The Rules They Broke

Chapter 20: Office Interrogation

OLIVIA

"Hello, Olivia."

The man stood at least six feet tall. He had brown eyes, a small brown beard, and huge hands.

And he was wearing a dark blue police uniform.

Olivia felt her throat start to close up.

Breathe, breathe. Just take a breath. Take one breath.

The school secretary, Mr. Delaney, smiled at her, oblivious to her discomfort and shortness of breath. "Olivia, this is Detective Julian with the police. He's just here to ask you a few questions."

She didn't want to talk to him. She didn't want to talk to any police officer. She wasn't sure if Julian was good or bad, and she couldn't say anything before she knew.

"You can sit right there in the small office, Detective," Mr. Delaney continued, oblivious as ever. "Just leave the door open and let us know when you're done."

Olivia knew this wasn't allowed. When she had been questioned by the police officer named Jared, they had called in a woman named Natalie who was with child care services. Natalie had sat it on all their interviews because Olivia needed a legal guardian to oversee them.

But Olivia couldn't bring that up now. If she did, and Julian was bad, he would know that she knew her mom was killed by dirty cops. And then they would find out from the school where she lived, and they would kill her brothers.

She made herself sit in the chair across from Detective Julian. She couldn't bring herself to look at his face. She was afraid of seeing a monster there, or worse - seeing kind eyes and an understanding expression that was all fake.

"Your name is Olivia Jones, right?"

Olivia tried to take in a deep breath to make her vision stop going so blurry, but she couldn't get enough air in her lungs. She nodded jerkily and gripped the edge of her seat.

"My name is Julian, Olivia. I'm with a team investigating your mother's death. We're reopening the investigation because we don't think it was a suicide after all."

Of course it wasn't. She would never do that. She would never pour all that cocaine down her nose. She would never pour any cocaine down her nose.

"First of all, I just want to say that I am so sorry for what happened."

Olivia had heard a million people say they were sorry after her mother's death. She didn't want to hear it one more time.

"I know the police already interviewed you, but we're trying to work a different angle here, as homicide instead of suicide, and I was wondering if we could revisit some questions to see if we can shed some light on what happened that night."

Reinvestigating? That was new. They had been so quick to cover it up last time.

He went silent, as if waiting for a response, so Olivia nodded again.

"Alright, so walk me through what happened that night."

The tightness in her chest increased. "Me and my mom went to the store," she whispered. "I went to the bathroom for a few minutes, and when I came back, she was gone."

Detective Julian nodded thoughtfully. "You went to the store in the middle of the night?"

Olivia's nose burned and her throat burned and everything burned. "Yes."

"Why'd you call the police?"

Olivia hated reliving the panic, the anxiety, the awful knowledge that she would never see her mom again. She felt her eyes water. In a small voice, she said the first truthful thing to the police officer. "I was scared. I couldn't find my mom."