Fireproof // H.S.

26. The Interrogation

The trip to the police station was short. When we arrived, I was quickly escorted into a small room with no windows. There was only a desk with two chairs in the room. Is this the interrogation room? The young man walked into the room with me while the police officer that drove us to the station stood outside.

"Please sit," he ordered. I sat down. It took every ounce of energy to not strangle him. "We have your purse. We found it in the car you drove which is not your car."

"It's my boyfriend's car," I told him. I knew he was thinking I stole it, that idiot.

"Before we continue the interrogation, I have to do a body search in order to make sure you're not carrying any weapons. Please stand up and take off your jacket." I took my jacket off and handed it to him. He quickly searched the pockets and found my phone which he put on the table. He then walked up to me and I backed away.

"I want a woman to search me," I told him.

"Okay, I'll be right back." He left the room and for a brief moment, I was alone to my relief. A few minutes later, he came back. I was disappointed there was no woman following him into the room.

"We don't have any women working tonight who are trained to do body searches, unfortunately. So is it okay if I perform the search? I can get another man to do it if you want," the young man suggested.

"It's fine. You can do the search." The man walked up to me.

"Please spread your arms and legs." I did as I was told. He quickly patted my body and found nothing. I suddenly realized I was in my pajamas. How embarrassing. "Please sit down."

The young man sipped his coffee and cleared his throat before speaking. "You must be confused and angry right now." No sh*t, I thought to myself. "But please let me explain everything. We have reason to suspect you played a part in Dr. Rosario's death." I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue. "Earlier in the day, the police received a phone call from Dr. Rosario saying that you and a man named Niall Horan were snooping around his house. He wanted the both of you arrested. However, the police came too late because the two of you were gone by then.

"Then things got weird. We got another phone call from Dr. Rosario at 10:31 PM saying that there were people outside his house trying to get in. He didn't know who they were and told us to hurry up and come. We told him to stay on the line but he said he couldn't. At 10:42 PM, the police arrived to find Dr. Rosario dead on the scene. There was a forced entry in his house and a brief struggle. We found that Dr. Rosario had a vase smashed onto his skull and he has cuts all over his body. We believe that what killed him was the stab wound to his stomach but we won't know for sure until autopsy reports come in."

I nodded at his words trying to piece the timeline together. He called me after calling the police and he died soon after. I wonder if Zayn got any vital information from him before killing him or if he just went ahead and killed him. Zayn didn't have much time. He probably knew Dr. Rosario called the police and had to quickly kill him and run away.

I was suddenly aware that I had evidence of the struggle on my phone. I didn't want to immediately point it out to the young man since I already don't like him in the first place for taking me into custody but I wanted my phone back. I wonder if anyone called or found out I was missing.

"I'm sorry--I never introduced myself. My name is Matt," Matt said, holding out his hand. I quickly shook it. "So I have a few questions for you, Violet. Where were you at 10:31 PM?"

"I was at my boyfriend's apartment sleeping."

"If you were at your boyfriend's apartment sleeping, why did you go to Dr. Rosario's house at around 11:40 PM?"