Innocent

Chapter 22

James and I look at each other. As soon as our eyes lock together, James collapses beside his father. I hurry over to him. He had blood all over his shirt and I wasn’t sure where he had been shot. He had lost a lot of blood and I could see how weary he was.

“James, stay with me,” I tell him.

The sirens are close now and I see the red and blue lights approaching. Within seconds they pull up. Officers got out of their cars. I get up, leaving James on the ground and ran over to them, telling them where James and his dad were. I also told them that an ambulance was needed.

“Oh thank goodness, Officers.” We look up to see Mr Waters limping over to us. “My son tried to rape Ellie and then he tried to kill me.”

As soon as I hear the words coming out of his mouth, I scream. I ran over to him and began banging my fist against his chest. He stops me, acting so innocent and wonders why I was mad at him. A police officer comes to pull me away.

“You liar!” I scream. “You’re trying to frame, James!”

“What are you talking about, Ellie?”

“Don’t try and act innocent. You have been acting like that for the past two years. It’s about time people should know the truth.”

Mr Waters shoots me a warning look. I ignore it. I didn’t give a damn about his threats anymore. I needed to save James from a crime he never committed. It was my fault he ended up in jail. I could have stopped him if I have just spoken up, but everything just seemed to stop around me when I had post-traumatic stress. No one seemed to take notice of me. They went around assuming everything that happened rather than knowing the truth. I could have said something, but it was like my brain just decided to stop working and I couldn’t speak.

“Sir, can you put your hands behind your back please?” a young officer who looked like he was in his late twenties says.

“What for?” Mr Waters asks. “Hey, I’m not the criminal here!”

“I don’t care what you are, sir, but I need to take you down to the station for questioning. We will probably get you to stop by at the hospital to make sure you’re alright.”

Mr Waters is taken to the back of the police car while they waited for an ambulance. He protests about his rights, but the officers ignore him. I tell the officers where James is and they locate him, staying with him until the paramedics arrive. I wanted to go and see if he was alright, but I wasn’t allow to go anywhere near him. Instead they send me to a car and drive me down to the station to question me out what was happening. The ambulance arrives just as we pull away from the kerb. As soon as I see the paramedics hurried out of the van, I pray silently to myself that everything with James will be okay.

Once at the station I ask if I’m able to make a quick phone call. I’m allowed to and I dial Aunt Zoe’s number from the phone near the reception. I could imagine how she is going to react when I tell her what happened. But it wasn’t her who I was worried the most. It was mostly how Daniel was going to react.

Aunt Zoe panics when I tell her and she said she will meet me down at the station. I hang up and then I’m taken into an interview room where I’m asked to fill out an incident report and then being asked questions. I hated recalling everything again. It was bad enough the last time I was here was two years ago and I couldn’t even tell the police what happened. Now I’m back here again, forcing myself to tell them what had happened tonight, not leaving out any details. I can imagine the lies Mr Waters was going to come up with to try and get out of this mess. This time I don’t think he will be able to get out of it.

I’m let go as soon as I’m finished being interview. Aunt Zoe is waiting for me out in the lobby. Daniel is with her. The two of them hurry over to me, hugging me tightly. My aunt has tears in her eyes.