Brink: Chapter One

The clock ticked to five-thirty but I felt like it pounded at each movement of the hands.

The sound of the air conditioner felt like the noisest thing in the world as we tried to make as little noise as possible. Just hoping that maybe....just maybe they could forget that they arrested us in the first place.

I just want all of this to go away.

I want to reach out to Emma...who has been so strong through all of this even though she could lose everything. Who stood by me even when all I wanted to do was the wrong thing.

I needed to reach out to my boyfriend who doesn’t deserve being here at all. Who loved me for me when even I hated me for me.

I want Freddy to know that I wish I could give him a hug and tell him everything was alright now.

But all I can do is sit here and hold onto what little sanity I have left.

It sucks and all I want to do is scream all the air out of my lungs.

***********

The clock ticked to 6 pm

“Personally I think the kid in the red sweatshirt did it.” One of the officers watching over us motioned softly with his thumb to Marcus.

The officer who had been looking down the hallway turned back and craned his head around one of the beams holding the ceiling up to get a look at who Officer Collins had been talking about.

“Faye’s kid? Nah...he’s too much.....of a goodie two shoes to pull something like this off but I think he knows who did it. Once we talk to him we’ll know who did it.”

Officer Collins snorted, “If he’s such a goodie two shoes he would have squealed the minute he found out who did it.”

Emma’s blonde head had been hanging in between her legs since we got here and for some reason, it was this that made her look up and turn to me with this look of anxiety, despair, sadness, and terror.

I wanted to mouth to her that everything was going to be okay.

Even though it wasn’t going to be okay.

I wanted to tell her that maybe she should go to the bathroom and splash some water on her face.

But all I could do is stare and feel like I was being choked by my guilt.

*************

The tap of a pair of heels echoed down the hallway and I knew who it was going to be even before I saw the disappointment on her face.

She didn’t even look at me.

“Detective, what is she still doing here. You said she would be released soon.”

Soon...

Released....soon.

How long have you been waiting in the foyer unable to come and even be in the same room as me?

“We still have to question and based on the answers we received from Miss Divya Narang, there are going to be a lot of things she will have to have answers for.” Detective Maden looked up from the paperwork he was filling out on his desk to look at my sister Pricilla.

He stood and motioned for her to follow him out of the room as he walked around his desk to stand a few steps behind her as she started to walk back up the hallway.

“Thank you miss for your corporation and patience with this matter as we move to find the person or peoples who are primarily responsible for the crime.”

Their shadows disappeared and after I heard the click of the hallway door closing I knew she had left.

What has Divya done?

**********

“Miss Fox please stand.”

Officer Collins motioned for me to stand and wrapped his hand around my arm as he escorted me to the interrogation room.

I caught Marcus’s eyes as I was walked away and I could tell that all he wanted to do was get out of here and all I wanted to do was do everything in my power to get him off the hook.

Officer Collins’s hand felt sweaty and big on my arm.

I looked up to find his face just an inch above mine...

Damn, he’s short.

I looked back to where we were going, into the interrogation room to speak to the detectives about what happened and why.

I saw a woman in dark red slacks, a loose white silk blouse, and a dark red jacket walked in the room ahead of us.

I stepped in and heard Officer Collins close the door behind me as I was faced with probably one of the most serious things I would ever have to do in my life.

Anxiety filled my stomach and I felt the sweat in the middle of my back pull my shirt to my back like it was being suctioned to it.

“Hi, Angela...did my sister call you?”

She nodded and took my arm as she leaned down a bit to talk to me.

“Don’t answer any questions without my permission. They can’t offer you any deals, that’s not their job. Only a prosecutor can do that and they won’t have one in the room because as of right now they don’t have enough actual evidence to prosecute anybody. They have enough to hold you all because they have enough evidence to suggest that it was one of you. They were skeevy and waited to call you all in once they had the most likely suspects booked for smaller definitive charges.”

“I was arrested and so was Ethan.”

“He’s being questioned right now for the crimes surrounding the one they know he committed.”

“Is all of this legal? Why are they even doing it? It didn’t take long for them to do the actual work to get us in the system. The thing that has been taking forever is everyone getting questioned.”

She turned her head to look over her shoulder and see what the detective was doing as she while she was explaining things to me.

“No and Yes. It’s technically legal but it can be argued as unlawful.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Just because you can argue something doesn’t mean it will go over the way you want it to. Your other question, why are they doing it. They are doing it so they have your prints in the system so if they find any fingerprint evidence they have something to refer to.

Remember everything you say and don’t say can and will be used against you so stay calm and do..as..I..say. Now let’s get this over with so we can get you home.”

“I thought it was just what I do say?”

“I wish it was.” She let go of him.

*********

The room felt really cold which made the metal seat really uncomfortable.

“Miss Josey Fox, can we call you Josey.”

I nodded.

“Josey, I’m Detective Maden and this is Detective Kielan. We only have a few questions for you.”

Detective Kielan opens up a small notebook and flips the pen around her fingers.

“Where was on...October 13, 2015?”

She taps the pen on her notebook and focuses on me, waiting for my answer.

I meet Angela’s eyes and she looks to the detectives.

“I was under the assumption that this questioning had to do with the crime committed on March 7th, 2017, is this not the case?”

Detective Maden leans back in his chair, a salt & pepper curl falls into his line of sight, as he looked as he spoke.

“It is, but based on evidence and information gained through a previous questioning we have concluded that the two crimes are most likely not connected but committed by the same person.”

A bead of sweat slipped into my making me want to cry or itch my eyes. I settled for the latter as bursting into tears right now wouldn’t be good.

Angela leaned towards me and turned so my face was hidden by hers.

“Where were you?” she murmured letting her hair fall in front of her mouth as she spoke.

“I was at Divya’s house from 2 am that day to 5 pm the next day. We were marathon watching The Mentalist and practicing our Halloween makeup. I fell asleep after we finished eating the pizza we ordered around 8:20 maybe 8:30. I woke up at 9:25 AM the next day.” My voice low and it felt like I was losing air making it hard to talk. I knew exactly where I was without ever having to really think about it.

She nodded and sat back up to look at the two detectives who had been watching the exchange of information with interest.

“My client will answer this question.” She looked at me briefly and nodded.

Detective Kielan was writing at rapid speed while I was relaying what I just told Angela.

The next question came shortly after she was done writing down my reply.

Detective Maden slid a picture of a Latin-American teenage boy across the table.

“Based on a previous statement we have from you about an incident that required police intervention, you said that you had no other affiliation with Oscar Riveras other than that he was a friend of your boyfriend and that it was at this party that you first met him. Is this statement correct? If you need further clarification on what incident we are speaking of please let us know.”

I could almost see the air of smugness that surrounded Detective Maden as he waited for my answer to his trap.

Detective Kielan looked at me held her pen above her notepad.

I turned and saw Angela shake her head.

Her voice rang out steely towards Detective Maden as she spoke on my behalf, “My client will not be answering this question.”

“Under what grounds will she not be answering this question?” Detective Kielan focused all of her attention on Angela.

“She needs no grounds to answer. You have no right to any of the information or lack of information she has. If she doesn’t want to answer, she doesn’t have to.”

My nails bit into my leg just enough to hurt but not enough to break skin through my jeans. I wanted to correct them. I had said that I had never seen Oscar before that night but that wasn’t true.

I let my head fall briefly and my sight turns into a blank gaze as I stared at my shoes against the floor. A shiver ran through my body and a trail of sweat slid down the back of my neck.

Why is it so cold in here?

How am I still so hot?