Tomb Raider: The Legacy

Chapter 24: Truth

But none of that manifested when she finally accessed the room where he was convalescing. He must have been waiting for her, because he looked back calmly. "Mr. Trent." She introduced herself. "I'm Inspector Weller. There's no doubt that you've already been told about me, particularly by your daughter."

He made a slight nod, without courtesy or rudeness, and made no sound. The inspector kept the distance, sitting in a chair placed near the fireplace. The man still looked slightly emaciated, although not much more could be guessed under the heavy blankets that covered him, except for the medication dropper on the healthy arm. Probably pain medication. "I know you're still convalescent, so I'll try not to exhaust you." She continued, and resumed her ritual of leafing through her folder, although in reality it was little more than a tic. She didn't need it. "I'd like to settle the investigation about what happened that night here in the library - and let me clarify that your daughter's statements have been, how to say, disturbing."

If Weller expected any reaction on the wounded's part, she resented it. He stared at her with an expressionlessness that would defy any polygraph. This one's going to be tough, she thought. One not easy to question, since none of his emotions was translucent to his face. Moreover, the inspector had done her homework and was well informed: she already knew, and not through precisely official channels, that even torture hadn't broken that man in the past.

Luckily, she wasn't a torturer.

"Mr. Trent," Weller cleared her throat, "your daughter stated that the night in question, you attempted suicide by throwing yourself through the library window. Is this true?"

"Yes." He replied, without blinking.

(...)

"Oh, what the heck?" Anna put her hands to her cheeks, troubled. "It's disgusting. Dad, I feel terrible, I..."

Kurtis silenced her by raising his hand with a calm gesture. "On the contrary, there was little else you could say. In fact, it was the only thing you could say. Nothing else makes sense in that context and with the evidence they will find. Nothing but the truth... and the truth is impossible here, Anna."

She sighed again and lowered her head. A lock of golden-brown hair, her mother's hair, hung in front of her face. "You'll be in trouble. Because of me."

"Let me handle the police. Not my first time anyway."

"You have a plan?"

"No plan's needed for this, Anna."

"What are you going to do?"

"Tell the truth, of course."

Anna blinked, surprised. "But, Dad, you just said..."

He waved his hand again, gently. The dropper hooked on him reduced a lot his mobility. "They now have a truth, which you told them. That's the truth I'll follow."

"Dad, they can accuse you of... of..."

"I know."

(...)

Inspector Weller raised her eyebrows. To her liking, the questioner had admitted the truth too quickly - and without being upset in the least. "Is it true, then, that when your daughter tried to stop you, and she grabbed you, you hit her?"

"Yes." He admitted again. And then he added. "It was necessary. I had to let go."

Weller took off her reading glasses and looked up. The man was still unperturbed. "And then, you just jumped out the window."