Golden & Gone

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I skimmed over all of the scandalous parts, trying to cover them with small white lies and leave out most details. Even though I did this, I could still see the inspector's mind click and come to all the right conclusions, especially that I couldn't be trusted to give them a full story in terms of the full extent of my relationship with the missing person. 

"Ms. Thompson, what you have said is that you got off the horse with the missing person and walked to the woods to see around; is that all you did in those woods? He didn't try to... force you to do anything... he didn't hurt you or try to get you to do something that you didn't want to do?", asks the Detective, hesitantly trying to figure out a delicate way to ask about the elephant in the room.

"As I said, we went on a walk in the woods. The most we did was hold hands, if that's what you were referring to. Trust me, there were the full 12 inches for Jesus!" I laughed, hoping my easy demeanor would make my lie more convincing.

 "Okay.." he paused, waiting to see if I would say anything else, "Moving on...did the person, with whom was doing a business proposition with Mr. Tern, appear to recognize the missing person in any way? Did you get an impression that there were ill feelings between that man and the Tern's in which would push him to kill a member of the Tern family to get back at Mr. Tern?".

I thought this over in my head. Was a person capable to kill simply out of spite for no self benefit? Did I look his killer in they eyes or was he just an innocent man who I had unintentionally but undoubtedly drawn into this mess? I thought carefully, trying to separate my thoughts and form them into a coherent sentence. I wanted to be truthful, insightful, but not presumptuous and biased...

"He didn't seem to care much about the victim. I don't know if they knew each other but I doubt the relationship had a lot of particular emotion attached to it, in terms of the victim in the man. However I wouldn't have been surprised if there was history between that man and Mr. Tern. There was defiantly something there, I just don't know how much the  victim was involved in instigating it, that's all". The interrogator wrote this all down on this note pad trying to get a good description of what I had witnessed in the Tern house that day and my feelings behind it. The interrogator now posed, "Did the victim see your relationship as you did?". I paused, drawing a breath and thinking about something I had never wanted to think about.