by Jack Parker
"Thanks," Nick said, not knowing what else to say.
"And again, I apologize for Collin."
"Hey…he can apologize to me himself the next time he sees me at work."
"All right. Don't forget…we probably aren't done talking to you, but we are for now."
"Great. See ya."
Collin watched with his mouth hanging open in disbelief as Nick walked away from the questioning room and out of the building.
Chapter 8
Digging Deeper
Collin sat slumped in his chair. He still couldn't take his eyes off the door that Nick had just exited out of. He was so sure Nick was the one who committed the crime, but Teneire still seemed to think differently.
The awkward and irritating silence filled the room almost like it was a type of gas that was being poured in from the vents.
"Look, I know you're upset, but…"
"Just…whatever," Collin coldly said, not even letting his former boss finish his sentence.
Teneire sighed. "I know you tried."
Collin's fists started clenching. He did his best to restrain himself, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. He couldn't even bear to look at Teneire. "I…was onto something."
"Maybe you were. Maybe you weren't. All I know is that I wasn't about to let you start callin' out another innocent person. I mean, if I could just arrest anyone I wanted, why, half the people in town would be…"
"I know! Look…I don't want to talk about it."
With a last sigh of grief, Collin got up from the chair and slowly started walking towards the door as if he had just lost all his loved ones in an accident. His head was hanging low the entire time, and once he got to the door, he didn't even turn around to look back. "Thanks for letting me help out, anyway."
Teneire watched as the teen walked out of the office and down the hall. His face seemed a bit sad and disappointed with himself, but he also seemed to be telling himself that it was the smart and logical thing to do.
As Collin walked through the hall, he continued staring down at the floor. He wasn't paying too much attention to where he was going, which caused him to almost bump into a few people on the way out.
Guess I'll have to figure this out on my own, then. I'll show Captain Teneire! I'll show EVERYONE!
"Collin, wait!"
He froze up and turned around. Teneire was now power-walking over to him, and it looked like there was something somewhat urgent on his mind.
"What is it?"
"Look, I know you were trying to help, and I really appreciate it…"
Collin stared at Teneire as if there was going to be more to what he was saying, but no words came out. After several awkward seconds, Collin muttered, "Aaaaand?..."
"And…you picked up on a lot of things pretty quickly. And I mean, really quickly."
The glimmer of hope was starting to return to Collin. "What are you saying?"
Teneire sighed again. "I can't really think of you as a competent police worker. I mean, you just started blindly accusing two innocent people of killing someone. That violates pretty much every major aspect of being a cop, you know."
"It wasn't 'blindly'!" Collin insisted, but he soon shut his mouth, sensing that it would only cause him trouble.
"Just listen to me, will you?! Doesn't that mouth of yours ever stop?!"
That remark silenced Collin for a good few seconds. Now having completely shut him down, Teneire continued.
"Like I was saying, you were pretty good picking up on some details that may be of interest to us from Jess's story or Nick's story or whatever. Not to mention you found that knife at the lake, and that was enough to breathe some life into this case, so without you that wouldn't have happened…"
The excitement was starting to return to Collin once again. Was this going where he thought it was?...
"So…if you still want to help out, I'd let…"
"I'D LOVE TO!"
The sudden outburst was enough to cause Teneire to jump backwards slightly. Collin's depressed face now looked bright and cheerful.
"Whoa, easy there…"
"YOU REALLY MEAN THAT?!"
Teneire started chuckling. "Can I take that as a 'yes'?"
"You betcha! Oh, man, sir…I owe you an apology."
"What for?"
"Ha. Ha ha ha ha! We just sat through two questioning sessions, and because of me we didn't get anywhere! Oh, man, I'm sorry."
"Well, you don't always catch the big fish the first time out," Teneire said, doing his best to cheer Collin up and encourage him to keep trying.
"You're really letting me go at it again?!"
"For the last time, yes!"
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Collin profusely yelled as he grabbed Teneire's hand and started shaking it rapidly up and down. "I promise I'll find something next time! The next person who steps into that questioning room won't be leaving until we know everything!"
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Coll. It's never that easy. But I'm sure you could help."
"And I will! Trust me!"
"I believe you. Now go home, before you give me even more of a headache than you already have."
"Yes, sir!"
* * *
"Oh, maaaan! Who's good?!" Collin yelled excitedly. He was sitting in the computer chair in his room and spinning around while looking up at the ceiling and having his arms spread out. "I'm good! That's who! Oh, man…I REALLY gotta find a way to thank Teneire for this. I know! I'll figure everything out!"
Before long, images started playing in Collin's mind of him picking out who the killer was and being honored by everyone. He could so clearly see Teneire's surprised and delighted face congratulating him.
But just as he was really getting into that daydream of his, he snapped out of it and tried to get himself to focus. "No, gotta focus, Collin. Gotta pay attention. Ya ain't gonna get anywhere if you keep thinking like that…or if you keep talking to yourself."
Shrugging off this mentality, he tried to think back to everything he had heard over the last few days that might provide him with some sort of lead, at least regarding who the next person to question should be.
"Hmmmm…is there anything I don't know yet? Or I don't know enough about?"
As he was thinking about things that Nick was particularly shady about, he remembered one thing Ian told him about Nick:
-Ian looked like he was getting peeved at the constant badgering. "Nick and I got into a fight about a year ago, and I'm still pissed at him for it."-
Then there was what Christine told him the next day while he was filling in for Ian as a lifeguard:
-"It's not important, all right? It was just some stupid argument they had, one of them threw a punch at the other, and it call got worse from there."-
"Hmmmm…I wonder if that fight actually has something to do with it?...Eh, probably not."
Collin started trying to think of something else to give him a lead, but the idea of that fight still weighed heavily on his mind, and he couldn't think straight with it preoccupying him.
"Then again, I don't really know anything about that fight, or how it went down, or…anything. Maybe there would be something strange about it?...Only one way to find out!"
* * *
"Well, Collin, I hate to rain on your parade, but things really aren't going all that well."
It was now Saturday morning: Collin's day off from work. He was instead spending his time (when he would have normally been sleeping) sitting in Teneire's office, looking surprisingly relaxed.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't get me wrong-it's great you found that bloody knife and all, but we really aren't too much further ahead of where we were last year."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. I mean, we've pretty much ruled out two people now, but those guys weren't really all that suspicious to begin with."
That's what YOU think…
"…so, really, we're almost back to where we started."
"Actually, I don't think that's true," Collin interrupted, trying his best not to sound rude.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, this is pretty much what we have so far: we know Jess's knife killed Scott, right? That much we're sure of?"
"That's right."
"And Jess first said she gave it to Nick around the time Scott died, but then she changed her story and said she lost it so people wouldn't suspect Nick."
"Right. But I don't see what good that does."
"Well, Nick's saying he has no idea how the knife ended up at the lake, even though he was the one who was supposed to have had it in his possession when Scott got knocked off."
"What's your point?"
"Pretty much, Jess's story doesn't line up with Nick's, which means either Jess is lying, Nick is lying,…or maybe they're both sending us on a wild goose chase."
"So…"
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that the real question here is figuring out who had the knife when Scott died."
"Uh…that's what we've been trying to figure out since day one."
"Rrrright," Collin said as he realized he just stated the obvious. "But, I mean, really, knives don't just poof underground or under lifeguard towers at lakes. So whoever killed Scott must have been able to move the knife there and hide it."
"I guess that makes sense, but that still doesn't really change anything."
"Urk…well…uh…maybe someone else will have some useful info? I dunno."
"I think you're on the right track."
"Huh?"
"Nick will have his story, and Jess will have hers. We'll never get to the truth at that rate, so we're gonna need a third person to try and help us figure out who really had the knife and what happened."
"Great," Collin exclaimed as he clapped his hands a single time. "So, who do we go to next?"
"That's gonna be your job. I want you to pay close attention to what everyone around you is saying and see if that'll give us a clue."
Collin stared dully at the floor.
"You think you can do that, Coll?"
Collin looked up and snapped back to attention. "Who do you think you're talking to, sir?"
Teneire smiled. "Great. When you go back to work on Monday, watch everyone closely, but don't get too suspicious, all right?"
"Yeah, but…one question."
"Yeah?"
"Couldn't we just bring Nick or Jess back in and question them some more instead of having me find someone else?"
"Neither one of them are gonna change their story unless we force them to," Teneire deduced. "We're gonna have to find something that'll get whoever's lying to tell the truth. We're gonna need something concrete on these guys."
"And you want me to get that 'concrete' by listening to everyone else and callin' them in?"
"You got it."
Collin went back to smiling. "No problemo. You can count on me, chief."
* * *
"I already told you, there's nothing else to say about it," Ian instantly rejected.
Collin's time off had ended and he was now back at work. Very early on in the day, he had found some time to pull Ian aside and acted as if he wanted to talk to him. But as soon as he mentioned the fight and wanted to learn something more about it, Ian promptly tried to stop the conversation.
"Hey, I'm curious," Collin insisted.
"Don't be. It's no big deal."
"If it's no big deal, then how come you're being so stubborn?"
"I'm being stubborn?! You're the one who won't stop bugging me about something that doesn't have anything to do with you!"
"Aw, come on!"
"Nope. No can do. Man Law says that if one guy asks another guy a question and the other one doesn't want to answer it, the topic has to be dropped completely."
"What the?...where'd you read that?!"
Ian chuckled. "Take my word for it."
I won't. "Hey, you know what I just thought would be a great idea?"
Ian was caught off guard by Collin's sudden change in attitude.
"…what?"
"Letting that girl in the tiger stripes bikini knowing you've just been staring at her butt for the past ten minutes."
"What?! Oh, quit bluffing."
Collin smirked and turned towards the girl in question. "Hey, you!"
Ian looked distraught and now acted on impulse. "Don't! If she knows, she'll call Headquarters and complain, then I'll get another pay cut!"
ANOTHER pay cut? That's happened to you before? Sheesh, I'd have thought you'd learn after the FIRST time. "So, you gonna tell me?"
Ian forced a fake grin and shook his head. "Collin, you are such a sneaky bastard, buddy."
With a mischievous smile, Collin said, "I know."
After sighing, Ian finally gave in. "Fine, if you really want to know, I'll tell you."
"Awesome! That's what I like to hear!"
"Yeah, yeah. Well, I actually feel bad for you."
"Huh? Why?"
" 'Cause when you see how stupid this whole thing is, you're gonna be disappointed you tried to force it out of me."
"Oh, well. Let's just hear it."
"Fine, fine. About a week before Scott kicked the bucket, Nick and I had an argument."
"What was it about?"
Ian's face was a mix of surprise and sarcasm. "Like I remember! It was probably something stupid like a political belief or something."
"And?..."
"I remember saying that that stupid mayor Menkino shouldn't be re-elected for another term like he has been for the past, like, thirty bazillion years, and Nick just got all fussy and was like, 'Hey, he's a great mayor!'. And I said, 'He's the worst mayor I've ever seen,' and he's like, 'Oh, yeah?!'. And the next thing I know, he started trying to punch me."
"What?!" Collin yelled. "That's how the fight started?!" There's no way that's right…I gotta hear Nick's side of this story. Not even NICK would just lash out like that.
"No lie. All I did was say I thought Menkino was a bad mayor and he punched me for no good reason. And Man Law says you never strike preempti…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you guys haven't really talked to each other since?"
"I didn't want to talk to him. He's an idiot, anyway."
"And…what happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what happened to you guys after the fight?"
"Aw, we were both suspended from work for the week."
"You were?"
"Yeah. See? I told you it was nothing big."
"Hmmm…well, thanks anywa…" Wait a minute! When I was questioning Nick with Teneire the other day…
"Anyway, yeah. I wasn't working then."
"You mean you didn't have the job yet?"
"Ugh…well, I had it, but I didn't show up for work once the entire week."
"You didn't?" Teneire asked. "Were you on vacation?"
"Something like that," Nick cryptically answered.
So that "vacation" was really him getting suspended from the park for picking a fight?, Collin realized. But does that have anything to do with this?...
"Uh…thanks, Ian," Collin said. His voice gave away how puzzled he was, but Ian hadn't noticed it in the slightest.
"No problem, bud."
"Uh…great. Well, I…uh…better get back to my post."
"You do that, buddy."
Quickly nodding, Collin turned around and started walking away from the lifeguard post. When he was about fifteen yards away, he heard, "Hey, Collin!"
He turned around and saw Ian staring at him. "What is it?"
"Blackmail me one more time like that and your head'll be stuck in that sand so fast you'd think the Sandman just punched you in the face!"
"…I'll keep that in mind."
As he continued walking further from the lifeguard tower, he realized one more thing and ran over to Ian. "Wait, I forgot to ask you something!"
"What is it?"
"You remember anything weird about Jess's knife
?"
"Jess's knife?"
"Yeah!"
"You mean the thing that the police say killed Scott?"
How many 'Jess's knives' do you know?! "Yeah, that one!"
"Uh…I'm not sure I follow."
"Like, did someone borrow it or something?"
"Hmmmmm…kinda tough to remember small things like that, buddy. Uh…I think I remember Jess telling me she lent it to Nick."
Awesome! So Nick DID have it! "Thanks, Ian! You're the best!"
"Yeah, I know, but why'd you…"
"See ya!" Collin yelled as he excitedly ran off before Ian could finish his sentence. He was too excited to even notice that his colleague wasn't finished talking.
After running back to his post (today he had his least favorite job: monitoring the bathrooms-all seventeen of them), Collin started thinking about what it meant that Jess did indeed lend her knife to Nick. But Nick didn't seem all too suspicious right now, and Collin quickly began to think about possibilities of Nick not being the killer, after all.
"Hmmm…maybe someone stole the knife from Nick?" Collin asked himself out loud. Luckily for him, there was no one around who noticed he was talking to himself. "Someone who knew Nick had the knife and thought…yeah! If someone knew Nick had it and he borrowed it from Jess, then that means there would be TWO possible suspects while the guy who stole it from Nick would be getting off scot-free! Yeah! It makes sense! Now who was…Ian! Yeah! Maybe it was him!"
Collin was getting anxious now and his blood started pumping through him much more quickly. "I'd better take Ian into questioning now and…ugh, no, that won't work."
He realized at that point that, even though Ian didn't want to talk about anything, he didn't seem to have an obvious motive either, but to add on to that, there was nothing that would make it seem like Collin's theory, which was speculation enough as it was, was actually correct.
"Ugh…Ian's probably told me everything he knows. I don't think I'm gonna get anything new out of him. Maybe I just need to think about who might know something about Scott dying instead of just thinking about who did it."
As he was deep in though, he suddenly came to a realization and was ready to hit himself on the head for missing the obvious choice.
"Of course!" he said excitedly. "I know who I should find out more from! Yeah! It'll work. I've gotta find something this time! There's just no way I can't!"