Authors: Jack Parker
Teneire looked as if he was ready to throw everything off his desk out of frustration. "You don't understand…"
"Maybe I don't. But I still wanna help. Please?"
Teneire began massaging the sides of his head. "Look, Collin, there's a reason we haven't been able to figure everything out. And besides, you don't even work here anymore. I might as well be letting a complete stranger come in."
"But I
used
to work here! Come on!"
"No! Now please, get out of my office!"
Collin was heavily disappointed when he realized this wasn't getting him anywhere. Groaning, he turned around and slowly started walking towards the door, purposely going at
a
sluggish pace to see if Teneire would change his mind. When it didn't
look
like that was what was going to happen, Collin pulled one more trick.
Turning around, he looked right at Teneire and said, "One chance."
"What?"
"One chance."
"Once chance what?"
"I want you to give me one chance to see if I can find anything in another questioning session to see if I can help you figure this whole thing out. If I don't find anything in that one session, you can kick me out the door and I won't bother you on this
ever
again. All I want you to do is let me give it a shot."
Teneire looked at him for a few seconds before bluntly saying, "No. Now please, I've got a lot of work to do."
Defeated once again, Collin turned to the door and started exiting the office. But just as he was passing the threshold, he turned around and said one more thing. "You realize I'm never going to stop asking until you let me try it, right?"
"And
you
realize you're hurting more than helping right now,
right
?"
"Yeah, so let me see if I can make up for that."
Teneire seemed exhausted-like he didn't want this to continue any longer. Putting his hands over his face as if he had been sleep deprived for weeks, he said, "You're gonna get me court martialed. Fine. One chance."
"R…really?!" Collin yelled excitedly. He was surprised by the sudden turnaround in his favor.
"But if you don't find any lies or anything suspicious in Jess's story, then you're gonna get out of my office and never talk to me about this case again, all right?"
"Yes, sir!"
On the outside, Collin was brimming with excitement.
But on
the inside, he was now feeling very nervous. He realized he had to pull something very impressive off in the questioning session if he was to keep Teneire's trust, and, considering how the crime went unsolved, he didn't know if he'd really be able to find a flaw in Jess's story in some way. He could only hope.
* * *
It was
a
few hours later and Jess had been summoned to the police station for questioning. She was in
a
small corner while sitting in a stiff chair. She had her hands clasped on her lap, and her expression made it obvious she was nervous, despite her efforts to mask it.
Teneire was sitting in the opposite
corner
, and Collin was sitting right besides him. Jess was even more confused about why her coworker was there, but she was more worried about herself now than she was about him.
"All right, Ms. Maldavo?" Teneire asked.
"Y…yes?"
"You know why we had you come here?"
"I think so…"
"You remember when Scott Halpin got killed last summer at your place of employment?"
"Yes…but I didn't do it!"
"No one said you did," Teneire tried to calm. "But we found your knife buried in the sand under the lifeguard tower at the lake, and it had Scott's blood on it."
"
We"? I don't remember YOU helping out much with finding that knife,
Collin coldly thought to himself.
Jess looked surprised to hear that bit of news. "I haven't really heard much about that until now."
"Your boss never told you?"
"Lisa doesn't like talking about Scott getting killed."
I can see why…
"So how
did
the knife get there?" Jess asked hopefully.
"Well, that's what we'd like
you
to tell us," Teneire answered plainly.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'we'? You mean
Collin
isn't here for questioning?!"
"No. He's here to 'help out'."
"What?! Why does he get to watch?!"
"It's a long story, but…"
"No, it isn't!" Collin butted in. "When watching back the tapes of your questioning…"
Teneire looked at him and sharply said, "You want me to let you go through with this, or not?!"
"S…sorry."
Teneire sighed and looked like he was regretting letting Collin 'help' with the questioning. He'd be lucky to get out of that questioning session with his rank if Collin didn't find something crucial.
Collin, too, realized how serious this was. He was risking Teneire's rank and trust, as well as his trust in himself, with this questioning session. He was hoping to himself he would never have to do something so important and be in such
a
tight spot again in his life…
"So, we're just going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer them completely and honestly, all right?" Teneire asked.
"Yes."
"Good. The tape's running. Everything you say is being recorded. Remember: fully and honestly."
"Got it."
Collin gulped. His excitement was now turning to anxiety.
"Why don't you start by telling us why your knife was found in the sand under the lifeguard tower?" Teneire suggested.
"All right. The last time I used my knife was right around this time of year last summer…except I didn't use it to kill anyone! I guess I lost it and it just somehow ended up at the lake. But I got no idea how it happened."
Before Teneire could say something, Collin spoke up when he was sure Jess was finished answering the question. "Hold it right there! Let me get this straight…"
Jess looked shocked, as did Teneire. Collin now had a gleam in his eyes like
a
hunter that just caught its prey.
"So you're saying you lost your knife and it somehow got onto the beach in some inexplicable way?"
"I…guess so."
"Oh really? Then I guess you're lying."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're making up the story somewhere, because in the interviewing session you had last summer, you clearly and confidently said
you lent your knife to Nick
!"
"W…what? How do
you
know that?! You weren't even working there last summer!"
"I saw the video recorded of you when you when Teneire was talking to you last summer, and you CLEARLY said you gave your knife to Nick. Isn't that right, sir?"
"That's correct," Teneire said quickly. He was having a hard time keeping up with what his junior partner was saying, even though he already knew in advance what his main attack plan would be.
"So…you lost your knife or you gave it to Nick. Which one was it?!"
"Er…all right, fine. The truth is…last summer, I gave my knife to Nick. I swear that's what happened."
"Why'd you say you lost it, then, if Nick was the one who had it?" Teneire asked, slightly confused.
"Well, actually…it was kind of a mix of
both
things."
"What do you mean?"
"I gave my knife to Nick 'cause he said he was going to need it for work and he broke his own."
"Couldn't Nick have just gotten a new one?" Collin asked. He was trying to make his voice sound not so aggressive and confident.
Jess scoffed. "Coll, I think you need to start paying attention better. You won't get very far in this little game of yours if you don't."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember what Lisa said to you on your first day at Arbur Winslow about the knives we get?"
"Hmmm…"
"
But be careful not to lose that, all right? It takes us over a week to order those knives and get them delivered. Trust me, you don't want to go ten days without one of those things."
Err…right,
Collin thought to himself. "Yeah, I remember now."
"Nick said he lost his knife the day before he asked me, but since he needs his knife for almost every job Randy was havin' him do, he didn't want to go about a week without a knife. So he asked to use mine."
"But you still haven't answered my question," Teneire interrupted. "Why'd you say you lost it when you knew Nick had it?"
"Like I said, it was a bit of both. Yeah, I knew Nick had it, but when he didn't give it back to me after a while, I just assumed he lost it. And I never need mine, anyway, so it wasn't such a big deal to me that I didn't have one."
Teneire looked pretty disappointed at the lack of new knowledge they were getting, especially since the only new information was concerning a misinterpretation on Jess's part. "Well, Collin?"
"You know…something's kinda bothering me," Collin cryptically answered. This response caused a surprised and confused look to sprout on the faces of the other two people in the room.
"What's bothering you?"
"Sir, remember when you told me that everyone who's innocent has a good alibi?"
"Did I say that?"
"Yeah, you did. And, well…Jess really hasn't given us one."
"WHAT?!" Jess yelled. "You truly and honestly think I did it?!"
"No offense, Jess, but…well, you knew Nick had your knife, and then
a
few nights later, some guy got stabbed and died."
"It could've been a coincidence! And, you know, I was also trying to protect Nick. If everyone found out he had my knife,
he'd
be accused of killing Scott."
"My point is…if you weren't at Arbur Winslow that night killing people, then what
were
you doing?!"
"Wha?..."
"Let's not forget it was
your
knife that Scott's blood was on! And Scott got killed the
same
week you gave your knife to Nick! And you're saying Nick just "lost" your knife around that exact same time?! You know what
I
think?!
I
think you were just trying to get other people to think Nick had your knife when Scott got killed so they'd think it was him and not you. You weren't trying to cover up for Nick at all…you were trying to protect
yourself
!"
"Collin, calm down…" Teneire nervously ordered. "I know you want to help, but blindly shouting and accusing Jess of something that there's no physical evidence to prove isn't the way to do it!"
"But I'm onto something! Just
look
at her!"