"Now Ms. Sanban, I'm going to need you to answer my questions. Can you do that?"
I sat in sadness. "Mrs. Beetles. My name is Kuki Beetles."
"Well Ms., it would have been if tonight would have been different. Now Ms. Sanban, can you tell me what happened?"
The walls radiated fear. The lights flickered in desperate need for the florescent bulbs to be changed. And the man in front of me was absolutely terrifying with his suit and tape recorder sitting on the table. Why was I even in this interrogation room?
"Now Ms. Sanban, what were you and Mr. Beetles doing tonight?"
Of course he would start with the simple questions. What were you doing? Who were you with? What happened? Then the difficult ones. Can you give me more detail? Can you describe that better? Who was it? Did you happen to see the man's face? Could you identify him in a line up?
"Ms. Sanban?"
"I'm thinking," I grumbled back at the police officer. "We went to the courthouse to get married. Since it is my eighteenth birthday and we wanted to get married as soon as possible, we both sunk out of our houses to the courthouse to elope in a way."
"Who were you with?"
What did I tell you? So predictable.
"It was just the two of us and our friend Nigel. He was driving us there."
"What happened, Ms. Sanban?"
Could this be anymore scripted? Honestly.
"Well we got there and we were running up the stairs laughing because we were so excited that we were actually getting married. Then all of a sudden someone ran by the courthouse and shot at us. He missed me and shot Wally. He just fell down. He just died." Tears stung my face. My sweetheart. He died right in front of me. And I didn't prevent it.
"Do you have any more detail you could provide for the record? Did you know the man? Did you see what he looked like? Could you identify him in a line up?"
The second police officer in the room interfered. "Hardeman, calm down. Her fiancée just died in front of her. She's a little shaken up from the shock."
"Well my wife and love of 15 years died the same way and her murder was never given justice. I just don't want this poor girl ending up like I am."
"No reason to bring your personal life into it. Now Ms. Sanban, can you give more detail?"
The woman police officer was a lot nicer than the man. But he looked like he was hurt by my specific case. He did say it happened to him too.
"Well Nigel was playing music really loud from the car and was laughing as we were running up the courthouse stairs. We had stopped at Kroger and I had a small rose bouquet. Wally and I were racing up even though it was midnight. And then when he stopped running and pulled me close to him for a kiss, someone ran by the courthouse and shot at us. He barley missed me but hit Wally. And then Wally's lips just fell from mine as he fell down onto the stairs. And that's it."
The woman handed me a box of tissues, but I didn't touch them at all. I told everything I could. There would be nothing else.
"Anything you can tell us about the man, Ms. Sanban?" Officer Hardeman asked. I could tell he was trying to be sincere.
"No. Nigel might have seen him or known him. You could ask him. But I don't know. I just want Wally back!"
A voice came in through the room. It was someone on the other side of the mirror. "That's enough Hardeman and Duke. Get this girl back to the hospital. The bullet grazed her back and needs looked at still."
And that's when they came in. Abby and Hoagie came in and lead me out of the emotionless room. Officer Hardeman was sitting with his face in his hands and Officer Duke was rubbing his back. Abby was still mourning her boyfriend's brother's death and had managed to come to me. Hoagie was always there for us. Nigel was probably being interrogated now. And Wally? He was in the morgue where none of us would ever see him alive again. All because of my jealous ex-boyfriend.