Black Iris

Ghost me

Rose

thank u for tonight. I really needed that.

Read 12:23am

I turned off my phone. Again.

Stop thinking about it, I told myself. You have more important things to worry about.

"Ms. Alto, the detectives are ready for you now," the receptionist said, right on cue.

It was just past seven thirty in the morning. I'd woken up to a phone-call from the police to get down as soon as I could, so they could speak to me before the trial kicked off.

I had been confused at first, then I had looked at the news.

"Jesus Christ," I had muttered, to which my mother scowled.

"Don't say the lords name in vain," she had said. I had turned to phone around.

Body of young woman found at high school Summer Camp

"Oh," my mother had said quietly. "That's not good."

So, here I was, half an hour later, walking through the station to go talk to detectives. Again.

"Ms. Alto, hello again," the officer said. I had spoken to her dozens of times, at this point. Her, and a million other people. I was so tired of all this.

"Hello," I muttered, taking a seat in the interview chair opposite her desk, without looking at her. She seemed a bit taken aback, but sat across me at the desk and took out her laptop for notes.

"Before you say anything," I started, "No, I didn't know her. I have no idea who she is. I looked at her face, and I've never seen her in my life. I read about her in the news and there was no connection. We barely live in the same city. I don't know who did this, and I don't know why they did this."

It all poured out of me, and when I was done, I let out a huff.

She gave me a tired smile. "I know, Ophelia. It's a lot to handle. I'm sorry you're going through all this. We're just trying to get to the bottom of this."

"Yeah, I get that, but I've already told you everything I know," I huffed. "I don't really want to do this whole tit-for-tat to figure out why the hell this keeps happening to me." 

"So you agree that this is related to you?"

"Or, what, you think the body dumped right outside my school camp had nothing to do with me?" I said sarcastically.

The officer shook her head. "I understand this is a difficult situation, Ophelia, but I don't appreciate the defensiveness. Someone has died, and it is my job and my responsibility to figure out why. I am sorry to say that part of that is how they fit into your equation. Now, can I please ask my questions with eighty percent less sarcastic answers. I promise it won't be long."

I grumbled but nodded.

Half an hour later I was back in the car, driving across to the courts. Did they find anything else in the interview? No. But I played nice and let her ask her questions.