whisper | rilaya

guilty

Before I could response, Farkle barged into the police station, with Lucas following slowly behind him. Just in time. I thought to myself. Looks like Farkle needed a lot less persuasion then I thought.

The tall, scrawny boy caught his breath for a moment before uttering the words that would completely change this case.  He inhaled sharply and closed his eyes, withdrawing all the possible bravery he could from his body. "Danielle Larsen is the culprit. She approached me to help frame Riley and I agreed. All of the evidence you have is fake and planted by that man." He pointed a finger at detective Larsen.  "I have real proof about what happened that night."

~

I sat in the back corner of the interrogation room with my arms crossed and my face expressionless. Riley was still in custody and probably will continue to be held until Farkle proves that he's telling the truth. I'm trying my best to appear unamused and uninterested but secretly I'm holding onto every word that came out of Farkle's mouth.

He is Riley's only hope.

He's my only hope.

Farkle chewed on his bottom lip as he explained himself. It was clear he knew that what he did was wrong. He wasn't expecting anything for himself, he just wanted to make up for his mistakes.

"It all started the day that Riley outed Mason in front of the whole school. I was so, so mad. Looking back, I was stupid and just trying to look for an outlet to put my anger that nothing had been done about his murder yet. I held a grudge on Riley and Danielle noticed that." The boy gulped nervously and looked everywhere around the room to avoid my glare.

"One day I was on the subway home when she sat beside me and told me about her plan to frame Riley. I was hesitant at first but she was so manipulative, I couldn't say no."

Farkle's voice began to crack and he turned to look at me for the first time in this interrogation. "I'm sorry Maya."

I kept my voice clear and emotionless. "I'm not the one you should be saying sorry to, and you know that."

He nodded shamefully in response and turned back to the detective. Thankfully, detective Larson was in interrogation in the room next door so we didn't have to deal with a lunatic today. "I was the mastermind behind the entire plan to frame Riley. The details in planting the actual evidence was hard though. But Danielle somehow got her father involved and he used his position to gather her fingerprints and transfer them onto a random gun that had no connection to the murder. I should've known something was wrong as soon as I saw how quickly detective Larsen jumped on board."

The detective nodded thoughtfully and scribbled on her notebook. "What do you mean by that?"

Farkle cocked an eyebrow at her in confusion. "When you said you should've known something was up- did you ever find out what that was?"

"I said it earlier. I don't want to say it again." He said.

"Why not?"

His jaw tightened. "I don't want to acknowledge the girl who killed my boyfriend and then manipulated me into framing my best friend for it. I just don't."

The detective nodded understandingly.
"Do you have any idea where the actual murder weapon is? Or how the crime was executed?" She asked.

The boy shook his head no in response. "She only admitted to me after we had done all the dirty work together. Danielle knew that here was no way I could expose her without hurting my own image as well. It was manipulative, but smart. Too bad I've been through too much lately and I could care less about my image at this point."

"We appreciate that you told us about this Mr. Minkus." She said formally, "Thankfully, Riley's trial hasn't started yet so we'll reevaluate the information tonight in the department and I'll see what I can do about releasing her."

"Thank you." He replied, almost whispering before leaving the interrogation room.

She glanced over to me and smiled softly, "You can wait outside with Farkle if you'd like. If we're lucky then she might even be released tonight with nothing on her record. It's a shame an innocent girl has had her life turned upside down for something that she had no control over." The detective wondered aloud.

"Yeah." I agreed. "A real shame."

I nodded politely and walked out of the interrogation room and then out of the police station. Riley doesn't deserve someone who lost faith in her the way I did. If I didn't happen to be there at that exact moment in time, then I wouldn't have overheard the truth. I wouldn't have told Lucas what happened and Lucas wouldn't have pressured Farkle into coming forward. If it wasn't for that coincidence, Riley would still be in sitting all alone in that jail cell with no one who still had faith her innocence.