"What's this do?"
"It's a lie detector Mr Price."
"It looks like a torture machine."
The assistant chuckled before receiving a glare from his superior. He bowed his head and took a seat next to the reader.
"The wires can be a bit intimidating, but it's necessary Mr Price."
"What happens now?"
"Someone will be with you shortly Mr Price, I just set up the machine."
"You can call me Kevin."
The man nodded before gathering his papers and moving to the door. He turned back to Kevin and sneered. "No thank you, I prefer not to be on close terms with murderers."
Kevin let out a frustrated sigh and examined the pads now connected to his pulse points. He glanced up to see the assistant still eyeing him.
"What're you looking at?"
"Nothing, sorry, I just...you're Kevin Price right?"
Kevin looked between him and the large mirror on one wall suspiciously. He wondered who was behind it watching him.
"Isn't it written on your clipboard or something?"
"Oh yeah, I guess," The man laughed nervously, "It's just, Connor McKinley, I'm a big fan."
"Uh huh..."
"So?"
"So what?"
"Did you do it?"
Kevin rolled his eyes and faced the opposite wall, willing for someone to come and rescue him. He encountered these people often, but they usually just wanted an autograph or some juicy story. As if Kevin just kept copies in his pockets all the time.
The door opened and a woman entered. She smiled quickly, a smile that didn't reach the eyes, before dropping her files and mug of coffee on the desk.
"My name's Janie Shelter, now we're pressed for time, so onwards." She withdrew a piece of paper with a list of questions before scanning the list.
"How may are there?" Kevin asked suspiciously as she flicked the paper and continued on the other side.
"These are just the control questions, I only need to ask a few and then I hand you over to a cross examiner. Ok, ready?"
"I guess."
"What color is the sky?"
"What?"
"You just need to answer truthfully to each question."
"Um...blue?"
"Great, and where were you between half past four and seven last wednesday?"
"Shopping."
"Shopping?"
"Yes."
"And then you returned to the office at around 7pm?"
"Yes."
"Ok." Janie gave a nod to the assistant who ripped off the paper slip that had just printed. "That's all for now, there'll be more questioning, but you're free from that thing."
She gestured to the wires that Kevin was already shaking off. An officer came into the room and led him down the corridor where he was met by another officer who in turn led him to another room.
The cop motioned for him to take a seat at a table set with three spindly plastic chairs. He then proceeded to handcuff him to the leg before leaving him alone.
"Kevin?"
Kevin's eyes snapped open just as he was about to dose off. Two men entered, matching grim expressions on their faces, settling into the pair of chairs.
"I'm Detective Holden and this is my associate Detective Reid. We're just going to ask you a few questions," The larger of the men said, flicking to a clean page in his notepad.
"Let's get started. Last Wednesday Connor McKinley left the theatre after the matinee performance and didn't return for the evening performance. Did you see him in that time?"
"No."
"Did he contact you at all?"
"Yes, he texted."
"We have your phone as evidence and have already read the text, but just for our records, if you could repeat what it said, that would be very helpful." Detective Holden nodded towards the tape recorder where the reel was slowly turning in the record setting.
"He asked me to come to the theatre, sometimes we just order food and hang out before his evening show."
"And why didn't you this time?"
"As I said, I was busy."
"So you did say, shopping wasn't it."
Kevin bent down so that he could rub his eyes with his handcuffed hands. It didn't really matter what he said, no one seemed to be believing him.
"Where did you get the chloroform Kevin?"
Kevin looked up meeting the eye of Detective Reid, the first words he'd spoken so far landing thick in the air.
"The what?" He replied quickly, swallowing on a seemingly endlessly dry throat.
"You heard."
"I didn't know, I thought he was..."
"Stabbed?"
"Yeah."
"Well we believe he was, we even have the weapon. But, there were traces of chloroform including the empty bottle left at the crime scene. There was also rohypnol found in one of the two glasses. Some had been drunk, but we believe the full effect was achieved with the chloroform."
"I wouldn't know how that works." Kevin shook his head and fixed his gaze on the blank wall above the men's heads. It was beginning to hit him that if they really did suspect him, he would never discover the truth either.
"Rohypnol leaves the victim with a twelve hour blackout and memory loss afterwards. But it takes a while to kick in. You got impatient? Needed to speed things up? Hence the chloroform."
"There is really nothing more I can say. I didn't see Connor at all that day. In fact I didn't spend that last night in our apartment, I was staying with a friend."
"Have you thought about telling us where the body is yet?"
Kevin felt the two pairs of eyes burn into him so closed his own trying to find some peace of mind. He wished he could help, but more than anything he wished he wasn't so calm about the whole thing. It hadn't hit him yet and he just felt numb, the interrogations didn't really help with his acceptance.
"We're rebuilding that day as best we can," Detective Holden took back over, "It's just those few hours we'd like your help with."
"Great show Connor!"
"Thanks," Connor smiled at his dresser, watching him disappear with his wigs in both hands. He grabbed his phone from his dressing room table, made a quick tweet, then texted Kevin.
'Meet me at the stage door? Chinese takeaway maybe? Xoxo'
It didn't take long for the phone to buzz.
'Sorry babe, busy this afternoon xxxxx'
Connor was familiar with that amount of kisses. It meant Kevin was up to something. He brushed it off putting it down to some sort of surprise he must have planned.
A stage manager poked their head round his door. "You going out before this evening?"
"I might do now, why?"
"You have a very insistent fan waiting for you."
"Oh God."
The stage manager laughed. "I can just tell them you're not coming, but don't worry, they seem harmless."
"They all do at first, the next thing you know they're clutching your arm trying to internalise your aura."
"I think this one just wants you to sign some things. Plus, he's pretty cute."
"He?"
"Just go sign his playbill, take a photo, and then come back in, we'll watch some tv until half hour."
Connor glanced at his phone and the latest text from Kevin before shrugging, pocketing a pen, and heading down towards the stage door.