"Well, if it isn't the infamous Janelle Stone."
Janelle, who had been walking along the corridor for exercise escorted by Boris, slowly turned in the direction of the voice to find a Black nurse, whom she had never seen before, eyeing her smugly. "Infamous?"
"Well..."
"Lady, I was one of the hostages."
"That may be, but what is he doing here?" she asked, motioning to Boris.
"He's here to help make sure those who are still at large don't get to me. As a witness who can testify against them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind seeing me eliminated."
"Oh, I see. Well, that's good then."
Janelle hobbled back into her room and into the bathroom, her suspicions raised once again about the degree of honesty from the officials who had promised to scrap the rest of her probation in exchange for her testimony. No, she calmly told herself. Even they wouldn’t be that cruel. They know the hell you’ve gone through. They wouldn’t do that to you. Besides, how would they get anyone else to trust them in the future if word got out that they deceived you? No, they mean it. They really do. If they say this is it, then this is it. No more probation. Yes, it's weird that my former probation officer is one of my guards, but as he said, it's important that he and Rick partake in the testimony by sharing recordings of my phone calls to them while in captivity. So why couldn’t he be just as suitable a guard as any other cop? Besides, sometimes cops are looking out for me since Boris can’t guard me 24/7.
But then why does Boris still seem so insensitive to my situation at times? Janelle also asked herself. He’s not, she eventually resolved. He’s just that way with everyone. He’s just not one to show emotion. He’s not as chatty and friendly as his colleague.
She emerged from the bathroom just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation she didn’t like at all.
"Well, there’s the rest of the probation time, plus the new charges. It could amount to 15 to 20 years," she heard Boris say. "It’s all going to depend on the judge."
"What’s going to depend on the judge?" Janelle asked, stepping into the hall.
The two turned to look at her.
"Just talking about a local case they had recently," Boris told Janelle.
But Janelle wasn’t entirely convinced and wondered if she should run as soon as she could, fearing she might regret not doing so if she stuck around much longer. It was a tremendously tough decision, but given that Janelle was still in a weakened state and fatigued a lot of the time, she wasn’t going anywhere that night.
She climbed back into bed, exhausted, and hoped to get as much sleep as possible. She had complained repeatedly, but her guards didn’t seem to understand that her recovery depended on not having her rest disturbed so often, as even the doctors and nurses had pointed out to them. It seemed like they didn’t always care, or perhaps they didn’t realize just how loud they could get. She just wished they would stay off their damn gaming devices. Even when they weren’t on them, they sometimes got a little loud talking to the staff or when they sneezed or coughed. It wasn’t easy getting them to sit outside the room instead of inside, but eventually, she convinced them to sit in the hall.
She was at the end of the corridor where there were some cabinets and the door to the stairwell just outside the room to the right, so there wasn’t much activity passing by. Janelle liked it better than the other room, which was in the center of the corridor by the nurse’s station. That meant a constant hustle and bustle of staff, patients, and their visitors moving up and down the corridor, as well as the buzzing of phones and other annoying sounds.
Janelle tried to ignore the feeling that Boris was intentionally trying to intimidate her with his presence, telling herself she was being silly. Yes, he was the first face she saw when she opened her eyes, and she could have sworn she saw a faint smile on his lips, but still... She tried to convince herself he was only glad she’d pulled through to help prosecute the cult members who were still alive, not to deceive her about scrapping her remaining probation. But then she swore there was something about his reaction when she smiled in return, as if he thought she had gotten the wrong idea or something.
And there he was, closely following her to the room they moved her to once it became available since it was more out of the way.
If the whole thing is a lie just to get my testimony, does the hospital staff know that? Either way, do they know Boris had been my PO? She wondered about these things, but of course, she wasn’t going to ask.
"You are one tightly guarded lady," the nurse said as Janelle was being wheeled down to the end of the corridor, since she was still too weak to walk very far on her own, with Boris directly behind them.
"Yeah, it makes me feel safer with the bad guys still out there," Janelle said, determined not to let her discomfort show. But it was still a bit unnerving having the ever-present Boris and others hovering over her all the time.
Boris said that someone else was covering for him and taking care of his other clients, which was how he was able to spend so many days with her. It was usually a uniformed officer who stayed with her when Boris wasn’t there, although they were often there when he was as well, and she often found them to be surprisingly cold and not very empathetic to her situation. In reality, she felt more like a criminal than the victim of a horrible crime.
You're not the criminal here! Janelle had to remind herself. Stop being paranoid. You’re only paranoid because you have been screwed by the law in the past. If you were the criminal and this was more about the fact that you really did try to abscond as opposed to being kidnapped and held hostage, they would have you handcuffed to this bed. You're okay. It’s all okay. Everything's going to work out and be just fine. Somehow, some way, you’ll find your way out there in this world, even if you have to start from scratch.
But a little voice deep in Janelle’s head continued to tell her to trust no one.
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