The Story Enigma

Sink Or Swim 2.

Kate Johnson

The police interrogation room was a dull sliver. There was little décor and colour but that was not the part of the room that made Detective Mason nervous. He could deal with crazy psychopaths, insane rapists, and practically everything a reasonable person would avoid on the street. Mason easily could sit down and get whoever to talk. He was good at his job. He could crack cases in minutes and solve the events in seconds.

However, Mason could not handle crying woman.

Kate cried and cried as she sat in the chair. Her hands cuffed and her shoulders slouched over as tears poured from her eyes and onto the metal desk.

Mason had no idea what to do as he stepped into the interrogation room.

"Um, Miss?" He said hesitantly, slowly falling into his seat and moving the files around.

"How could all of this happened? This is my fault." Kate sobbed harder before finally looking up at Mason. "I... I can't believe he would react like that."

"Miss, My name is Mason. I am the detective at the police station. Can you start relaying the events that led to Mr. Johnson's death?"

"There was a lot of yelling. One moment I was staring out the open window the next, Owen was screaming at me."

"Why was he shouting?" Mason jotted down some points before looking back at Kate.

She bit her lip and broke the gaze. "It is a long story."

"Well, considering you are one of four suspects I suggest you should probably start talking."

Kate placed her hands on the table and her shoulders sagged. She shook her head as more tears fell down her face.

"Owen was never a good father. He was an amazing husband but when Luke was born he fell apart. He tried so hard to care for everything and everyone that it became too much and he broke. I wanted a child so bad I ignored him, I thought having another would fix everything. So then we had Sam. Sam was always different from others and it wasn't until later that we even learned about her condition. From that moment on the entire family fell into depression. Luke was 14 and turned to drugs, Owen turned to drinking to cope, and Sam was pressured by us all to go into therapy. We thought it would fix her. That if she was normal our family could return to what it was before."

Mason wrote a few things down before furrowing his eyebrows. "What about you?" He asked.

"What about me?" Kate pretended to be baffled. Mason knew that she was really just stalling. Kate had secrets that probably led to the death of Mr. Johnson.

"What did you turn too?" Mason leaned forward and waited expectantly.

Kate appeared nervous, she pulled at the sleeves of her shit and shuffled in her seat. Finally she huffed out a big breath of air and replied. "I turned to other men."

Mason was finally in his element. This he could work with.

"So, what happened next?"

"Owen thought of Luke as a disgrace and often yelled at him, but that was nothing compared to Sam. Sam was the abomination and he... he hurt her beyond words. She would have bruises all over her body and always hid them from everyone. The first time I finally realized what happened was when Sam met Hunter. She moved the right way so that I could see the marks. I knew Hunter would never hurt her. Owen, however, was very capable."

Mason nodded along, this was a typically case after all. The mother eventually snapped and killed the father in self defense. It was disappointing. The sadist in him always wanted a different ending to crime cases. Throw him a real mystery.