Read Fairstein, Linda - Final Jeopardy for Free Online Page B

been a lot of improvements, a lot of changes in the law. In a case like this, when you’ve been attacked by a man you never saw before, nothing about your sexual history is relevant to the trial. I promise you: this stuff isn’t like all those awful made-for-TV movies.
    Detective Wallace does the heavy lifting in this case the worst is behind you. Once he finds the man and you identify him, we won’t have you on the witness stand for more than an hour.
    “Let me just go through the story with you one time, then you can help with the sketch and go home and get some rest.”
    “I can’t go home, Miss Cooper. I’ll never feel safe there again. I’m going to my sister’s house in New Jersey. Mercer is going to go with me to the apartment to pack some clothes, but I’ll give you my sister’s number until I find a new place to live.”
    This stuff really sucks. A woman alone in her home, minding her own business, is victimized there then has to move out because it’s so saturated with the memory of that devastating violation.
    I asked Katherine what had happened yesterday afternoon, shortly before one o’clock, as she sat alone in her kitchen.
    “Well, I was eating my lunch when the doorbell rang and I said, ”Who is it?“ and a voice outside the door said, ”It’s Con Edison.“ I said I wasn’t expecting anyone from Con Edison, that I didn’t have any problems. He told me, as I looked through the peephole, that the super had called him in because there was trouble on the gas lines in all the rear apartments. So I could see that he was, you know, dressed like a Con Ed workman and I opened the door.”
    I already knew the answers to the questions I was about to ask, and I already knew how many times Katherine Fryer had blamed herself for the same things, but I had to ask them anyway.
    “When you say he was dressed like a Con Ed repairman, can you tell me more about his clothing?”
    “Well, it was just a flannel shirt and jeans, with a work jacket over them, and a hard hat.”
    “Did the hat say ”Con Ed“ on it, specifically? Did it have any lettering on it?”
    “No. It didn’t say anything.”
    “Did he have any kind of identification that he showed I you, like any tag on his shirt or anything he pulled out of his pocket?”
    Katherine was avoiding eye contact now, admitting, with regret, that she hadn’t asked for any ID, she had just assumed he was telling the truth.
    “I let him in and he walked right into the kitchen, where my lunch was on the table, and he opened the stove and looked in. And I kept talking to him as he looked, and I said I didn’t ever report a problem with my oven even though the gas had been kind of poor. It’s an old building everything needed repairs at one point or other. Then he said, ”Maybe you could get your husband to come out here and give me a hand with this.“ Katherine paused and winced as she went on, ”So I told him, “I don’t have a husband I mean, maybe I can just help you.”
That’s exactly what he wanted to hear, as Mercer and I were well aware.
Home alone.
“That’s when he stood up from the oven, turned around and faced me.
That’s the first time I saw the knife.”
    “Take a breath, Katherine,” I said, leaning over to put my hand on top of hers.
    “You’re doing fine. Just take it easy I know this is difficult to do.”
    “It was a long knife it had a long, narrow blade. I think he pulled it out of the tool belt he had around his waist.
    It seemed like it was fifteen or sixteen inches very, very long. He grabbed me and held the knife right in front of my face. He told me not to make a sound or he would cut up my face. Then he said he’d kill me if I didn’t do what he wanted.
    “So he walked me into the bedroom and told me to undress with my back toward him, to take all my clothes off and get on my knees. That’s when he made me do oral sex on him.”
    When she stopped, Mercer offered her a glass of water, and as she sipped it I