Luminescence

Chapter Nine - Innocent

Chapter Nine - Innocent

Free from specific wrong.

Cole made it home relatively unscathed and not nearly as annoyed as he usually was. The day slipped from between his fingers without his notice, and he knew now that it was because his mind was so distracted from what happened earlier that day. He couldn't concentrate on much of anything, and he could still feel small shivers shake his spine every few minutes from the ghost of the ice that had coated his skin after what happened that morning. He was beginning to get used to the feeling, but despite that, he still only thought of her when he was conscious of the cold, and he had been reminded of it periodically throughout the day. Besides his own personal feelings, the cold only made his desire to be around her stronger, if only to chase it away. It seemed that no matter what he did, the cold couldn't be chased away with heaters or jackets, but he tried. It was nearly sixty degrees out and he was wearing his black leather jacket, shoving his freezing hands in his pockets every chance he got.

            When he got to his truck he cranked the heater and just sat there with the thick, musty, hot air blasting through the vents and onto his fingers. It felt better while they were there, but as soon as he pulled away from the heat, it was like his fingers froze all over again. It was useless, and it only frustrated him. All day he'd itched to touch her, if only a brush of contact, and he fought to control himself. He wouldn't give in to it; he wasn't weak. He could handle it. At least that's what he told himself.

            He briefly greeted his mom on his way through the house, passing Roselyn's tiny form curled up on the couch where she'd fallen asleep watching cartoons. When he got to his room, he immediately dropped his bag to the ground and set his guitar in the corner, going to the scrap book of articles his dad had collected over the past year that was set on his bed. He sat back against his pillows with a heavy sigh as he opened up the cover.

Local High School Student Taken Into Police Custody

            He stared at his own face printed in the top right-hand corner of the article. He remembered when they took that photo. He remembered how confused he'd been, how afraid. He'd never been so scared in his life. He couldn't remember what was said, but he remembered the harsh flash of the camera he didn't dare look at, he remembered turning to each side and the click and flash of the next pictures. All he could see was that girl's lifeless eyes, her blood soaked hair; images that still haunted him to this day. Disgusted, he flipped to the next page and started reading the article that followed the first. After a few pages turned and a wasted hour, he came upon a freelance article he never would have expected to see.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Last month, a Clearwater high school student by the name of Cole Braden was arrested under suspicion of murder. Reports have said that the student was found unconscious at the scene of the murder, with two minor gunshot wounds to his right shoulder, and covered with the blood of the victim. Police confirm that the victim was stabbed prior to the suspect being shot, and have theorized that the victim got a hold of the gun from the suspect before shooting him after she was attacked by the suspect.

This theory, however, has holes. Evidence has been found that proves that there was more than what police are claiming happened at the scene. First and foremost was the trajectory of the two separate gunshot wounds to the suspects shoulder. A reliable source at the local hospital, Dr. Max Robertson, who examined the wounds, explains that the shots could not have been fired from the same position, and therefore must not have been consecutively fired. "One of the shots fired, the first, entered the suspect from a slightly upward angle, leading me to believe that the shot was fired while both the shooter and the suspect stood, the shooter being slightly inclined above - or taller than - the suspect," says Robertson. "The second shot fired was different. The second bullet clipped the suspect from a downward angle, indicating that the shooter was on the ground, and, considering the top of the shoulder wound, that the suspect was also." The different angles of the bullets is not so important as the first angle, as the separate trajectories can be interpreted in a lot of different ways, but the first angle alone cannot. Dr. Robertson's theory of inclination seems to be the only sound way to look at the situation, and this theory does not match up with the evidence that has Cole Braden in custody. There was a slight incline at the scene, which could have been used to claim the victim was indeed the shooter, had the incline not put the shooter at least ten feet away from the suspect, and ten feet away from the exact spot she was stabbed and collapsed at. This evidence proves that the shooter either had to be positioned away from the scene or taller that the suspect, which the victim could not have been. Furthermore, the second shot would have definitely had to have been positioned where the girl was on the ground and aimed at where the suspect was on the ground, but how would the gun have moved from one shooters hand to another’s, who would have been rapidly loosing consciousness, unless the shooter was attempting to help the victim? Although, this as well doesn't make sense, as the call to the police was not made by anyone on the scene, and if the first shooter had been trying to help the girl, shouldn't he have called the authorities? And why hasn't this shooter come forward as a witness to testify against the suspect? This evidence alone is enough to raise question of the accused's guilt in the murder, and isn't the only... See 'Innocent', pg. 4B