Near Miss

Chapter Twenty: Inquiry

"Do you know why you're here?"

Sylvie leaned back in her chair, throwing her arms casually out to the sides. The small wooden chair she'd been provided wasn't exactly comfortable, but she was determined to make herself at home. "Yes, obviously," she drawled. "You found me at the crime scene. Why did you need to interview me here, anyway?"

"Redmond seems to trust you," Maddox said briskly, "so I'll keep this short. I wanted to talk to you, just in case there's anything you want to tell us. But since you're not a serious suspect, we're not concerned with any kind of legal proceedings."

"I'm not a serious suspect?" Sylvie muttered. "Is that because I'm seventeen?"

"You're a minor, yes," Maddox answered. "Also, you have no prior connection to Magdalen Hawk."

Sylvie snorted.

"Do you?" Maddox said, suddenly sounding very worried indeed.

"Prior connection? No." It was surprisingly satisfying to take advantage of such an unimportant technicality. "I think you should go get the paper."

"The paper?"

Sylvie mimed a rolling motion with her right hand. "Yes, the paper. I work for the paper, you know."

"Redmond didn't tell me that," Maddox said faintly.

"Redmond? Why did you ask Redmond to tell you about me?" Sylvie cocked an eyebrow. "I can tell you about myself."

Maddox leaned forward, lacing their fingers on the desk. "If I get a paper, will you stop with the backtalk?"

"If you get a paper," Sylvie answered innocently, "I won't be doing much of the talking."

"Durand!" Maddox shouted suddenly, making Sylvie flinch.

The door opened, and a police officer leaned in. "Need something, Chief?" he grunted.

"Will you get me a copy of the paper?"

"Aren't you... interviewing a suspect, Chief?" Durand sounded almost confused. Sylvie could easily picture what he was imagining: Maddox sipping coffee over a newspaper while they offered her a bevy of seemingly random and unrelated questions.

Maddox shook their head. "She's not a suspect, Durand. She's a minor. Will you just get the paper?"

"You want the Gazette, Chief, or one of the city papers?"

Maddox's gaze shot across to Sylvie, who immediately specified, "The Gazette, please."

"Gotcha." Durand closed the door.

"They're not mutually exclusive," Sylvie said.

"What?"

"Suspects and minors. They're not mutually exclusive. I know a minor who might have tried to kill someone."

Maddox tapped their desk, their bored eyes fixed on Sylvie's face. When they spoke, however, their tone was quite interested indeed.

"You investigated this, didn't you?"

"Investigated what?" Sylvie said playfully.

"You investigated this Hawk woman. You tried to find out who wanted to kill her. You must have talked to a lot of people. Oscar, at least. And... Jacob Long, too, right? He was talking to you like you knew each other."

"Why weren't you watching her?" Sylvie countered.

"What?"

"Magdalen. Why weren't you keeping tabs on her? Protecting her? You knew the criminal was going to strike again." Sylvie could feel her voice building in volume as she continued. "I made that mistake already. I put her in your hands, thinking she was going to be safe, and she got hurt. We need to learn from it this time. We need to try to save her!" Sylvie stopped, panting. She almost felt like she'd run out of words.