started to float around. Maybe I should go to my job. But if I did that, everyone would ask about Todd? Where is he?
Reaching up, I crossed my arms at my chest and began to rub my upper arms with my hands, trying to warm myself. Even though it was ninety degrees out, I couldn’t fight the feeling of a sudden chill coming from the realization Dorian might be right.
Was I crazy to have run away? After all, he really didn’t have any reason to lie to me. What if someone really was after me? It became more and more difficult to get a single breath. In every direction I looked, the faces of strangers worried me.
I wondered if the next person I walked past would grab me and pull me into a dark alley or, a waiting car. Any ability I had to think clearly slipped away. Just then, I saw a couple of cops on bicycles about a block ahead. Thinking about all of these things exhausted me. The stress started to overwhelm me. I approached them.
“Excuse me?” I began, feeling suddenly awkward in my appearance. “Can you tell me where the nearest police station is?”
They exchanged glances. One of the officers looked at me, confusion in his eyes. “Um, a couple of miles from here. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
I shook my head. “No, I-I’m fine. This isn’t something I want to talk about on the street.”
They basically ignored me, instead wasting my time asking me a bunch of stupid questions. It seemed to me like all of these things could be taking care of at the station. Every second that passed made me grow warier of being discovered.
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Look, please, I’m begging you. Can I just go to the police station? I’ll answer every single question that you have. Please.”
They gave in. A patrol car arrived not long after, and I got inside, safe at last.
I’d never been interrogated before, but for some reason, sitting all alone in a room at the police station, it sure felt like it. I sat, I stood, I sat, I stood. There was no way to get comfortable. While I was still standing, the door to the room opened and two men entered.
“Miss Rain?” one of them asked.
One held a tablet in his hand. The man who spoke introduced himself as Detective Wilson. He gestured toward the other cop. “This is my partner, Detective Mitchell. He has a few basic questions for you before we get to the reason why you’ve come in tonight.”
Once he began, it wasn’t long before I felt my stomach sink. What was I doing there? If they started to ask me a bunch of questions about Dorian, it could really get him in trouble.
That’s not what I wanted. He didn’t deserve that.
All I wanted was to be able to go back to my life. I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble, not for him and certainly not for myself. Paranoia gripped me again, and I looked around the room for surveillance cameras or maybe even a two-way mirror. I’d completely ignored the last few questions out of Detective Mitchell’s mouth. I guess he noticed.
He cleared his throat. “Ma’am?”
Without thinking, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I um, I want a lawyer. I don’t want to be recorded or say anything without one here.”
The two men looked at each other for a split second, frowning.
Detective Wilson spoke. “You aren’t under investigation. There are no recording devices anywhere. In fact, you can go, if that’s what you want to do.”
My mind raced. I didn’t know what I wanted. If I left, I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.
“Miss Rain,” Detective Mitchell began. “Would you like to clarify the statement you made about being kidnapped and held hostage? It would be helpful if you shared the name of the person, or persons, responsible. After all, that’s a very serious charge.”
Half listening, I looked at him. “What? What was that?”
He raised eyebrows and repeated himself. “ Who kidnapped you?”
To my horror, I blurted it out. “Oh, um, Dorian. Dorian Scott.”
They looked at each
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