Page 111 of Obsession

“What?”

“What happened after he tried to help you?”

I peered into his steely blue eyes, which looked like two sharp daggers. This was what he wanted, and I realized he wasn’t after me with this case.

He wanted to get to Harris.

I raised my shield even higher.

“He didn’t get to help. I slipped and nearly fell off the platform. I didn’t see Tristan after that.”

“I get the impression you’re deliberately keeping someone out of the story, Katherine.”

My father walked up to me and gave me a look that said I was probably going to be grounded again.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and looked him straight in the eye. It wasn’t the first time I’d dealt with someonelike him, maybe not a detective, but they were all the same. They thought they were highly intelligent and manipulative.

“Why don’t you tell me what you already know?”

The corner of his mouth tilted up slightly. He opened his fabulous portfolio again and showed me another picture.

I had to control myself with every fiber of my being not to flinch when I saw Harris. He had been secretly photographed, as you could easily see from the picture. Tristan’s photo was a selfie, probably from one of his social media profiles. Harris didn’t have one, I already knew that. He had been photographed from a distance, but his facial features were clearly recognizable. He was standing next to his car, frowning like I’ve come to know quite well.

“I know him, yes. He’s a classmate and was there on Saturday. We helped Iolanda together. He was the one who saved me from falling.”

I couldn’t believe he was going to drag Harris into this just because he’d grabbed the guy by the collar and pulled him off the platform.

The detective smiled again and let me keep the picture. I felt the need to take it, even though I didn’t know why.

“Then let me explain this case in simpler terms, I realize I have confused you. The incident happened half an hour after the security camera showed you and Harris Stone leaving the fair. We still don’t know how Tristan ended up there, we can’t explain how he could have been tricked into climbing the building. He was the son of the smallest local peanut butter producer; he had no place to hang posters. He fell in the middle of the square, in front of everyone. The cameras don’t help us much because we only have a few blind spots of Tristan and a man entering the building, but we can’t make out any features of the man. It’s way too far away, and we can barely make out that it’s a man. There are no pictures of the rest of the scene. The building isthe tallest in the area, and no surveillance camera is pointed at that rooftop. We have no video or picture of the moment Tristan was pushed off the roof, only statements from witnesses who saw the incident. It all happened too quickly, and the murderer disappeared without a trace before anyone had the courage to go up there or call the police. All the leads we had until this morning were dead ends. The boy was friends with everyone, his family is respected in the community, so we assumed it was revenge. We suspected it was a competitor of the Reeces. But this morning we got a very interesting statement from one of his brothers, who suddenly remembered the guy who almost beat up Tristan just before he died.”

It had been quite a long explanation, but the ending was the only part that interested me. I wrapped my arms around myself while my father looked at me with an unreadable expression.

The detective opened that damn folder again and read from it:

“If you drop her, I’ll kill you.”

He looked at me. He didn’t need to explain, I’d heard those words perfectly well when they came out of Harris’ mouth while I was holding on for dear life to that damn scaffolding.

I maintained my neutral expression. I knew full well the trap he was setting. He was looking for other witnesses, other people who had heard the same threat. I had fallen into this trap many times before and had gotten my friends arrested. Or others had gotten me arrested.

“You expect me to confirm that Harris said that? I was hanging on a platform twenty feet off the ground.”

“So, you didn’t hear the threat?” he raised his eyebrows.

I shook my head with bored seriousness. I allowed myself a few seconds to study the case in my head. I couldn’t deny that Harris had dragged Tristan off the platform, they had pictures ofthat. But I was sure there was no sound in those pictures. Those who had heard Harris were probably just Tristan’s friends and family. Important testimony for the case, but not as important as that of an unrelated witness.

“I didn’t hear any threats. Right after he pulled him down, I slipped, and he was just talking to me.”

“That’s what Iolanda said, too,” my father interjected with an angry expression.

A spark of hope flared up in me.

Was my father on my side?

The man in front of me grimaced. He obviously didn’t like my answers. He wasn’t going to receive any incriminating answers if that was why he had come.

“You didn’t fall, but Tristan did. He fell off a ten-story building.”

---