Page 10 of Concealed

Rebecca wants somewhere to hide while she gathers her courage, and I’ll keep her safe until we can deal with what happened to her – because we will. But instead of a black and white rulebook, she needs understanding right now.

It doesn’t take an investigative reporter to figure out her story. It’s a familiar one that I’ve heard thousands of times. Thankfully, she left before the situation escalated to her getting killed, and I can only hope that she doesn’t go back to him like so many women in her position do.

The victim psychology is complicated, and I can’t begin to understand how broken down and battered a woman must feel to stay with a man who lays his hands on her.

I’ve always been a big dude, and I’ve never known fear in the way that I imagine it lived inside Rebecca and ate away at her, destroying her self-confidence.

Being one of the strongest guys in the room has been the case for me since high school. I can’t remember the last time I was scared that someone would physically overpower me or cause me bodily harm. Guns pointed at me are entirely different, but hand-to-hand isn’t an issue for me.

I’ve also never considered hurting a woman, so I can’t understand the psychology on the perpetrator’s side either.

Every instinct is screaming at me to protect Rebecca, but I know from experience the best way to do that is to be there while she finds her feet again. Maybe we’ll become friends, maybe we won’t, but first, she needs to trust me.

When I’m pulling into the station parking lot, my phone rings, and I’m not surprised that Gabe’s mug is on the screen.

“Hey, dickhead.”

“Glad to hear how much you miss me,” he says with a chuckle. “Do you have time to talk?”

“I bought a coffee and have a half-hour to enjoy it in peace before my shift starts. I guess I can spend part of it talking to you, though I wouldn’t exactly call you peaceful.”

“How bad did she look?”

I crack the coffee open and take a long sip. “It definitely wasn’t the first time. It’s good she left when she did, or…” Domestics tend to escalate over time, and the end game can be death or serious, life-threatening injuries.

“I figured it was a bad scene,” Gabe says tightly. “I haven’t heard from Rebecca in years. She’s my friend Darren’s little sister. She met a guy that none of us really know anything about and moved in with him. She just gradually cut everyone off, and then she changed her phone number. Darren didn’t even know her address.”

I’ve met Darren a few times since my relationship with Gabe transitioned from being just work-related into a real friendship. Now that he’s mentioning it, I recall him telling me that Darren has an MIA sister, but I didn’t put the pieces together until now.

“You never looked?” I ask.

“I did… She never updated her address from when she lived at her old place. It’s like she vanished without a trace.”

“No idea who the boyfriend is?”

“A few years ago, she went on a trip to Mexico after getting out of a long-term relationship. She told her family that she met someone named Matt, and then she up and moved to Vegas very soon after.”

Interesting.

It’s not uncommon for abusers to cut their victims off from their support networks and financial resources as part of their control game. It sounds like Rebecca got swept away in a whirlwind romance.

Narcissists can be charming when it suits them. It probably seemed too good to be true for Rebecca, who likely thought she met her prince charming if the fact that she uprooted her entire life is any indication.

Whoever this Matt guy is, he was probably on his best behavior until he isolated her, and then he let his true colors show. I’m sure she was shocked the first time he hit her and believed him when he said that it wouldn’t happen again, which started the whole never-ending cycle.

And then it was too late.

“I’ll take care of her,” I promise, “and I’ll try to get the full story for you and Darren.”

“Thanks, man. I never stopped worrying about her and suspected something serious was going on, but there was nothing I could do. She was with Matt willingly, and you know how it goes when you interfere and try to rescue a victim before they’re ready to be saved.”

“You become public enemy number one, and the abuser convinces her to stop talking to you completely.”

“Exactly. And I always wanted to be available if she needed me. Thank God she called. And I really appreciate you stepping in. She was insistent that she needed to stay with someone Matt couldn’t connect her to, and I immediately thought of you.”

“I’m glad you did, and it’s no problem.”

“Not that I would go there because of the bro code, but she always was a pretty little thing,” Gabe notes.

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