Story of a Girl

Surprise!

          My sarcastic ‘great’ was cut off by someone bursting through the door that I’m guessing led down a long hallway with multiple rooms on either side. The cop that had pulled Alex over the other day was standing there, uniform and all, with a tough look on his face. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses for whatever reason he decided to wear them indoors.

          “Is he giving you trouble, Sapphire?” he asked.

          “He is.” I huffed.

          The cop looked over his sunglasses at the man behind the counter who had stopped scribbling on a piece of paper long ago. A confused look washed over his face.

          “Sir I didn’t know that she-” he started.

          “I specifically told you she was coming in today. If you don’t have any idea who this girl is then why are you still here, son?” the cop demanded.

          I looked over at Ariel who had an amused expression on her face.

          The man was silenced. He didn’t have an answer. So instead, he sent Ariel and me an apologetic look. The cop turned back to us and smiled. “Good to see you again my dear.” He told me.

          He looked over at Ariel. “My that’s a bright color.” He said, referring to her hair, “almost like Ariel’s.” he chuckled.

          She giggled out of embarrassment. “That’s my name, actually.”

          “And a beautiful one at that.” He smiled again, “could you wait out here while I take Miss Sapphire down the hall with me? It won’t take long.”

          Ariel looked at me, raising her eyebrows, asking if she wanted her to come back there with me or if it was okay for her to stay put. I knew that she would throw a fit right there for her to come back there with me if I wanted her to and it wasn’t allowed.

          “I’ll be fine.” I insisted.

          She nodded, plopping down on one of the chairs and pulling out her phone. No doubt probably to call Austin again.

          The cop opened the door for me, allowing me to step through first. He stepped in front of me to lead me to the right door since I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I was right though; there was door after door down a never ending hallway. I saw shadows inside the rooms, sometimes single shadows meaning that there were only workers in there, or multiple shadows, meaning I wasn’t actually the only one here today and that other people were being questioned too or doing whatever it is they came here to do.

          We finally stopped at a door in the middle of the hall. He pulled a big ring of keys out of his pockets and unlocked the door, motioning us inside. The room was a decent size. A normal sized desk was sitting in the middle of the room, two big filing cabinets behind it. Two chairs sat on one side of the desk, and a big swivel chair was on the other which I’m guessing was his chair. A computer, a cup of coffee, paperwork, and a three picture frames that I couldn’t see at the moment since they were facing the other way, were placed on the desk.

          I leaned forward to get a better look at the pictures but he beat me to it and laid them face down frantically. I gave him a weird look before settling back into my seat.

          He sat down with a huff, placing his hands on his lap. We sat there momentarily, studying each other. He still looked the same to me but for some reason he seemed really interested in me. The way I looked, the way I spoke, as if he was hanging onto every word I said.

          “Can we get this over with?” I asked, breaking the silence.

          He snapped back to reality, “Sure, sure. All I’m going to do is ask you a few questions about your brother and record your answers.”

          I nodded, seemed easy enough. He got out a notepad from the desk drawer and a pen.

          He cleared his throat. “Now, when was the last time you saw Toby?”

          “Sunday.” I answered immediately.

          “And did he seem himself or was he acting strange or anything like that?”

          I hesitated before answering. “He was acting a little off but I didn’t really think anything of it.”

          “Why not?”

          “Because I just thought it was my brother acting weird.” I said in a, “duh” voice.

        He nodded and scribbled some notes down. “Do you personally know the friend he was staying with?”

        “Yeah, his name’s Mike. I talked to him yesterday, in fact. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised to find out what happened to my brother.”

         This caught his attention. “Oh, really? What did he say?”

        “He said something about it being a shame because my brother apparently owed him money for his half of the rent.”

          “Do you know why he didn’t pay his half?” he asked me.

         I shut my eyes tight, knowing the answer but not wanting to answer it. I knew what he had done with the money that was supposed to help pay for rent. I knew because the money was sitting in my back pocket, and frankly, it was starting to weigh a ton. I didn’t want to leave it any place I would forget it or misplace it so I stuffed it in my back pocket before we left Ariel’s house.

         “Sapphire?” he asked, trying to get my attention.

         “No, no I don’t know.” I lied.

          He didn’t answer for a minute. “I think you do know.”

         My eyes snapped open. “Why do you care anyway? You didn’t know him, he meant nothing to you. To you this is just another case you’re working on. You got assigned to interrogate a poor girl who lost her only family she had left. I’ll just leave now and get out of your hair.” I snarled, standing up from my chair.

         “Sapphire.” There was something in his voice that made my stop. I was mere inches from the door handle. So close to just walking out.

          “What?” I said through gritted teeth.

          “He wasn’t the only family you had left. You’re parents aren’t dead.” He said matter-of-factly.

           I spun around, fists clenched. “How would you know?”

          “Because, Sapphire,” he sighed, leaning onto his desk, taking his sunglasses off to reveal his sparkling blue eyes that were so similar to mine, “I’m your Uncle Scooter.”

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A/N- DUN DUN DUN. 

That is all.