The ambulance and the police showed up just a five minutes after the 911 call was made. The number of people that were at the party halved once news spread about the dead girl in the pool. Cassie, Caleb and all her friends remained, along with a few others who were too nosy to leave, or the drunk and confused few who could not.
"Cassidy Meyer?" a police officer asked, pulling Cassie out of a trance.
"Yes?" she shook, and observed the officer's face. He was tall and skinny, like a pencil, he had really thin lips and a pointed nose, looked like someone that a French accent would suit. She quickly averted her gaze from him and looked at her exposed feet.
"I understand that you were the one who found the body?" He asked with a pen curled up in his left hand and a notebook in his right, ready to write down whatever Cassie would share with him. Cassie was scared because she had never had any reason to be involved with the police before. It was at that moment that she truly understood what Sydney was talking about earlier in the day. She knew she was innocent but all the questions made her feel like she was a prime suspect for murder, and that feeling terrified her.
"Yes," she replied, looking at anything but the intimidating police officer who was almost towering over her. She did not want to see the way he looked at her, she did not want to see if she was being looked at like she was a criminal.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened?" She drifted off once she heard his question. She looked around the scene and she caught sight of her friends in a similar situation to her, the only difference was that they didn't have personal interrogations, they were asked questions as a group. Hers was different because she was the one who discovered the body. She looked towards the pool area which was now surrounded by yellow tape and officers taking samples from the scene to use as evidence. The body had been taken away but she felt as though she could still see her there, dead yet somehow beautiful.
"Miss, I asked you a question," the police officer said waving his left hand in front of her face, as he leaned forward a bit. He impatiently tapped his pen on his notebook and bore his eyes into hers.
"Oh yeah, sure, erm I'm sorry what was the question?" She asked, uninterested.
"I said could you explain to me how you found her," he repeated himself with a hint of irritation laced in his tone.
"Yeah right, err . . . " She racked her brain trying to remember everything that happened that night to a tee. "I walked out of the house for some fresh air and went to the pool house to wash my face," she said, pointing at the pool house which was also surrounded by officers. "After that, I decided to rest by the pool and that's when I found the body. At first, I didn't notice the body but I eventually saw it and then I . . . I screamed," she said with widened eyes, wide from shock, disbelief of what she had witnessed, wide from fear.
"What made you go to the pool house to wash your face, why couldn't you just do it inside?" he leaned even more forward.
"Am I a suspect or something, aren't my parents or a lawyer supposed to be present during an interrogation like this anyways?" she spat out angrily.
"I'm just doing my job, the quicker I'm done with this the better for the both of us," he clicked his pen repeatedly.
"Well like I told you, I came out for fresh air, going inside to wash my face would have defeated my aim now don't you think?" She replied sharply, already fed up with the manner in which he questioned her.
He eyed her suspiciously "One last question, did you know the victim, had you seen her before, or do you know anyone who might have known her?" With that question, she froze. She didn't know her personally but she knew someone who did, and she had definitely seen her before. She couldn't say that her brother knew her and was out with her throughout the party, that would make him a prime suspect.
"Miss, you seem to space out a lot, why do I feel like you're making up your answers in your head before telling them?" he leaned forward with his eyebrows raised up.
"I'm not, "she said, tersely. "I saw a freaking dead body for the first time in my life, I think I'm allowed to space out every now and then, and the answer to your question is no, she was a random girl who attended the party and I had never set eyes on her till I saw her lifeless body floating in the pool," she replied indignantly and with that she walked away.
--
Everyone at the party was tested and they were all taken in for underage drinking.
Danny's dad was the first to show up to the Freetown police department to pick up his son, followed by Matts parents who bust in and out with anger. There was a lot of tension and discomfort between everyone there, they had all hardly said a word since they got to the station. They only spoke when they were asked questions.
Cassie's parents came for both Cassie and Phoebe. Cassie saw her mother walk in looking worried. She was scared that her mother would go crazy and scream at her for being irresponsible but she shocked her by pulling both she and Phoebe in for a warm hug. "Are you girls alright?" she asked them both, frantically looking at their faces and constantly tilting their heads to check for any damage. They both nodded and she pulled them in for another suffocating embrace.
"I'm sorry mum, for drinking." Cassie apologized, as she moved her bare feet around.
"That's the least of my worries, I'm just so worried about you girls, you had to witness such a terrible thing," she placed her left hand on her cheek and the right on her pounding chest.
"Can we go home?" Cassie asked. She wanted to erase every memory of that night from her mind. She wanted to sleep away the horrific image of the dead girl.
"Where's Dad?" Cassie asked after scanning the room and not seeing her father anywhere.
"He's too busy yelling at your brother, at how irresponsible he was letting the party get out of hand and bringing alcohol to a party full of minors. What if that poor girl couldn't defend herself from the monstrous killer because she was too drunk to do so. Her family could sue us," her mother sighed.
"Oh," was all Cassie could manage.
--
They arrived the Meyer household at 3:07am. Caleb's car was parked out front. Cassie wondered how he was doing. A dead girl's body was found in his pool, her blood was still in his pool. She imagined that he would not be able to sleep in his house for a while. She was not even sure if he would be able to go back to his new place. The night he anticipated to be the one of best nights of his life decided to surprise him by being one of the worst, if not the worst.
When they got in, Cassie found her father sitting in his usual seat and Caleb sitting on another, none of them were speaking, they looked dazed, as though they had just received news of a loved ones passing, they looked how Cassie imagined the victims family would react, dazed and with many tears in their eyes. Cassie started up the steps but she was put to a halt by the sound of her father's angry voice.
"And where do you think you're going?" He demanded. Phoebe was in luck, they had no right to discipline her. She mouthed a 'sorry' to Cassie before making her way up to Cassie's room.
"Dad I'm sorry," Cassie apologized before he could yell any further.
"How did you think I felt when I got a call from the cops at 2:00 am saying my teenage daughter was taken in for underage drinking?" He yelled. Cassie had never seen her father that mad at her before and so it terrified her to see that that side of him existed.
"I said I was sorry," she said in a low tone, as she carelessly played with her dress, as a distraction.
He sighed "Go to your room, we'll talk about this later."
"I'm sorry, dad," she said once more and ran to hug him. She felt him relax a little beneath her embrace.
"It's alright I'm just glad that you're okay. Go get some rest, it's been a rough night for you."
"Goodnight," she said, relieved that things played out better than she had imagined.
"Goodnight," He replied.
When Cassie got to her room Phoebe was already fast asleep. She was still wearing her shoes and so Cassie helped her take them off, and she tucked her in. It was then that she realized that she hadn't taken her shoes from Caleb's house and that she had been walking around on bare feet.
She took a long shower, changed into her pajamas and lay down beside Phoebe. She closed her eyes waiting for sleep to take away her consciousness, but it didn't. The thought of the gory sight she had to see at the party kept her awake. She couldn't stop her mind from replaying the earlier incident over and over. She decided that she needed some help to sleep, and so she stood up and walked out of her room. She lazily walked down the stairs. The living room was empty by the time she got there.
She stepped into the kitchen and flicked on the light, and then she noticed that she was not alone. Caleb was there with the bottle of sleeping pills in front of him. She walked to the fridge grabbed a jug of orange juice along with a glass. She placed them on the table while taking a seat beside her brother on the Island.
"Having trouble sleeping?" she asked, as she nodded her head towards the sleeping pills.
"Yep," he said in a tired tone, his head buried in his palms.
"Rough night huh?" She asked as she poured some juice into the glass in front of her.
"Tell me about it," he shook his legs.
"Caleb?"
"Huh?" he lifted his head.
"The girl that was murdered today, did you know her?" she studied his facial expression.
"Not really," he sighed. "I met her at the party, I found her attractive, we talked outside for a while and then she got a phone call and said she had to go," he explained.
"So where were you throughout the party?" she asked further.
"She asked me to drop her off by the road, at first I refused but she said that someone was coming to pick her up, and so I did, I was more than shocked to find her in my pool . . . dead," he swallowed hard.
"Wow," Cassie started breathing heavily, she was overwhelmed. "And did you tell the police this?"
"I couldn't. If they find out that I'm probably the last person that saw her alive I'll be their prime suspect. Freetown is a mobocracy and the people want a killer, I'll be dead the instant time rumors spread that I'm a suspect."
"Yeah you're right," she breathed heavily. The people of Freetown had taken power into their own hands many times. They had murdered a lot of suspected criminals and were met with no repercussions for their actions. The power was in the hands of the masses, and the masses were ruthless.
She took out a pill from the bottle threw it into her mouth, using the orange juice to take it down.
"Goodnight Caleb," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Love you." she hugged him tighter.
"Goodnight Cass, love you too," he replied with a weak smile. It was evident from his unusually dull face and quiet demeanor that he was still very shaken, as he should be.