Just like the first time Janelle had awakened after being rescued from the cult compound, Boris wanted his face to be the first she saw in case she actually recognized it. He definitely wanted to see the expression on her face. He'd always been good at sniffing out bullshit.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJ4SZqt7J5
The hospital staff warned him that she might be a bit freaked out, not knowing where she was or what was going on. Also, her voice would be very hoarse and weak for a while. He liked the part about the voice but didn't give a damn if it freaked her out or whether it would hinder her mental or physical health. As long as she was alive to stand trial for killing his friend, as well as for the other charges against her, that was all that mattered to him. He would just prefer if she knew exactly what was going on in his mind. Her not remembering would be like charging a complete stranger. He wanted her to finally know what she had done and understand what was coming to her because of it.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCM5yhKyWVD
He looked up from his magazine and noticed that Janelle's eyes were open and turned in his direction. He rose from his chair and stood over her. Her eyes were blank and unreadable. They didn't seem very focused or aware of anything. But then, a moment later, they seemed to focus on his face. He slowly smiled slyly. At first, there was no reaction or change in Janelle's expression. Her eyes, the color of weak tea when not pissed about something, were simply fixed on him.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2rSwQnRGQ
Then a nurse entered the room, and Janelle went into full-blown panic mode, breathing heavily.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWpYrz7uiJk
"Just noticed she was awake," Boris told the nurse.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfCLORdbpPE
Janelle glanced around, terrified. She tried to speak, but her voice came out as just a garbled rasp.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7eFusX7rjN
"Relax," said the nurse. "You're safe. Do you know where you are?"7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQxu3qOP6rU
Janelle glanced at the nurse's deep green eyes, blinked, and then gave a slight shake of her head.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIK6Ik7ptXt
"Can you tell me your name?"7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zCg50Y8G3
Same reaction.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUz5hWZinxv
"Do you remember anything? What happened?"7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKkg3toIJYP
Janelle shook her head and, with a breathless rasp, said, “W-what happened?”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6SfigIB7GL
"You're in the hospital. You've been in a coma for a month. We'll get to what happened in a little bit. Let's have the doctor take a look at you first."7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyVJDNHMr0i
“W-why—my throat.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjKFopmT5a
“Mhm,” the nurse nodded knowingly. “Just hang on.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj4Zu55wdfx
Janelle stared dumbly at Boris while the nurse went to fetch the doctor.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NCDH742pf
The doctor came into the room and helped Janelle sit up a bit and sip on a cup of water.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8DsP6tjwnJ
The doctor, a woman with her blonde hair pulled back in a French braid, leaned over Janelle and said, “Hello, Janelle. I'm Dr. Porter. You had a very unfortunate incident, but I want you to know that you're safe now and in good hands. You may not remember much now, but most memory loss has a 50-50 chance of eventually returning.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcre1r006Ax
Janelle struggled to speak, pointing toward her throat.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1GC2ohokp
The doctor nodded knowingly. “You were strangled, honey.”7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDpDhrVA9Z1
Janelle's eyes bulged in fear and shock. Boris almost hated to see the doctor and nurse be so comforting, patting her arm or shoulder. Professionally, he knew it was wrong of him to feel the way he did, but he still believed the last person on Earth who deserved any sympathy—next to the likes of Ted Bundy and Jack the Ripper—was Janelle Stone, no matter what had happened to her and no matter who was at fault.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAR79nAfcMy
"Your throat will get better a lot faster than your memory. You have a tough road ahead, but we'll just take it one day at a time. Okay?"7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJtfT0A0Jpg
Janelle gave a brief nod, her eyes once again fixing curiously on Boris.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT6IjJpEFS
Janelle was asked a variety of questions from her name to her age to where she lived and more. She wasn't able to answer anything.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5EfKQKyO9W
Tears slid down Janelle's cheek for which Boris felt no sympathy.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTpJARg9Xg
"It's okay, honey," said the doctor. "Your name is Janelle Stone, and you're forty-one years old. You're from New Mexico, but you're presently in Texas."7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvGzdSn0MQ
Janelle tried to speak but couldn't.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDyAQBLvkEQ
The doctor turned and pointed at Boris. "Do you know this man?"7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt0A4JvQlum
Janelle focused her gaze on Boris. His deep gray eyes were fixed intently on her. He seemed visibly disappointed when Janelle shook her head.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByAvhnIZ1Q
"Oh, well, his name is Boris," said the doctor. "He and others are going to do everything they can to keep you safe."7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUcFseFQSm
And get your memory back and make you pay, Boris added in his mind.
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfP51WtFo6
7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC7qYgoDaVs
Janelle Stone eventually recovered her memory and went on to shove what she believed was her former PO who had come to her rescue off the hospital ward in a shocking display of strength and anger. He was “smothering” her and “too in her face,” and just “totally obsessed” with her.
As embarrassed as he was and as much as he hated to, he had no choice but to agree to follow his boss's orders and stay away for a while to let her cool down.
Law enforcement and the doctors occasionally butted heads over Janelle's well-being. Where law enforcement was usually professional and went by the book, these officers seemed obsessed with making Janelle's life even harder by invading her privacy, making her feel scrutized to the core, and disrupting her sleep—because hey, she had taken out one of their own who was a good friend of her very current PO.
The doctors, on the other hand, insisted that proper rest was key to Janelle's healing and therefore a speedier recovery—and release to their custody for them to do as they wished… within reason. Doctors had warned that due to her chronic health issues, she wouldn't last long in general population. “If you want her to live long enough to pay for her crimes,” one doctor told Boris, “then it's essential that she be placed in the geriatric section of the prison once convicted, and that she is properly cared for.”
He and other law enforcement officials still weren't willing to let her off that easily. They would let her sleep a little better, but they weren't about to give her an ounce of privacy. They would make her squirm in her hospital bed and feel like she was under a microscope night and day—and basically, she was.
Doctors had also argued it wasn’t good for her to have nothing to do—no books, no magazines, no nothing. They said it wasn’t good for her brain to have no stimuli. But as long as she was alive and with it, that was all law enforcement cared about—especially Boris, who had been elated when Janelle’s memory returned, even if she didn’t yet know she’d killed his friend. Besides, there was a point to law enforcement keeping her hands idle, as they explained to the doctors. They believed she was responsible for other murders, and suspects often took the opportunity to fill in the silence around them with some rather revealing information. That’s what they hoped to accomplish anyway, as Janelle sat there under the watchful eye of who would now be Officer Lauren Gilbert. When she wasn’t doing that, having some kind of test run, or in physical therapy, she did the only thing she was allowed to do. She scribbled her delusional and paranoid thoughts in the journal she at least hoped was private.
Yet, as hopeful as they were, Officer Gilbert was getting nothing but resistance and sometimes hostility from Stone. Instead of unlawful confessions, all she got were demands for privacy and room to breathe.
That’s when Gilbert concocted a plan when an idea spontaneously hit her. Why not pretend to like her? As in, really like her? Okay, so maybe she wasn’t her type since she wasn’t a blue-eyed blonde, but being younger, and in hopes of Stone feeling like she had the flattery of someone’s affections and perhaps extra legal protections of a law enforcement officer, maybe that would get her to open up a bit more.
Her fellow officers teased her playfully about making Heidi “jealous.” Heidi was the woman she was actually seeing—the lovely 28-year-old, divorced, green-eyed, sandy-haired mom of a five-year-old son named Timothy. She worked in dispatch, and their paths often crossed at the station. They’d only recently gotten serious, but it was a relationship destined to last until Gilbert would die in 15 years of ovarian cancer. She would then be 45 and a detective for 7 years at this time.
In reality, the thought of actually being anywhere remotely near the likes of Janelle Stone made her cringe. She wasn’t just a deplorable human being, but she was disgusting on the outside as well. They always say looks don’t matter, but how could anyone find anything attractive about the overweight, haggard-looking woman with the thin, stringy, graying hair and thick glasses? She’d seen other heavy women who were very attractive, but this was something grosser than gross. Despite the fact that Stone was only 41, her skin looked like that of a 60-year-old and she hated everything about her personality. To top it all off, the woman was dumber than dumb. Stone was the last person on Earth she would ever be interested in. It was only due to the love of Heidi she had to look forward to going home to at the end of her shift that made her able to stomach pretending to have a thing for the murderous bitch.
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