Twinsies

               "I'm telling you, that's not me!" Lauren was furious with officer who had been interrogating her for the last two and a half hours.

"Look at the video. We can see you perfectly on camera; that's you!" his smugness was wearing on her.

"I'm done talking," she said. "I'm waiting for my lawyer."

"Your funeral sister," the cop grumbled under his breath.

"What? What does that even mean? Is this a joke? Are you secretly auditioning for "Law and Order" or something? I'm not talking because you're not listening. I know the girl on the video looks like me, but I have never been to that store. I've never been to that part of town. My life is school. I work in the lab at the university and when I'm not in the lab I'm in class or home sleeping. And my home, by the way, is two blocks from campus. I earn what living I have from grant money for the research I do. That backpack you confiscated when you picked me up, THAT's my purse. Even if I had stolen one of those D-D handbags, what would I do with it?"

"DG."

"What?"

"DG. The bag," he corrected her, "it's a Dolce and Gabanna."

"What's that?" She asked calming down a bit.

"The bag you stole from the store. It was a $2500.00 bag. You really think..."

The door handle to the interrogation clicked and the door opened stopping the detective in mid sentence.

"I'll take it from here, Ramirez," the man said softly.

"Fine," Ramirez said. "Good luck. I'm taking lunch."

There was a pause. She could smell a different cologne on him than on the other guy. Sweeter, less aggressive. She noticed a wedding band on as well. He probably didn't pick it out she thought to herself. "Is this your routine?" she asked. "Bad cop and now good cop comes in?"

"No," he answered. "I'm Lieutenant Ellenger and I've been watching and things weren't going anywhere so I decided to step in. I just have a few questions."

"I told the other guy, I'm done answering questions. I'm waiting for a lawyer."

"You're free to go right now. I just have some things I wanted to clear up for myself." He was disarming, dammit. She wanted to storm out of there right then but she also wanted to help this guy for some reason.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't understand," he started, "how this can happen. I believe it wasn't you. I don't think you were there. Hell, you couldn't even ID the bag you were supposedly stealing. Your alibi at your lab checks out, three of your co-workers vouched for you during the time stamped on the video. What I don't get is that I don't think it was you, but it was you. It looks like you, we showed your mug-shot to half a dozen people in the store and they all identified you positively; we even have DNA." What he was saying was sinking in slowly.

"What? DNA? How is that possible?

"98% match according to our lab."

"Look," she finally spoke, "Can I go? I'd really like to help you but I just don't know what I can do."

"Fine," Ellenger answered. "We know where to find you. Consider yourself detained from leaving town. No trips."

"Fine," she agreed readily. "Thank you." Ellenger just nodded his head. "Oh, can I get my backpack back please? It has my thesis in it."