Silence | Book 1

4-5: Testimony

Hibiki clutched his hands to his chest, standing still in place as his thoughts couldn't move past what he had just seen. The weight of a hand on his shoulder made him jump with fright, but at least pulled him out of his stupor. Bewildered and unfocused his gaze darted frantically between Kazuo and the speeding off ambulance. Shaky he pointed at it, letting out an unsettled, questioning noise, but Kazuo shook his head. Before he could do anything else, Kazuo had pulled him into his chest to block out the surroundings for a moment.

「We can't do anything for him at the hospital. The best way to help him is for you to tell the police that he wasn't involved. Get this cleared up as quickly as you can.」

Hibiki nodded, before wrapping his arms tightly around Kazuo in an attempt to deal with his own emotions and calm them down.

「I can stay with you in the room if you want, as an interpreter?」

He nodded again, giving an even tighter squeeze for a short moment to tell him that he needed him – before remembering that he was an adult, and not a little child anymore. He pulled away from Kazuo and steeled himself, taking a deep breath as he put all his emotions away for later when he had taken his responsibility and cleared Tristan's name. The sooner he'd get this over with, the better.

To give his testimony he was taken to a small, rather sober office. There were no black walls, no one-way mirrors – certainly no handcuffs and gruff looking agents. Instead he sat opposite of a man in his late twenties in police uniform, and although a bit larger and in better shape than was average, he by no means looked rough and weathered.

It took a long moment for the office computer to start up, and while left waiting, he nervously tried to find any distraction – lest his thoughts would inadvertently slip back to the image of Tristan passed out and choking. What if I hurt him forever? He tried to shake the thought off by looking at the floor plan pinned onto the wall behind the police officer. Lack of air is dangerous right? Brain damage... He tried to swallow, but it took him considerable effort to get past the fear welling up from deep inside. I don't know... what if he died on the way? Fuck... I did this...

"Alright, it started. I want you to tell your story start to finish, I will record it, and ask questions in between if I need more clarification."

The words pulled Hibiki from his thoughts, and he gave a determined nod. But that determination wavered a little however when he actually had to 'speak'. Unsure how to start he looked at Kazuo beside him, who made a gesture for him to go ahead.

「If you start Yukimura-sama, I will translate.」

'I planned all of this. Tristan had nothing to do with it.'

Beside him he heard Kazuo repeat the statement in English, with a fair amount of delay as he had to interpret his signing, and then translate it into another language again. But it worked well enough.

'I said I was going for a run, but put my guard dog Maki in a kennel, and then went to pick up Tristan to go to London. I even took a change of clothes with. I turned my phone off, and I only used cash because I knew people would start looking for me. But I just wanted to be left alone for a little while, I didn't mean to go missing all day. My phone got stolen, so I couldn't message or call.'

"Yes. We tracked the GPS on your phone to a pawn shop when it was turned on again." The policeman showed him a plastic bag that contained his mobile phone still filed as evidence, and laid it on the table. "A message was sent to your mother a little past five containing the text. 'This is Hibiki, I am using someone else's phone. I am alright, but I won't be back until tonight.' was this you?"