The Bursting Heat (Book 2) ✓

07 - Time for some answers

Ralph

Saying the detectives were not my biggest fans after last night would be an understatement. In their eyes, I kidnapped one of their witnesses and was keeping her away from them. Whatever. I didn't care what they were thinking. If I didn't know that it is absolutely necessary to have Ali's statement written down for the prosecution to do their job, we wouldn't be here. The last thing I wanted was for her to reimagine her time in the house, but...it was something that needed to be done.

The detective was showing the room where Ali needed to go while I was looking around for a place to sit and wait, when Ali stopped in her tracks and looked at me.

"You are coming with me, right?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm sorry, Miss Baker, but Officer Romero can't be inside the room while we..."

"Then I won't talk with you."

"Miss Baker..."

"I need for him to be there if you want to hear my story. I can't do it on my own, not right now." I didn't wait for the permission of the detective. If Ali wanted me in the room, I was going to be there. I took one of the stools and pulled Ali next to me, keeping her hand in mind. The detective followed us, visibly not happy, but didn't say anything.

"Miss Baker, my name is Detective Akerman, and I'll be asking you some questions connected with last night events. Our conversation would be recorded. Do you have any objection?"

"No, I'm good with that."

"Perfect. Um, could you describe to me how you ended up in the house you were found last night?" Damn, right to the point. I thought there would be some other questions before that, to set the mood or some shit. I guess not. Ali squeezed my hand, took a deep breath, and laid it all out as quick as possible.

"Five years ago, I was still in college. I was starting my last year there. One Friday night, I went out with friends to a bar. We drank some alcohol, but not something... We didn't get drunk, it was not what we wanted. I drank a beer, maybe two. Most of the girls on the group found boys of hook up with, some of the boys came to our table, or some of my friends went to theirs. At some point, all the groups were so messed up that I couldn't find anyone who I knew..."

"You didn't try to find a boy to hook up with?"

"No, I had a boyfriend, so I wasn't interested in someone else."

"And where was your boyfriend that night?"

"I was in the Army, stationed abroad at the time." The detective looked a little bit shocked that I answered that question.

"Umm, okay. I understand. So, what happened after all of your friends went in different directions?"

"I decided that I didn't want to stay at the bar anymore, so I left. I decided to walk to my dorms because it was a short walk, something like 10-15 minutes, maybe. And the streets had lights, so I didn't have to walk through some dark alleys and stuff like that. I was no more than 5 minutes away from my building when I heard a car stop behind me. I didn't think much about it. There were other cars that I met while walking, so I just continued. Then some hands grabbed me from behind, and I felt a needle in my neck. The next thing I knew, I woke up in a dark room with no recollection of how I ended up there. Then a man came into the room and took me to a warehouse where there were some other girls, as confused as me. They put us on a platform in the middle of the room, put some numbers on us, and left us there."

"Just like that? Didn't you try to escape?"

"First of all, I had no idea where I was, who were these people, what they wanted from me. I mean, I could guess it was nothing nice, so I didn't know what their reaction would have been if I had tried to escape. Secondly, we had our hands and feet wrapped around with ropes and duct tape."