Page 40 of Secrets Within Us

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

A moment later, the sheriff walked in with a couple more people, making the room feel small.

“Carlson, if I catch you roughing up a prisoner like that again, especially an injured one, I’ll take you out back and teach you a lesson you won’t be quick to forget. Do I make myself clear?” The older sheriff asked while staring down the rookie with disdain. The young pup nodded in silence before sneering at me once again. “Get out of here and go do your paperwork.”

There was a middle-aged woman with him that wore the typical pant suit outfit of a superior and I could tell she was in charge of the interrogation almost immediately. She sat down across from me, Sheriff Boyd sat next to her, and two higher-up agents flanked them where the other two had stood before they left with the young Carlson.

The woman spoke first. “Hadley, I’m Special Agent Harvey, you’ve met Sheriff Boyd already.” I didn’t know what she wanted me to say, so I simply nodded. “You were read your rights and previously declined legal representation,” she said, “Do you still wish to decline a lawyer at this time?”

“Yes,” I answered evenly.

She nodded, looking slightly pleased with herself like it was going to make her job easier. But perhaps she didn’t realize that I had been a paralegal studying under an incredible defense attorney at one of the most prestigious law firms on the East Coast before everything happened. I knew enough to get through.

“Okay, then let’s get started.” There was a camera on the wall with its little red light blinking, watching me and I shivered as I remembered another little blinking red light that had watched me.

It had always watched; it had seen everything.

Agent Harvey began laying a file folder down in front of her and withdrawing large photos of the man I’d killed, laying them down on the table between us, but I refused to look down at them. I already knew what he had looked like when I was done. “Peter Daniels was found murdered from multiple stab wounds inside of his home four days ago. Investigators discovered your DNA and fingerprints at the crime scene, specifically on the knife still embedded in his neck and inside his vehicle. I’m officially charging you with his murder at this point. We’d like to ask you some questions to get the bigger picture, including why you’d want to kill the man.”

She paused, eyeing me accusingly, and then continued. “He’s known throughout the community here as a good man and helpful leader.” She sat back in her chair and adjusted her suit jacket, crossing her legs under the table in a show of authority, a move I’d seen played many times before. “But, on the other hand, you’ve had previous encounters with the law, haven’t you?” She flipped a few pages in the file and read off a sheet, “Theft, breaking and entering, trespassing, assault.” She tsked her teeth and cocked her head before looking back up at me. “Growing up in the sewers of New York City, bouncing from different group homes, and then out on your own at eighteen. I’d like to start with when you first met each other. How did the little street girl from New York and the nice kind preacher from Utah meet?” She held nothing back as she interrogated me, she knew which buttons to push, and my past was one of them.

Just as I was about to respond, a sudden knock on the door interrupted me. The agent swiftly opened it and stepped aside, revealing a face I immediately recognized. The first familiar face I had seen in weeks.

“Tim?” I asked pensively.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Agent Harvey said as she stood up in annoyance.

“Timothy Jenks. I’m Ms. Shaw’s lawyer and I will be representing her during questioning.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked in pure shock.

Agent Harvey cut me off as she rounded on Tim, blocking my view of him. “Ms. Shaw has declined legal representation, Mr. Jenks; you need to leave this room immediately.”

“She declined representation because I wasn’t here yet. But I am now, and now she wants her lawyer.” He said pointedly at me as he leaned around her and gave me a ‘you listen here’ look.

“You can’t just barge in here and talk for her, we do not know who you are!” Harvey was getting worked up as she saw her easy conviction slipping through her fingers now that a high paid lawyer was present. And everyone knew he was A-list just by looking at him. He was an incredibly well aged man at sixty. He wore an Armani tailored three-piece suit and had an essence of class and poise that surrounded him wherever he went. Even in the most stressful courtrooms, he always kept his cool and maintained composure. He was someone I’d studied, and I had learned so much from working under him at his firm in New York, and, to be honest, having him in the room gave me some relief.

But why was he present?

How?

“My name is Timothy Jenks, I’ve already introduced myself, Special Agent, so may I suggest you pay better attention to minor details unless you hope I will do your job for you. However, I will close this case either way with my client being cleared of all charges.” He turned and walked over to my side of the table. “Now, I’m going to ask you all politely to leave the room and turn off the mirror and camera so I may counsel my client and I’m also going to tell you, though I’m not going to be as polite about it, to unhandcuff her immediately as she’s here of her own free will and is injured as you can clearly see.”

I just stared in awe, as did everyone else in the room, as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat down next to me, while never letting his gaze slip off the Agent.

Sheriff Boyd cleared his throat with guilt as he walked around the table and undid the cuff. He wouldn’t meet my eyes as he did so, though.

“You have five minutes, and then we’re going to start this interrogation regardless if you’re ready or not.” Agent Harvey said before huffing her way out of the room followed by the agents.

Sheriff Boyd hung back until they were out of the room before he turned and looked at me finally. “I gave Kip permission to watch from the other room.” He said as he looked towards the mirror.

“Make him leave. I don’t want him here.” I replied before lowering my voice, hoping Kip couldn’t hear it through the mirror. “I don’t want him to hear what I’m going to have to say. Shield him from it.” I pleaded with him, using my eyes.

But just then the door opened forcefully and there stood the big brute of a man I’d tried to protect.

“Shield me?” He bellowed as he rounded the table. “God, you are so fucking stubborn. Don’t think I don’t know what that little stunt at the house was about. I get it, you’re trying to protect me from the fallout of all of this, but you have to stop. You don’t have to do everything on your own anymore, Hadley. Stop fighting and pushing me away.” His face was grief-stricken under his anger and it aged his beautiful features.

I shook my head sadly as I looked down at my hands in my lap. “An hour ago you were telling me to get the fuck out of your life, Kip. You’re not ready to deal with all of this. You obviously harbor way too many unresolved pains from your past to deal with this in the present.”

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