FicWad

Gerard lifted me into his arms and carried me to the bedroom. He placed me in the bed and covered my shivering body with the blankets. I was too shaken to speak. He undressed and slide into bed next to me. Taking me into his arms we simply laid together. Words seemed impossible for both of us. I closed my eyes wishing today had been a nightmare and that I could wake up to find none of it had happened.
“Sleep, Laura.” He whispered in my ear.
“If I do will you be here when I wake up?” I asked. My voice shook.
He hugged me tighter, “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

The sound of the doorbell caused me to wake with a start. Beside me I felt Gerard slid out of bed. I sat up and watched as he pulled on his sweats. “Gee?”
“Don’t know who it is.” He said. I glanced over at the clock and saw it was almost midnight.
When he left to answer the door I quickly got out of bed and tightened my robe. I heard Gee speaking to someone and was shocked to see a police officer standing in our living room.
“I’d like to speak to your wife.” I heard the office say.
I walked slowly into the room, “What’s going on?”
They both turned to me. “Laura, something’s happened to Jenny.” Gerard said walking over to put his arm around me.
“What? I just saw her today.”
The office nodded, “Would you mind answering a few questions?”
“Of course.” I said. The three of us took seats in the living room. Gee sat next to me on the sofa and the office sat in the recliner.
“Now Mrs. Way I understand you and Ms Kline met today?”
“Please, tell me first. Is Jenny okay?”
He nodded, “She’s in the hospital. We weren’t able to question her again until about an hour ago so I do apologize for the lateness of this call but we don’t want any leads to cold.”
“What happened to her?” I asked. Damn, I was upset and confused. Gerard put his arm around me and gave me a squeeze.
“She was attacked this afternoon as she was leaving your apartment building.”
I sat up, “What? Tell me this is a joke.”
“Sorry to say it’s not.”
I started to shake, “What happened?”
"According to Ms Kline she left your apartment around two this afternoon. Is that correct?"
I nodded, "Yeah, we had lunch then walked back here so I could show her our new apartment. It was around two when she left."
The office wrote something down in his notebook.
"Did Jenny say what happened?" Gerard asked.
The officer looked up from his notepad, "Were you in the apartment today, sir?"
I saw the confused look on Gerard’s face, "No actually I was with friends today. I got back here around three."
Now I was confused. When I had awaked from my nap it was four. "Does it matter if my husband was here or not?" I was confused and to be honest unhappy that Gerard was being questioned about his whereabouts.
"Just trying to establish some of the facts." The officer said with a smile. "Now you and Ms Kline got back here about what time?"
I thought a moment, I would guess around 1:30."
"So she only stayed approximately a half hour?"
"Maybe not even that long. I showed her the apartment and we talked a short time then she told me she had a lot to do so she needed to be going. I think also that she wanted to get going because her car was still at the restaurant and it was starting to rain."
"It was raining but she walked back to the restaurant?" He asked.
I didn't like his tone. "I offered to drive her back to her restaurant but she said it was just sprinkling so she'd walk."
He wrote something else down. I started to wonder if I was a suspect. "Can you please tell me what happened? Was Jenny mugged?"
"I just need to ask a few more questions first. Now it was starting to rain but she decided to walk back to the restaurant anyway."
I nodded, "Yes. I did give her my hoodie because she asked for one. She said she wished she'd brought one with her so I gave her one of mine."
"And she put it on before she left?"
I thought back. "She did. She put it on before she left the apartment. Did Jenny get mugged?" I asked again. Something seemed very wrong with this questioning.
The officer ignored my question again and turned to Gerard. "I understand you are in a band."
"Yeah" Gerard answered.
"And Ms Kline works for the band?"
"She works for our record company technically." Gee explained.
He wrote something else in his notebook. Then he looked over at me again. "I understand you work with Ms Kline?"
"We both set up the Meet & Greets for the band. You know, the events where fans get a chance to meet the band members and get autographs."
He nodded, "Sorry I'm not familiar with the band but I understand you are very popular."
Gerard didn't answer. I could feel his hand tighten on my shoulder.
"Mrs. Way do you have any enemies that you know of?" The question was asked quickly and left me shocked.
"Me? No."
"Why the hell did you ask that?" Gerard said angrily. I placed my hand on his knee trying to calm him
The office held up his hand, "Sorry but it's a question I had to ask. According to Ms Kline she left your apartment and went to the elevators but they were taking too long so she used the stairwell. She said she had just reached the final flight of stairs when she heard someone behind her.
Gerard interrupted, "I know there is surveillance cameras in the stairwells."
"Yes, but the camera that would have shown the attack wasn’t working. We have the tapes from the cameras on the other floors and are going over them. Hopefully we will see if they caught the image of anyone else entering on another floor.”
"Shit" Gerard said.
"Unfortunately the superintendent didn't think anything about that camera not working. He said from time to time the cameras malfunction. He made a note of it in his log and planned to have it looked at in the morning."
My head was starting to pound. "So what happened to Jenny?' I asked trying not to sound angry. I just wanted to know what happened to her and I wanted to know now.
"She said she got a strange feeling and so she hurried down the last flight. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she said she felt a pain in her shoulder and realized she'd been stabbed."
"Stabbed?" I cried out. "Jenny was stabbed?"
"Multiple times from behind. She tried to get away from her attacker but fell. A woman who lives on the fourth floor found her. That was a little after three. She uses the steps instead of the elevators as a form of exercise."
"Oh my God." I said softly. "Jenny just laid there bleeding? Oh God.
He nodded, "It was lucky she didn't bleed to death." he continued,” I came by earlier this evening but you were out. I originally planned on waiting until tomorrow morning to talk to you but something came up that made it obvious I needed to speak to you as soon as possible."
"What came up?" Gerard asked. I could hear the fear in his voice.
"When Ms Kline first was taken to the ER she was badly shaken up. According to the woman who found her she was unconscious until the ambulance arrived. The doctors worked on her wounds then I questioned her. The doctors believe because of the bump on her head that she hit the floor when the attack started. She did seem very confused when I tried to question her at first. She couldn't give me many details of what had happened. Just the basics. But about an hour ago I was called back to the hospital because she wanted to talk to me. She told me she remembered more about the attack."
Gerard and I sat listening. I knew we both had a feeling of dread in our souls. "She said she remembered that when she heard the footsteps behind her she started to run. That's when she heard a woman’s voice call her ‘Laura’."
I gasped and Gerard seemed to freeze.
"She also said she remembers the woman saying something about ‘the blade is stained’. Does that make any sense to either of you?"
Beside me Gerard stopped breathing. I knew I had to say something. "Are you saying that whoever it did this was actually after me?" I deliberately didn't answer the question about the stained blade.
He nodded,” I’m afraid it seems that way. She was wearing your hoodie and the attacker called her Laura."
My stomach flipped over and I felt like I was going to be sick. It took every ounce of willpower not to throw up. I couldn't leave Gerard’s side.
"My wife is in danger." Gerard said softly.
The office nodded, "It's quite possible. Now you understand why I was asking about enemies. This woman could be someone after your wife or she could be someone trying to hurt you by going after your wife. Do you have any enemies that you know of? Being in a band there is always the possibility that this is a stalker.”
I glanced over at Gerard and saw the look of fear that covered his face.