Nadirah sat at Joni’s bedside, too teary-eyed to see clearly. Maybe it was for the better, for every time she saw what she had done to her beautiful wife, guilt tore at her like the teeth of a mad shark.
She heard movement behind her and turned to find the doctor, a very friendly Indian woman, who was probably liked by just about everyone.
“Hello,” the doctor said with a friendly smile. “And how are you today?”
“Barely holding up,” said Nadirah. “When will there be any changes?”
“Well, there hasn’t been any as of yet,” the doctor said, face turning serious. “But we’re still hopeful.”
“Oh, yeah?” Nadirah challenged. “How hopeful? How hopeful, Doc? Every time I come here, she’s just lying there completely lifeless and unaware of anything. Please! You’ve got to be able to do something.”
Now the doctor’s features took on a note of sympathy. “We’re doing the best we can, I assure you. Based on everything we’ve got to work with and what we know about these types of comas, we’re doing the best we possibly can.”
Nadirah’s tears flowed freely once again. “I come in here and I talk to her and I feel like I’m talking to the wall and not to my Joni. She has no idea I’m even here.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” the doctor said in a soothing tone. “Many coma patients have been known to have been aware or at least sense the presence of their loved ones around them. That’s why it’s very important to keep visiting as often as you can and to speak to her, too.”
Nadirah hesitated and said, “I’m almost afraid to ask this, but what kind of life do you think she’ll have if she wakes up? Will she be able to do things like feed herself? Will she even know her name or remember who I am?”
“That’s certainly going to depend on how long she remains in the coma, but more than likely, she’ll have a long, slow recovery ahead of her, though she will recover. Amnesia is going to be a bigger issue than her ability to function. Chances are, she’ll remember most things. It’s the time of the attack she may not remember.”
“For good, or will she one day remember it?”
“There’s no way to know for sure. I’d say there’s an eighty percent chance she won’t remember it if and when she awakens from the coma. And if that’s the case, then I’d say it’s fifty-fifty as to whether or not she’ll remember it later on down the road.”
A slight coughing sound startled both Nadirah and the doctor. They quickly glanced at the still figure in the bed, who now seemed to be struggling to breathe.
“What’s wrong?” asked a worried Nadirah. “Is she okay?”
The doctor stepped up beside Joni and began to listen to her heart and lungs. A moment later, she said, “Yes, she’s stable. It happens sometimes. Just like we sometimes wake up in our sleep coughing, they sometimes have little coughing spells as well.”
The doctor studied the machines Joni was hooked up to and their numbers, all of which made no sense at all to Nadirah other than the one monitoring her heartbeat and blood pressure. “Now that’s a good sign,” said the doctor.
“What? What is?”
“Based on the brain waves, she’s rising up into the lightest stage of a coma.”
“So she’s conscious now?” asked Nadirah, hope shining through in her voice.
“She could be at least somewhat conscious, judging by the increase in brain activity, so it’s all the more important to keep the communication going and to be very selective about what you say. I highly suggest that you don’t speak of what happened or anything she may perceive as negative or unpleasant in any way. Talk about the activities, places, people and foods she enjoys and things like that.”
“Okay,” Nadirah said, perking up for the first time since the incident.
“Most importantly…”
“Yes?”
“Always remind her of your love for her and how she’ll always be cared for by you, protected and safe in your presence.”
Nadirah Haddad opened the door that frigid January day and Detective Will Clark looked into her tired and weary eyes.
The eyes still had a cold, dead look about them.
“Hello, Miss Haddad. How are you?”
Nadirah shrugged, then said, “As good as can be expected under the circumstances. Anything going on?”
“No, not yet. Sorry. May I come in?”
Nadirah opened the door wide enough for him. Will stepped into the room and surveyed it slowly. Not much had changed since he’d first been called to the scene after Joni had been taken out by ambulance.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Nadirah as she studied him.
“Is there something I can help you with?” she finally asked.
“Not really. I guess I’m just here to see how you’re doing.”
And to see if I still get those same evil vibes you give off, he added to himself, that says you’re guilty as sin and in need of the one and only Detective Will Clark to prove it. Yup, I’m just the man for the job, alright.
“Well, it’s been hard,” Nadirah said almost in a snotty tone. “It’s not an easy place to be with all the reminders of what happened here. And the fear of the madman returning.”
Will gazed at Nadirah. She seemed just over five feet tall while he was over six feet tall. He more than towered over the woman. Yet despite this fact, he still sensed an intimidating hardness emanating from her. He could just imagine how Joni must have felt.
“What’s the latest on your wife’s condition?”
“She’s actually shown some promising signs of improvement,” Nadirah said, mood seeming to suddenly brighten dramatically.
“Oh, yeah?” Will said, flashing a bright white smile.
Nadirah nodded and went on. “They still can’t promise she’ll wake up, but they think she will.”
“Any chance she’ll remember the attack?”
“Well, of course there’s a chance, but I sure hope not for her sake. If it’s been hell enough for me to have to live with the memory of seeing what happened to her, imagine how she’d feel remembering it actually happening to her?”
“Yeah, it’s a terrible thing, alright. Just terrible.”
Nadirah’s solemn expression returned.
Time for reality, thought Will. “Mind my asking how you two got along?”
Nadirah glanced suspiciously at Will. “Are you really asking me if I did it?”
Will smiled. Wow. This lady really had a lot of fire despite her diminutive size. “Well, you know how it goes as an officer of the law yourself. It’s just a standard routine question when questioning not just suspects, but relatives and friends of the victims.”
“Yeah, I know how it goes, but I also don’t,” said Nadirah, cold hardness returning to her eyes. “I only question evidence, Detective, not people. But to answer your question as to how we got along, same as most couples. We love each other, but sometimes we disagree on things and don’t always see eye to eye.”
Will walked over to a framed photo of Joni that sat atop the dresser. “This your lovely lady?”
“That it is,” Nadirah said proudly. “That was always one of my favorite pictures of her.”
“She’s a real beauty indeed. Such long hair. Reminds me of that character in that fairytale. Oh, what’s the name…?”
“Rapunzel.”
“Rapunzel! That’s it.”
Nadirah smiled for a nanosecond, but then a look of sadness came over her features.
And guilt.
Will doubted the incident had been premeditated. More than likely, a fight had broken out over something or another, and Joni either tripped trying to get away from Nadirah or Nadirah had pushed her out of anger, never intending for her to actually get hurt in the end.
But Will was about to get a little mean just the same.
“I hate to say this, Miss Haddad… Nadirah… but you seem to appear… I don’t know… like you feel guilty about things or something like that.”
A flicker of anger and perhaps surprise. Then, “Of course I feel guilty. If you were completely powerless to help someone you love who was being beaten nearly to death right before your eyes, do you think you would feel guilty?”
“Of course I would,” said Will. “I just want to nail the sick twist that did this to such a beautiful person as your wife.”
Nadirah’s expression softened. “I know the feeling.”
“So, how did you two meet, and when?”
“We first met almost twenty-five years ago.”
“Wow, that long?”
Nadirah nodded. “We didn’t exactly start off on the right foot either. We met at a bar, exchanged numbers, got into an argument, then Joni started making prank phone calls to me.”
“Really?” said Will, though he had dug into the archives and read up on the case and knew what the police discovery and what the media at least claimed had happened. “Why’d she do that?”
“Because I wasn’t interested in her at the time, and she felt misunderstood and like I dumped her. She later regretted saying some of the things she said as well, not intending to come off as she did. But the case went to court, ended up dismissed, and then I never heard from her again. Until five years ago, when she flew in from California for some special tasks that needed to be done at the Institute.”
“Wait a minute, back up a bit.”
Nadirah eyed Will questioningly.
“If you weren’t interested in her, why did you exchange numbers?”
Nadirah looked thoughtful for a moment. Then, staring off into nothing, she shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Maybe in the back of my mind, I was at least leaving the door open to any possibilities.”
“Yeah?”
“Or maybe I was just being polite and friendly. Who knows what I was really thinking all those years ago?”
“Were you sorry things didn’t work out back then?”
“I am now. She’s changed a lot, though she still is who she is,” she said, smiling sadly. “She can be a real little devil at times, but the more we came to respect and care for each other, the more determined she was to stay out of trouble, you could say.”
“A real little prankster, huh?”
“Yeah,” Nadirah said with a slight laugh. “You name it, she did it. She prank-called people, she egged cars… all kinds of things.”
Will laughed as well.
“She had a troubled past, and I guess it didn’t quite set the stage for a productive life for her for a while. But it’s who she became and who she is now that matters most, not who she was or what she did in the past. She didn’t hurt anyone. Just drove them a little batty.”
Will laughed again. “Well, it’s good that you two worked through the past and moved onward.”
“Yes, it is. She’s not usually what I go for since she’s so different than me, but I’m glad, too.”
“Hey, sometimes opposites really do attract.”
They heard the sound of someone pulling up in the gravel driveway and looked out the front window.
“Are you expecting anyone, Miss Haddad?”
“No, I’m not,” said Nadirah, getting a better look out the window. “Oh, that’s Giffy.”
“Who?”
“Gifford Sheridan, my friend and coworker.”
A moment later, Gifford was shaking hands with Will as introductions were made, then he turned to leave, promising to let Nadirah know if there were any breakthroughs in the case.
Soon afterward, Will backed out of the Haddads’ driveway and onto the main road, touched but not fooled. He could see that Nadirah and Joni had been through many ups and downs together, and perhaps a part of Nadirah truly loved Joni at one point. Maybe even still did, if that were possible. But he knew she was guilty. He knew it.
“I don’t know how I know you’re guilty,” he muttered to himself, “and I don’t know how I’m gonna prove it, but I’ll getcha. Yes, I’ll getcha. Attempted murder? Probably not. Manslaughter, probably not even that much. But involuntary manslaughter, you betcha. You betcha.”
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