White Lies (Book 1)

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The camera started rolling. The quiet hum of conversation died down in an instant.

Amber Bloom was a local journalist and news broadcaster. She smiled at me now, appearing appropriately kind and compassionate. In reality, I found her to be cold and derisive. She didn't exactly evoke warm, fuzzy feelings from me.

"Thank you so much making the time to talk to us, Jesabel. I realize just how hard this is for you," her grey eyes pierced mine, emulating as much sincerity as she could.

Bullshit.

"No, no, it's no trouble at all," I tried to appear as small as possible, closing my body in on itself a little. Making me look scared and vulnerable and nervous.

...Okay, so I was a little nervous. That part is true. I was scared of blowing my cover.

Amber watched me. "Now, the investigation of Jennifer Hockley and Robert Blight's disappearance has been going on for quite a while now. And as far as the police are concerned, you are the only true lead they have to solving this case."

"Yes, that's correct," I nodded, making sure my gaze didn't linger on hers longer than a few seconds. Giving off the impression that I was intimidated.

"Now, tell us in your own words – what did you witness on that day?"

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. To anybody else, it looked like I was trying to collect myself before telling a traumatic story. Inside, I was giving myself a pep talk.

You can do this. Here goes nothing.

"It was near midnight," I started, staring off into space. "I had been walking around the Alistair business district, needing to run a few errands. Just trying to clear my head. The shops were all steadily closing."

"You were walking around in the middle of the night? Any reason why?" she interrupted, her eyes sharp.

"I'm an insomniac. I often have trouble sleeping during the night, so I thought I would go for a bit of a walk," I lied smoothly, giving off an innocent air. "This was just my usual route."

She believed me. "No problem. Please continue."

"I wandered to the area towards the back of the alley, needing to take that shortcut home. All of a sudden I heard voices." I made sure there was a catch in my voice. Then I made my bottom lip tremble a little, just very slightly. The balding man operating the camera watched me with sympathy.

"I ducked down behind a cluster of trash cans. I recognized Jenny and Rob, because they both went to my school." Not to mention that I was miserably in love with one of them. "I didn't know what they were talking about, but it sounded serious. Jen was crying."

I wiped a few tears that I forced to leak out of my eyes, looking pained and fragile. Amber reached behind her and produced a box of tissues. I took a few gratefully.

"And then what happened?" she asked, her eyes intent.

"I didn't want to give away that I was there, so I kept quiet. They both looked like they were dressed for some sort of party. Their arguing just grew louder and louder and..."

"Can you remember what they were arguing about?" she interrupted again. She needed to stop doing that – it was disrupting my flow.

I nodded. "Something about Jennifer being involved with somebody else, someone from school..."

"And how did she seem to you?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Jennifer looked really unhinged, like her mind wasn't really there at all. She was almost too far gone to reason with," I closed my eyes, looking as if I were trying to suppress a horrible memory.