by Max Parrott
Jasmine shook her head. "Not this time, bud. This is a real town with a real police force. They probably don't get a lot of murders here, but it's not like Blackwood Cove department. For one thing, they don't need me. For another, I'd just get in trouble if I tried to butt in."
"So you think they can figure it out?" Luffy asked. "Without your brain on the case? I don't know about that."
Under other circumstances, Jasmine would have laughed. "Let me remind you that I had plenty of help back in Blackwood Cove. And I have the visions. They're like pieces of evidence that no one else can see. Kind of gives me an advantage, don't you think?"
"Who cares?" asked Luffy.
Officer Barrett returned a few seconds later, crouching to give Luffy a few scratches and speaking in a low voice.
"If you don't mind," he said, "I'd like to bring you and your friend here back to the station for a few questions. Routine stuff."
"So you don't think it was an accident?" she asked.
Officer Barrett gave her a friendly smile. "I'm not going to discuss that just yet."
"Well, you wouldn't be questioning people otherwise."
"Miss Moore," he said, "we treat everything as if it could be a crime. That way, if it somehow turns out to be, we don't find ourselves too far behind the curve."
"You're right," said Luffy. "This does sound like a real police department."
Jasmine stood up and followed Officer Barrett toward his police cruiser. Another witness, the cleaner from Symkowski and Sons, was already in the front seat, so she and Luffy got in the back.
"Watch your head," Officer Barrett said, pushing down on the top of her head with one hand as she folded herself into the seat. Force of habit on his part, she assumed.
The drive back to the department took Jasmine through some parts of New Market she hadn't yet seen... but she was far too troubled by what had happened to get a good look at any of it. Death was a funny thing. It came in waves. Initial shock gave way to carefree disbelief, which eventually gave way to horror and regret. She was in that third phase now, replaying her conversation with Oliver and lunch over in her head. Had she missed anything? Had there been some sign that he was in trouble?
The patrol car pulled into a sunny parking lot in front of a small, neat brick building. It looked like it had been there for quite a while, and on the way in Jasmine glanced over a bronze placard that confirmed this. She knew New Market was an old place, but she could hardly believe this department building had been standing for close to two hundred years.
Especially when they went inside, and she saw how modern the place was. There were steel benches along one wall, polished until they shone so bright they stung your eyes. An air conditioning unit kicked out air so cold it felt like she had entered a walk-in freezer, which was a welcome respite. But it was no surprise that the man behind the front desk was wearing a heavy jacket over his normal uniform.
"Mr. Symkowski, you can wait here," Officer Barrett said. "I'll just take Miss Moore back for now. Another officer will be along to take your statement."
"How long's it gonna be?" the cleaner asked in a rough voice. "I gotta go before my wife leaves for work. Someone's gotta look after the kid."
"It won't be long, I promise." Officer Barrett turned toward Jasmine with a smile. "All ready?"
No, she was not ready. A half hour ago she had been enjoying the morning, as carefree as she could remember being, ready to start the weekend... and now she was immersed in yet another nightmare, this time in a big place she knew very little about. She felt like an alien, an outsider. Most of all, she felt frightened.
Barrett led her back into a small room. It was an interrogation room, quite obviously, but he did his best to make sure she was comfortable. She requested a cup of black coffee and a donut. Both were brought to her. Barrett sat alone on the other side of the table, patiently watching as she stirred sugar into her coffee. There was a digital recorder in the middle of the table, but Barrett had not yet hit record.
Jasmine glanced at the mirror on the wall.
"Are we being watched?" she asked.
"No, it's just us," Barrett said with a smile.
Jasmine thought it was an innate thing in most people to distrust the police. People from big cities, and even large towns like New Market. But she had grown up in Blackwood Cove, where there were only a few officers and you ran into them at the grocery all the time. You got to see them in their civilian clothes, and you got to look into their shopping carts to see what sort of thing they liked to eat.
They were just people, residents of the same town, friends and neighbors. And she got that sense from Barrett straightaway. He gave off that sort of Norman Rockwell vibe; young, a bit plump, rosy red cheeks and an easy smile. There was no doubt in her mind that he was telling the truth. She had the feeling that his mother had taught him better than to lie.
By now her thoughts were starting to clear. All she felt was fear, rather than confusion. Fear and sadness. Her mind was clicking along, working as efficiently as it usually did. She understood things now that she had missed a little while ago.
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Hm?" Barrett looked up at her from checking his fingernails.
"You've referred to me as Miss Moore several times," Jasmine said. "How did you know my name? Unless I gave it to you while I was in shock and don't remember."
"That could have happened," said Barrett. "People say all sorts of things when they're in shock. I once had a woman admit to me that she was having an affair. Unfortunately she was my girlfriend."
He paused, grinning across the table.
"No?" he said after a moment, when it was plain Jasmine wasn't going to laugh. "Well, don't pity me either. I stole that joke from a comedian I was watching the other night. The truth is, I knew your name before I showed at Wildwood this morning. I had heard you were attending, but I didn't expect to run into you. Forgive me for saying this, but it seems like death has an odd habit of happening around you."
"Yeah, I kind of noticed that," Jasmine said. "Let me guess... only it won't be a guess, just an obvious conclusion. You know me from the story Julie Barnes wrote."
He nodded. Then he stuck his hand across the table. "The name's Luke. Pleased to meet you."
"Jasmine," she replied, giving his hand a halfhearted shake.
"It's really cool to meet you," Luke Barrett went on. "I'm a big fan of yours, Jasmine. I think what you did in Blackwood Cove was really something special. It takes a brave person to rise up and spearhead any sort of movement like that, especially a murder investigation. Seeing as how often entire police departments bungle investigations like that, it really was something special."
A good portion of Jasmine's fear suddenly evaporated.
"We've got a fanboy," Luffy said from beneath the table. "You're on your own on this one, Jasmine."
"I'm glad you liked the story," she said. "But I'm not an investigator, a private detective, or any of that stuff. I'm just a student. A witness."
Barrett got the hint. He reached out and hit the record button. "Right. A witness. So I should ask you some questions. Right now we're obviously still establishing a time of death. We'll know pretty soon but, uh... did you hear or see anything strange when you arrived on campus this morning?"
"Just the cleaning guy screaming his head off," she said. "I was pretty surprised his voice could go that high."
Barrett snorted with laughter, shaking his head a couple of times to try and get back to business. "And what time did you arrive?"
"Just a couple minutes before I saw the body. Someone in one of my classes was going out of town and didn't have time to drop off their homework, so they asked me to do it. I had to get a book from the library, so I decided I could kill two birds with one stone."
"Alright," said Barrett. "The identity of the deceased has been confirmed. He was a student named-"
"Oliver Bridges," Jasmine said.
"You knew him?"
> Jasmine shrugged. "Not really. I spoke with him once, not too long ago, at lunch. He was studying philosophy. He seemed nice. A little shy."
Officer Barrett looked troubled. "I knew his family. I'm surprised you don't. Does the name Lyle Bridges mean anything to you?"
She shook her head. "I haven't been in town for very long, and I've been kind of focused on my schoolwork. Sorry."
"Well, Lyle owns Pineapple," Barrett said.
Jasmine was waiting for him to say something else, to add another word or two onto an obviously incomplete phrase. But Barrett's lips were sealed; he was staring at her expectantly, like he thought the light bulb out to be turning on any second."
"Huh?" she said.
"Pineapple," he repeated with a chuckle. "You've never heard of Pineapple?"
"Can't say I have. Unless you're talking about the fruit."
"Don't be ridiculous Jasmine," Luffy added. "How could one man own a whole fruit?"
Colonialism, she wanted to say, but she didn't want Barrett thinking she was crazy. Although he sounded a bit crazy himself, spouting off the word pineapple all willy-nilly with no context.
"It's a restaurant," Barrett said. "A fine dining place here in town. The reason I'm surprised you haven't heard of it is because it's sort of like New Market's claim to fame. People come from all around to eat there. Celebrity chefs, and just plain celebrities. It's a pretty big deal. Won all kinds of awards."
"Oliver's dad owns it?" Jasmine asked. "I guess he must be a pretty big deal around here too."
Barrett grinned. "Getting curious, huh? I thought you were just a student."
She shrugged. "I can't help it. It's in my nature. You can just ignore my questions if you want."
He shook his head. "Wouldn't dream of it. You could say that Lyle is a big deal in New Market, yeah. Wildwood was the original reason why anyone outside the town ever heard of it, but Lyle's put us on the map globally. Pineapple is one of the most respected restaurants in the world, you know."
Jasmine found that hard to believe. She suspected this was all a bit of small-town hyperbole, an overly proud resident hyping things up. Then again, she wasn't much of a foodie. Her idea of fine dining was a cheeseburger and fries. It was safe to say she was ignorant in this specific arena.
Meanwhile, Barrett was back to looking miserable. Wringing his hands, shaking his head.
"You know why I signed up to be a cop, Jasmine?" he said. "It's because I love this town. I love everything about it, and I didn't want it to change. I see what's happening in the world out there, the world around us... There's violence, evil, corruption, all that bad stuff. And I just didn't want all that seeping into my hometown, you know? I wanted to keep it pristine. I wanted to know it was possible."
He shook his head, as though dispelling a juvenile thought. But Jasmine didn't think it was juvenile at all.
"I think that's the right reason, Officer Barrett," she said.
He shrugged. "Maybe. But it seems like I failed, right? Killings just don't happen here, no more than they do in Blackwood Cove. Sure, we have a lot more people, but none of them ever murder each other. We keep the peace. Not just the police, but the average citizen. It just isn't right that Oliver died."
He sighed, sitting back in his chair and rubbing his face. The digital recorder went on listening, copying every sound down in perfect fidelity. It did this job silently, but Jasmine still imagined the whirring, clicking sounds of an old-fashioned tape recorder.
She just sat still and let the situation play out. What had started as a witness interview had suddenly become a confessional of the unlikeliest kind. A small-town cop speaking his fears to the new kid in town. If this was a movie he would be driving her out of New Market, blaming her outsider ways for everything that had happened. Instead, he was spilling his guts... but she got the impression that if it wasn't to her, it would have been to someone else.
Jasmine said nothing. She just pretended she was a set of ears or, better yet, a mirror. It was better that Barrett bared his soul to her, because another person might not be so understanding.
"I thought I was brave," he said after a long moment. "What braver thing than to slap on a badge and a gun and swear to protect your community? Especially since I'm afraid of guns. But I guess I'm not brave, because the first thing I thought when I realized it was Oliver... the first thing I thought was that I hoped it wouldn't be me who had to tell his father."
Barrett seemed to be on the verge of tears, but he suddenly seemed to realize where he was and who he was with. He sniffed a few times, quickly wiped his eyes, and forced on a smile as he gazed across at Jasmine.
"Well," he said, "probably not what you were expecting when I brought you in here. Sorry about that."
"It's perfectly fine," she said. "You're allowed to have feelings too."
"I know. But I shouldn't have let them out like that at work. It's unprofessional."
Jasmine shrugged. "Good thing I'm not a professional, then."
Barrett laughed. "You're a good kid, Jasmine."
"You sure about that? For all you know, I might have been the one who killed Oliver."
"Yeah, sure. And I'm Queen Elizabeth."
Something else occurred to Jasmine just then.
"This whole time we've been talking," she said, "you've made it sound like Oliver's death was a murder. Am I missing something here?"
"Nothing that I know of," said Barrett. "But the way I see it, if anyone was gonna pull a dumb stunt and fall off the top of that clock tower, it would be one of those party kids. You know who I mean. They use their parents' money like a free pass through life, living it up while everyone else is studying."
Jasmine nodded. There weren't many people of that description at Wildwood, but there were certainly a few. Charles Dane almost qualified, except that he actually had a goal in life.
"It wouldn't have been Oliver," said Barrett. "He was one of the nicest, calmest kids you'd ever meet. Definitely not the kind of kid to go wild and kill themselves by accident. Almost always had his nose in a book and never bothered anyone. Not to say he was some kind of loner... He was shy, sure, but he had friends. Everyone liked him."
"If he was murdered," Jasmine said, "then there's at least one person who didn't."
Barrett frowned. "You're right about that."
***
As she walked home from the police station, she missed out on yet another opportunity to explore the town. All she could focus on was her feet, the flow of traffic, the changing of lights at crosswalks. At one point a cyclist nearly crashed into her, and she barely heard his apology. Another person approached her with a stack of flyers, preaching something about the coming of the Antichrist. She just shook her head and kept walking.
"This place is crazy!" Luffy remarked. "Everyone here is a total loon! Jasmine, aren't you bothered by this?"
"By what?" she asked idly.
"This concrete jungle! What else?"
"Luffy, New Market has only twenty thousand people. Maybe someday I'll take you to New York or Tokyo. You'll really lose your mind then. Maybe I'll even have to scrape it up off the sidewalk for you."
"Funny," he grumbled. "Would you just look around? Look, there's another park! Looks lovely, doesn't it? There's a duck pond. Look, there's a little girl feeding the ducks! That's just precious. Right, Jasmine?"
She shrugged, glancing toward the park for a moment but taking in no details.
"What is it with you?" Luffy asked.
"What? I'm just walking."
"Don't play dumb with me, Jasmine. Maybe you can trick other people, but not me. I know you. You can't stop thinking about the case, can you?'
"There is no case, Luffy. Not as far as I'm concerned."
"There you go, lying again. You really need to make up your mind. I don't care what you decide to do. I'm your friend; I'll stick with you no matter what. But all this back and forth and flipping and flopping... it can't be good for you. One second you're adamant that yo
u never want to be a part of another investigation. Now Oliver's death is all you can think about."
She looked down at him, smiling sheepishly. He really did know her too well.
"Care to share with the class?" he asked, borrowing a phrase he had heard Professor Hawke use on numerous occasions.
"Okay it's like this," Jasmine said. "Barrett seems pretty much convinced that Oliver's death involved foul play. Is it intuition, or is there something else going on?"
"You mean, you think Barrett could have killed Oliver?" Luffy asked. "That guy? He probably still sleeps with a teddy bear and calls his mom every night."
"Watch what you're saying," said Jasmine.
"You call your mom every other night. There's a difference. But back to my point..."
"No, I don't think Barrett has it in him. But who knows? And even if he had nothing directly to do with Oliver's death, he might know something we don't. Something that happened in the past, some enemy who might wish harm on the Bridges family. We're really in the weeds here, Luffy. In Blackwood Cove, we knew everyone. Even if we didn't always know what was going on, we knew how to find out. It was different. Simpler. Now we're in New Market. There's a whole other set of dynamics here."
"Jasmine, sometimes you need to just think like a dog," Luffy said.
"What does that mean?"
"It means, think small. You think I stare at the stars all night and think about whatever humans think about? You think I wonder if there's other life out there, or what it would be like to colonize another planet? No. I just think about how pretty the stars look and move on."
"What's your point?" Jasmine asked.
"My point is, you're thinking too big. It'll hurt your brain. Humans are smart, right, but you're only just smart enough to get yourselves hurt. Start thinking smaller. Maybe it's not about New Market and all twenty-thousand or whatever people live here. Maybe it's just about Wildwood."
She nodded slowly. He might have a point there.
"And anyway," Luffy went on, "let's go back to what you said about this not being Blackwood Cove. We aren't dealing with Sheriff Lustbader and his small band of well-meaning knuckleheads. There's nothing you can do here, unless the cops miraculously decide they're in over their heads and ask for your help. You get me?"