"And I'm not an attractive woman," he said.
"That, too, though that can work against me with policemen."
Belisarius nodded.
Maiden stepped back through the far door. He was smiling like something had amused the hell out of him. I was betting I wasn't going to think it was funny. "I told Zeeman that for a f**king pervert, he had a cute girlfriend."
"I'll bet that's not what you said," I said.
He nodded. "I asked him why, with a nice piece of ass like you for his girlfriend, he had to go out and rape somebody."
"What'd he say?" I asked, face as blank as I could make it.
"He said you're not his girlfriend."
I nodded. "See, I told you so."
Maiden opened the door wide and motioned us through. "Ring the buzzer when you want out." We stepped through, and he said, "Enjoy," as he locked us in.
They must have gotten a deal on white paint because the entire room was white, even the floor. It was like standing in the middle of a blizzard. Two bunks, one on top the other, the bars on a small window, even the toilet and sink were white. The only color was the bars that formed a three-sided cage. Richard sat on the other side of the bars looking at us.
He was sitting on the lower bunk. His hair fell in thick waves, nearly hiding his face. In the stark whiteness of the overhead lights, the hair looked darker than its normal honey brown, almost chestnut. He was wearing a pale green dress shirt untucked, sleeves rolled back over muscular forearms. His dark brown dress slacks were wrinkled from being slept in. He unfolded his six-foot-one-inch body from the bunk. The dress shirt stretched tightly across his shoulders and upper arms. He'd bulked up a little since last I'd seen him, and he'd been pretty muscular to begin with. Once upon a time, it would have been my great pleasure to have peeled that shirt off and seen what was underneath, to have run my hands over that lovely chest and those strong arms. But that was then, and this was a whole new ball game, one that I really couldn't win.
Richard came to stand at the bars, hands wrapping around them. "What are you doing here, Anita?" His voice wasn't as angry as I feared it would be. He sounded almost ordinary, and some tightness in the center of my body relaxed.
Belisarius stepped away from us. He sat at the table outside the cell and began spreading papers out of his briefcase. He tried to look very busy and give us as much privacy as he could. It was a nice gesture.
"I heard you were in trouble."
"So you came to rescue me?" he made it a question. His solid brown eyes stared at me, searching my face. His hair had fallen into his eyes. He smoothed it back from his face in an achingly familiar gesture.
"I came to help."
"I don't need your help. I didn't do it."
Belisarius interrupted. "You've been charged with rape, Mr. Zeeman."
I turned and looked at Belisarius. "I thought it was attempted rape."
"I've been reading the file while I was waiting. Once I had Mr. Zeeman's permission to act as his lawyer, I got access to the records. The rape kit was negative for se**n, but there was evidence of penetration. Penetration is enough to constitute rape."
"I never had intercourse with her," Richard said. "It never got that far."
"But you did date her," I said.
He looked at me. "Yes, I did." There was a little anger in his voice now.
I let it go. I'd probably be grumpy, too, if I were in jail on trumped-up charges. Hell, I'd be grumpy even if I had done it.
"The problem, Mr. Zeeman, is that without se**n samples, you can't really prove conclusively that you didn't violate Ms. Schaffer. If this is a frame, it's a good one. You dated the woman more than once. She went out with you and came home beaten up." He paged through one of the files. "There was vaginal bruising, some tearing. If she wasn't raped, it was still very rough."
"Becky said she liked it rough," Richard said quietly.
"When did how rough she liked sex come up in conversation?" I asked.
He met my eyes, no flinching, ready to be angry if I was angry. "When she was trying to get me to go to bed with her."
"What exactly did she say?" Belisarius asked.