Innocence Unknown

The Truth Doesn't Hurt if You're Innocent

Carlos left Mrs Skiller's room with confidence. Confidence. Carlos finally had confidence after five years of being humiliated, tortured and punished for a crime he never committed. But it wasn't just confidence that he had. Hope. Hope that one day he would no longer have to be shamed by the public. Hope that one day he could be a famous marathon runner and prove the entire world wrong. 

One of Mrs Skiller's assistants  escorted Carlos out of the building and took him to a building next door. It was a police station. She beckoned for Carlos to step inside and he did just so. He was taken into a waiting room where he saw a familiar boy dressed neatly. He was wearing a bright orange hoody which sat on top of a neon blue tracksuit, he instantly spotted Carlos and ran up to him. It was none other than Mikey Donaldson.

'Ay, Carlos, how did it go?' Mikey extended out his hand to give Carlos a high five, and the two boys hugged. They were separated for hardly any time, yet the two really missed each other; they worked so hard to get to this place, all the escape work they did was together and it felt strange how the cases would be separate. Carlos could do nothing at all to help Mikey, Mikey's case was all in the hands of Mikey and Mrs Skiller. What if one of them was found innocent and the other was found guilty? The two would be separated after working together to reach this place.

'Not too bad, y'know,' Carlos responded, he did not want to show his confidence to Mikey, just in case Mikey was not feeling too confident. The last thing Carlos wanted to do was make Mikey lose hope and confidence. 'I'll tell you something, Mrs Skiller is the top of the top, you were right, you can be sure that your case is in safe hands.'

 'That's great to know, it's good to have a good lawyer it definitely helps a lot,' Mikey looked  a lot happier than he did before, after hearing the statement from Carlos. 'But the police interview is brutal, let me tell you that, but I'll give you one bit of advice, stay calm, they are going to try and catch you out no matter what you do, every bit of stress you show raises their suspicion, stay calm and tell the truth. We have no need to panic or lie, because we both know we are innocent.'

Carlos nodded his head in agreement as he was taken to the interview room, Carlos looked behind him and saw Mikey being led by Mrs Skiller's assistant back to her building. 

Carlos was taken into a cubic room, fully enclosed with no windows, if it weren't for the bright yellow light dangling from the solid ceiling, the room would be pitch-black. Behind him, a heavy, metallic door - covering from top t slammed shut, blocking any sound from entering or leaving the room. All the walls were plain with no decorations, paintings or any type of entertainment on them. They were just  plain, stone-grey walls. The ceilings and the floor were the exact same colour, from a distance, it would be impossible to even tell that there were walls in the room. In the upper corners of the room were cameras recording every movement and action of Carlos. In the very centre of the room, was a white table with a microphone to presumably record voice, there were two chairs on either side of the table, one was empty; the other occupied by a stern-looking man, he was dressed in a black suit and was taking small sips of tea from his mug, every second that went by. Without being instructed, Carlos sat on the empty chair and patiently waited for instructions.

'Carlos Shapley, I am led to believe that you have been charged with criminal robbery,' the officer made no eye-contact with Carlos, he glanced down at his documents while speaking. His voice was very sharp and stern and his facial expressions were no different. The man made little movement, apart from the occasional sip of tea. 'Am I correct in saying so?'

'Yes, you are,' Carlos, remembering what he was told by Mikey and Mrs Skiller, did not show the slightest indication of fear. He sat up straight and made sure that he was not shaking or trembling with any sort of fear.

'Describe what you were doing when the incident took place,' the man commanded, still avoiding eye-contact.

'I was just walking down the street and I saw a small boy dressed in black sprint down the street, he dropped a phone out of his pocket, but he did not realise, I picked it up, then an officer thought I stole it and arrested me,' Carlos mentioned, he remembered what Mrs Skiller told him, tell the truth, it doesn't hurt to tell the truth if you are innocent. 

'What were you doing before all that happened?' The officer questioned.

'I was walking back from school,' Carlos replied. Carlos couldn't help but notice a slight change in the officer's body language, he was shaking his head, ripping up sheets of paper and slamming his pen down. Before he was as still as a stone but now he was restless like a rock, there could only be one explanation for this, he was frustrated. Why? Was it because he was not finding anything suspicious about Carlos? But why was he so frustrated? 

'Was there anything special about that day?' The officer was running out of ideas.

'It was the last day of term, that's about it,' Carlos responded.

The officer shook his head, it was like he couldn't find anything at all suspicious about Carlos, 'You may leave.'

'Thank you off-,' before Carlos could finish he was interrupted.

'Leave.' The officer commanded like a general in the army. Carlos said no more and exited the room. 

That wasn't too bad, Carlos thought, Mikey said it was going to brutal, it was anything but brutal. Carlos couldn't help but feel worried for Mikey, if Mikey found this interview brutal, maybe things weren't looking too good for him.