7: The interrogation

Hi, everyone...

This is a special chapter...

Originally, I wasn't planning on including the interrogation of Knott, but then I decided to write it anyway. And it also gave me the opportunity to shed some light and details on Arthit's assault.

So here it is...

Enjoy reading and please, don't forget to comment ^^ I really love to hear your opinions on the story ^^

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Around 4 pm, Saturday afternoon, Knott parked his car in the driveway of the Rojnapat's house, before he climbed down the car and walked to the front door. As soon as he pressed the bell, the door swung open, revealing Siriporn who smiled widely upon seeing him.

"Good afternoon, P'Siri," the young man greeted.

"Good afternoon, N'Knott," Siriporn greeted back, smiling as she let him in. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Knott replied. "and you?"

"I'm fine," the woman answered. "Oh," she exclaimed with a rather high-pitched voice. "I know I'm late but congratulations on obtaining your master's degree. Have you found a job yet?"

"Thanks," Knott replied with a slight frown, sensing something off with Siriporn. She seemed nervous a little, and her smile seemed to be a little bit forced. Plus, she didn't invite him in. Instead, she remained standing in her spot in the hallway. "Yes, I'm working in my uncle's construction company, Engineering Department."

"Oh, that's good."

"P'Siri, is Uncle Phet here?" Knott asked after a couple of moments of awkward silence. "Why did he want to see me?"

Siriporn's smile dropped before she let out a deep sigh. She opened her mouth to reply when Phet, suddenly, marched up to Knott and grabbed him by the collar.

"HOW COULD YOU HIDE SUCH A THING FROM ME?" the older man yelled, glaring furiously at the young man.

"P'!' Siriporn exclaimed.

"Stay out of it, Siriporn!" Phet snapped at her before he turned his attention back to his son's friend.

Siriporn sighed deeply. 'So much for self-control!' she thought as she shook her head.

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To say that Knott was utterly shocked at the outburst of his best friend's father would be the ultimate understatement of the whole century. He had seen the older upset few times but not like this.

And he wasn't a man who would be easily intimidated by anyone, but at that moment Phet Rojnapat was more than intimidating. The young man seriously thought that the older man was about to kill him. Knott wondered what had happened to make Phet so angry when he ought to be happy for finally finding a suitable donor for Arthit.

"Un…Uncle," he stuttered; a sense of dread filling his soul. "Wh-What's wrong?" He put his hands above the old man's, trying to loosen up the other man's iron grip on his collar which was starting to interfere with his breathing.

"What's wrong?" Phet hissed, releasing the younger man from his grip. "You dare to ask what's wrong when you and Arthit had concealed such a major thing from me! How could you not tell me about him being assaulted?!"

Knott paled upon hearing this, his eyes widening in horror, his knees becoming shaky, his breathing quickening, and his heart thumping vigorously inside his chest, threating to break a rib or two with its powerful pounding.

"How-how did you know?" he whispered.

"It doesn't matter how did I know!" Phet spat. "What matters is you and Arthit had dared to hide something like that from me and deliberately misled me by saying that he was simply depressed over his break-up!"

Knott opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He realized that nothing he said would suffice as a good explanation for concealing what had happened to Arthit from the older man.

Tired of waiting, Phet took hold of Knott's arm and dragged him into the living room before he practically pushed the young man into an armchair and sat opposite to him.

Knott gulped noticeably as he stared at the cold look in the eyes of the man in front of him. 'This will not end well!' he thought to himself.

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Phet had prepared everything for his interrogation before the young man's arrival. The detective had pulled one of the two armchairs out of its original place, before placing a small table in front of it and pulling the second armchair and placing it opposite to the first one. He, then, dimmed the lights of the living room.

Siriporn had raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but he ignored her. The psychiatrist had tried to talk him out of this, but he didn't listen. Both his son and Knott deserved some punishment for what they had done, and Phet was going to teach them the consequences of deceiving him.

Upon hearing the door's bell, the woman went to open the door while he waited for a few moments before he marched out to meet the young man. He had purposely confronted the young man angrily, wanting to catch him off guard. Now, he was sitting in front of him, staring silently at him with a blank expression and cold gaze.

It was a tactic he had developed while interrogating strong-willed suspects to intimidate them into confessing even their deepest secrets to him…and it seemed that it was working just perfectly on his son's friend!

Phet couldn't help feeling slightly proud of himself upon seeing the strong Knott slightly fidgeting in his seat.

Taking a deep breath, he decided to end the younger man's misery and finally get down to business.

"Why did you two hide this from me?" he asked in low voice.

"Arthit didn't want anyone to know," Knott replied. "for several reasons. I only knew because he called me asking for help."

"What reasons?" Phet asked.

Knott remained silent, contemplating whether he should talk or not.

Phet sighed deeply before he took out a small recording machine from his pocket and placed it on the table between them. "This is what going to happen now, young man. You'll recount for me everything that happened to Arthit in details. You'll answer all my questions truthfully and elaborately, not leaving out any single detail no matter how trivial it may seem, do you understand?" He glared intensely into the young man's eyes, daring him to protest.

"Yes, Sir," Knott said weakly.

"Good. Let's begin,"— Phet pressed the recording— "State your full name and age then start telling me what happened to Arthit that day he was assaulted."

Knott took a deep breath before he began. "This is what Arthit had told me. One Friday, while Arthit was at work, Kongphop sent him a message inviting him to his family cabin." —Phet and Siriporn exchanged a surprised look. This wasn't what Kongphop had told them— "Kongphop was supposed to be busy with some clients that weekend so this invitation was a surprise to Arthit. However, he eventually agreed to go. Kongphop even sent a car to pick him up. When Arthit reached the cabin, he found an employee in Kongphop's family company waiting for him. The man said that Kongphop was waiting for Arthit in the basement with some clients. When Arthit turned around to go to the basement, a handkerchief was pressed on his nose and mouth from behind, and he lost his consciousness. Later on, when he woke up, he was naked, blindfolded, hands tied behind back and there were voices of strange men around him," —Knott lowered his eyes in clear pain— "When the men realized that he was awake, they…they started to…" Knott couldn't complete his sentence in front of his best friend's father. It was too cruel.

"They what? Speak clearly." Phet asked coldly. Hearing that word wouldn't be easy on him, even though he was hearing the story for the second time, but for the sake of the investigation, everything must be clearly stated.

"They started to ra..rape him," Knott said in one breath without looking Phet directly in the eyes. "They raped him for two days… the five of them, including that employee."

"If Arthit was blindfolded, how did he know that they were five men in that cabin?"

"He could still hear them," Knott replied. "And he already recognized that employee's voice."

"Does he know the employee's name?"

"Yes, but he refused to tell me."

"And during his captivity, did he hear the names of the other men present?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask, and he didn't say anything."

"Was Mr. Kongphop among them?" Phet asked.

"No!" Knott replied agitatedly. "Kongphop wasn't even the city when this happened. He didn't know."

"But you said that he had sent a message to Arthit," Phet stated.

"Yes, but Kongphop would never hurt Arthit like this," Knott's voice was distressed. "Why would he do such thing? I don't know how this message fits into all of this, but Kongphop didn't know anything about what happened to Arthit until I told him myself. Even then, I didn't tell him the whole truth. He doesn't know that Arthit was lured into his family's cabin or that an employee in his father's company had assaulted Arthit! Arthit never blamed or suspected Kongphop. He knew he had nothing with what had happened."

"How did you know that Mr. Kongphop was out of the city?" The old detective asked coldly.

Knott sighed. "After I rescued Arthit and before I even knew the whole story, I tried to call Kongphop, but his phone was out of the coverage area. So, I called a friend of his; he told me that Kongphop had left to Pattaya on Friday and hadn't returned yet."

"Do you expect me to believe that a friend of Mr. Kongphop knew his whereabouts while his boyfriend didn't?"

"I'm not sure why Arthit didn't know about Kongphop's trip to Pattaya," Knott explained. "But N'Wad works for Kongphop, that's how he came to know about Kongphop's whereabouts."

Phet took a deep breath. "What happened after that?"

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Siriporn sat at the long couch, silently observing Phet playing detective with Knott. She thought that she had managed to convince the stubborn man to forgo his interrogation tactics and settle into talking with Knott like normal adults, but apparently, the detective had other plans in mind. She didn't mind much setting the chairs opposite to each other, but that drama that the old man had performed when Knott came in was unnecessary in her opinion.

'But what Phet wants, Phet gets!' She thought sorely. 'How on Earth did P'Rawee tolerate living with such a stubborn man!' she really pitied her late senior for having to endure the man's stubbornness and stunts.

Focusing her attention back to the conversation between the two men, Siriporn's brain was already taking notes on what Arthit had endured and how he should be treated after his operation.

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"After Prem and I discovered Arthit's suicide attempt and the reason that pushed him to it," Knott said as he concluded his recount. "I thought it would be best if he left his apartment and came to live with you," —he dared to look up at the man in front of him— "I know he would be safe here and you would be able to keep an eye on him."

Knott watched with a slight shudder as Phet extended his hand and turned off the recorder. During the interview, Phet was calm and composed, and his voice was clear, steady and void of all emotions, however, at times he would turn off the recorder whenever he wanted to raise his voice or say something personal.

"You wanted me to keep an eye on him," Phet said coldly. "while I had no idea what was wrong with him?! Do you even realize how anxious and distressed I was during the past months because I didn't know the cause of his suffering and his repeated suicide attempts?"

Knott lowered his eyes in clear guilt.

"Arthit didn't want you to know," he whispered. "He couldn't tell you that something like this happened to him, besides I'm sure that he was afraid that you would open an investigation and his boyfriend's name would be dragged into it."

Phet let out an angry snort.

"I'm his father! No matter what the reasons, I still have the right to know about everything that happens to my son," the detective stated furiously. "as for the other reason, this is an idiotic excuse which I would expect from Arthit, but what about you? What is your excuse for hiding the truth from me?" —Knott looked up at the older man with surprise as the latter continued— "You are supposed to be his best friend who should knock some common sense into his thick head, yet you let him sink into an endless sea of pain and suffering while you silently watched. You silently watched me struggling desperately and helplessly trying to save him while he kept trying to end his life one time after the other!"

Knott lowered his eyes as he listened to the older man's reprimands. He felt guilty for listening to his friend and hiding the truth from Phet. During the past year, he had struggled between keeping his friend's secret and between informing someone about it, but he had always yielded to Arthit' wish at the end and kept his mouth shut until Arthit pulled the last straw and threw himself in front of a car.

"I'm sorry," He whispered. "I have no excuse."

Phet sighed deeply before he turned on the recorder again. "Was the man who came to Arthit's apartment the same employee that worked in the company of Arthit's ex?" he asked.

"No," Knott replied. "According to Arthit, he was one of the other four."

"Arthit was blindfolded during his captivity," Phet asked. "How did he recognize the man?"

"He didn't recognize him at first," Knott replied. "That's why he opened the door to him the first time that bastard came to Arthit's apartment. By the time Arthit recognized the voice, it was too late. The door was already opened, and the man barged inside. Later on, he blackmailed Arthit by threatening him to spread out photos of Arthit during his captivity if Arthit reported him to the police or refused to open the door. He even sent some of these pictures to Arthit's phone as a warning."

Phet closed his eyes, taking a moment to breathe deeply and collect himself before he continued with his questions.

The whole interview took about two hours before Phet finally told Knott that he could go home.

"Mr. Rojnapat, I'm sorry for hiding such thing from you," Knott said regrettably as he stood up. "I was only following Arthit's wishes. Please, forgive me."

The older man sighed. "I know," he said softly. "I'm not blaming you for anything, Knott. You're a good friend."

Nodding, Knott excused himself and left.

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"N'Knott…" Knott looked behind as he was about to leave the house and saw Siriporn approaching him.

"Yes, P'Siri?" he asked, smiling softly.

"I'm sorry if P'Phet was a little harsh on you today," she said.

"No, I understand. He's only worried about his sole son." Knott said. "I should've tried harder to convince Arthit to at least tell his father. I wasn't a good friend to him."

Siriporn smiled. "You are a wonderful friend, N'Knott," she said. "I'm glad that i-Aoon has you as his friend."

The young smiled slightly in response. "Can you ask Uncle Phet if I can be present during Arthit's operation after tomorrow?" He asked meekly.

"Of course, you can!" Siriporn said. "N'Knott, do you know why Arthit broke up with N'Kong?" she asked.

Knott stared at the woman for a few moments, wondering if he should tell her the full truth or not.

"He said something about being unable to look at Kongphop in the eye after what happened," he said softly. Arthit had indeed said those words, but at that time, his friend was talking about the possibility of the involvement of one of Kongphop's family behind his assault.

"I see," Siriporn said with a smile before she bid him goodbye.

Sitting inside his car, Knott rested his head on the steering wheel and took several deep breaths in attempts to calm himself. He had told neither Phet nor Siriporn about Arthit's suspicion that one of Kongphop's family might be involved in the assault because he feared that Phet would change his mind about allowing Kongphop to be Arthit's donor. In fact, as he was recounting what happened, Knott was half-expecting Phet to declare that he wasn't going to allow the operation to take place on Monday, because of Kongphop's connection to Arthit's case. This was the reason Knott was eager to point out Kongphop's innocence in the whole matter during the interview. Taking a final long deep breath, Knott raised his head and started his car.

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Phet was still sitting on the same armchair he was sitting on during the interview with Knott when Siriporn returned to the living room, elbows resting on his thighs and his hands covering his face.

The psychiatrist sat on the opposite chair, silently observing him. Almost half an hour passed before the man raised his head and looked at her. Siriporn frowned, not liking the look in his eyes.

"Tell me, Siriporn," he said in a low cold voice. "Would I be crazy if I refused that that man donates his liver to my son?"

"Yes!" Siriporn exclaimed, fully aware that Phet was capable of doing such a thing if he set his mind to it. "And why would you even think of doing that?"

"Because I don't want my son to have any connection with that man!" Phet replied angrily.

"And you're willing to risk his life for a petty reason such as this?" Siriporn retorted. "N'Kong is i-Aoon's only hope right now!"

"There are two other donors!"

"Who aren't as compatible as N'Kong!" Siriporn tried to reason. "P'," her tone softened. "Please, don't do this!"

Phet sighed deeply. "Siri, you heard what Knott said," he said quietly. "Kongphop may be connected to all of this!"

"You think that N'Kong is behind this?" Siriporn asked. "P', you're the one who said that N'Kong would never hurt i-Aoon! You said that he's deeply in love with him! How can you think that he's capable of planning such a thing?! And to what end?"

Phet closed his eyes in response but said nothing.

"P'," Siriporn said pleadingly. "Don't do something that you would regret later."

"Siriporn, please, leave me alone," he said suddenly.

"P'?"

"I need to be alone for a while, please."

"Alright," she said softly before she stood up and left the man alone.

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To Be Continued…