Life at the High

Detective Mom

The good news that she'd genuinely been hoping for was that Janelle was alive. The police somehow got a recent recording of her that proved not only was she alive but she wasn't too distressed, at least she didn't sound that way. It was odd. How would she have gotten anything like that out? Who kept her in a basement hidden away from the world, but fed her and gave her a phone? What kind of kidnappers let you stay at Club Fed?

"This is supposed to prove what? Are you accusing my daughter of something?" Sherry said to Saks.

"Does this recording make your daughter sound guilty to you Ms. Coleman?" He said with a smirk.

"No. The recording says that you still have time to find her and instead you chose to intimidate school children. Don't insult my tax dollars with this charade you call police work."

"I don't need insults Ms. Coleman, just answers," Moblam added but was waved off by Saks.

Charity felt small in a room full of adults arguing over her guilt and innocence. All she knew was that Toni was nearby. She could almost feel him and hear his heartbeat through all of it. It soothed her. She wished she could run out of that room and just hide away with him. He was her happy place. He was the only part of all of this that gave her hope. As her mom and the detectives continued to argue she remembered that he wasn't even aware that the place they could freely be together in was tainted with suspects of Janelle's disappearance. But, as far as Charity knew, no one discovered that the hotel held more than just secrets about Janelle.

"Alright, I will speak to the other Ms. Coleman now if that's okay with you."

"Step carefully. She is not under arrest, and we can walk out of here at any moment." Sherry gave Saks a cold hard look.

"Ms. Coleman. Would you like some water?" Saks said trying to seem kind."

"No, she would not. What we would both like, however, is for you to ask pertinent questions."

Charity made two mental notes at that moment. The first one was to find out why police officers offer people water all the time and the second was to tell everyone what a badass her mom was. She'd never seen her in action like that before.

"Very well then. Ms. Coleman, can you tell me what your relationship with Ms. Wilson was like before she went missing?"

Charity looked at her mom and received no objection, so she went along with it. "Yeah. We were best friends before. We use to hang out all the time."

"So you two were close. Anything happen between the two of you? Any arguments? I mean all teen girls get into little tiffs with their friends every once in a while right?"

"No. We weren't fighting. And I guess we weren't as close right before the disappearance, but we were still cool."

"Oh so then you weren't the best of friends? I'm confused now which is it?"

Charity felt cornered. She didn't want to get caught in a lie because she knew how bad that would like, but she didn't want the detective to twist every little word either. Her mom lightly tapped her foot twice. They never set up cues like this before, but somehow she still knew that meant she needed to stay on top of her game and clearly answer only what was asked of her.

"We were friends. It was just that school made it harder to really be around each other as much because our schedules didn't work overlap the same. We began hanging out with people we saw more, but we would chat in the hallways and were still fine with one another."

"Thank you for clarifying."

Charity sat back and tried to hold back a huge smile because she felt like she'd just won. She knew that she was killing this interrogation and it was her first and hopefully only one ever.

"So then why was it that after she went missing you were heard by several witnesses stating that you were tired of everyone being worried about her and how you were not friends with her, so you didn't care?"

Well, that question kicked the smile off her face and laid her right on her ass.

"Um. It wasn't like that."

Moblam wanted in on the fun and through himself in the race too. "Would you also mind explaining why some of your classmates have said that you ditched Ms. Wilson for the 'popular crowd' and ignored her like you were in a bad teenage movie."

"Okay, this is inappropriate and has nothing to do with finding her. If you have any real questions" Sherry stood up and grabbed Charity's arm as she did so. "Or better yet, if you have real detectives who can handle this, then you may give me a call."

Saks pulled out a card and handed it to Charity. "Give me a ring if you think of anything that might be of importance."

Sherry took it from her and left on the table in the room before they both walked out.