“Don’t you worry, baby, we got Daltry; everything’s going to be all right.”
“What happened to me?” Willa asked. “We were fighting; that’s all I remember.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Shelly said. “You just get some rest.”
Willa’s voice got stronger. “Goddammit, Shelly, tell me what happened!”
Shelly took a deep breath. “He raped you, honey. He knocked you unconscious, and then he raped you.”
Willa involuntarily moved her hand to her crotch.
“Not there, Willa.”
“Oh, shit.”
“You’re all right. The doctor already checked you out, and you’re all right. You just be quiet now.”
“I want some aspirin,” Willa said. “I have a hell of a headache, and my eyes are burning, too.”
Shelly reached over and pressed the bedside buzzer. A moment later, a nurse appeared. “She has a headache,” Shelly said to the woman. “Get her something, will you?”
“He sprayed me with something, mace or pepper spray; I need my eyes flushed out.”
“I’ll see to it,” the nurse said, then disappeared. She was back in a moment with two Tylenol, some eye solution and a syringe. In another moment she was dabbing the excess away with a tissue.
“That’s better,” Willa said. “Crank the bed up a little, will you?”
Shelly grabbed the bed control and sat her up. “The guys are all outside. So’s Bacchetti. They’re beside themselves. Can I bring them in?”
“Sure, go ahead, but let’s not discuss my…condition with them, all right?”
Shelly nodded. “I’ll get them.”
Bernstein led the way into the room. He took Willa’s hand. “I’m sorry it took us so long to get in,” he said to her. “The place was a fortress.”
“Where’s Daltry?”
“He’s downstairs being treated for his injuries. We’ll run him uptown when they’re done with him.”
“What injuries?”
Bernstein glanced at his lieutenant. “Well, before you passed out, you must have gotten in a few good punches.”
Willa managed a chuckle. “Yeah, I’ll bet I beat the shit out of him.”
Dino spoke up. “Whatever he got, he deserved. Listen, kiddo, that phone number you got us paid off. It was for Daltry’s country house in Sneden’s Landing, up the Hudson, and we found his younger brother there, freshly paroled from Attica, after doing seven years for a collection of violent crimes. They’re bringing him down to the precinct, so now that I know you’re okay, I’m going to go up there and interrogate him myself.”
“You think he did the girl in New Jersey?” she asked.
“I’d bet on it,” Dino replied. “We’ll collect some DNA from him, then get the Jersey cops on it. With a little luck we’ll put them both away forever. At the very least we’ve got Daltry on the two rapes.”
Dino looked immediately annoyed with himself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
“There was another rape?”
“A nurse at a hospital uptown named Genevieve James. Nice girl; she’ll testify.”
“I want him for the murder,” Willa said.