Page 14 of A Thin Line

And then I remembered something else. “Oh…there was one other thing. I don’t know if this is important, but I think you should know. When I was talking to Dr. Rakhimov, I thought I heard a noise deep in the lab. I thought it was Jenna until Dr. R. told me she’d already left.”

“And you didn’t investigate?”

“No. In hindsight, I guess I should have. But, um…if you know Dr. Rakhimov, when she asks, you don’t delay. After I got done talking with her, I forgot about the noise and locked up.”

The two officers exchanged a look—but before either could say anything else, the female plainclothes officer rapped on the door and entered.

Up to that point, I hadn’t felt like I’d been treated like a criminal—but things were about to change.

Chapter 5

When the plainclothes officer walked in the classroom, she asked, “How is the questioning coming along with this one?”

The officer who’d been taking notes said, “We’re almost done.”

“Let me know when I can take over.”

I didn’t like the tone of her voice—it sounded threatening…ominous.

Silva said, “Be my guest.” Standing up, he allowed the female officer to sit in his place, and he sat in a chair at the next desk.

“Annalise Miller?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I realize you’ve told these officers your story, but I’d like to hear it for myself.”

Holding back a sigh, I related again the things I’d done and seen throughout the day—but when I mentioned leaving the lab and closing the door so it locked, she stopped me.

“Would you repeat that, please?”

“After I hung up with Dr. Rakhimov, I hurried out of the lab, making sure the door locked behind me—and I completely forgot about the noise I heard.”

“What if I told you I didn’t believe you?”

I was shocked—but I tried to calm myself, remembering that I’d heard about the good cop/ bad cop routine. No doubt she was playing the role of bad cop, hoping I’d change my story. But it wouldn’t change, because I was telling the truth. “What don’t you believe?”

“Tell me who your accomplices were and we’ll try to go easy on you.”

“What?” Now panic surged through my veins as I realized she thought I was the one who’d vandalized the lab. “What do you mean by accomplices?”

“As much as I’d like to pin this whole damn thing on you, there’s no way you could have accomplished the damage to the lab in the short time you were in there by yourself. Who helped you?”

“Nobody. I didn’t do anything. I already told you what I did.”

“You’re lying,” she said, her brown eyes dark with rage.

“No, I’m not. What do you think I did?”

She glowered at me across that small desk and I thought she would have choked me if she’d thought she could get away with it. “You know exactly what you did.” I just shook my head. This woman was crazy. “Would you be willing to submit to a polygraph test?” Before I could respond, she added, “If you took a lie detector test, how do you think it would turn out?”

“It would prove I’m innocent!”

There was yet another knock at the door, but whoever was on the other side was waiting to be invited in. The plainclothes cop finally broke eye contact with me and turned to Silva. “Do you mind? See who’s there.” While he was checking the door, she turned back to me. “So you’re willing to take a polygraph test?”

“Yes, absolutely.” It was that prospect that gave me hope.

Silva was talking with someone on the other side of the door in hushed tones, and I suspected that we were all curious about the conversation. Silva turned and said, “Can you come out here, detective?”

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