Detective Kent Barbado watched the interrogation.
It was hilarious to him that Albert - normally so reserved - was getting as frustrated as he was with someone who wouldn't talk back
Kent watched Albert rise up, and lean over the table
A feat by the measure of his belly pressed against the table.
If Kent's crux was coffee, Albert's was sugar - and carbohydrates in the form of croissants
He sipped his coffee
It was after 4am and he was on overtime
Kent Barbado
'Double time actually...'
He thought as he looked at the clock seeing it half past the hour
He scratched the matted back part of his hair, a nervous habit as he ran through the events as he sipped
A phone call alerted them to the dead bod.
Kent had been there at the scene.
Dead body by the center of the couch, no obvious markings, and sobbing relative, recently returning from a bar.
And a catatonic neighbor with a bloody shirt on
Kent Barbado
'But not his blood...'
A quick blood type analysis showed that.
Type o negative, not b+.
They'd have a few hours, Maybe even a day or more for the toxicology report to run.
He wasn't sure how long the backlog was
Albert was shouting now, trying to provoke any response
Kent sighed and made his way in the room - ushering Albert out.
He sat in the chair across from her: so far she hasn't responded
Kent Barbado
"Sorry about that, he usually has such a good temper."
He reached to his side and pulled out a small flashlight and waved it across her face
Pupils pulled in, as he scanned it across her face
Kent Barbado
"Good pupil response..."
He put it away
Kent Barbado
"Are you in there?"
She did not respond
Kent sighed and considered: he pulled out his notebook from his overcoat's breast pocket and a pencil from the other
A thought crossed his mind
Tapping his pencil across the book he considered.
He took the pencil and pointed it directly at Martha's eye and pushed it forward
Like a slow homing dart
Kent Barbado
'God let me be right about this...'
He inched it closer
Letting the shape of things to come sink into her head.
He would stop it right before her eye, but would keep it moving at an even pace.
He was sure she was faking.
Or at least: she was in that blank stare somewhere
He got less than an inch before her eye closed
Just the one.
Her other eye continued to stare forward.
Not the dramatic reaction he was hoping for but something nonetheless
He pulled the pencil back and her closed eye opened.
Then closed - with the other one.
She blinked in rapid succession and wobbled her head, slowly coming to focus on the desk, then around her - then at him.
She tried to back away but was stopped by the handcuffs through the loop at the center of her edge of the table
Kent Barbado
"Awake now are we?"
He started writing down in his notebook
Well: Doodling actually
Martha looked around the room
She wasn't focused on him
Martha Crisp
"Well I've been...
I don't know where I was."
Kent leaned in, drawing her to look at him
Kent Barbado
"Do you know where you are now?"
She turned to him, Then looked at the mirror behind him
Martha Crisp
"Police station ^and I don't know how to do that...
Well deal with it..."
^She had turned her face away from him
Kent Barbado
'Okay, so if the catatonic state was just any indicator, she may not be all there.'
He wondered what the tox report would come back as
Kent Barbado
"Martha, I'm detective Kent, do you know why you're here?"
Martha paused, then shifted her weight
Martha Crisp
"I...
Well, I wasn't moving, and you found my neighbor."
Kent Barbado
"Can you tell me anything about what happened?"
Martha barked a stifled laugh
Martha Crisp
"You wouldn't believe me..."
Kent took a sip from his coffee
Kent Barbado
"I see a lot of weird shit, it's 4am, how about you just tell me...
In your own words."
Martha paused.
Her eyes darted to the side
Martha Crisp
"No I won't do that."
Kent shifted forward
Kent Barbado
"Well if you aren't..."
Martha Crisp
"I mean, I'll tell you, just give me a minute..."
Kent waited - Martha sighed
Martha Crisp
"Okay. I have had a long night, a long weekend actually.
I'm not sure exactly where to start...
I'll just...
Look - this is not..."
A tapping came at the door, Kent looked up.
Another set of tapping
A rhythmic knock he knew too well
Kent Barbado
"I'll be back, apparently there's something important."
Kent walked out of the room and closed the door, Tom was standing there
Tom Garland
"I have the reports back."
Kent groaned
Kent Barbado
"I told you, I don't need special -"
Tom Garland
"There was nothing else in the queue - don't get you panties in a bunch."
Kent scratched at the back of his head, absently trying to straighten his hair
Kent Barbado
"Fine - what's it say?"
Tom handed over the folder
Tom Garland
"Both of them - at least in no usual suspects - right now biggest suspect is heart attack."
Kent Barbado
"Right, is that it?"
Tom nodded and walked away, turning his head over his shoulder
Tom Garland
"I'm not doing special favors for you..."
Kent stood there, holding the folder.
Giving a small grunt as acknowledgement: he opened and read it while he walked back in the room
Kent noticed Martha darted her head toward him
Her eyes showing a flash of panic which subsided, her mouth was half open
Kent sat down, the folder open on the desk.
He leaned forward
Kent Barbado
"Tox report says clean..."
Kent looked up at Martha, who turned her head toward him
Kent Barbado
'She kept looking to my side...'
Martha Crisp
"Good to know."
Kent Barbado
"So, want to tell me why you were comatose next to your neighbor's dead body."
Martha paused
Kent Barbado
'Glancing to her right again.'
Martha Crisp
"I... well, I was in shock."
Kent Barbado
"Normally shock doesn't make you go catatonic."
Martha Crisp
"Normally you don't see a dead body."
She countered
Kent Barbado
"Well, normally I do on this job."
Martha Crisp
"Mister tough guy, seen all dead bodies all the time, what a flex - I haven't seen one before."
Kent Barbado
"So what happened."
Martha Crisp
"I well.
Will you just?"
Martha stopped talking and looked back to Kent
Martha Crisp
"I went over there to talk, they invited me in.
Then just...
Fell..."
Kent Barbado
"Talk about what?"
Martha Crisp
"Talk about their dog, it was barking in the night."
Kent Barbado
"And he just...
Fell over?"
Martha nodded
Silence hung in the air
Kent Barbado
"What's so weird about that?"
Martha's eyes darted to the right again.
And she sighed
Kent waited and eventually Martha started talking - he couldn't quite hear the words - they weren't loud enough, but he couldn't make them out
Kent Barbado
"Is that...
Russian...
I don't -"
Martha's eyes went wide.
She spoke louder
Kent Barbado
'Well...
Was it speaking?'
Sound was coming out - but it wasn't a language as far as he could tell: just random sounds
Kent Barbado
"Martha, what are you doing?"
She tapped her finger against her desk rapidly.
And she shuddered suddenly and the finger tapping stopped
She paused her head tilted to the right
Rossin
"You don't watch a lot of TV, do you?"
Kent tilted his head
Kent Barbado
"No: can't say that I do."
Rossin
"Or books, or movies, or music, or the internet...
Or get out much?"
Kent shifted back
Kent Barbado
"I mean.
I haven't been really big into media...
Or the social media..."
Rossin in Martha Crisp
"I guess that's a good thing.
No hooks in you..."
Kent Barbado
"I mean...
I'm not addicted to anything..."
Kent notice a lull, he thought she was going catatonic again for a moment.
But only for just a moment
Martha Crisp
"That's not what he means."
Kent Barbado
"Who means?"
Martha breathed out
Martha Crisp
"I mean: literal...
Well...
Not literal - figurative...
No they really exist, just not a literal hook - you don't have any apparently."
Martha paused again and looked to her right
Kent Barbado
"Okay you keep doing that?"
Kent Barbado
"Looking off to your side."
He looked over his shoulder
Kent Barbado
"There's nothing there."
Martha laughed
Martha Crisp
"Not for you."
Kent tilted his head.
Martha sighed
Martha Crisp
"I'm sorry, I don't find this situation funny...
Not ha ha funny...
Just type 2 funny."
Kent Barbado
"Type 2 funny?"
Kent raised an eyebrow
Martha Crisp
"Types of fun...
Something my mother...
See there's 3 types of fun.
Type one fun is fun in the moment, you're having a good time.
It's what you think of as fun...
Type 2 fun is fun after the fact, when you're safe.
Like after running from a bear or surviving the the siberian wilderness naked for six weeks."
Kent Barbado
"You aren't saying you were in Siberia?"
Martha Crisp
"No, it's just an example..."
Kent Barbado
"And what's the third type of fun?"
Martha paused
Martha Crisp
"Fun other's have after you've died from type 2 fun."
A silence fell over them, broken by Kent's cough
Kent Barbado
"That's a little morbid, don't you think?"
Martha nodded, lost in thought
Martha Crisp
"Type 2 and 3 look the same in the moment...
That's why type 2 is fun at all."
She breathed again
Martha Crisp
"That's what my mother said, at least..."
Kent sighed.
Kent Barbado
"Okay, I'm going to ask you point blank, did you kill her?"
Martha shifted in her seat
Martha Crisp
"I...
I don't quite know how to answer that..."
Kent Barbado
"A simple yes or no would -"
Martha Crisp
"I broke the connection, I'm responsible...
But I don't think I killed her, not exactly..."
Kent waited, but Martha said nothing further
Her head tilted slightly to the side
He watched her, her eyes were following something.
Back and forth
Kent Barbado
"Connection?"
Martha Crisp
"You don't have any hooks, he did."
Kent raised his hand to support his head, his fingers reaching back to scratch the back
The coffee was weak, and it was late, he felt his patience running thin
Kent Barbado
"You want to make that make a little more sense to me?"
Martha Crisp
"I'm not sure I can."
Kent Barbado
"When you say connection...?"
Martha Crisp
"I can't really explain it...
I don't really know myself."
Kent turned the words said back in his mind
Kent Barbado
"When you said you had a rough weekend, what did you mean?"
Martha Crisp
"I...
I think I want to talk to a lawyer."
Kent Barbado
"Fine. just...
We'll put you in the holding cell...
We'll be able to get someone in the morning - two hours from now...
That alright with you?"
Martha nodded and he stood up
Kent Barbado
"I'll get someone for those cuffs, just stay there."
Martha understood that ironic tone:
She sardonically jazz hands'ed causing the metal chains to jiggle