Water's Edge

Chapter XXXII

Trust

Yazmin approached, finding me before the interview room door, holding my breath. I was growing weary. I had been certain, from how I had found Josep Quintana, that they were not the ones to blame for these deaths. But I distrusted my own feelings on the matter, wrapped up in the hope that these kids were good people; I admired the cause and not the action, but people only remember what men do. They'd be undoing all their own hard work if it was them. I was getting too emotional, and perhaps it was right before my eyes. Josep and Wren Newport were terrorists, and they had killed everyone who stood in their way.

But Yazmin put a hand to my shoulder and I startled back to the world, "You wanna chat to them?" She asked, sympathetic, recognising the policeman's exhaustion.

"I do."

"You don't think it was them, do you?"

I looked to her, "Do you?"

She shrugged sadly, "Occam's Razor. It's sad when it's the people with the right morals doing the evil things."

"It ends them before they start."

She entered the keycode, "When evil does evil no one bats an eye, because we know it does evil. But if some kids burn down a house and kill a kind old man, well... it doesn't matter why they did it."

"Why do you think they did it?"

The door unlocked, "To save us." I couldn't tell if she believed that or not, and she left me alone with Wren, waiting just outside.

"They think I'm jealous!"

This is not what I expected Wren to say first, "Pardon?" I checked for No Smoking signs; seems someone had taken them down recently. For me? I lit up, naturally.

"They think I killed Benny out of fucking... fucking..." Wren was incensed, "They think I'm just some girl who was jealous. It's ridiculous. People died!"

"You'll have to start at the top." I said, sitting on the chair backwards. I offered a cig. They rejected.

They took a deep breath and peered up at the ceiling, where the light fixture possessed no light. The only glow came from the window, dull and grey, "Why should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't." I was honest. They'd been arrested on the bare minimum. I respected Humberside's efficiency, but I still felt they held the bias which had forced me to quit all that time ago.

"I don't mean the pigs who think we're terrorists because of a tattoo..." They lifted their leg to one side and showed me the triangular timepiece of the rebellion on their leg, "I mean you... you quit didn't you?"

"I did."

"They call you a Runner. I don't like that term."

Finally, "Nor do I."

"Why should I trust you?"

I took a moment, and hoped my questions would be their answer, "What is this about jealousy? Why is that important in regards to a murder, or terrorism?"

They took a breath, "Joseph and I were in a polyamorous relationship." I knew the term, to have multiple partners, rather than the free love movements concubines: I had considered it for myself, but I could barely keep a fling happy let alone people I loved, multiple, "And we have rules, that we could see other people. Joseph started seeing Benny, but didn't tell me. When I found out, Joseph didn't understand why I was annoyed. They didn't understand what poly means, they think it just meant fucking around." They were honestly upset by this, "But then Benny went missing, and we had an argument. Joseph, drunk, blamed me. He gave up on that notion quickly, and we stayed together. We didn't have the emotional space to break up after Benny disappeared."

"Josep was... immature." I noticed I used his Catalan name; they used the Anglicised.

"Yeah." They seemed disappointed even now, with everything else going on, "You caught him about to burn down Soames, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Wren shook their head, "They gave up on the idea I had bumped Benny off... Joseph and his big ideas... realised it would be stupid of me to bring that much attention to the cause. Had to blame someone though, so he blamed Soames directly." They put their head in their hands, "It's Benny's fault really."

"Why?"

"As he's dead, it doesn't matter. But I'm fucked now, if I tell them they'll think I did it, and if I don't they'll think I'm hiding."

"He was the radical."

"Too much. He was whispering about bombs and anarchist cookbooks and all that shit in Joseph's ear. I opposed it. One of the reasons why I didn't date Benny. They organised us incredibly, but I am firmly non-violence, even when that... well..." They laughed coldly and motioned to the room, "Barnaby hated him."

"How did they know one another?"

"Thursdays. Council meetings, public gatherings. We were allowed to one, before all 'radical thinkers' were banned from such things."

"So, Barnaby was with you on Thursday night?"

"Yeah..." They seemed curious, "We didn't do it, you know."

"They think otherwise." I stood and moved to the door, "I don't know."

"Wouldn't matter either way. They made their decision the moment they saw my tattoo."

As I left the room I didn't dare ask how the police officers had seen such a thing, on her shin, under tight jeans.