Page 52 of Resist Me Not
“What day was it that you and Mr. Fisher met?”
“August 11th. It was the last day I saw Curtis. I went over to his place to get a textbook that I left in his apartment.”
“And how did that lead to you meeting Mr. Fisher?”
I instinctively reach toward my cheek before I can stop myself and stupidly jerk my hand back down, which obviously looks way worse.
“Something wrong, doctor?” Detective Clancy asks in this maddeningly even voice like he already knows everything inside my head.
Trey said to not lie unless I had to, and only about obvious things—like no, detective, Trey did not kill my ex and others and is absolutely going to kill more people in the future. If it’s just a fact, state the fact, because lies that stay close to the truth are easier to keep from being found out.
And lo, the aiding and abetting continues.
“Just a bad memory, detective.” I let myself touch just beneath the cut and turn my head so he can see it. “I know the scar is getting fainter now, but Curtis caused this that last day I saw him. He hit me and his watch sliced open my cheek. We were fighting outside his building, and Trey saw us. He saw what Curtis did. Then, before I could get my head on straight, just as Curtis was about to hit me again, Trey stopped him. To be clear, I would have punched Curtis’s lights out myself, but Trey beat me to it. He, um, may have broken Curtis’s wrist in the process ofrescuing me.” Better to state that outright too rather than have the detective fling it at me next.
He still manages to maintain a completely impassive expression which is as maddening as his tone. “And you didn’t think to report any of that earlier?”
“I just wanted to be done with Curtis, okay? It was a bad breakup. He was an asshole. Trey was trying to help. And I figured if I reported anything, it would just blow everything up worse. From what I heard from some of Curtis’s friends and coworkers, he didn’t tell anyone about what happened either.”
“No. According to witness reports, Mr. Van Kirk attributed his broken wrist to a…” He checked his notes. “Furniture moving mishap?”
“Guess so.”
“The truth is, Doctor Hammond, looking into Mr. Fisher was protocol. A new someone in the life of a person of interest makes them a person of interest too.”
“I’ma person of interest?”
“You’re the missing person’s ex after a self-confessed bad breakup. What do you think?” Okay, fair. “What worried me, however, what started to make me wonder about Mr. Fisher was just how difficult to pin down he was the more I looked into him, with just enough not known about him to paint him in a suspicious light. All circumstantial of course. No witnesses reported seeing Mr. Fisher inside Mr. Van Kirk’s apartment building.”
Thank fuck. “I should think not. No one would have seen him there.” But not because he wasn’t. He was just too good at keeping out of sight.
“Do you know the old Sherlock Holmes quote, Doctor Hammond?” Detective Clancy leans toward me over the desk. 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'There is zero evidence to suggest Mr. Van Kirk had any reason to willingly pick up and leave his life. He had a good job, loyal friends, coworkers who loved him. Everything was going well. Except for his breakup with you, a broken wrist, and an encounter with an outlier. You can understand, I assume, why that makes both you and Mr. Fisher more persons of interest than anyone else, because there is no one else. Unless of course you can shed some light on why Mr. Van Kirk would give up his entire life and vanish on his own?”
It’s okay.It’s okay.He knows nothing. He’s just suspicious and is trying to get me to admit to something to prove his theory. Without me admitting to anything, without the picture in my pocket or any other proof, he can’t touch me or Trey.
And that’s what I want, isn’t it? I want to keep Trey safe, like he kept me safe.
That makes it okay… doesn’t it?
“Doctor Hammond? Do you have anything to add?”
I could reach for the photo in my pocket right now. I could. But I don’t. “No. Sorry. I have no idea why Curtis would leave or where he went, and frankly, I don’t care. He was out of my life the moment I walked away from him on that street and was lucky enough to end up with Trey instead. Thinking Trey or I am involved in Curtis’s disappearance is just grasping at straws. Can I go now?”
Detective Clancy’s steely expression bores into me. He doesn’t answer for a very long string of seconds, but I am not going to cave. Finally, he flips the manilla folder closed and snatches it back. “Yes, Doctor Hammond, you can go. But if I learn anything new, I’ll be in touch.”
I immediately push my chair back.
“And doctor? If you learn anything new, I hope you’ll stay in touch too.”
“Yeah. Will do.”
Willfucking notdo.
I take a puff on my inhaler as soon as I‘m outside the police station. I manage to mostly stay calm, but I can feel the adrenaline drop from finally being out of there. My hands are shaking when I message Trey in the simplest terms possible about what happened.
He knew I took the photo. But he thanks me. He misses me.
And damn it, I miss him too.
