SOUL

Detective Leo

Leo sat at the metal table in the interrogation room, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the cold surface. His jaw clenched as he stared at Jason Connors, the murder suspect sitting across from him, who was trying desperately to keep it together. Leo's eyes were dark, unblinking, his expression unreadable. He had done this a hundred times before—sat across from someone who thought they could outsmart the system, who thought they could get away with something monstrous. But Connors? He was breaking, and Leo could smell the fear rolling off him like a stench.

"Here's what's going to happen," Leo said quietly, his voice low but sharp enough to cut through the tension in the room. "You're going to confess. Because I've already got your prints, your DNA, and witnesses who saw you arguing with her the night she was killed."

Connors shifted in his chair, his hands clamped tightly in his lap. He looked at the floor, his lips pressed into a thin line as if trying to find a way out. But Leo wasn't about to let him off that easily.

"You can keep pretending," Leo continued, leaning forward, his tone almost casual. "But we both know you did it. You stabbed her. And now you're sitting here, trying to act like you're not guilty. But I see it, Jason. I see it in your eyes. You're falling apart."

Connors' eyes flicked to the one-way mirror on the wall, his breath quickening as his leg started bouncing under the table. Leo stayed perfectly still, like a predator watching its prey, waiting for the moment to strike. His patience wasn't limitless, but he knew how to play this game. He had learned it well, honed it over the years as a cop and now a detective.

"I didn't mean to..." Connors' voice cracked, barely audible.

Leo didn't move. "You didn't mean to what?"

"I didn't... it wasn't supposed to..." Connors stammered, his hands trembling now.

"Spit it out," Leo snapped, his patience finally wearing thin. "What wasn't supposed to happen? The stabbing? The murder? Or are you just upset you got caught?"

The suspect's breath hitched, and his body sagged as the sobs started. Leo watched with cold detachment as Connors crumbled under the weight of his guilt. It was always the same. They broke, eventually. No matter how hard they tried to hold out, the truth would tear them apart.

"She was leaving me," Connors choked out, tears streaming down his face. "She said she was done, that she didn't want to see me anymore. I tried to talk to her, I tried to make her stay, but she wouldn't listen..."

Leo's face remained expressionless, his eyes hard. He'd heard this story too many times. Another entitled man thinking he had the right to someone's life. Another monster who thought they could control a woman through violence. He didn't feel sympathy for Connors. He felt disgust.

"So you killed her," Leo said flatly.

Connors nodded, his head dropping as the sobs overtook him. "I didn't mean to. It just... it happened so fast. I don't know what came over me."

"stand up and put your hands behind your back," Leo muttered under his breath, his lips curling in a slight sneer. He stood, the chair scraping the floor as he pushed it back. "You can save the excuses for the jury."

With a nod to the officers standing by the door, Leo motioned for them to take Connors away. They moved in, cuffing the man and leading him out of the room. His sobs echoed in the hallway as Leo stood there, watching him disappear from sight. The room fell into silence again, the tension finally dissipating. Another case closed.

As he walked out of the interrogation room, the other officers greeted him with nods of approval. His captain, a tall, grizzled man with a worn face, gave him a clap on the back. "Nice work. That was clean. Broke him in ten minutes"