Only Love by Victoria H. Smith, Raven St. Pierre Page B

knew that was coming. The man retreated back into the room and after he cleared Don squeezed my arm. He gave me a look I’d seen before, one I got the last time before I was asked in to speak to Internal Affairs. It wasn’t a look of reassurance, or even one to wish me luck. It was that of an understanding.
    One he felt he had with me.
    I recognized the gaze and made my way into the room. It was a standard set up. A table, dim lighting and two chairs, one in front and one behind. Our detectives used it to interrogate criminals usually. Today it was being used for Don and me.
    The man in the suit gestured for me to take a seat. He had some files spread out across the table in front of him. I took the seat as offered, clasping my hands on the table.
    “I’ll make this quick, Officer. I know you’d like to go about your day.”
    Damn, was he right about that. I swallowed, trying not to look nervous.
    The man thumbed through his papers. “I’m sure you’ve heard the case concerning Manuel Lopez is up for appeal. We’re just doing some standard stuff involving the case. What that means for you is verifying information. Things you’ve said before. You were there that day with Officer Donald Kline correct? You’ve been his partner since then?”
    I dampened my dry mouth. “Correct.”
    Another flip of the paper. “It was just you and him that day, the convenience store owner, Manuel Lopez of course, and his cousin, the one who’d unfortunately been a casualty.”
    He went on to mention that boy’s name, his age, but he left out details. Like how he was one of two kids in a single parent household and how he’d played sports in high school. He even left out that he’d been top of his class despite the hard neighborhood he grew up in. Of course those things were lost. You’d only find out if you looked into those things. Like I had done. At the time, I didn’t know why I had. Perhaps, it was because the kid had been so young when he lost his life. I wanted to remember him. I felt he deserved that.
    “The two boys held up the shop,” the man in the suit continued. “And you and Officer Kline had been in the back. You were picking up your morning coffees on patrol and the perps didn’t see you.”
    Perps. They were kids. I nodded.
    “Things got out of hand and the perps panicked when they realized you and your fellow officer were there. Officer Kline tried to talk him down, but one of the perps pulled a gun, aiming it at the owner, demanding he and his cohort be released.”
    How did a kid so young end up in a situation like that? Pull a gun on an officer when he was only sixteen?
    “His cohort moved, and in the shuffle, the perp aimed the gun at Officer Kline. The perp shot first and then Officer Kline reacted, taking him out. Taking him down.”
    The perp shot first… The kid shot first… That’s what happened. That’s what happened…
    “Officer Holloway?”
    My eyes flashed up to the man where he eyed me over his papers, his look expectant. “That’s correct, right? Your statement put on record that day?”
    I shook my head, shaking away the zoned out feeling I previous had. “I’m sorry. Could you repeat what you said?”
    “I’m just trying to verify your statements. The one you put on record that matched Officer Kline’s. You said the perp shot first. He shot and Officer Kline reacted and didn’t use excessive force. I just need you to verify that. Your own statement that is.”
    I confirmed just that. The evidence had all been there that day and obviously so. The bullet casing, the round shot off from that very gun, and the shop owner witnessing that very scenario. It happened not two feet in right in front of the man, so he couldn’t have been mistaken. It didn’t matter that Manuel Lopez said different, and it didn’t matter I had a different vantage point, one many feet away, one on the other side of the convenience store. None of that mattered because the evidence had been there.
    The