I Stop Somewhere by TE Carter

Author:TE Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

chapter thirty-one

They’re so smug. Both of them. All of them. Adrien sits with Noah and Caleb around a large conference table. Officer Thompson and Detective Gomes wait. There’s a tape recorder, but it’s recording nothing but pens scratching down questions and notes and the sound of the ceiling fan spinning.

They won’t say anything. Every question must go through Adrien first. It’s an exercise in futility, but the police should get something official on record. Should try to do their jobs right.

I hate how I feel captive, that they can do this, that they control me even in death. How do we let another person have this kind of power over us?

“I’m not sure there’s much more we can tell you,” Adrien says. It’s been a circus of vaguery. Lies and excuses.

“We still need to clarify a few things,” Gomes explains.

“As we’ve said, these young women are confused.”

“There are several things that are unclear,” Thompson adds. “How did Kailey Howe get to the house? What house are both girls referring to? Their descriptions are consistent, but they don’t match the Brewards’ home. Is there an existing relationship with Noah and Gretchen? Because he says there is, but she says they were barely acquaintances. That she was only with him to loan him her class notes. And while we have alibis from the boys for the time Ellie Frias disappeared, we aren’t clear why these two girls, who don’t know each other and are not connected to Ellie, are insisting that there’s more to that story. So where would you like to begin?”

I like how she will walk out of here, exhausted, maybe head home and cry, stressing about how little she can do. But in here, in front of them, she refuses to let them get away with it. She makes them answer the questions nobody else pushes them to answer.

“You have a lot of questions, and I’m not sure we need to go through this again,” Adrien says. “However, I will allow the boys to answer if they like.”

Allowance. It’s the way they live. The world allows.

“Gretchen has wanted me since day one of class,” Noah says. “I don’t know the answers to the rest of it, but there’s nothing in her accusations.”

Gomes nods. “Caleb? Anything to add?”

“About what?”

“Officer Thompson just pointed out where the inconsistencies are in your stories versus the accusations from these girls. Were you listening?”

Gomes may not be a good man. He doesn’t really understand about the girls, but he’s also not all bad. He doesn’t believe the Brewards, and he likes truth too much to let his doubts about the whole thing interfere.

“Not really,” Caleb says.

“Tell us about Kailey Howe,” Gomes pushes.

“What about her?”

“How did she end up with you? She can’t remember.”

Caleb shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t really remember, either. But she’s probably just upset because I didn’t call her after.”

“How did you meet?” Thompson asks, and I admire her for not reaching across the table and throttling him.

“She was out running.”

“So you just interrupted a girl while she was running?”

Adrien puts his hand up.

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