Brink: Chapter Four

“Miss Bartel breathe. In...out.” Detective Kielan was kneeling beside me rubbing my back as I cried in an attempt to calm down my sobs and shaking.

Detective Maden came back in the room with a cup of ice water and some kleenex.

The water went down my throat and I could feel it making me more awake.

All this crying and calming down this quickly was giving me that feeling I always had after I cried of just being wiped out and dry. It was almost like I had no more tears in me.

Fuck...now for the rest of this I’m going to hear that Ariana Grande song in my head.

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“He called and said he needed help and I mean come on, have you seen him and we’ve been friends for like ever.” My hands felt warm against my face as I hid behind the kleenex they gave me.

An officer came in the room with a honey bun on a plate and some more water.

“Here this will help you calm down.” He sat the items in front of me. Looking up at the pudgy middle age officer I recognized him as the officer who had been left with us when Collins had taken Josey away for the interrogation.

“When did you first realize something was wrong with him?” Kielan leaned forward in her chair and looked over at her partner.

Maden’s eyes were squinting but his body language suggested that he was relaxed and the rest of his face said that he felt some type of sympathy for me but I couldn’t tell if he was trying to play me.

The door closed and I let a shaky breath fog up the cold metal table. My blurry reflection stared back at me and disappeared as I pulled the honey bun in front of me.

“I didn’t want to admit anything was wrong with him. I wanted it to be just a one-time thing but...he started to change so much after that night. We had been friends for so long...all I wanted was to help a friend out. I ignored the...those little things that would have altered me that something was up.” Chewing through the bread and feeling the icy water drip down my chin turning my head to look at Maden’s eyes.

He was watching Kielan take notes on what I was saying.

“Where is he?”

“At the Riveras house under the rose bushes.”

Their heads whipped to look at me.

“Under the rose bushes?” Kielan and Maden spoke at the same time in almost the same emotional tones too. “Young lady, what do you think this is some kind of joke?”

“You’ll find proof that Ethan killed him under the rosebushes.”