Page 54 of Love & Other Disasters

Twenty

They sat in folding chairs at a plain, shiny metal table in a windowless room. The walls were old and bare, with stark white paint chipping in spots. A large mirror hung on the wall, a two-way mirror. Violet had seen those in plenty of crime shows. Did police use tactics like that in real life? Jill was cuffed to the table, while Violet remained unshackled.

Violet bungeed through a wide range of emotions and the lack of sleep weighed on her. So far, no one had fingerprinted them, like on the television shows. Officer Lanky marched them from the patrol car to the room and left them alone. Time ceased to exist. She had no clue how long they sat there, neither of them speaking.

In her peripheral vision, Jill was studying her. “Why aren’t you cuffed?” Jill huffed.

“You ran; I didn’t.” Violet stared back incredulous.

Jill scoffed and kicked Violet in the side of her calf, again. Violet stood, pushing her seat back with force and grabbed the chair out from under Jill, pulling hard, the chair slid across the room. Jill fell, but dangled from the table they shackled her to, struggling to get her feet under her.

“Damn it,” Jill yelled.

“Stop kicking me,” Violet screamed. “I’ve had enough. It’s all your fault. I’d be home in bed if you hadn’t drug me out in this hair-brained plan to get a stupid laptop. And the dumbass didn’t even remember you’d broken up.” Violet stopped short of threatening to kill Jill. This wasn’t the place. She moved across the room to the far corner and slid down the wall and sat on the floor and let the tears flow.

Within seconds the door opened and a man entered. He wore a button down shirt, a tie, and khakis. The badge on his belt sent her stomach plummeting. They were watching through that mirror; she’d known it. The older man held a folder and ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair staring at the sight of them.

“Ladies, I’m Detective Harden.” He helped Jill to her feet and returned her chair. The man crossed to Violet and held out his hand. “Come back to the table, Ms. Murphy.”

At the table, she sat next to Jill while Detective Harden lowered himself onto the chair opposite with a thud. He opened the folder and slid photographs out, lining them on the table in front of Jill and Violet. The photos taken only hours earlier, ones of them in the garden at the farm, on the porch, and one of Violet hanging out the laundry room window of the farmhouse. In chronological order, their adventure getting into and out of the house laid before them.

“Tell me about this,” he asked, tapping the photo.

Violet wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. She told the Detective the story of her evening from when Jill showed up at the door. He too took notes in a notebook, scribbling as she spoke. Jill remained quiet and stared at the table.

When Violet finished, Officer Lanky took her out of the interrogation room and walked through the empty precinct. He led her to a room with two cells, one occupied by a man. All the air left her body, this wasn’t happening. The officer unlocked the door of the empty cell and opened it.

The bars loomed large and imposing, a steel cage that would take away her freedom. She’d never been inside a cell before, except the time they’d visited an old 1800’s jail on vacation, and her parent’s took silly photos of them sitting behind the bars. But this wasn’t a funny moment to grab onto the bars and pose for a camera, this was real life, a real jail, and a real policeman next to her coaxing her into the cage. Her legs ceased obeying commands and vision blurred from lack of oxygen.

“Breathe,” the officer’s voice cut through the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears. “Breathe, Ms. Murphy. It will be all right.”

No, it wasn’t okay. This was jail for heaven’s sake, and she’d done nothing but help her sister retrieve a stupid laptop. And now she was being stuck in a cage, no rights, no lawyer, no phone call, nothing. Violet inhaled a deep breath in and a sob came out. She hadn’t meant it to, but it escaped before she could control herself.

The clang came from behind her, she whirled around and somehow she was inside the cell. The officer had pushed her in tiny increments until she stood inside. Violet looked up and Officer Lanky was still there, studying her. The bags under his eyes gave away his exhaustion, and for the briefest of moments, his eyes flashed concern before his impassive, unyielding expression reset.

“So what’s a cute little thing like you in for?” the man in the opposite cell asked, the moment Officer Lanky left, closing the door behind him. The guy stood and walked to the front of his cell, facing her. His shirt and pants were grimy, his hair thin and matted. A hallway between the holding cells separated them, and she breathed a sigh of relief he couldn’t reach her through the bars. She looked down at the mud caked all over her, and she was also filthy. Dried mud fell off when she moved.

She looked the man right in the eye and narrowed her gaze, not wanting to interact. “Murder,” she replied.

He paused, “No way. Who?”

“I don’t know, but he wouldn’t leave me alone.”

The man scoffed, returning to the bench.

The cell contained a long wooden bench attached to the cinder block wall. She walked to the seat, leaving a trail of dried mud in her wake. Did she leave a dried mud trail through the station? The wooden bench was barely big enough, but she curled up with her back against the cold block wall. With her energy depleted, tears fell.

The clanging door jolted Violet awake. She looked up as Jill walked toward her, but she didn’t have the energy to sit. She closed her eyes and hoped this was all a terrible dream, and she’d wake up in her bed next. Her sister needed to stay away. But the girl didn’t have the sense that God gave a shoe, so she plopped down on the bench at Violet’s head.

“Get away from me,” Violet muttered.

“Oh, don’t be that way,” Jill replied.

“We’re in jail… because of you.” She pushed herself to sitting.

“It’s not that bad,” she said, leaning back against the wall and yawning.

“Not that bad?” Violet sputtered. “They have arrested us Jill, arrested. And I have to be at work in a few hours, and we’re in a cage in the middle of nowhere.”

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