Interrogation Room

by Greg Wilburn

wreckin’ some of my business. I needed to know where they were gonna do some smugglin’ so I could knock them out.

  And you said that I’m one of Darrell’s best customers, right? That’s true. Which leads me to my point. Darrell’s loyal to a fault to the customers that give him the most profit. And I’m one of them. He wouldn’t rat me or my boys out like that. That’s a fact. So, by that logic, you and Bailey are lyin’ to me to make me think he told on me. I know what you’re doin’, and it’s pretty pathetic. And at worst case, Darrell would lie to you guys to save his ass from a beatin’ (my eyes flare up as he gets a little nervous and he shifts his position in his chair), but he would never give information that would actually do any damage to me or his top clients.

  He would never have told you anything about me and the O’ Talley killings together. And, by the way, I heard a guy getting’ beat in the first interrogation room as we passed. I bet ten thousand bucks that was Darrell, and you were tryin’ to force him to set me up (he looks away from me for a quick second, puts a face on, and looks back at me). That’s it, huh? Nice try, stupid.”

  Dirk: “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Carson (He starts to treat me like a criminal again). There’s nobody in the first room” (He tries to stare me down, but it doesn’t work).

  Me: “Oh yeah? (I get angry and start to stand up) Then let me go over there right now and see for myself. If he’s there, I go free. If not, then I give a full admission of guilt.” (I head for the door)

  Dirk: (He stands up, pulls his gun out and points it at me, and he lashes out at me) “Sit the fuck down, Carson! I told you no one’s over there so sit your ass down before I blow you fuckin’ head off!” (he aims at my head)

  Me: (I stop and laugh. Then I put my hands up, walk slowly to my seat and sit down. He puts his gun away as I sit down. He runs his hands through his hair because he’s stressed and lets the nerves in his neck flex. I’m getting’ somewhere.) “That’s what I thought. You’ve got nothin’ on me, and you’re just dickin’ around tryin’ to get me to take the fall for this. Not gonna work, idiot. And another thing, you can go fu—“

  (Bailey throws the door open and it slams against the wall. We both jump. He walks in all cool-like and comes up beside me. He’s smoking a Marlboro. He breathes the smoke in my face and flicks some ash onto my face and shirt. Dick.)

  Bailey: (he speaks hard) “Don’t talk to my partner like that, you pile of shit. I’m back, and if you want to speak, you wait until I tell you you can. Got it?”

  Me: (I laugh) “Yeah, right, asshol—“ (Bailey punches me with another girly punch across the face and throws me to the ground. He kicks me a couple of times in the chest and face, and I feel a little blood start to run down my face. I start planning in my head to have my suit taken to the cleaners alongside how I’m gonna have the boys kill him and his family).

  (Bailey picks me up and throws me back into my chair. Then he walks over to the glass and rests against it)

  Bailey: (He stares coldly) “Now, my partner was askin’ you some questions. Answer them already so we can put you away for life, back behind the cage where you belong, you dog.” (He nods at Dirk to keep going)

  Dirk: (He looks at me with no feeling, like I’m already locked away again, but this time for good). “Carson, we have a bunch of evidence against you that says you killed all eight of those cops. We’ve got blood samples, hairs, fibers, and as I said before, we have some witnesses.”

  Bailey: (chimes in quickly) “And some other stuff that clinches you for sure.” (He looks smug and I get worried, but I still keep a cool demeanor).

  Me: (I wait for a signal, and after Bailey nods, I answer) “Hmph! My ass! Let’s see what you got on me.” (I spread my arms wide across the table and wait for them to start spoutin’ stuff).

  Dirk: “All right. First, (He pulls out a picture of my bloody shirt and pants that I washed last night) we got these out of your apartment. We had them sent to the lab and more than one person’s blood is on it. Some of it matches the blood types of those murdered at O’ Talley’s. (He looks at me with eyes raised) Care to explain this?”

  Me: (I smile at their stupidity and lame tricks). “Stop tryin’ to lie to me. First off, you couldn’t tell if the blood on my clothes was from me or anybody else—not that I’m sayin’ it’s anybody’s other than mine—because everybody knows that high grade cleaning products have good amounts of bleach and chlorine. I know because my dry cleaner told me. So there goes your so called blood evidence, bitch.”

  Bailey: “And we’ve got blood samples from the bar counters and a bullet that was found covered in your blood.”

  Me: (I shake my head as they spout the lies) “No way you’ve got blood samples from the bar, you ass-for-brains.”

  Bailey: (He leans forward, hopin’ I’ll slip up and give up some vital piece of information on what I did, but I don’t. I make them feel stupid) “And why’s that, Carson?”

  Me: “Because no one shot at me and I sure as hell wasn’t bleedin.’ You guys gotta stop lyin’ through your teeth to try and make me pin this on myself. You guys really suck at your jobs. You’d make better newsboys because you like to talk through your asses too much.” (I smile at the thought of how stupid they’d look on the five o’ clock news, spillin’ trash to the public. Not that they already aren’t doing that on the force.)

  (Bailey throws his cigarette to the floor and rushes me. He punches me in the stomach and punches my jaw a few times. I laugh as he does it, seeing how they’ve got absolutely nothin’ to go on. Fools. He pushes me against the wall and points his gun at my head. I laugh because he won’t do anything)

  Bailey: (Yelling for no reason in that small room) “Just say one more thing, I dare you! I’ll blow your fuckin’ brains out right now! Test me, asshole! I’ll kill you!”

  (I wait silently for a few seconds and he gets tired of holding a gun to my head. He pulls back and stands next to Dirk on the other side of the table. Dirk acts as if nothing’s happened and continues to talk)

  Dirk: (holds up a list with names on it) “And we have witnesses that say they saw you in the bar and outside of it too that night. There’s at least six people that say they saw you, and yo—“

  Me: (I cut him off and speak low because my face hurts) “Listen, you ain’t got no witnesses, and I’ll tell you why. First off, the guys who sat at the bar with me would put me down in a second for anything, from murder to leaving loose change on the floor. And they aren’t too bright either. They know me, but you couldn’t give any credit to those guys. And their bosses would tell them to keep their traps shut, so they’d never testify. (Bailey and Dirk sigh because they know I’m right)

  And the barkeep wouldn’t say anythin’ because he couldn’t care less about somethin’ like that happenin.’ For the right price, he’d take anythin’ to the grave. That’s how they all are. Let’s see (I lock eyes with Dirk), and I bet the last three people are the guys outside of the bar that night. Let me sort this out real quick. All three of them are either cokeheads or heroine junkies. They couldn’t keep a story straight even if you scripted it. So, (I let out a sigh) in the end, you ain’t got no witnesses.”

  (Bailey and Dirk look at each other for a second and nod. They want to see if they can catch me in a mess-up or something, but it’s not gonna happen)

  Dirk: (Doesn’t have much left) “We have fibers from you jacket there, which is evidence that—“

  Me: “That I was there. I already told you, I had some drinks there and left. Of course some fibers, and even some hairs, would be there, asshole. That’s the most obvious fuckin’ thing there is to go on, and it wouldn’t hold up.”

  (Bailey’s smoking another cigarette that I didn’t seem him light. He pulls it out of his mouth and crushes in his hand because he’s so pissed. They know I did it, but they can’t prove it. I smell some of his burning flesh because he won’t let it go. He speaks calmly)

  Bailey: “I gotta say, Carson, you’re pretty observant
when you’re drunk.”

  Me: (I chuckle) “Yeah, you can’t be too careful these days. If you let your guard down for a second, two dumbass cops will try to accuse you of murders.” (I give them a glare)

  (Bailey smiles, but not because of my joke. Dirk looks back at Bailey and they both nod and smile. The mood of the room changes, and I get a bit nervous for a second, but I hide it. They both look back at me and pull out some new pictures)

  Dirk: (Showing me the pictures. There are two footprints, two buildings, and picture of a certain angle from across the street looking at the two buildings. One of the buildings is the bar and the other is the restaurant next door) “You see these?”

  Me: (I play it cool. They actually have something, if not much) “Yeah. So what? Looks like you guys are a bunch of photographers now. Makes sense why they’d make you do that, because you suck at being cops for sure.”

  (Bailey drops the smothered cigarette and walks forward smiling. He takes me joking as a sign of me getting nervous. He stands next to Dirk and leans on the table)

  Bailey: (He breathes dirty breath into my face. It makes my cuts and bruises tingle) “Getting’ nevous, Carson? You should be. These are pictures of the stuff that’s gonna put you away. Let me show you what we got here for you.

  (he shows me