I sat in the chair, my hands handcuffed in front of me. I heaved a sigh as I looked at the photos splayed across the small table in front of me. Pictures of a woman, that woman. Blood covering her entire body, her limbs bent in an unnatural way, her eyes still open. I turned my head away, unable to look anymore.
"Pictures of your handiwork." A man said as he walked into the room. I looked over to him. He was tall with a very dark complexion, wearing a charcoal black suit. He shut the door behind him before walking over to the table. He pulled out the chair that was across from me and sat down. He looked at the pictures, his face impassive. "Hmm, such a tragedy. She was a nice woman. Her name was Agatha Lee. Only 46 years old, a son who just became a cop actually, a loving husband, tons of money." He looked back up to me. "All of that, poof... gone. It all vansihed the minute you chose to shoot the gun, as did your chances of ever being a free woman again."
I stared at the man, determined to show him that his words didnt affect me. "Look Mr..."
"Bryant."
"Mr. Bryant, I didnt shoot that gun." I said.
"Oh really? Well then please enlighten me Ms.Greene. Who did shoot it?"
I remained silent as my thoughts traveled back to that night.
Taylor, the head of the gang, had told us about some rich woman he had been scoping out for the past few days. He told us that he wanted to hit up her house, as she was bound to have a loads of money and shit that we could take. Cameron, one of his right hand men, decided that he wanted to do this mission. I volunteered to join him, as I haven't gone out and done a job in a few weeks. Plus I was starving and I didnt have a cent to buy any food. I figured I could easily raid this lady's refridgerator and take whatever I wanted.
Cameron and I drove to the the woman's mansion, parking in her driveway. Before getting out, Cameron slipped a gun into the back of his pants. I stared at him, as if asking why are you going to need that. He ignored me, and got out of the car, walking over to the side of the house. He picked up a large rock, preparing to throw it at the window when I stopped him. There was no doubt in my mind that with a big house like this there was an alarm system. I walked over to the window and peeked in. It seemed no one was home, there were no lights on.
I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and kneeled down in front of the door. I pushed it into the lock, wriggling it around until I heard a click. I stood up and pulled the door open, no alarm going off. I smirked at Cameron before walking into the house, him following behind me.
My eyes nearly bulged out of my head as I looked around. We seemed to have walked into the living room, and it was huge. Huge may not have been the right word. It was gigantic. A large flat screen television sat on the wall above a fireplace, two smaller televisions on the side of it. There was a large U shaped couch and a small glass coffee table. Dozens of small ornaments and decorations surrounded the room.
"Shit, how are we going to be able to carry those tvs?" Cameron said.
I shook my head, "I dont know. Maybe we should just settle on the little stuff."
"Alright, I'm gonna go upstairs. You look around down here. Grab as much stuff as you can."
I nodded my head to him, turning and walking into the next room, which was the kitchen and he dissapeared upstairs.
"What the fuck?" I said as I looked at the plasma tv that sat on the large granite kitchen counter. Who needs a television in their kitchen? I mean you have three in the living room. I barely had one working tv in my house when I was growing up and these people have four. And I've only seen two rooms. There's no telling how many more they have.
My hands skimmed over the counter as I made my way over to the refrigerator. Jackpot! I opened it up to reveal my own personal heaven. I couldn't help the huge grin that spread across my face as I laid my eyes on all the delectable foods.
I reached in and grabbed out the two cartons of orange juice, sitting them on the floor. Then all the packs of lunchmeat, bottles of water, cheese, yougurt and everything else I saw. I then looked into the freezer. I could almost feel the drool threatening to spill from my mouth as I looked. I snatched out the ice cream, popsicles, the frozen meat, and placed them all on the floor.
I stepped back and looked at the large pile I created. "Damn! How am I going to carry all this?" I searched the kitched, coming acroos poptarts and bags of chips which I added to my already big pile of stuff. Eventually I found a trashbag. "Yes!" I threw all of the food in the bag, picking it up and throwing it over my shoulder.
I went through the rest of the rooms, throwing in everything I saw. The bag was so heavy now that I could barely carry it. I decided to put it by the door where we came in, and then Cameron and I could carry it out together.
After dropping it off, I walked up the stairs to meet Cameron. I looked around, finding him in one of the many large bedrooms. He had a bag in his hand as he threw in everything that he passed. He sighed after the room was completley bare, and looked up at me.
"Done?" I nodded my head. "Cool, I found three stashes of money so I think we should be good. Now let's go."
As we turned to walk out of the room we heard creaking coming from the hallway. My eyes bulged in panic, I thought no one was here.
In a split second Cameron had reached behind his back and taken out his gun.
"What are you doing?" I whispered. "Taylor didn't say kill anyone."
"Yeah, well sometimes you just have to." He lifted the gun up, postioning it to shoot. I put my hand on his arm, trying to push it down.
"Cameron don't be stupid!"
"Shut the fuck up!" he said, forcefully pushing me out of the way.
I groaned as me back hit the wall. Just as I was about to go back over to him, a small figure came into view for a brief second before four loud bangs echoed throughout the house and the figure tumbled to the ground with a thud.
My feet stayed nailed to the ground as Cameron yelled at me to come on. He grabbed onto my arm, pulling me out of the room and down the hallway. I looked down at the figure as we quickly went past it, the blood slowly spilling out and soaking into the carpet.
Cameron pulled me down the steps and over to the door we had come in. He picked up the back that I left there, throwing it over his shoulder, and holding his bag in the other hand.
"Open the fucken door Sian!" he yelled at me.
I did as he said, and followed him out to the car. He threw the bags into the back seat and got into the drivers side, me in the passenger seat. We sped out of the driveway and down the street.
"Ms.Greene! Ms.Greene!" The man yelled at me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"What?!"
"Glad you're back with me. Now would you like to tell me who shot that gun? Or would you rather we haul you back to your cell where you will be spending the rest of your life?"
"You can't give me life!" I yelled.
"With your outstanding record Ms.Greene, and this new felony to add to the list, we most certainly can give you life. And believe me, we will. Just think about it, everyday, 23 hours a day you are locked in your cell. Just you and your cell mate. All you can do is, eat, sleep, and pee. That is if your cellmate is nice. Though if she isnt, you will probably be spending those 23 hours on your knees."
I shuddered as I images of that filled my head. "And what about the other hour?" I asked.
"That one hour a day you get to go outside. But in a closed in area, surronded by snipers and electric fences. Sometimes it's better to be in your cell than out there. Anything goes it there, it's everyone against you."
I platstered on a blank face as I hid the fact that I was terrified of what he was saying. "I've been to jail before. You're not scaring me."
"No, no, no. You have been to Juvi, a completley different thing from jail. They don't take it easy on you. And just because you're apart or MS-13 doesnt mean anything. While you're in there by yourself, where are they going to be? Out in the real world living their life. The people that you called family, that you think love you, their not going to be there for you. I garuntee that if any one of them were in your shoes right now, they would have given you up long ago."
"No they wouldn't. We don't rat on family."
"Yeah?" He reached into the pocked inside his suit jacket and pulled out a small piece of paper. He unfolded it and placed it down ont he table, slidding it over to me.
"What is this?"
"You said that you don't rat on family right? Well take a look at that." I looked down at the piece of paper. It read Cameron Smith statement. "Please read it aloud."
"Sian fired the gun... What?!" I said, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Keep reading, it's gets much better."
"Sian fired the gun at the old woman. I told her not to do it but she did anyway. She said that sometimes you have to make neccasary sacrifces and that means killing people. The woman fell to the floor and Sian stepped over her and walked away. I stayed behind and tried to help her, but she was already dead. I followed behind Sian, afriad that she would do the same thing to me." I looked back Mr.Bryant. "Who said this?"
"One of your family members. Your brother, Cameron Smith actually."
"C-Cameron? He's lying! He's the one who shot the woman! I didnt do anything. I just wanted to get the stuff and go!" I felt tears brimming in my eyes, threatening to spill over. How could he do that to me?
"So you're saying that Cameron is in fact the person who shot Agatha Lee?
"Yes! I didn't do anything!"
"Ok Ms.Greene. Could you put that in a statement?"
"Yes."
"Excellent." He reached under the table and grabbed and notepad and a pen. A cop walked into the room and removed my handcuffs before exiting again. I absentmindedly rubbed my wrists. "Here, write your statement on there, and we can use that to testify against Mr.Smith."
I sighed before quickly writing down what I had just told Mr.Bryant. I tried to ignore the aching in my chest at the fact that I was doing this to Cameron even though he had done it to me.
I put the pen down and slid the notepad back over to him. "Wonderful. So regarding you, Ms.Greene, we have teams going throughout the victim's house and testing for fingerprints on the gun. If the fingerprints on the gun are Mr.Smith's then you will need to testify against him in court, as we are going for the life sentence or the death penalty. I can't let you off scott free as you are still a criminal but your punishment will be much lighter."
"Ok."
"You are free to go now, but you have a court date in five weeks. You are expected to be there at 8:30 sharp. A letter will be sent to you. And we also know what kind of danger we have placed you in by asking you to testify against Mr.Smith, therefore we are placing under our police protection program. An officer will watch over you and your house to make sure nothing happens to our key testimony. We clear?" I nodded my head.
Mr.Bryant stood up from the table, as did I. "You are free to go Ms.Greene. An officer will be at your house later tonight. Make sure you are there to meet him." He held the door open for me and I walked through.
I walked out of the station without a backward glance.