Chapter 61 Questions
I'm trembling, cold like I've never felt before seeped into my bones. T.J. has thrown a blanket over me, but I don't think it's working.
My apartment is swarmed with police officers taking pictures.
I close my eyes when they wheel Katherine out in a body bag.
"Miss Smith?" A friendly female voice makes me open my eyes. The female officer takes the seat next to me on the couch with a warm smile. "I know you're a little rattled now, but I have to ask you a few questions."
"Can't this wait until the morning?" T.J.'s voice is stern. "She's had a long day, and she's clearly in shock."
"It's better if she answers them now."
Oh god, it was clearly a suicide, what am I supposed to say, but I nod.
"How do you know Katherine McDowell?"
I run my hands over my eyes. "I don't. We went to the same high school. I ran into her a week ago, and she recognised me. She didn't look so good. Then I saw her again yesterday, so I invited her over to my place."
I can practically feel more questions piling up in the officer's face.
"Look, I know I was stupid for inviting her, and telling her to stay, okay." I look at the officer who is looking at me with pity in her eyes. "But she just looked so skinny and messed up, and I thought I was doing a good thing. I didn't know she was gonna kill herself in my guest bathroom!"
"Where were you the whole day?"
I hope these people don't think I had something to do with it.
"When I woke up this morning, I checked up on her, and left her a note with my number." I shake my head. "Then I went to breakfast with my fiance's mother, I then went to rehearsals and after to my uncle's office then back here. I thought she probably left during the day."
I give her the name of the restaurant and the studio.
She smiles kindly again, and I wonder if this is how she traps the people she interviews. They think she's motherly but then she's just waiting to strike.
"Are we done here?" T.J. pulls me up and into his arms, rubbing my back soothingly, but the trembling just won't stop.
"For now. I will call when I have any more questions, or miss Smith can come down to the precinct if there is anything she remembers."
"Okay." He pulls away from me to look into my face. "Your parents are on the way, you're going to go with them. I'm going to stay here until the police is done and make sure everything is cleaned up."
I nod, grateful that I don't have to think about any of that. I don't even know if I ever want to come back here again.
Katherine's haunting face is going to be in this apartment forever.
"Baby girl!"
I start sobbing at my father's worried-stricken face and I fall into his arms.
"It's okay, Daddy's here."
I clutch his strong middle even harder.
Fuck, Katherine was right. My family can fix this, I should trust them to do the right thing.
My mother is rubbing my back. "Okay baby girl, your aunt and uncle are waiting back at the house. They have some questions."
I wish I could rewind this day. I wish I woke Katherine up this morning and told her to leave with me. But I don't regret being with her last night, maybe that was the first time someone comforted her in a long time.
My dad drives us home while my mom is in the backseat with me, my head on her lap like when I was a little girl with her fingers running through my hair.
Aunt Farrah is pacing the living room when we get to my parents' place, and she immediately rushes over to hug me.
"Are you okay?" She whispers in my ear.
I nod, but I'm really not. Everything with the whole Ben situation has become just too much for me to handle.
Katherine McDowell was supposed to be my ally.
And now she's dead.
Uncle holds a glass filled with an amber liquid out to me, immediately reminding me of last night when I poured Katherine some cognac.
Aunty leads me to the couch and sits next to me. "How do you know this girl?"
I take a sip of my drink with trembling hands, and then wipe my mouth. I probably look like a mess.
"Where do I even start?" The tears start burning again, but I blink them away. "I think it started with me not wanting to marry Ben."
"What!" My mother exclaims in shock. "You never told me this!"
I'm too wired to feel my normal guilt at this point, so I just shake my head. "I didn't want you worried about me, okay? You guys love Ben, I thought I was doing the right thing."
I see the look exchanged between my parents, like they failed somehow.
"So one night Simon and I had dinner, and Katherine stopped me on the street and warned me to be careful with Ben. I thought she looked familiar."
I tell them how I found her picture in the yearbook when I came over.
"After that, I tried to break up with Ben, but he was so mad. It's like he became a different person right in front of my eyes."
Mom shakes her head in disbelief. "Did he hurt you?"
"Not much physically." This time the tears roll freely down my face when I recall how scared I was at him that time.
"I'm going to fucking kill that brat!" Dad clenches through his teeth.
This is what I was most scared of, my father doing something to Ben and getting in trouble for it.
"Uncle."
Uncle Alessandro frowns at me, and I can see the murder in his eyes.
" Ben has something on us, and now he's blackmailing me."