the sidewalk with her hands jammed in the pockets of the leather jacket. She wasn't planning on asking Lela about her mental state in a booth at the festival but the words just fell out kind of like her statement about Jacob Richards.

Alyssa sought refuge in the library after the chilly wind slapped her in the face. It was dead just like the campus with a librarian sitting at the reference desk organizing a stack of books from the drop off the drawer. She let her hand slid up the rail as she climbed to the top floor. Her footsteps echoed as she trekked through the rows of bookshelves. Bookshelves she rummaged through for the right book to ensure her an 'A'.  A's were all she got since freshman year. It cost her a lot, before the crack of dawn days and late nights; party-less evenings and dateless days.

At first, it was for her parents. For making all A's on her report card she would get twenty dollars. Twenty dollars she would blow it all in the bookstore, reading them all before the six weeks were up and waited for her next payment so she could do it all again. Grades equaled money she learned that early on and when she got in high school she was a pro. By junior year she won enough contests and grants to pay off her first two years of college.

Alyssa stopped in front of the floor to ceiling windows. The strobe lights from the stadium attracted her eyes but the name stretched across the front caused her cold cheeks to heat. "Richards Stadium." She broke the librarian's cardinal rule, No talking.

It was a surname she loathed but it didn't start that way. After freshman orientation, Jacob himself gave her a formal invite to dinner. At the Richard's Tudor style home waiters bustled around as a low buzz of over-eager freshmen sucking up to pretentious professors flowed from every room. Alyssa sat on the stairs virgin pina colada with a saucer of toothpick embedded potatoes resting on her lap. She was deep in thought running over the list of courses her advisor suggested she take during her first year when he sat next to her. Jacob was a vegetarian like her and that's what they talked about: why they didn't eat meat, how their family reacted, and their go-to entrees.

He told her about the best places to eat in town and offered to take her to the farmer's market on the weekend. The conversation gradually shifted to academics and she was elated to find someone just as ambitious as her. She gave him her number after he walked her back to her dorm. They shook hands before she departed to her room. That night as she stripped out of her dress and threw on an old oversized t-shirt she vowed to Harmony that was the type of guy she would marry after medical school. Alyssa Richards, she practiced that night wanting to hear how the two names sounded together before going to sleep.

*****

"You can do this Alyssa." She tried to pep herself up before going into the police station.

Alyssa imagined the police station to look like it did on one of those procedural shows Safiya picked for a binge watch. There were no cops wrestling convicts to the ground or candy pink mini-dress hookers being escorted in. Strong coffee and mildew filled the air as Alyssa stood behind the suited man protesting a speeding ticket. As soon as he was instructed by an officer to wait until his court date Alyssa finally approached the counter. She gave the officer who looked weeks away from retirement her name and told him she needed to see Detective Jensen. He told her Jensen was out but she could wait for him in his office. She decided to wait because if she didn't she would lose the courage to come back.

It was well past midnight when he came back and she didn't notice until she heard him slurp coffee from the Ithaca mug.

"Is it good?" Alyssa finished reading the last paragraph on the page. She closed the book unfolding her legs. The chair creaked from her movement.

"It's stale but I'll serve its purpose." Detective Jensen took another gulp before he sat the mug on the immaculate desk. "Was it good?" He jutted his chin to the book resting in Alyssa's lap.

"In the Blood. It's good. I already read it, though." Alyssa put the red covered book back onto the shelf. "I didn't expect a cop to be such an avid reader." She slid her finger across the row of books.

"I didn't expect to find a twenty-something reading." He dug through his desk drawer. "I thought you all snap chatted and Instagrammed."

"I don't know what that is." Alyssa dropped back in the chair.

Detective Jensen slapped a manila folder on his desk, "I hope that's what you came for." He rested his elbows on the desk. Alyssa looked at the faint wrinkles running across his forehead and the baby crows feet at the corner of his eyes. She wondered how many times a year he listened to victims give their statement about rape.

"Yes." Alyssa spat out. She read her name noting his excellent penmanship. She reached for the folder then drew her arm back. Detective Jensen repositioned his back against the generic chair. "What use is this?" She plucked the folder off the desk holding it up like a dirty rag. "He threw the condom in the trash. No DNA. No case." She knew that much from watching Law & Order SVU.

Detective Jensen dropped his hand from his bearded face. "Correct."

"So this is a colossal waste of time." She threw the folder on his desk standing up. "You came to Quinn's door and you told me you could help me." She could feel the anger bubbling under her skin. Her hand shook as she pointed her finger at him. "False hope! You gave me false hope."

"Your hand."

She turned from the door, "What?"

"Your hand." He pointed to the once bandaged appendage. "You scratched him during the attack. The police officer found skin samples under your nails." Alyssa watched his Adam's apple bob trying hard to fight off the images of that night from replaying in her head. "It'll be a match. All I need you to do is file charges so I can subpoena him for DNA." He rushed the words out in one breath. "Make him pay for what he did."

The fire in Jensen's eyes lit a match in Alyssa's belly. A match that ignited once it fell on the bed of stolen days and fractured memories.

Alyssa took a deep breath, "Give me a pen."

Hopefully, Alyssa is on the road to recovery.

P.S. In the Blood by: Lisa Unger is an awesome book if you love thrillers.