The Haunting of Josephine (14 page)

Grabbing his knife he plunged it through Jo’s chest and withdrew it.
If he could not have her he was not going to let anyone have her.
Just as Jo’s door opened revealing Mr. Kinsley closely followed by several officers Mr. Genus arced his arms up to plunge the blade into his own chest but was thwarted when Mr. Kinsley tackled him to the ground.

One of the officers
quickly assisted Mr. Kinsley in
tying Mr. Genus up as another quickly began trying to save Jo who was weak and fading fast. Her eyes suddenly popped open and she focused on Mr. Kinsley.

“I love you. Thank you.” And then she was out again.

Mr. Kinsley and the officer kept working hard to save Jo as the
y
waited to be informed that a horse and wagon were ready for them to take her to the doctor’s house. They sent an officer ahead to assure that the doctor was up and had everything that he was going to need to save Jo.

In the short trip to the doctor’s house Jo kept coming in and out of consciousness. Mr. Kinsley hated that her coming to was causing her so much pain and stress but he was relieved to see that she was managing to fight it.

At the doctor’s house Mr. Kinsley was left in the foyer as the doctor led the other’s to bring Jo into the
dining
room that he had quickly outfitted to be a makeshift operating room. As the doors shut obscuring Mr. Kinsley’s view of his fiancé he heard Jo call out.

“Oh a
unt, Thank you.”
Then the doors closed and did not open again for hours.

Chapter 15

The sounds of the doctor working and shouting orders to those helping him
occasionally
drifted to where Mr. Kinsley stood shocked and numb.
It was not long before Mr. Cline
joined Mr. Kinsley sitting next to him in chairs that they had dragged into the hallway so that they could sit staring at the closed doors.

When they heard a door open both of them sat up in anticipation to hearing something about Jo and were rather shocked when they realized that the sound had come from the front door and the Captain had joined them.

“Do you have any news on how she is doing in there?” Captain quietly asked Mr. Kinsley.

“We have heard nothing. They have been in there working since we got here and no one has come out.” Mr. Kinsley looked as though he was going to cry but quickly pulled himself together.

“Well, I guess you could look at that as good news because that means that they are still working.” Captain studied Mr. Kinsley’s face clearly debating if he wanted to talk to him about what he had to say. “Do you want to hear what it is that I have learned?”

“Yes, I want to know how that bastard managed to get past all of the security that we had in place. How did he manage to get so close to Jo?” Captain looked hard at Mr. Kinsley
and decided to ignore the attacks on his men’s abilities to do their jobs.
Understanding that Mr. Kinsley was hurting and just wanted answers.

“Well, as we had been suspecting Mr. Genus had been spending
exorbitant
amounts of time on the property to the point that he was able to come and go with little to no notice. The stable boy had been in the process of telling the
night guard
that was outside when we he heard Josephine.” Mr. Kinsley winced at the thought of how she had sounded when he had been awoken by her scream.

“Is he responsible for all of the crimes that have been happening around here? Were you right that they were all linked together?” Captain shook his head in agreement.

“Yes, one of the things that probably should shock me about Mr. Genus is that he is so cocky and confident he does not think anything about admitting to his crimes.” Mr. Ki
nsley looked at Captain and
choked
up while asking his next question.

“Did he tell you his reason? Did he tell you why it is that he did what he did?”
Captain looked for a moment as if he was not sure if he was going to tell Mr. Kinsley or not.

“He said that he had killed
Katherine
to try and drive you and Josephine apa
rt and that he thought with Katherine
out of the way that he would have a better chance at Josephine. He also said that she needed to be taught a lesson.” Mr. Kinsley thought for a moment.

“Why did he then go after Jo when he wanted her? What did he have to gain from hurting her this way?” Mr. Kinsley made a sweeping
gesture
with his arm toward the still closed doors.

“He was not trying to hurt Josephine. Apparently he thought that if he was not going to be able to win Josephine willingly that he would settle for being able to have her by taking her against her will.”

“Oh my god. Does that mean that he managed to
…
r
ape her? Could she have more injuries that we did not know about?” Captain did his best to calm Mr. Kinsley down. He now realized that it would have been
smarter to have explained it better in the first place.

“Do not worry about that. Mr. Genus complained that Josephine had somehow managed to overcome the sedative that he had used and cried out for help before he had been able to
so much as
touch her. He had not planned on stabbing her but when he heard everyone approaching apparently he figured that if he could not have her then he was not going to let anyone else have her.” Mr. Kinsley was chocked up over having heard it all.

Just then the doors to the
dining
room opened and the doctor came out. The grime expression on his face did nothing to sooth Mr. Kinsley.

“Mr. Kinsley,
Mr. Cline
, Captain; I honestly
do not know what to say.” Mr. Cline
immediately started crying into his hanky.

“I am sure that you must have tried all that you c
ould.” Mr. Kinsley grabbed Mr. Cline
around the shoulders and struggled to not start crying himself.
He wanted to be strong for Mr. Cline who had already lost so much and he knew he would have time later to grieve once he knew that Mr. Cline was alright.

“You do not understand. I do not know what to say. I had thought that I had lost her. Her heart had stopped and I did not know what else to do. Then somehow she suddenly pulled through and the bleeding was under control.”
Mr. Cline
’s head snapped up with a hopeful expression on his face.

“What do you mean? Is she still alive?”

“That is exactly what I am saying. I have never seen someone recover like that before.
She is rather
lucky;
it is a miracle that she is alive.” Mr. Kinsley put his arms around the doctor in a
joyous
hug of excitement.

“When can I see her? Can I see her now?” The doctor thought for a moment before responding.

“I think that only one of you should go in there right now. She is still weak and has not yet awoken. I am hopeful that if she makes it through the night that it will only take a bit of rest and sometime and she should be alright.” Mr. Kinsley looked at
Mr. Cline
. Though he was desperate to get to s
ee his fiancé he knew that Mr. Cline
deserved this bit of happiness more than he did.

“I think that you should go in there and see our girl. Be sure to tell her that I love he
r.” Mr. Kinsley watched as Mr. Cline
walked into the room where Jo lay.

“What is the next step in all of this?” Mr. Kinsley asked Captain.

“There will be a trial. I am sure that the judge is going to want to talk to Josephine seems how she is the only survivor to have seen Mr. Genus at work. But I am sure with all the other evidence that we have she may not be required to testify.” Mr. Kinsley thought for a moment.

“How strong do you think that our case against him is now? I really would only want her talking to the judge if she really wants to. I want to protect her from what is left of Mr. Genus as possible.”

“I am sure that even without her testimony we have a strong chance at getting him hanged.” Mr. Kinsley had never thought that he would ever hear that someone was likely
to
be hanged for their crimes and be happy about it but he was this time.

“If you do not object I would like to be the
prosecutor
on this case. I know that given my relation to two of the victims that you may have some issue with that.” Captain thought for a moment.

“Honestly I would not want to have anyone other than you to be the
prosecutor
. Though you are
technically
related to the victim I am sure that no one will have issue
with you being a part of the trial and the other families will appreciate your passion to
prosecute
him.

The trial started before Jo even started to get up and around again. After spending a couple of days at the doctor’s house
they transported her to her own home though she did not stay in her old room.

Jo received daily reports from Mr. Kinsley about the progress of the trial and she pushed herself hard to heal. One thing she had told herself was that she was not going to let Mr. Genus win and she was not going to let him ruin her life. She did in fact testify; though given her limited mobility the judge agreed to hear her testimony
by going to her house for it so as to not make her have to go into the courthouse or to have to testify in front of Mr. Genus
.

Though the evidence was strong against Mr. Genus the number of victims meant that the trial was dragged out for a long time. Together Jo and Mr. Kinsley focused on healing her and continuing on with their lives.

No one was surprised when a couple of months after Jo had been attacked a verdict of guilty was reached. Nor was anyone surprised when it was announced that Mr. Genus was to be hanged.

Chapter 16

The
sun
light shining in the windows stung at Jo’s eyes as she struggled to open them. Jo jumped at the sound of a knock on her door
and felt silly for the response when the head of her maid
popped
in.

“I am sorry miss. I did not mean to startle you. I thought that knocking would help.”

“It is alright. I am sure that I will be able to get over it soon enough.” Jo got up slowly. Her physical wounds had healed and the bruises were now a distant memory but sometimes moving would cause her pain in the morning.

“You
must be happy for what day it ti
s.” Jo thought about the day while watching the maid get into her wardrobe and get ou
t her walking dress. Today was going
to be a rather interesting day. The trial to convict Mr. Genus was a quick one. Between many eyewitness accounts and a little digging Captain had been able to pin every rape and murder on Mr. Genus and a lot of the evidence was found in
her a
unt’s notes.

It had been
still been
shocking that the trail had come quickly
to an end with
the ruling  that Mr. Genus was to be put to death by
hanging. Today
was the day that Mr. Genus was to be hanged. Most of the town intended to attend including Jo and Mr. Kinsley.

When they had learned the day that the town had
intended
to hang Mr. Genus
was to be the same day that Mr. Kinsley and Jo intended to marry
Mr. Kinsley immediately had come
over
to
ask
Jo if she had wanted to move their wedding day. She did not. A part of her had felt that if she had moved her wedding day in order to not have to deal with the hanging having been
schedule
for the same day Jo felt that Mr. Genus would still win. Therefore a couple hours after the hanging she was to walk down the aisle and become
Mrs.
Kinsley.

It did not take long to get ready for the day. After months of healing Jo’s wardrobe had been simplified so not to place undue pressure on her wounds which
simplified the process. She went downstairs when she was ready and was
greeted
by
her u
ncle who looked happier than she had seen him since the death of
her a
unt.

“You look rather lovely.”
Jo blushed from the genuine attention from her
u
ncle’s compliment. After several months of being waited on hand and foot
Jo still
had not
become
more comfortable with the lifestyle she was now living.

“Why thank you u
ncle. I figured if he was going to try and ruin my wedding day by being hanged today the least I could do was show him how little he is able to
affect me
by it.”
Mr. Cline
looked good and hard at Jo to make sure he did not see any hint to if she was serious or doing her best to hide her emotions. “Do not worry about me
u
ncle. I am looking at this like a cosmic wedding gift. The man who tried to stop my wedding by murdering my
a
unt
and then trying to kill me is to be served his j
ustice today and still will not
succeed
in even postponing my wedding.”