The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,62
the strangeness between her legs. She settled back into the bed.
She lay there for minutes, trying to remember the events of the night before. All she could recall was drinking wine with Andy Cameron in the lounge downstairs.
She put her hand on her leg and felt something scabby on her thigh. When she looked down, she saw the same kind of caked smear across her chest, between her breasts.
Ava got up and went to the bathroom and took a robe from the hook on the door. She put it on and went back to the bed. She wanted a doctor.
The hotel operator wasn’t helpful at first, but by the time Ava had repeated her request for a third time, the number was obtained and the call was made.
“Hello?” a sleepy voice said.
“Is this Vivian Ho?” Ava asked.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name is Ava Lee. I’m a friend of Fay and John. I’m visiting from Canada and I’ve had an accident. Could you please come to my hotel to help me?”
“I don’t know you.”
“Of course you don’t. I could ask you to call Fay, but it would cause me no end of humiliation. Please. I’m at the Majahapit, room 313.”
“This is most unusual.”
“So is what I think happened to me.”
“What did you say your name is?”
“Ava Lee.”
“And what do you think happened?”
Ava closed her eyes and heard herself struggling for breath. “I think I was raped.”
“Have you called the police?”
“No.”
“I think —”
“You’re the only person I have called and the only person I will call. So please, just come here.”
“I’m about twenty minutes away,” she said, her voice now fully alert.
“Thank you.”
“But I should stop at my office on the way and pick up some things.”
“Things?”
“Would you take a morning-after pill as a precaution against possible pregnancy?”
“Of course, and how about tests for sexually transmitted infections.”
“It’s too soon. The window for the bacterial type is three days, but for type-specific viruses such as AIDS, herpes, and hepatitis it’s at least two weeks. I should take a blood sample to establish a baseline for you, but in terms of knowing anything definite, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait.”
“I think I was drugged. Can you at least check on that?”
“Yes, I’ll take a urine sample.”
“Thank you.”
“Now, Ms. Lee, I think it’s still advisable to call the police.”
“No.”
“I think —”
“No.”
Vivian Ho paused and then said, “With the stop, I should be there in about half an hour to forty minutes.”
“Thank you.”
“You said room 313?”
“Yes, come right up.”
Ava sat down by the window looking out on the gardens. She knew there were trees and shrubs and flowers, but they were a blur. Nothing registered. Nothing mattered.
She heard the phone before she heard the door. “Ms. Lee, Dr. Ho is at your door. She says she’s been knocking for a few minutes.”
Ava got up and opened the door. She saw a slightly older and more conservative version of Fay. Vivian Ho was the same height and also thin, but with hair that hung down to her shoulders and not a trace of makeup.
“Thank you so much for coming,” she said. “I didn’t hear you at the door.”
“Are you all right?”
“No, I don’t think I am,” Ava said, turning away and walking into the room. “Aside from the physical discomfort, my head keeps wandering off.”
“I need to examine you.”
“I know,” Ava said.
“Have you done anything?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Have you washed? Have you taken any pills?”
“No.”
“Then, as awkward as this is, please take off your bathrobe and lie on the bed.”
Ava closed her eyes, slipped the bathrobe from her shoulders, and lay on her back.
“You have dried semen on your thighs and between your breasts. There’s some bruising around your vagina, and it seems . . . it seems as if someone was very rough. I would guess that you were penetrated repeatedly. Ms. Lee, how did this happen?”
“Do you mean why am I asking if I was raped?”
“Yes.”
“I was unconscious. I think I was drugged. I have no memory of any of it.”
“Did you know the man?”
Ava let the question slide. “Do you have the pill you mentioned? Are you ready to take whatever samples you need?”
Dr. Ho pulled the robe back over Ava’s shoulders. “Here is the pill,” she said, pressing it into Ava’s hand.
Ava swallowed it.
“Now go to the bathroom and take this with you,” Dr. Ho said, giving her a vial.
Ava sat on the toilet for what seemed like an eternity before she could squeeze out enough urine to fill the vial.