Chapter 2 - The Hospital & The Hidden Bruises
Twenty minutes later, three marked State Trooper cruisers slammed their brakes in front of the precinct, sirens blinding the rain-soaked night. Emergency Medical Technicians rushed into the room with a gurney.
As the paramedics began examining Mrs. Hale, Dana attempted to sneak toward the back exit.
“Going somewhere, Dana?” Evelyn’s voice cut through the commotion. Two female State Troopers immediately stepped into Dana’s path, blocking the exit.
“I’m the victim here!” Dana shrieked, clutching her face. “Look at my cheek!”
The lead paramedic gave Dana’s cheek a quick glance before turning back to Mrs. Hale. “That’s a minor surface scratch, likely self-inflicted or caused by a fingernail. Meanwhile, this elderly woman has two fractured ribs, a severe compound fracture in her left wrist, and a fractured collarbone consistent with repeated blunt force trauma from a heavy, blunt object.”
Michael rushed over, panic finally breaking through his arrogant facade. “Evelyn, please! Dana was stressed! Mom wouldn’t sign over the deed to the lake house! It was just a disagreement!”
Evelyn turned to her brother, her eyes filled with cold disgust. “She beat our mother with a bat because Mom wouldn’t give you her house?”
“It’s our inheritance!” Michael shouted desperately. “Mom is old! She doesn’t need a four-bedroom house! Dana wanted to remodel it! Mom was being stubborn!”
“She bought that house with thirty years of nursing shifts,” Evelyn said, her voice dropping to a deadly quiet whisper. “And you let your wife torture her for property.”
At the hospital, while Mrs. Hale was prepped for emergency surgery to align her shattered wrist, Evelyn met with State Trooper Investigator Marcus Vance in the hallway.
“We searched Dana’s SUV in the precinct parking lot,” Vance reported, holding up an evidence bag containing a wooden baseball bat stained with dark red blood and grey wool fibers matching Mrs. Hale’s sweater. “Found it stuffed under the spare tire in the trunk. Captain Ross helped her hide it before you arrived.”
“Process it for DNA immediately,” Evelyn instructed. “And trace Captain Ross’s personal bank accounts. A precinct captain doesn’t risk a federal prison sentence just out of family loyalty. He’s dirty.”
“On it,” Vance nodded.
As Vance walked away, Evelyn sat next to her mother’s hospital bed. Mrs. Hale opened her eyes slowly, groggy from the painkillers.
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“Evelyn…” Mrs. Hale whimpered, tears spilling down her bruised cheeks. “I raised him. I sang him to sleep when he was a boy. How could Michael do this to me?”
Evelyn took her mother’s uninjured hand, holding it tight. “Because he forgot what love is, Mom. But I haven’t. And I promise you, every single person who hurt you tonight will pay for every bruise on your body.”
