(41) I am what I am

~Blair~

“What happened then Blair?” Jack asked.

“I don’t remember. Well, a bit I remember now, but I didn’t then. I panicked. It reminded me of being tied up by my stepfather before he’d…he’d…”

“We’re going to stop now,” Quinn said firmly as he put his arm around me.

“No, please, I can do this. I have to. If I don’t tell you now I don’t know if I ever can.”

“It’s up to you, Blair. I think we know what happened with the two men that were killed last, or can figure it out, except for why you were in that part of town in the first place.”

I smiled wanly. “After what happened with Doctor Freer and then that man all on the same day, I had the most horrible nightmare I’d ever had the next night.” I turned to look at Quinn and saw the sympathy in his eyes and was afraid I’d loose it again so I hurried on. “I knew I couldn’t sleep but I didn’t want to go to a club again, so I just walked and walked and then these to punks showed up and they were going to assault me and I had my mace and I sprayed them and ran, and ran.”

“You’re stepfather must have been keeping very close tabs on you,” Jack said as he closed his notebook. He looked at Quinn, frowning. “I suspect you were real lucky he didn’t come after you next.”

“He might have, if Blair hadn’t run,” Quinn told him. He turned to me. “Somehow he lost you when you did that, probably because he didn’t expect it.”

“Or maybe he didn’t even know I had, if he had to get back home because of his job.”

Jack nodded. “That makes sense. All the murders happened on Friday and Saturday. If he flew here because somehow he’d finally located you, maybe followed you intending to bring you back home with him when he found a safe place to grab you, and saw what happened with the doctor. He could have misread that.”

“He…he said he killed them to show me I belonged to him and no one else.” I stared down at my hands. “I didn’t even know. He was killing them and I didn’t even know it was happening.”

“I’m sure he’d have told you in great detail once he was finished ‘punishing’ you,” Quinn growled angrily.

“I have not doubt of that,” Jack agreed. “All right, Blair, unless there’s anything else you want us to know about I think it’s time for Quinn to take you home, or maybe out for a good stiff drink.” He chuckled when Quinn shot him a look of surprise. “So I’m not blind, I can tell you…Okay, maybe I’d better start typing up my notes before I stick my foot in my mouth any deeper. Now get out of here.”

Quinn smiled as he stood up, waiting for me as I put on my jacket. Then we did as Jack suggested—went out for a good stiff drink.