the night of june 2nd // sanders sides ✔

4 : third interrogation

*TW: Mental illness discussions begin to get intense beginning from this chapter*

"Hello, Patton."

"Hi," Patton said awkwardly.

"How are you?" Declan asked politely.

He hesitated. "Good?"

He was the only one so far who said that. He also had an incredibly quiet voice. It was near Virgil's volume.

"If you could speak up a bit for the rest of the interview, we'd appreciate that."

"I went to my best friend's funeral yesterday and he was murdered in my neighborhood! I don't think my volume is the problem!" His face was red and his voice cracked. He forced himself to stay put. "Sorry."

"It's fine. You're going through a hard time."

Patton had an intense headache from the night before, but he persisted.

"My first question is, have you ever abused drugs and do you use any now?"

"I don't do drugs except for, um..." His face heated up. "I take antidepressants."

"Do any mental health issues cause you to act more aggressively?"

"I'm not an aggressive person to other people. I think it's wrong. If I know I'm alone, I'll let my anger out by myself if I really need to."

"Have you ever coped with something in an unhealthy way?"

Patton gulped. "Um, yes. I'm trying to get past that, and I've been doing my best, but I don't know if I'm doing enough."

"Would you give some examples?"

"I can't," he whimpered after a very long few seconds.

"Why not?" Declan pressed.

"I can't talk about it. It makes me uncomfortable, and I can't- I-I'm sorry. I just can't."

"Alright then. What's your history with Roman?"

Patton clamped his hands together. "We met in high school. He was friends with people who didn't really like me, so they said some... things. Um, after high school, Roman reached out to me and apologized and we talked about why he did the stuff he did and I forgave him. We were just teenagers trying to fit in at the time. So in college, we became friends and soon enough we were best friends."

"How do you feel about the changed Roman?"

"He was an angel," Patton said with a small smile at the thought of him. "He helped me through a lot, and he always told me to go after my dreams. I wouldn't have changed my major to theatre if it wasn't for him. It made up for everything he did in high school because I've never had a better friend."

"If he's as you described, what would the motive of his killer possibly be?"

"Maybe the killer was jealous of him. Roman's really attractive and he has a good job and travels to more countries than I can count. Don't tell him I said this, but Remus scares me with how much he hates Roman for outdoing him in everything since they were kids."

"Anything else?"

Patton concentrated hard on the question. "I can see why people might not like him, but I don't think they'd go as far as to kill him for being a bit over the top sometimes."

"What were you doing before and after the crime?"

"I was staying at home. At night, I went to his house to give him a birthday present but he wasn't at home so I just dropped it off. I was going to be in Los Angeles visiting some of my family members on his actual birthday, so I needed to give it to him early."

"Why didn't you drop it off earlier that day?"

"Some, um, personal issues came up."

"Can you explain?"

Patton shrunk in his chair. "Like I said before, I don't think I can. If I was completely recovered, I'd share, b-but, not now."

Declan pursed his lips. "Have you ever seen a therapist?"

"Y-Yeah. Um, can we not talk about this?" He was starting to break a sweat. He tugged on the sleeves of his oversized hoodie.

"Is it getting hot in here? You can take off your hoodie, it's fine."

"No, I'm good!" Patton said with a painful smile. He put his hoodie paws over his face and cried into them, ruining his glasses in the process. "Can I go now? I know I couldn't answer everything, but you can ask me all you want about Roman. Just please don't get into my health? I-It makes me very uncomfortable and I already said that but I guess nobody really listens to my negative feelings anyway." He spoke at a rapid pace.

Declan nodded. "Just so you know though, you might be called in again to see if we can get anything else. But I'm sorry about how today turned out."

He politely opened the door for Patton, who left with a small wave goodbye.