The Accidental Time Traveller

7 - Phil

Time stops in an interrogation room.

Phil Anderson had lost track of time since the detectives had placed him inside the interrogation room and told him that they would be right back. There was, of course, no clock, and they had said they needed to see his cellphone, so he didn't even have that to occupy his time.

"What is this about?" Phil had asked, and the young black detective had paused before he closed the door. "Is Chris okay? I'm kind of freaking out here, so throw me a bone, man?"

The detective almost looked sorry for him.

"Chris is fine," he finally said. "If you can call 'under arrest for murdering his girlfriend' fine."

The detective had said something else and left, but Phil was beyond hearing at that point. It was as if he was underwater, all sound taking on a booming far-away quality, every movement slowed as if in a messed up form of slow motion. He dropped into his chair in a moment that took forever, that metaphorical punch in the gut taking all of the wind out of him, tears springing to his eyes and streaming down his face, unwanted and completely unstoppable.

Sara was dead.

Oh God, Sara was dead.

And Chris had known it was going to happen.

The initial panic and emotion had faded the longer he had waited. He had expected the detectives to return sooner rather than later to take advantage of his emotional state, but it was almost as if they had forgotten about him. There was no one barging in demanding that he tell them everything he knew about Chris, no demands to know what he knew about the case. The only person that came in was a uniformed officer with a soda and a bag of peanuts from the vending machine.

"Am I under arrest, officer?"

The young cops had just shrugged apologetically. "The detectives just need to talk to you. Hang tight and someone will be in to talk to you soon."

"What happens if I try to leave?"

"We'll probably have to place you under arrest and handcuff you to the table. Right now, they just need to ask you some questions. Trust me, man: it's much better this way."

So Phil had waited.

There were times he wondered what would have happened if he hadn't answered the door to his apartment. It had been past 1 AM so there was no reasonable expectation for him to be awake. It didn't matter that he had been awake; it was just not a thing that people did, knocking on someone's door in the middle of the night.

Phil had been scrolling through the games on his Xbox, not really in the mood to play anything. He had been worried sick about Chris all evening, and there was that uncomfortable feeling he was getting that everything was all wrong and there was nothing anyone could do to fix it. He had half-expected that it was Chris knocking, having lost his keys or something, and he was ready to have a yelling match with his friend and roommate. As far as Phil was concerned, Chris' blackouts had gotten much worse, and Chris needed to see his doctor to get something done. Instead of making him better, the Sosumi implant seemed to be making Chris' blackouts worse. Something needed to be done. It was getting downright scary.

It hadn't been Chris, though, so there had been no confrontation. Instead, it had been two uniformed officers telling him that he needed to come with them down to the station. Phil had stopped long enough to get his phone and send a text to Shelley to let her know where he had gone so she wouldn't worry. It wasn't right for her to come back to an empty apartment after her shift at the hospital.