The Son and the Sparrow

Chapter Forty Five (v3)

Chapter Forty Five

Leon's vision twirled and blurred. He had trouble seeing and grasping what was happening. He picked out Houston's face in the crowd and used to it focus himself. The police. The police had caught him while Cale's brains were on the floor. Shock hit him in a solid heavy blow. He had been set up somehow. Did Cale know he was coming? Did Cale want to die? Was that his plan this whole time? Was it someone else? The handcuffs rubbed uncomfortably against his skin. He wanted them off. The cops were saying something to him, but he didn't care. It didn't matter. He was already damned. Although that didn't matter either. He had swiftly decided to kill himself in prison and that would be the end of that. They pushed him and Leon saw a group of policemen surrounding Daniel's chair. Leon prayed that he was too far gone to realize the people around him. If Daniel had one of his extremely violent reactions to them, he'd be in trouble whether or not he was innocent. He heard the click of a car door, pushing hands, and was sitting on black leather, a chain divider protecting the driver from the crazed criminals they put back here.

Leon sighed, and waited. He looked passively out the window, and counted the moments he was still alive, cursing them. He should have killed himself instead of running. Instinct had taken over, and now that his brain was catching up he realized his mistake. Everything was so close to ending. He could have been lying on the floor by now, far away from any reality. For a second, he was grateful that Haley was dead. The moment she would have seen him in cuffs would have been awful anyway. She didn't deserve to see him fallen so low to have killed another human being. Again. Fuck. Leon leaned his head against the car window, feeling the cool glass against his forehead. He wondered if he could volunteer for the death penalty. Though certainly dying wasn't something difficult to do in prison.

They dragged him out of the car, rougher than need be. Perhaps they were accustomed to their captives struggling. They didn't realize that Leon didn't need people holding him down, or hell, even leading him. Just tell him which cell to take, and he'll take it. Simple as that. They pushed Leon into an interrogation room, a different one than he had been in before, and sat him down.

They told him they would be back in a moment.

Leon nodded, and yawned. If his hands weren't tied, he would have laid his head down on the table for a nap. So instead he slumped back in his chair, closed his eyes, and willed the world away. He couldn't ease his mind into snoozing, but he could feel his body slow, and the adrenaline slowly wear away. He wondered what was taking them. Was it on purpose that minutes were passing on the clock and he was still alone? Were they figuring out the best strategy to break him? Leon smiled at the thought. There was no point in defending himself; they had caught him red-handed. There was nothing he could say that could possibly save him. And he didn't care. He would sit back and let his doom unfold. Everything past this point was just filler. Killing Cale had been his last action besides killing himself. And he would kill himself. Although this was an unexpected detour, it didn't matter and wouldn't change anything. The end result would still be the same, and that was a plain fact.

Karen Whitewater stared intently at the man sitting at the table. His eyes were closed but by his expression he was concentrating on something intently. Karen wondered what he was thinking about, or if he even knew where he was. Karen had watched them bring the man into the building. He had been eerily calm. Hadn't said a word. Looked determined almost, as though his path of life was far from over, but at the same time struggling had been the last thing on his mind.

"The officers around here have told me that you have the most experience with Mr. Arthur," Karen stated, her eyes turning to look at Detective Houston curiously.