Panic Room

Chapter 5- 'Axel McLean'

"Please take a seat and wait for a moment." Kira said, grabbing the recorder she'd used with Ari and waiting for Axel to sit down.

Not breaking eye contact with the detective, Axel slowly sat down and shifted a bit in his seat.

Kira followed suit, giving Axel the same small required speech like she'd done earlier, before beginning to question.

"Mr. McLean, what is your profession?" She asked, looking at the flashing light on her recorder before clicking her pen and staring down Axel as he looked away nervously.

"Well, uh... I'm a writer I guess." He said with a small shrug, leaning forward a bit in his seat as he just stared down at the ground.

Kira squinted, chewing on the end of her pen a bit as she watched Axel's body language closely.

"You guess?" She questioned, tapping her foot a few times on the floor as Axel let out a long sigh followed by a nod.

He rubbed the back of his neck before sitting back up right still seated mostly on the edge of his seat.

"Yes... I've never actually had anything published though, besides Zakou's plays."

Axel then admitted, gripping the chair as he finally looked back up at Kira.

"Zakou's?" She asked with confusion. "Shouldn't they be your plays if you wrote them? Or did he help you with the writing of them?"

"Well... no, but he was the one who ended up producing them. Besides I didn't really mind if he took the credit. I was more focused on trying to get an actual book published."

Kira nodded as he spoke, jotting down a few notes as she rested her arms on the table, trying to process and remember everything he said everything in her head.

"So what was your source of income? You seem pretty well off from what I've seen and heard from you."

Axel took in a sharp breath, leaning back in his chair and his eyes darting around the room a bit more.

"Zakou normally helped me with paying for rent and food, and honestly everything. I basically lived here. I did everything with him, I wrote the plays and in return he'd help me with payments and money problems in general. We were very close." He ranted off, tugging a bit at the collar on his shirt nervously.

"So I've noticed..." Kira mumbled, clicking on her pen a few times as she thought.

"Why would he not try and help you get any of your books published? I'm sure he could've if he really wanted to."

Axel thought for a moment, his mind racing as Kira raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I did ask him a few times, but he always said he was to busy with something else." He finally said, clearing his throat a few times.

"You seem very fidgety, are you okay Axel?" Kira questioned suspiciously as he suddenly became aware of all his moving around.

"Oh yeah no I'm okay, just feels a little hot in here, sorry." He mumbled, his face flushing once again as he avoided any eye contact with her.

"It's quite alright, just making sure before we continue with questioning."

Axel nodded in response, trying to still his movements more as Kira quickly scanned over the notes she had taken so far.

"Where were you at eight thirty tonight?" She suddenly asked, staring at Axel intently as he looked up in thought.

"Eight thirty? Uhhh, I'm pretty sure I was walking around the ballroom asking if anyone had seen Zakou." He recalled, watching closely as Kira wrote down every word he said.

"Why eight thirty? What happened then?" He then questioned, seeing Kira ignore him as she kept writing, seemingly taking her own notes.

She flipped to a clean page in her notebook, not looking up at Axel.

"Right, next question then. Do you have relations with any of the other three suspects in any way, shape, or form?"

Kira said, placing her notebook down on the table for a moment.

"Wait- no I asked a question to! What happened at eight thirty that you needed to know what I was doing?" Axel asked, leaning forward, a frantic look in his eyes as Kira pulled her lips into a flat line.

"Nothing that I am going to tell you Mr. McLean. Don't forget who is interrogating who here. Please answer the question I just asked." She said sharply, seeing Axel glare at her slightly.

"Why am I not allowed to know? How did Zakou even die? Why am I not even allowed to know how and when my best friend died?!" He yelled, his voice growing louder, standing up as he spoke, tears dripping from his eyes as he took in deep breaths.

Kira stared up at him with wide eyes, hand instantly reaching for her taser just in case.

Axel just stood there, feeling mass amounts of grief and anger taking over every part of him as his mind raced over everything he'd done that night.

"I'm going to have to ask you to calm down and retake your seat, Axel. You will eventually find out everything, but for right now, this is confined information." Kira said slowly, her grip on the taser in the pocket of her dress not loosening up as Axel slowly took a step back towards his seat.

He took in one more deep breath, before finally sitting back down. Furiously wiping at his eyes, he stared off to the side, feeling drained from the outburst.

That and the memories of him and Zakou that suddenly came flooding back, he remembered the day Zakou had told him that he was going to make a smaller library in his house, so that Axel could have the bigger one to store all his over growing pile of books.

He'd worn a genuine smile that day as he led him to the library that was now made specifically for Axel, who'd nearly cried from the gesture.

"Sorry..." Axel finally said, glancing back up at Kira who slowly released her taser and nodded a bit.

"Just don't d-"

She paused, eyes widening as she thought about what Axel had said during his outburst.

She snatched up her notebook and frantically scribbled something down, Axel's heart jumping in his chest with nerves about maybe he'd messed something up.

He thought about asking her about it but quickly decided against it as he knew that would just make him look even more suspicious.

Kira finished writing, and cleared her throat a bit before looking back up at Axel.

"Right then, back to..."

She then paused, Axel making a confused face as she held up one finger, shushing him.

The room was deathly silent, then they heard yelling from down the hall.

-----------------

Unedited

Word Count: 1159

Hi! Thank you all so much for almost 300 reads!! Make sure to vote and comment your thoughts, have an amazing day/night! <3