That Night √

57» That Purpose

Grace's POV
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"What did he look like?"

I stared back at the officer -the detective- sitting right in front of me, an observation table between us. I couldn't even count the number of times I had been thrown into this kind of situation; being questioned by an officer.

"I don't know." I replied, leaning back against the chair I was sitting on. At least that way, his scrutinizing gaze was a bit far away from me. "I didn't see him."

"You didn't see the guy who broke into your house." He stated, his eyes not leaving my face for a single second, and that was starting to make me feel uncomfortable.

"No," I shook my head. "The lights went out."

He raised his brows and I found myself looking away from him, at the glass of water on the table between us.

"The lights went out only in your house." He said. "There weren't any power outages in your neighborhood."

I only shrugged at that, because really, I didn't know the answer to that.

"Ms Collins, you need to give more clear answers." He pressed. "We might not be able to find your friend if you don't give us the details."

Once again, I was forced to think about Alice. Alice who was missing now, just like Jack.

"I told you what I saw." I couldn't hide the impatience in my voice. I just wanted to leave, skip all these stupid questioning sessions. I wanted to go back to Luca and tell him about the stuff that I knew now, stuff that I had read in Dad's last travel entry.

"You're aware that this has been the second time someone broke into your house." He said. "Yet you almost seem unfazed."

It was almost as if he was accusing me, but I knew that he was just doing his job—trying to dig into this matter.

"Do you want me to go ahead and start crying?" Even though I felt like crying, I didn't want to. I didn't want to think that I was giving up. I wanted to see Alice again, and Jack too.

"The message typed on your phone," He ignored my question and continued with his questioning. "Was it typed by the same intruder?"

"Who else would do it?" I asked him in return, a frown forming on my face. I was tired and frustrated, and the slight throbbing at the back of my head wasn't helping any of this.

The officer inhaled deeply and looked away, as if he was really done with me and my clueless answers. "We'll need to search your house, if that's not a problem."

I wanted to tell him that the officers had been doing that the whole day already, searching my house as if that man in black raincoat had somehow left something behind that could blow up everything.

"It's not." I shook my head, even if it was. This was the least I could've done for Alice's mom, Mrs Benson, who had freaked out when she found out about this all. And I couldn't really blame her, especially since the whole thing with Fraser happened just a week ago.

"Your parents, Mr and Mrs Collins, where do they live?" The officer asked all of a sudden and I froze in my seat. I knew that a break-in in a highschooler's house, who lived all alone, would come out as strange.

Licking my suddenly dry lips, I looked at him, straight in the eye. If I had looked away, he probably would've caught the lie. "They're living back in Manhattan."