Terrible Friend

5

Albert sits in the interrogation room.  The stale air dries his throat.  The cold metal of the table and chair cut through his clothing and send a chill down his spine. He stares at the double sided mirror across from him mulling over his predicament and playing scenarios of how this could go on repeat in his mind. 

Jax is asking questions, making declarations, and cursing at top speed. Albert ignores him as best he can.  Only pinching his nose between his finger and thumb when the chaos reaches a fever pitch. 

There was a knock on the door and the room fell silent.  A familiar face came in, carrying a file folder as thick as Albert's arm. Albert crossed his arms,  inhaled deeply, shook his head and exhaled slowly. Jax went back to screaming. Demanding to know what was going on.  Albert has learned over the years to ignore him when he's being questioned by Kovach. He doesn't need to appear crazy on top of guilty. 

"So, you know what I have here then?" asked the detective as he slams the file down on the table.

"Are we really going to do this again Kovach? Even with all of that, you've got nothing."

"We are going to do this every time until you stop ending up here in my interrogation room. I've not been able to nail you in the past. I have you dead to rights this time though. Don't I?"

"No, you don't. I mean, I know what it looks like, but it's not what you think it is." Albert was almost ashamed of his use of the cliché, but whatever worked. He had no idea how he was going to get out of it this time.  They had him dead to rights from their perspective. He felt completely hosed. 

Kovach wanted to play the game of cop winning the day.  Albert didn't have time or the patience for it. He piped up. "Look, it's like this. I found that necklace on the beach, where I slept last night. I went to the gallery to see if they would know who it belonged to..."

"Let me stop you right there. You slept on the beach again? We have talke..."

Albert interrupted, "St. George Island. Not your beach so move on."

"I see. I assume someone saw you there?"

"The hotel security guard that I talked to...and unless someone has been murdered, it's irrelevant.  Let's move on." 

Kovach nodded defeat for the moment. 

"Anyway, I found the necklace because I was sleeping on it. I took it home until I could figure out how to find it's owner. Have you seen the necklace? It's huge and ugly, but looks like something a rich nobleman would wear. I gave some thought to what place would have stuff like that. The gallery came to mind. "

"How did you know about the gallery?"

"Are you serious? It's on the strip, downtown. Who doesn't know about it?"

"Had you ever been there before?"

"I pass by it on my way to lunch a few days a week. What the hell kind of questioning is this?"

"Inside, had you ever been inside it before today?"

"No, why would I? I'm not exactly an art connoisseur."

"Ok, so why were you inside today?"

Albert sucked in a long deep breath. "When I got there, the door was open, so I went in. I didn't see anyone, so I browsed around for a minute, thinking they might be in the back or something."

"Did anyone come out?  How did you end up in the back room?"

Albert exhaled. "I heard a thud."