Shadows of Death

Chapter 3 (Charlie section 7)

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Mr. Rasoli replied: "That's a good question, Arman. This question brings us closer us to the point. I think it's a good time to have a real conversation."

And as he spoke he opened the green briefcase in front of him on the desk. He brought out a lot of pictures. He carefully put the pictures on the table in front of Charlie."

When he set down the last picture he said: "This is the reason of your arrest, Mr. Arman!"

Charlie stared at the pictures. It was unbelievable, but he saw some pictures of himself in the supermarket hiding behind the shelves, a few Daevas next to the entrance. He also saw some pictures of killed Daevas on the floor, or in some other pictures, of two Peris, Merila and Ava, while they killed those three Daevas. He saw a picture of one Daeva who was killed with a nail in his chest and also other Daevas who were killed the same way. Also on the table were pictures of frozen people in the supermarket and the street. He even saw a picture of the nail-thrower nail thrower device among the pictures.

His mouth was open in surprise. Charlie's face was full of wonder. The bad dream and feeling in his mind all of yesterday afternoon and last night now had become reality. Before the astonishment let him say any word, Mr. Rasoli said: "I'm sorry, Arman! But this time you are not going to explain that this was an accident, like the diadem. This time you're convicted of a few crimes, not just one. Each of these crimes require a hundred skilled and experienced lawyer to have a chance of clearing you."

Charlie, who still stared at the pictures with astonishment, asked: "Crimes? What are my crimes?"

Mr. Rasoli said: "Every criminal says the same three things after being arrested. The first is 'I'm innocent.' The second is 'Where is my lawyer?' and third is 'What is my crime?'"

He paused and while he took his glasses off his face said: "Murder...disrupting national security...disrupting public security...creating a panic...working with foreign terrorists...and also threatening the safety of the community by murder and bloodshed!!"

Charlie was woozy. He couldn't understand any of the words of Mr. Rasoli's speech so he said: "I don't understand." It was the only thing that his brain was able to force out of his mouth.

Mr. Rasoli returned his glasses to his eyes and as he leaned back in his chair with folded arms said: "This issue is not something you can't understand!"

Charlie shouted: "I can't understand. I swear to God I don't know what you're talking about. What do you want to accuse me of? Killing these Daevas?"

Mr. Rasoli coolly asked: "So, their names is 'Daeva?'"

Charlie shouted: "I didn't kill anybody!"

Mr. Rasoli didn't show any reaction to Charlie screaming and responded to him with a cool: "Yeah, you're right. We reviewed all of video tapes in the supermarket. We didn't see you shout to anybody...in fact you hid there. It's not important. But what proved your participation in the murder is that wooden object, which we guess throws nails. We found your fingerprint on this wooden object, and we found this same wooden object in Iman Avenue along the edge of the park. It was behind another victim's body."

He stared into Charlie's eyes and continued: "There was a little blood around the victim's body, but the blood was not a match with the victim's blood sample. Well? I'm waiting."

Charlie found himself in a bad predicament. He remembered that he killed one of the Daevas to defend himself! That Daeva wanted to kill him and also the queen of the Peris. The blood behind the Daeva's body must have belonged to the queen of the Peris, who was injured. After the queen and another Peri named Ava were gone from the park he threw the nail-thrower nail thrower behind the hedges behind the Daeva's body. But even if honesty was the best policy, still he wasn't sure if speaking honestly with Mr. Rasoli would lead to being accused of all the murders or at least would add to the charges against him.

The room was full with silence. Charlie avoided looking at Mr. Rasoli's face, and opposite of him Mr. Rasoli was exploring every bit of his face. Finally, when he saw that Charlie's lips were sealed, he realized he wouldn't be speaking anytime. He waited a few more seconds. And when he was sure of Charlie's silence, he calmly and slowly begin to collect the pictures. He picked up every picture like an expensive object and stacked them carefully. Finally, he arranged them and put them back in the green case. Without a word he pushed back the chair and stood up. He took the case in his hand and walked toward the door. When he arrived there, without turning back he said: "You have the right not to speak for now. But you should know we have enough evidence against you. I'm sure when the judge sees the evidence he'll sign off on your death sentence as soon as you're eighteen years old."

"Execution?" Charlie said with fear.

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Continue: Chapter 3 (Charlie section 8)

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