Hide and Seek in the Dark (Being Rewritten)

Chapter 19

19

Daren

Oh God, he internally wailed. What have I fucking done? He was sitting in the Day Lightens Police Station's interrogation room, his face buried in his handcuffed hands.
The last two hours replayed over in his head in an endless loop. He went to go check on Christine since ahe refused to answer his texts and phone calls. He snuck in through her window and when he got inside the room was empty and looked like some sort of crime scene; her bed and sheets were a bloody, tangled mess, the screen on her window had been popped out even before he got there.
She must have been kidnapped. She was hurt and stolen away by someone. And that someone was that monster, Gabriel Steele, he just knew it. That demon was the cause of everything: her kidnapping, their fight, everything!
He was so distraught and angry, so on edge, that when someone came into the room he panicked and shot at them with his gun.
Daren was practically ripping his own hair out at that point just thinking about what he had done. Christine's mother had walked in. He shot at his girlfriend's mother! Granted the billet had missed her by a mile and she was okay butbthat didn't excuse that he shot at her in the first place!
"Mr. Hawthorne!"
Daren's head snapped up at the pint-sized man's angry voice. They sat across the table from each other, facing one another. They had been like that for well over the last hour. Officer Daimion was a small, portly man with a usually kind face, but he could become feirce and intimidating when he wanted to be, and right now he was very fierce. "Y-yes?"
"Obviously you weren't listening to me so I'll repeat myself: What where you doing at Christine Thompson's house in the middle of the night?"
Daren supressed the urge to groan out loud in frustration. They had been going over the exact same questions since they had hauled him into this little room. "Like I've already told you, she's my girlfriend. We had a fight and I wanted to check on her."
"In the middle of the night?" Officer Daimion questioned. "With a gun?"
The aggitated teen sighed and ran his hands through his hair once. "I've been trying to call her all night. She refused to answer, though. I couldn't take not knowing how she was doing so I decided to sneak over."
"With a gun," the Officer repeated, obviously not buying any of it.
"When I was sneaking around the house to get to her window I noticed her screen was popped out and decided it'd be safer to grab my dad's gun from the glovebox. He knows how crazy the world is sometimes and told me that I might need it someday if an emergency occured. My girlfriend's window is wide open with the screen out during a rainstorm? Seems a little fishy, don't you think? I figured it was reason enough to arm myself incase someone was in the house." Sure, some of thay speech was a lie- Daren was always armed, he knew what kind of beasts lurked in the shadows at night and like hell he would be caught without protection- but he knew he was in the right. He just wanted to protect Christine. And lying for a good reason was was always right. At least that's what he believed. If anything Gabriel was in the wrong. Daren just knew that somehow, someway, Gabriel was behind Christine's disappearance. He just had no way of proving it to the police.
Officer Daimion was practically seething. Why? Daren didn't know. But he was pissed. "Listen, kid. All we know is that you broke into Christine Thompson's home with a gun, she's missing and you shot at her mother. As far as I've heard, you're a good kid heading for a bright future. Now if you got something to tell me about Christine Tompson you had better do it now, before I get angry."
"No, you listen! I've been sitting here telling you the same thing over and over but you're not listening! I didn't kidnap my girfriend. If I did why would I get caught in her house without her? Why would I come back to the crime scene?"
The Officer shrugged his wide shoulders nonchalantly. "How should I know? You're the one that took her. You tell me."
Daren slammed his fists down on yhe table, shoving his chair backwards. "I didn't kidnap Christine!" he shrieked.
"Don't lie to me, boy!" Officer Daimion made his way around the table and shoved Daren back into his seat. "You told me you and Christine had a fight. From what you tell me it must've been a bad fight. What? Did she slap you for acting like a jerk? You get angry and decide to teach her a lesson, huh?"
"I would never hurt Christine!"
A wry smile spread across his lips. "Yeah. That's what they all tell me." Officer Daimion shook his head and sighed. "Maybe a night in a cell will loosen those lips." He made his way to the door.
Daren cried out in frustration. "But I told you I didn't do it!"
The small man looks back at Daren wearily. "After everything I've told you, after everything you did tonight, do you really expect me to believe you?"
Daren remained silent.
"Tell me, son," Officer Daimion continued. "If you were in my shoes woukd you believe you? Would you let you go?"
Darwn stared down at his hands, deflated. No, he admitted to himself. I wouldn't.
The door clanged shut and Daren was left alone in the small interrogation room. Alone with his thoughts, waiting until security came and dragged him off to some cell where he would be staying for God knows how long. With a sigh Daren buried his face back in his hands and waited.

Matt Daimion

He left the interrogation room feeling angry, tired, and frustrated. Officer Mayers stepped out of the adjoining mirror room- he didn't care what the room was "officially" called, it would always be the mirror room to him and that was that- holding a styrofoam cup. She offered it out to him and he gratefully accepted. The deep, rich scent invaded his nostrils and he took a long drink.
"Background check on the gun came out clean," Mayers began as he drank. "The boy was telling the truth about the gun being his old man's."
"Could've told you that." He sipped.
"Speaking of, the dad is downstairs right now demanding to see his son, he says we have no right to question him, he's gonna sue the shit out if this good for nothing precinct, blah, blah." She rolled her eyes.
Officer Mayers was never any good with people, to put it bluntly she hated them. Sometimes Daimion found it a real bother to have a prickly person like herself as a partner, especially when it came to interacting with others outside of the bureau. Other times- he glanced down at the steaming cup of joe in his hands- she was a blessing.
He waved his hand dismissively. "The boy's eighteen, legally an adult. He gave up his right to have an attorney present. We're not doing anything wrong by asking him a few questions and that prick knows it."
"You know the kid is telling the truth- he didn't do it. Why're you working him so hard?"
"Because he knows something." Officer Daimion gazed at the door to the interrogation room with a perplexed frown. "I know he does. I just need some time to get it out of him."
"You can't keep him over night in the precinct because of some hunch you have," she reasoned.
"No," he agreed. "But I can for breaking and entering. I can keep him for quite a few nights."
Mayers crossed her arms. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"
"I am," he nodded. "Somebody broke into Christine Thompson's house before, and the only clues we have to who could've done it are a couple of fingerprints that belonged to a deceased man. Now there's a second break in, she's missing, and we find her boyfriend in the house with a gun. I know he didn't do it, but I also think he might know who did. I just need to figure out how to make him talk. I don't know about you, but I want to know what's going on here."
His partner watched him for a long while, contemplating as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Alright," she finally conceded. "We'll charge him with B&E, a misdemeanor at worst since this is his first time. Keep him here for a few nights, get him a lawyer... If we don't find that girl soon he'll need a helluva good one to get him out of this shit, even if he is innocent."
"Then we better get to work."