Chapter 38:

With the new knowledge that Cress and Thorne were not, in fact, safe, Cinder and Kai wasted no time in getting in Kai's car, and driving off to Cress's father's house.

The ride there was short, but tense. Kai was driving, since he knew vaguely where it was, though they still relied on the GPS to get them there.

Cress's home was quaint. It wasn't modern. Looking well lived in for a decade, at least. It was a contrast to what Kai lived in for his entire life. And he knew that Dr. Erland made a lot of money because he discovered the cure for letumosis, so it was lost on him why he wouldn't upgrade to a new, bigger home.

"What's wrong?" asked Cinder.

He looked at her. "Nothing." he must have been making a strange face.

She shrugged, getting out of the car ungracefully. He trailed after her, following the twisting pathway to get to the front door. There were a few bushes in the front yard, nothing spectacular. The ill-maintained lawn was used as a parking stop for Dr. Erland's car.

Cinder knocked on the door, and a short elderly man walked out, looking hopeful. His face fell when he saw them. He had blue-eyes just like Cress's, so Kai thought he must have been a relation to her, maybe her grand-father. He had a distressed look to him, not having changed out of his pyjamas, his hair dishevelled.

"Dr. Erland?" Cinder asked, a look of recognition upon her.

He started when his eyes swept to her, taking her in.

"Do you know each other?" Kai asked.

"He's my doctor." Cinder said. "I didn't realise. I just thought Erland was a common name."

"Cinder?" Dr. Erland asked, his face looking even grimmer than before. He looked at Kai, and sighed. "Mr. Dehuai. What brings you here, with my patient?"

He recalled the times when Kai's father and Dr. Erland spent time together, at functions. They were always amicable toward the other, though Kai always felt there was something strange about the old man. He asked his question in such a way that made Kai think that he knew exactly what they were here for.

"Is Cress's father here?" Kai asked ignorantly.

"I am her father." said Dr. Erland stoutly.

Kai felt the tips of his ears burn red. "Oh. Sorry-"

Kai defended himself internally. He'd never exactly seen the two of them together before, and even if he had, he never would have thought he was her father.

"We heard that Cress was missing." said Cinder, saving him from embarrassment.

Dr. Erland looked away from them, taking a deep breath. "You know, then?"

"About what, exactly?" Cinder hesitated, not sure what to say without giving them away.

She decided it probably didn't matter, but as she was about to speak, Dr. Erland interrupted her.

"You found out, didn't you? About Levana."

Cinder nodded.

"And now she's taken my girl." He stepped away from the door, ushering them in. "Get inside, quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if the house was being watched by her lackeys."

Cinder stepped in, barely taking heed of his paranoia, but Kai looked over his shoulder to see if he could catch any glimpses of anyone who could have been spying on them.

"Do you know what's happened?" asked Cinder, once they followed Dr. Erland into the living room.

Kai was too on edge to sit down, and neither of the others moved to do so either.

He shook his head in despair. "No, I've been calling and calling the police, but no one's come. It shouldn't surprise me though. Jerrico Solis works in the call centre there. He diverts calls away from Levana's interests."

So that was why the police never came to his house. Kai shared a look with Cinder, and knew she was realising the same thing.

"We'll help, Dr. Erland." Cinder said. "We just need to figure out where they went."

"Why?" Dr. Erland asked, then faltered. "I mean, you don't know her."

She paused for a moment. "All of this happened, happened because she found out about me. If she was willing to help me, to put herself in danger then I have to do the same for her. And-" her lips twisted into a small smile. "you helped me when Levana tried to kill me – the first time. So think of it like returning the favour."

Levana could curse Scarlet's name until the cows came home, but nothing she said would make a difference.

Before leaving, Scarlet and Wolf talked about knocking them out to make the trip to the police station smoother and quicker, and while Scarlet was all for the idea, they decided not to, not sure how that would come across to the police.

Instead, Scarlet sat in the back seat, between Levana and Aimery, to make sure they didn't make any attempts to escape while they were waiting at the traffic lights, but nothing of the sort happened, thankfully. The car ride was not relaxing for Scarlet though, her senses were on high alert, expecting them to attack her, or Wolf. It wouldn't be unfitting of them to do so. But, they were silent the whole way there, apparently coming to terms with their failures of what they set out to do.

Even though Scarlet tried her best to stay focused on the task at hand, she kept on worrying about, well, everything really. Her first thought was towards Winter. She knew Jacin was taking care of her, and though she hated to admit it, much more competent in regards to Winter's hallucinations and mental illness than she was, having studied it and experienced it of Winter longer than she had. But there were strangely no bitter feeling towards him any more, not what she would have thought a few months ago. Instead, she was only worried for Winter, hoping that she'd be able to calm down in time.

She was thankful that Winter had a friend like Jacin. And while they were dating, Scarlet hoped she'd be able to replace him, in a way. But she realised now, there was no replacing someone who understood you better than you understood yourself. Someone that you didn't make a home out of, but who helped you find one in yourself.

A strange feeling rose up inside of her, and she realised that she wanted to find someone who was like that for her, too.

She realised the car stopped moving, and she looked out the window. They'd parked next to the nature strip, and Scarlet realised belatedly that they were at the police station.

Wolf had opened the door, and pulled Aimery out of the car, one hand holding his wrists together, and the other hand on the back of his neck. Scarlet got out of the car and mimicked his position on Levana, as the strode cautiously into the police station.

Scarlet had never been a police station before, only seeing glimpses of them on TV dramas. It had a sterile feeling towards it, similar to a hospital, but less so. She looked around, there were officers in uniform sitting at desks, on computers, and a few of them turned to look at them. Scarlet was still in her pyjamas, she realised.

Levana struggled under her grip, but Scarlet held fast, following Wolf to the main desk, where a bald, stern-looking officer sat looking at them come forward.

"It's over," Scarlet hissed. "Stop struggling."

Wolf looked over towards them, giving Levana a pointed look. He turned to the officer.

"Um," he started awkwardly. "We've made a citizen's arrest towards two criminals."

The officer gazed at him. "On what grounds?"

"Breaking and entering and attempted arson. Also, white-collar crimes, domestic and sexual abuse and a few other things, probably. I called the police when they broke in but no one arrived after twenty minutes, so we decided to bring them here." Wolf said.

The officer's eyes slid past Wolf's, looking at Levana and Aimery, his eyes narrowed, evidently recognising at least one of them.

"What are their names?" he asked.

"Aimery Park and Levana Blackburn." Wolf said, unsure if their names had positive or negative influence on this man, or in the justice system.

He had to do a double take. "And you arrested them?"

"Well," put in Scarlet. "They were putting innocent lives in danger."

The officer walked around the desk, and indicated for two younger officers to come forward.

"Gordon, take these two for a statement," he said, indicating towards Scarlet and Wolf. "Dent, put these two in cells, separately."

The officers nodded, and one of them pulled Levana and Aimery to holding cells.

"Citizen's arrests are a complicated process." the officer said. "You may be charged, but we'll need your statement first."

Scarlet swallowed, and nodded. She thought of her future fizzling away if she had a crime to her name. But she thought about Winter, who'd no longer have to put up with Levana and Aimery. She thought of Cress, and what Sybil did to her, and thought that she would fight every step of the way to get them all out of their lives for good.

She watched at Levana allowed herself to be locked up, and hoped – prayed, even – that she didn't have a way to get herself out of this one, because Scarlet didn't think she'd be able to handle it.

The other officer, the one named Gordon, led them through a series of hallways, and into a room, where there was a table.

"Only one of you go in there," he said. "Dent will be with you in a moment."

Wolf and Scarlet looked at each other, and he went in. Gordon turned the lock from the outside, and indicated for Scarlet to follow him into an identical room.

"Sit," he said. "This shouldn't take long."

Scarlet was thankful for his rough, yet gentle voice, easing her nerves slightly. She felt strange without Wolf by her side, but she knew they were separated because they were taking statements and needed to see if there were differences in them.

Officer Gordon played around with a small TV screen with a recording camera on the top of it, and turned it around to face her. He had a clipboard and wrote a few things in it.

"Name?"

"Scarlet Benoit."

"How do you spell that?"

"S-C-A-R-L-E-T B-E-N-O-I-T"

"Thanks," he said. "Middle name?"

"Don't have one,"

"Age?"

"Twenty."

"Date of Birth?"

"August 17"

Another officer came into the room. "Ready?" she asked, pulling out a recording device in addition to the camera.

He nodded. "Commencing issue of statement. The time as per my phone is 4:21 pm, and it is Thursday 21st January. My name is Gordon Strom. I'm detective senior constable of the Artemisia police service. I'm a member of the fraud and corporate crime crime investigation group." he stated his registration number. "Angela, please state your name."

"My name is Angela Bement, and I am supervising."

"I will read you your rights. You have the right to remain silent, okay? That means you don't have to say anything, you don't have to answer any questions, or make any statements unless you wish to do so. Anything you do will be recorded, and it may later be used as evidence in court. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Scarlet said.

"You also have the right to telephone and speak to a friend or relative to explain where you are and attempt to arrange to have a friend or relative present during the questioning. Do you wish to have a friend or relative present?"

"No." Scarlet said.

"You also have the right to telephone and speak to a lawyer of your choice and arrange to attempt to arrange to have a lawyer present during questions. Would you like to telephone a lawyer?"

There was no way she could afford one, so she declined.

"You are also free to leave at any time unless you are arrested. If you want to walk out of the room right now, you are free to do so. But a statement would greatly help your case against Levana Blackburn and Aimery Park."

She nodded. "I'm not leaving."

"Good. A few more things I have to ask: are you a foreign national?"

"I hold citizenship in France and, and here."

"Are you under the influence of a drug or alcohol at present?"

"No."

"Okay. That's all the legal stuff I have to ask you. So I would like your statement of everything that has happened up to this moment regarding the breaking and entering and any other criminal deeds Levana Blackburn and Aimery Park may have committed."

Scarlet nodded, and told him everything that happened today, going back and adding relevant details, such as the things they found out about Levana, how she tried to murder Cinder when she was a baby, and how she attempted to rectify it by burning down the Dehuai's home with Cinder, Kai, Wolf, Jacin and Winter still in it. She made mention of Cress and Thorne, and they were still missing, and Cinder and Kai went off to look for them.

She told him everything, how it all started when Wolf asked Cress to help his brother, who had fallen in with them, and her trip to France, and everything in between.

"Do you have any evidence of this happening?"

"I have photo's of my grandmother's bomb shelter, everything that was in there. If you go to the Dehuai's home I'm sure you'd be able to smell the gasoline Levana poured everywhere. And I think if Cinder had a DNA test, you'd be able to find out whether Selene and Cinder are the same people."

The officer nodded. "An investigation will be under way. You said that the police never showed up within twenty minutes?"

Scarlet nodded. "That's strange right?"

"It is odd, considering the distance between here and the Dehuai home. But we've known that Aimery's had influence over the justice system for a long time, so a full investigation will be made here, as well."

Scarlet stalled. "If you've known he's had influence, why haven't you done anything about it? I mean, I've seen all the things on the news about him. But he never seems to actually be apprehended."

"I can't answer that." he said. Not on camera, his eyes seemed to be telling her.

She bit her lip. "Alright."

"Is there anything else you wish to say?"

"What is the process, now?"

"I'll ask you a few other legal questions. I'll ask you to wait around a few moments and we'll talk to you about matters that are not related, so those won't be recorded, but they will be recorded by us but we will conclude the interview and start talking about those matters. So. Are you happy with the way you've been treated?"

"Yes."

"Have we dealt with you unfairly in anyway today?"

"No."

"Have we mistreated you in any way, today?"

"No."

"Have I promised you anything?"

"No."

"Have I offered you any inducement to attend here today and speak to us?"

"No."

"Any complaints?"

"No."

"All right. If there's nothing more you wish to say, I'll terminate the interview now and the time as per my phone is 4:47 pm."

Angela Bement turned off the recording device, and Gordon Strom turned off the camera.

He looked at Scarlet pointedly in the eyes. "Aimery knows all the flaws of the justice system, and he exploits it. He has connections within it. The judges… his lawyers are insanely good. But with your statement, with all the proof and evidence we're gaining, I think we can put him away for good."

Scarlet smiled. "I hope so."

She'd let herself be taken by surprise. The stupid girl, Scarlet had brought her down. She should have realised the loose end, but she'd forgotten entirely about her. A foolish mistake on Levana's part, and one that she'd not make again.

The cell she was in had a brick wall behind her, and halfway, where it turned into narrow vertical bars. She could see Aimery sitting on the bench.

"Levana," he said.

She sneered at him, and didn't reply. He'd been trying to catch her attention for several minutes, but she wouldn't acknowledge him. He was the one who couldn't keep his curiosity in check when he followed Selene all those days ago in the shopping centre, bringing her attention towards him, and as a result, towards her. As far as she was concerned, it was all his fault.

At least Sybil seemed to be making better progress at her task than Aimery was. Getting rid of that girl who discovered too much. It was too much of a coincidence that the girl was Sybil's girlfriend's daughter. Too much of a coincidence that Sybil chose Ran to punish. Because it was a punishment. Ran got himself caught too many times, running errands for Aimery.

The punishment for that was bringing them to the heels of her thaumaturges. Not allowing them to participate in anything, until they proved their worth. And it was only until they got involved, did Ran Kesley start climbing back up. And he was the Kesley boy who'd started it all. It was a familial love, something Levana had never experienced, that caused all this to fail. And she would destroy anyone who played a hand in it.

But only if she could get herself out of here.

A/N: I've never witnessed a crime, been to a police station, or made a statement so basically everything here is me taking creative licence, and basically copying a transcript of a police interview, if there is anything you feel could make it more accurate, please tell me!