"I have an interrogation room set up for you to talk to her. However, you better come out of that room with some good info from the girl."
Sara nodded. "I can't promise you anything except that I will try."
Ecklie sighed. "Good enough. Now come on, and don't waster my time."
She felt like socking him right then and there. At least it might knock some sense into him, she thought to herself. Ecklie led her down the hall, to the room in which Emily waited with a guard near the door. Ecklie held open the door for her.
"Thank you." Sara said, trying to remain polite as well as calm. Emily looked up at her. She had a cast on her arm, but other than that she looked much better. Sara sat down at the table in front of the girl. "Hi" she said to Emily.
Emily looked at her for a moment, before responding "Hi."
Sara sighed, wondering where to begin. "Do you know why you are here, Emily?" The young girl shook her head. "You must remember that murder you witnessed, right?" Slowly, the 9-year old nodded. "That's what I'm here to talk to you about. I was wondering if you could give me some information.
"What do you want to know?" Emily asked her, tucking her hair behind her ears.
"Whatever you can tell me." The girl did not respond. "Emily? What can you tell me?" Still, there was silence. "Emily, you know you can tell me anything." The girl still sat there, looking at the CSI with a blank face, yet something was hiding beneath it all, Sara could tell.
"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. I can't tell you. I can't. He…he'll kill me."
Sara was overcome with concern. She knew that when a child said this, it was something very bad. "Emily, no one can kill you now. He won't hurt you. Please, tell me who he is, and what he told you not to say."
"It was…my dad." Emily began. "He told me to."
"He told you to what?"
"To kill him."
Sara stared at the girl in astonishment. Could this girl have killed Hank? "Go on" she urged, "Tell me what he wanted you to do."
"He told me to wait until he left with my mom, and then kill him. I asked him how, and he said I could use a knife. So I stabbed him"
"Did he tell you why he wanted you to kill Hank?" She shook her head.
"They did fight a lot though. I think he was like, one of my dad's customers. He did something that made him really, really mad."
Sara nodded. "Ok. Can you tell me anything else? How many times did you stab him? Where?"
"I stabbed him in the chest, in the back, in the stomach, and in the neck and head."
"Is that all you can tell me?" Emily nodded. "Ok. Thank you Emily."
"Sara, I don't want to go to jail. I didn't want my dad to kill me. Please, don't let them take me to jail."
"Emily, believe me, I will try my best to keep you out of jail. Don't worry. We're gonna find a way." Sara's heart fell though, shattering into pieces knowing that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to be able to keep this girl outside of metal bars. She knew that the judge would say that she understood what she had done, and should've told an adult she trusted about the threat. Looking at the girl, these thoughts raced through her head, as she wanted to tell Emily so bad that her fate was most likely in jail, but she held herself back, knowing the child would burst into tears, helplessly, and cause Sara just as much pain as she felt from the hit-and-run. Then another awful thought came into her head-Ecklie. What would he do? He certainly wouldn't be too harsh on her would he? The idea sent a wave of worry through Sara, as she sat thinking about what to say or do next. Soon, she glanced at the mirror, that gave the opposite side the observation booth. In no time at all, Ecklie came in.
"Unfortunately, Emily" he began "Sara won't be able to do anything, because she is not working on this case." Conrad gave a slight glare at Sara, who sighed with pain of a broken heart. Sara didn't bother to look at Emily's horrified face, knowing it would only make things worse. "Thank you, Sara. Your work here is done. That is all I needed."
Sara got up, and said her last words to Emily. "Hang in there. If you ever want to talk, you can call me with this number" she said, giving her cell phone number to the girl. "Good-bye, Emily." With that, she headed out of the room, as she couldn't bare to see her face again. It would just be so heart wrenching, and that was the last thing Sara wanted to see. The worst part was that this was only the beginning of the shift, and she had already put out all of her emotion on the girl.