XI. DNA

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The silence in the room was deafening as my mind toiled away, trying to develop different scenarios on how the visit will end. I began subconsciously tapping my tennis shoes one after the other, and the sound provided a much-needed escape from the noise in my head.

The door swung back open, and in walked the two detectives with smiles on their faces. It felt like five minutes had passed. 

My heart began beating at an alarming, while my head spun like a windmill.  I immediately grabbed onto my seat as if on a roller coaster. 

"Are you okay?" asked Detective Solomon as she grabbed my arms gently.

"I don't think I can do this." I blurted out with eyes wide open. "What if I'm entirely wrong and I put an innocent guy in prison? I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself. "Yea, I thought Caleb was disgusting, and I hated what he did to my friend at the music festival, but I have no definitive proof that he is the killer. I don't remember dots perfectly because I've been trying to forget." I was surprised to find myself sobbing in front of the detectives, but I felt shameless at this point. I'd already laid my self-respect out on the table, and there was no turning back, but I was not able to leave my peace of mind in front of them as well.

"Definitive proof." You sound like a lawyer chuckled Detective Angelo, but his partner was not amused.

"Please ignore my partner; he suffers from frat boy syndrome." And that made me chuckle, but His partner did not amuse detective Angelo.

"You forgot to mention what he did to you too." Continued Solomon. I shook my head. "No. It's not the same. I wanted it too. Well, kind of. I mean, it was consensual until it became weird. I don't want to talk about it anymore." I said before taking a deep breath.

"Get up. You're coming with us." Angelo demanded, taking his partner by surprise. "Where?" She demanded. He whispered something in her ears, which made her perk up instantly and nod in agreement.

"What?" My voice trembled and cracked at the same time.

"Come with us," came Solomon's calm voice. I got up and walked up next to her.

They led me back down the long hallway that led to the main lobby, and we walked outside in the daylight. Solomon beckoned me forward, and soon I was walking between the two detectives with Angelo leading the way. We walked up to a black car, and Angelo opened the back door and beckoned me in. Now my heart raced even faster. I looked back at Solomon, looking for some assurance, but all I got was a smile and nod. I got in without any more hesitation, watched them get in the front seats with Angelo at the wheel, and drive out of the precinct.

After what felt like five minutes of driving in silence, I summoned up the courage to ask the question I'd been dying to ask.

"Where are we going?" I asked like a school kid about to get detention.

"You'll see when we get there." Came Angelo's tenor voice. Five minutes later, we pulled up to what looked like a morgue. Now my heart had shamelessly exited my body and was running for the hills. I could find it anywhere, so I slumped back onto the seat and closed my eyes. I had seen one too many horror films to know that this place was not Disney land.

The door opened to the right of me, and all I had to do was grab onto Detective Solomon's stretched-out arms, but I sat frozen in my seat.

"We just want to give you some perspective," she said. And that was the sentence that got me out of my frozen state. My mom said those exact words to us whenever she wanted us to see a situation or argument differently. The fear had dissipated as I grabbed onto her hand and pulled myself up and out of the car. I followed them into the building, a cold building where we met lab technicians in white coats.

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