Smoke and Mirrors (DE)

1. Life goes on

" Do you believe in God?"

Grace tilted her head to the side slightly before giving a head nod. " Of course," She said, fixating her brown eyes on the man that sat across from her— Enrique Vargas, a man brought in suspected of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and cutting their child from her womb prematurely. He fiddled with the steel cuffs used to secure him to the table before looking back up at her with a deranged look in his eyes. " Well I'm the antichrist," Enrique said, his tone confident yet cold.

Grace nodded, meticulous not to show any type of reaction. Four years into her career as a criminologists there were a lot of things that she had to pick up along the way that school didn't teach, and this was one of them. Though she found everything this man was saying absolutely preposterous, she had to remain un-phased because her job was to make this man feel comfortable enough for her to get into his head and pick his brain and to establish if he was truly competent or not.

" Enrique explain to me your thought process behind this. What was the reason for murdering your girlfriend and unborn child?"

" To go against any religion, any religious beliefs. To just go against anything," He rambled, not giving a clear concise reason or answer.

" When did you establish you were going to do this? Was it spur of the moment? Was it planned?" Grace asked.

" We planned it after the father told me to do it. He tells me what to do and I listen. I am special, superior. He speaks through me,"

" Who is he?" She inquired, jotting down notes. " Who is the father?"

" The father," He repeated. " The father, the son and me, hallelujah,"

Grace nodded slowly and played along as if she understood what he meant but in reality she had no clue what he was saying because he wouldn't directly answer any of her questions.

" And how long has the father been speaking to you?"

" All my life," Enrique said.

" Is he speaking to you now?"

He nodded in confirmation. " You're speaking to him, he's speaking through me," Enrique was displaying signs of schizophrenia. " He says to impregnate you next as you are Eve,"

" I'm Eve?" She asked with a raised brow.

" Yes and I shall cut the child from your womb to present to him too,"

Before Grace could ask another question, the interrogation room door flew open abruptly followed by Detective Malik James bursting in with a look of agitation on his face. " You're done," Malik said, undoing his cuffs and snatching him up by the collar, dragging him out.

Grace huffed agitatedly, closing her journal. She was just starting to see clear signs of incompetency before her evaluation was so rudely interrupted. Gathering her belongings and tape recorder, she flicked the room light off and closed the door heading into the close circuit television room where you could watch each interrogation room through an array of TVs. Detective Malik and a few others hung out in the room watching interrogations and talking about cases. Grace entered, clearing her throat and catching everyone's attention.

Malik waved his hand and everyone excused themselves from the room just leaving Grace and himself. After being diagnosed with colon cancer, Detective Miller was forced to retire leaving room for Malik to step up as lead detective in the department. Malik was in his very early thirties, brown skin with tattoos going up and down each arm. He stood at 6"1' with a sharp chiseled jaw and always kept a clean fade.

" Why did you do that?" Grace asked irritatedly. " You had no right to interrupt my interview like that,"

" The way he was speaking to you was inappropriate and I didn't like that," Malik said, folding his arms across his chest and leaning onto a table. He wore slacks and a button down tucked into his pants with his gun and badge on full display secured to his hip.