Soon we were driving the hour to the station. I couldn't go to the Odessa station which would've been easy.
We walked in and both of us were uncomfortable. We sat down and waited for me to be called in. Suddenly an Officer walked out. "October Billingsley?" he called. I stood up.
"You want me to go with you?" Mike asked. I nodded; he stood up and grabbed my hand as we through the doorway.
I walked into the small room; there was a table with four chairs, two on each side. I sat in one chair and Mike next to me. Cathy walked in and sat across from me smiling. "Its nice to see you again." She said brightly.
The officer walked in. "Hi, my name is William but you can call me Bill." He said sitting on the other side of the table. "Miss Billingsley, is your father Charles Billingsley?" He asked taking out a tape recorder.
"No, he is my uncle." I answered.
"Isn't that lucky, he has a son on the Permian Panthers right?" I nodded. "They are a hell of a team." He said.
"Yeah they are good." I said.
"Who are you?" he asked looking at Mike. "You look familiar." He said.
"Winchell, Mike Winchell." Mike answered firmly.
"I knew it, quarterback right?" Mike nodded. "What a lucky girl." He said looking at me. "Now back to business." He put a tape in the recorder. "Everything you say will be recorded and stored for evidence." He said. I nodded.
He began to ask the same questions I answered from the night before. He finally got to whether or not I liked David. "Now how do you feel about him?" He asked and I didn't answer.
My body tensed up and I felt Mike squeeze my hand gently to let me know he was there. "He wasn't very nice." I said.
"What do you mean? How did he treat you?" Bill asked.
"Well he was always yelling and throwing things, violent I guess." I answered.
"Did he ever touch you physically or sexually at all?" Bill asked.
"Is that needed?" Cathy interrupted.
"Well I need to know because David's story about October is the same as hers with him." He answered.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
David pulled out a pad. "He said you were violent to him, always yelling. He said you were always trying to get with him, said you were jealous of the relationship him and your mom had." I felt sick. "He thinks you killed her." He said bluntly
"What? Why would I kill my mom?" I asked angry.
"That's what we are trying to figure out." He said. "You showed no remorse when she died, you didn't seem upset or anything. That's a little suspicious for someone who just lost their mom." He said.
"How was I supposed to act?" I yelled. "She didn't care about me; she didn't do anything to help me. She acted like I didn't exist. She chose David over me, she didn't love me. Why should I be sad about her dying?" I asked angrily.
"Relax October." Cathy said.
"She knew what was going on, she knew all along and never did anything." My eyes began to water. "She didn't stop it, her solution was moving. Look what happened with that, she died." I was crying now.
"Relax babe." I heard Mikes voice say. "Calm down." He was rubbing my back gently.
"What do you mean she chose him over you?" Bill asked.
"David, it was David. She loved him more." I said "He seemed so nice when we met him." I stopped crying. "He bought me clothes, took me out. One day my mom gets home completely drunk so we have to carry her to bed. We leave her there and he starts talking to me." My eyes began to water and stopped talking.
"Keep going." Cathy said
"He was just saying how I was nice and pretty and I thought it was fine. I was 14, what was I supposed to know? And when it got late I went to bed…he insisted on going with me…I told him no." I started to cry again. "I told him to stop but he didn't listen."
"Are you saying David raped you?" Bill asked. I nodded. "You need to answer."
"Yes he did and when I told my mom she didn't believe me. So it happened again and again. Finally she figured I wasn't lying anymore so we moved to get away from him." I wiped my cheeks. "But he found where we lived and came down here. She couldn't take it, she began doing drugs and drinking. Lost her job and everything." I said. "When she told him she had been selling herself he was so angry." I stopped again.
"What happened after that?" Bill asked. "You need to tell us what happened."
"He got angry really angry, he hit her a couple times and then left. A week later she was dead." I said. "I don't know if it was him, I really don't but I believe he did it. No one else would've."
"Okay." Bill looked at me. "Now are you sure everything you have said here is the whole truth and you didn't lie about any of it?" He asked.
"It's the truth, all of it. That's how it happened." I said.
"You swear that's the truth to the best of your knowledge?" He asked.
"Yes it is." I said.
He turned off the tape recorder. "Okay, you both can leave now. We will contact you if anything further is needed." He said standing.
Mike and I both stood and walked out together. He was silent. I didn't know if he was scared or shocked. I just hoped none of it would affect our relationship, if that's what it was at this point.
We drove in silence, Mike held my hand the whole time though and it was nice. It was a way of showing that he was still there. We drove straight to the stadium so he could go to practice. We pulled into the parking lot.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked as we began walking. I nodded. "What would you consider me?" He asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"People have been saying that you're my girlfriend and I didn't exactly ask you and it was never brought up." He said.
"What did you say when you heard that?" I asked.
"Nothing but I wished it was true." He said looking down.
"It can be if you want." I said moving close to him.
"I do, will you?" He asked. I nodded smiling. "Good." He said pulled me closer to him by my arm. I instantly pulled away from him with pain. "What's wrong?" He asked confused.
"No nothing I just…I have a bruise there." I said rubbing my arm.
"What happened?" He asked pulling up my sleeve. "You didn't have that last night." He said.
We walked into the stadium and Charles was already there yelling at Donnie for dropping the ball.
"It doesn't matter." I said looking at Mike.
"Did he?" He asked looking at Charlie.
"Just forget it, he was drunk and it was an accident." I said.
"No, no he won't do that to you. You didn't do anything." He said getting louder and walking faster.
"Mike don't do anything." I said grabbing his arm. "Don't."
"No, It doesn't work like that." He pulled away and I couldn't stop him. I called out his name but he didn't listen. He got between Donnie and Charles and began yelling.
Charles was drunk and started yelling back. I slowly began to walk over. When unexpectedly Charles pushed Mike and that set Mike off. Mike shoved him hard causing him to fall to the ground.
