"The Cut"

Chapter 51- Isolation

Chapter 51- ISOLATION

Carson sat in a drab, frigid, secure interview room with fluorescent lighting. It contained one minuscule window that she could hardly see out of. The table was square and very similar to the desktops in her classrooms. There were three chairs. Two were adjacent to one another. The third one was a metal folding chair in which she sat. It was once beige, but it was so heavily chipped, it appeared almost gray. It felt extremely uncomfortable beneath her thin yoga pants and over-sized cheer tee. She was in a living nightmare.

 Maybe she was trapped in someone else's life?

 She stared at her black coffee and covered her mouth to keep from heaving.

 The police had come to her house at approximately 4:30 that morning, not long after she'd returned from a late night with Kelsey, Jess, and Logan. Her parents had arrived home from their trip early, and texted her to find out when she and Chase would be home.

So, now they wanted to be parents? How convenient for them.

 Unable to face the truth and still singed over their blase attitude toward her LAST Homecoming, Carson chose to ignore the texts and drank a few beers with her few remaining friends. Kelsey was kind enough to drop her off since she didn't want to drink and drive. She left her car in the FHS parking lot for the night.

 Jess was friends with Carson AND Bailey, so she tried to remain as neutral as possible. But Kelsey sided with her cheer captain in spite of her "white lie" about cheating on Chase with a senior from Boynton Beach High School.

 She was almost certain that Jess knew the truth, though. But if she and her boyfriend Logan did surmise anything, they kept their noses out of it. Logan was easy to fool since he was a varsity football player who'd never shared a single class with Chase. He was completely deluded by default.

 Carson was amazed that she'd kept nearly everyone in the dark. Sure, Chase's new lunchtime crowd knew there was another guy, but no one had suspected for a minute that Jared Fullman was "the other guy".

 They had been extra careful with most of their phone calls and dates, though a few "make-out" sessions had taken place on school property.

 Apparently, not careful enough.

 A police SUV had taken Carson, Kathryn and Mitchell Pierce into custody and two detectives placed each of them in separate rooms for questioning.

 Coach Jared Fullman's body was found in the parking lot of Fairview High School. He'd been brutally murdered. He had suffered a blunt force trauma to the back of the head and his throat had been slit with a pocket knife. He was pronounced dead at JFK Medical Center at 3:22 a.m..

 His truck was parked beside him with Carson's hot pink Apple iPod in the driver's seat. It had her fingerprints upon it.

 Now, Carson sat alone in the gray folding chair rehashing what she'd told Detective Hines when she was initially taken to the station with her parents a few hours prior.

 He'd asked too many questions for her to remember. She'd mumbled through inaudible words that required rephrasing and repeating. Her firm figure was shaking violently. Uncontrollably.

 She'd vomited multiple times in the trash can beside her. Her stomach was so empty it ached, yet she couldn't bring herself to take even a sip of the black substance sitting in front of her. She felt weak. Yet, at the same time, she wanted to bolt through the glass doors and into the daylight.

 She couldn't accept the events that had materialized over the last twelve hours.

 Her life seemed surreal. Yet she still had a life.

 Jared Fullman had sacrificed his through the choices he'd made over the past several months. There would be no "do over". He would never see his baby boy grow into a young man, or teach another Trigonometry class, or coach another soccer game.

 Or follow her to college upon graduation as he'd promised so many times over pillow talk.

 Carson grabbed her middle and felt the urge to purge every thought of Jared Fullman from her physically and emotionally drained body. She leaned over the trash can and spat bile into the base of it. Her head was spinning. She tried to focus on the answers she had already provided. To keep her story straight. But everything seemed melded together.

 Rat-ta-tat!

 There was a sudden, sharp rap on the partially-rusted metal door.

 Detective Hines entered with the other investigator, but she couldn't remember his name. They sat in front of her. She grabbed a tissue and blotted her mouth. Her throat was dry and her voice was hoarse.

 What would they ask her next? she thought worriedly.

 Detective Hines set his clipboard down with a thud . He pulled his pen from his pocket. He cleared his throat, looked at his watch, and pressed a tiny button on his recording device. He pulled a thin packet out of the clipboard and held it in his free hand. 

"Are you ready to finalize your statement, Miss Pierce?" he asked her.

"We have a complete signed confession."

 Carson's mouth nearly dropped to the concrete floor....