Page 46 of Justice for Radar

I stayed silent and brought my eyes back up from my coffee to his eyes and asked, “You really want me to do this for you?”

“Yes, I do,” he said with a nod. “You’re a survivor, and a badass one at that. So, let’s show the world just how badass you are.”

Me? A badass?I thought.Not hardly…

Although his confidence in me did inspire a confidence in me… so I guess there was that.

15

Radar…

“Yeah?” I answered Atlas’s call as I padded into the kitchen. Thankfully, the vibrating phone hadn’t disturbed Jussy, and I was able to slip out of bed unnoticed. I figured I could take my partner’s call and make me and my girl some coffee.

My girl…it was still so shiny and new, and held that excitement that came with the new… but not only did I like the sound of it, it also feltright.

“So,” my partner said. “I was finally able to take a breather from some of the other shit we’ve got cookin’ and look into your girl.”

“I didn’t ask you to look into my girl,” I said, my tone and mood instantly tempestuous. “I asked you to track the dirtbag she rolled into town with.”

“Whoa, things got serious last night, huh?” he asked, laughing a little at my expense.

“Yeah,” I said in such a way that would brook no argument. “Yeah, things are serious,” I told him.

“Okay, man. Ease up. You know the drill – sometimes the victimology is just as important as the suspect themselves.”

“Yeah, whatever, what did you learn?” I growled.

“This is one exceptionally deep rabbit hole, bro. Like, I can’t even.”

“Start at the beginning,” I told him, tucking the phone between my ear and my shoulder.

“Well, first off, I cracked the seal on her big court case with her ex,” he said grimly.

“Records were sealed?” I asked.

“On a kind he was still active duty when the shit went down, and he went full psycho – and I do mean he went full fucking psycho.”

“She hasn’t said much about it,” I said. “Just the quick and dirty.”

“Well, the long version is some horrifying shit,” he said. “Like48hours Mysterybad. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets contacted by a pack of exploitative jackals posing as journalists over this shit.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Gimme the short version,” I said. “I don’t know how long she’ll stay asleep for, I’m out in the kitchen making coffee as it is.”

“Okay, well, this wasn’t a one-and-done he beat her and stabbed her and dumped her in a Texas killing field type grave – no, he lost his shit, beat her to unconsciousness, she woke up with him on top of her raping the shit out of her, and this went on fordays, bro. Like he kept her captive in their house for two… threedays.She kept her cool the whole time and when she finally suggested he let her go? He epically lost it and stabbed the shit out of her, wrapped her in their shower curtain, and took her out and buried her. She came to, clawed her way out of her own shallow grave, and staggered something like six miles to a main road where she flagged down a cop who called an ambulance for her. This is straight up,Last House on the Left, horror movie shit, I’m telling you. She’s a fucking incredible badass. I’m a little jealous, if I do say so myself.”

I stood there stunned, bile rising in the back of my throat. Shit, she’d played things down for me…

“He did all that to her?” I asked, numb.

“Yeah,” Atlas said, and he didn’t sound happy about it – far from it. He sounded just about as pissed as I would feel once the shock wore off.

“What prison is he in?” I demanded.

He rattled it off. “Cool, okay, I need to talk to the captain about that one,” I said. I mean, I couldn’t get to him inside like that, but we might know some motherfuckers who could and I was thinking I would be willing to owe no end of fucking favors to make that shit happen. You know? That walking shit stain didn’t need to be breathing any of the same air of this planet as my girl.

“Yeah, well, the plot thickens my dude.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

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