Guilty! ...Until Proven Innocent

Hope's POV

"Girls, we need to know what happened. You're not going anywhere until you talk to us." Detective Liz said.

I stared unblinkingly at my reflection in the two-way mirror. The cold metal handcuffs were tight around my white wrists, but I still didn't try loosening them. Beside me, sat my twin sister April, just as still and silent as I.

Detective Liz let out a tired groan. We've been here for an hour now. I could understand her frustration: She'd gotten nowhere with us.

"Alright, I'm going to get a cup of coffee. Would you like anything?" My sister and I act as if we couldn't even hear her. "I'll be back. Don't go anywhere."

As if we could! I thought.

As soon as I could no longer hear the officer's footsteps, I pulled at the handcuffs, trying to relieve the pressure somehow. I really should have asked for the officer to loosen them....

I turned to my older sister, silently asking what we're going to do. This whole thing had me terrified. And unless April had an idea, I didn't know how we would be getting out of this situation.

April opened her mouth to say something, but then we heard footsteps approaching the door. We resumed our blank expressions.

Detective Liz came in the room, and set her styrofoam cup on the steel table. She folded her brown hands in front of her, and looked at us. "Hope, April, I've given you plenty of time. Why were you at your father's house?"

We continued to remain silent.

"You know that you shouldn't have been there... Why were you?"

"We left a doll," April told her. "The last time we'd been there."

"And how did you get there?"

"We walked."

"You walked two miles to your father's house for a doll?" Detective Liz raised her eyebrows shocked.

"Yes."

"And where is this doll now? You didn't have it with you when you were brought in."

"It's still in the house." April told her.

"Okay. So you walked to your father's house, and you didn't make any stops along the way, correct?"

I nodded my head.

"Tell me what happened when you got to the house? Did someone answer the door, or did you just go in?"

"We let ourselves in," April said. "I went to get the doll, and Hope stayed by the door."

"But you didn't stay there, Hope, did you?" Detective Liz said. "You were in the kitchen."

I shook my head. "I listened to April," I told her.

"But you were found next to your father's body. In the kitchen. Several feet away from the door."

I swallowed. "I- I heard a noise in the kitchen. So I went to check. And then I saw Daddy there on the floor..."

"Did you hear anything, April?" Liz asked.

April glanced at me, and I knew she wanted to say yes, but she couldn't lie. "No. I didn't hear a noise."

"So Hope, how did your father end up on the floor? No one else was in the house. No one else was on the first floor with him, other than you."