ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Chapter Twenty Two
Interrogation
It must've been a rough couple of weeks for his friends, Steven thought. Zito dying affected the group at school, Andrew's death had affected Baker, and Katlynn had committed suicide. And now, on top of all this, Dez was dead. And Luke was miserable.
Steven went over to his house that weekend, pretending like there was nothing wrong. When he went inside, Luke told him what happened, about how Dez had killed herself but Steven already knew what he had to do. He acted shocked—mortified, by this news. And after hearing Luke talk for about an hour and lay his misery on him, Steven consoled him by saying "Last time I talked to her…she said she still loved you."
Luke stayed quiet after this and Steven decided he would leave him alone for the rest of the day. With Luke depressed and Zito dead, there was nobody in the neighborhood to hang out with so he went back home where he found Zando awaiting him in his room.
"How'd it go?" Zando asked.
"Fine." replied Steven, taking off his ratty, old sweatshirt and throwing it on the floor. "He'll be over it in a week."
"You've done a lot, lately—" Zando said. "—Killing off your friends and such."
"It had to be done." Steven shrugged.
"Don't you think people will start to notice?" Zando asked.
"I figured. But I'm not worried."
"Why?"
"Because they have no way to prove that I did anything unless they find my Death Note. And that won't happen." said Steven simply, deciding to get up and get a glass of milk from the kitchen.
Zando followed him as he opened the refrigerator.
"How do you know nobody will find it?"
"Because I got one here." Steven said. "And the other safely hidden in my backpack. So unless someone literally puts there hands around the inside of my backpack and finds the small crevasse I made there then I'm as safe as can be. To everyone else, I'm just a guy who lost his best friend and a few others. Besides, I doubt anyone out there will take notice of a few students dying when across the nation there are hundreds of criminals dying every other day."
"There sure are a lot of criminals out there." Zando sighed.
"By the end of the year, I plan to be done with most of them." Steven said, pouring milk into a glass. It was nice to be able to talk to the Shinigami in the rest of his house. Amanda was at her friend's house and his parents were still at work.
"What are you going to do next?" Zando asked.
Steven sipped his milk, looking up at the clock in silence. "Kira has become a phenomenon." He said. "People are taking him seriously, Kira's Fist is starting to get larger and form rallies in D.C. And from what I hear, one of the senators running for office next year supports Kira so there'll be a lot of controversy in the media. In a year— maybe two— people will stop wanting to catch Kira and accept that he is the new God of our time. That is what I plan to do."
"But how are you going to do that? Just by killing off criminals and those who get in your way?" Zando asked.
"I'll slowly increase the amount of criminals. It'll be difficult for me because I am finding it hard to have time to get online a lot lately but it should be fine." Steven sighed. In a way, it was a little bit easier to have Andrew as a partner. He had a computer and had police reports that he could read. He wished he could've made Zito bring that stuff over along with the Death Note before he'd died but it was too late. By now, Andrew's stuff would be long gone who knows where. "After I increase the rate of criminal deaths, I'll start focusing on killing those who have lesser crimes on their record and aren't on Death Row. That will lower the crime rate even further. People will be afraid to go to jail and with that fear I'll create a world of peace."
"Tyrant, eh?" Zando said, grabbing a banana.
"No." Steven said firmly. "Fear is a good way to make the world better. Some might argue this but in the end, the fear will go away and people will accept Kira like they accept religion or government as a part of their lives. It will develop into something greater. Much greater."
"Exciting." Zando muttered, swallowing the banana whole.
"For Christmas, I'm going to ask my parents for a Lap top, that's all I want." Steven said. "If I just ask for one thing, they'll buy it for me. And if they aren't persuaded that easily, I'll offer to sell my Xbox and Playstation. I don't need pointless things like those anymore."
"Why would you need a laptop?" Zando asked curiously.
"Isn't it obvious?" Steven smirked. "Every afternoon I'll be able to go online and look up news websites and find criminal names and faces and I'll be able to write them down immediately after I find them."
"No wonder you don't do your school work." Zando grinned. "With all this Death Note stuff you sure have your hands tied."
"I'm fine. I love writing." said Steven, a little tirelessly as he finished his milk and put his cup in the sink.
Steven went to school that Monday feeling refreshed. Zando was still at home, however. He'd decided that just because Andrew and Katlynn were dead didn't mean that Ryoku wouldn't still try and find Zando and Steven needed Zando just in case someone else with a Death Note arrived and tried to hunt him down.
But Steven didn't see Ryoku anywhere he went. There was a chance, he knew, that Ryoku was a good hunter and knew how to hide himself from sight but Steven couldn't be sure.
Steven received a shock, however, when he entered second period and saw a man sitting next to Mrs. Shaunesty behind her desk. He had long blonde hair that was tied into a pony-tail behind his head and he wore a black suit. Very official looking. Steven could even spot a pen sticking out of his chest pocket. Who was this guy?
He decided to ignore the man and take a seat in the third row. Predictably, Garret and Worawat came and joined him on either side like he was their leader and he felt a sense of weightlessness when he saw Jennie walk right past them to sit in the front row. He silently wondered whether or not it would be safe to kill off the two boys sitting on either side of him so he wouldn't have to put up with their pathetic, almost dog-like, obedience to him. But that would cause a little too much unwanted attention.
The class started and Steven saw the official looking man remain seated while Mrs. Shaunesty told the class to do their daily trivia questions up on the board. Steven did them quickly and sighed, deciding that he would ignore the man unless directly asked about him. Sure, he looked calm, but inside he was filled with panic. He had an idea where this man was from and why he was there.
"This is Mr. Redman." Mrs. Shaunesty introduced. "He works for the Government of Washington and is here to observe with some of his colleagues. Consider him an inquisitor. And if he asks you questions don't be afraid to answer them."
Steven was right. This man was from the government. But why?
Jennie raised her hand.
"Yes, Jennie?" Mrs. Shaunesty asked.
But Jennie addressed Mr. Redman instead. "Why are you here?"
Steven looked up at Redman and saw that he was wearing a dark frown upon his face. "There's no point beating around the bush. I'm here to investigate Kira."
Steven felt his heart jolt in his chest. So it was true after-all. Somehow, someone out there saw that there had been a few deaths surrounding Hazen High School. Steven suppressed the urge to break his pencil in half. So the Government wasn't as stupid as he'd thought. They'd noticed that students were dying. Steven cursed himself and whoever else was out there smart enough to realize such a small detail.
There were a few gasps of shock from the crowd of students and Mrs. Shaunesty was glaring at Mr. Redman as if he'd swore very loudly in front of her.
"Kira? The Kira?" Big Mac asked.
"Yes." Redman nodded.
"Why here?" Another student asked.
Mr. Redman ignored the squirming look of impatience from Mrs. Shaunesty and went on. "As you all know, there have been a few suspicious deaths surrounding this school. There might be a chance, a very small chance, that Kira is actually—"
"That's enough, Mr. Redman." Mrs. Shaunesty snapped.
"We can't do our investigation on these students unless they know what we're investigating." Redman told her calmly. "It's within their rights to know the truth. You're a government teacher, you should know this."
If it wasn't for the fact that he was here to find him out, Steven probably would've liked Mr. Redman, especially for silencing Mrs. Shaunesty in her own classroom. But he was an enemy. Steven could see it in his shining, blue eyes. And from what he said, he wasn't the only man here searching for him. The Government must have formed a team to search and investigate the students. But how would they do something like that? Would they interrogate them one by one throughout the day? Or simply observe their actions. Steven hoped it was the latter. He didn't like the idea of having to go into a room alone with Redman and act like the scared and alone boy who'd lost his best friend to Kira. If anything, Steven was already a prime target for interrogation.
"We have reason to believe that Kira is one of you." Redman said.
The class froze in their places, all staring up at the government official in silence. Redman took this as a chance to go on.
"It is my understanding that a boy by the name of…" He paused and went looking through a chart that he had been hiding behind his back this whole time. "Sean Church killed himself in this class a couple months ago?"
Steven frowned as a few people shuddered from the memory of Sean standing up and stabbing himself in front of them all.
"Please, Mr. Redman, aren't you being a little…" Mrs. Shaunesty began.
"Please, Mrs. Shaunesty, be silent." Mr. Redman interrupted. "I want to hear from the students as a whole before I take them outside to ask them questions."
So Steven was right. He felt a miserable squirm in his stomach. He was going to interview them. No, interrogate them was the better word. He looked at the clock. He wouldn't have time to interrogate all of them in one period. Would he?
"About Sean Church, he stood up and announced that he hated his life and killed himself on the spot?" Redman asked bluntly to the class, looking through his charts and peering up at them all with narrowed eyes.
A few students nodded. Steven remained quiet, deciding that the best way to get out of this would be to act like the quiet, frightened one who didn't want anything to do with what was going on. He hated acting that way.
Brian, however, decided to be the talker. "Yes, that's true." He said.
"Did any of you know he was going to do something like this?" Redman asked.
"What do you mean?" Brian asked. Steven remembered that Brian and Sean used to be friends.
"Did he give off any signs of depression before this incident?" Redman asked.
"Incident?" Garret muttered at Steven's side darkly.
"No, he was actually acting normal and happy." Brian shrugged. "He was planning to join fast-pitch as soon as the season was over and he was pretty excited about it…I cant' see why he would want to kill himself."
"I see." Redman said, writing something on the clipboard. "That's all I need to know from the whole. What's your name?"
"Brian." Brian answered.
"Come outside with me for a minute." Redman said, standing up and walking beside the aisle of desks.
Brian, hesitantly at first, stood up and followed him. Steven heard the door open and close and then there was silence.
"What a horrible man." Mrs. Shaunesty muttered with distaste.
"I think he's brilliant." Sarah Schmidt said, sitting next to Jennie in front.
"I don't care what you think, it's not important." Mrs. Shaunesty snapped. "What's important now is that we discuss chapters 20 through 22 in your books."
The class ended and Mr. Redman was only able to go through half of the class. Steven had been, apparently, lucky enough not to have been called on or addressed whenever Redman had returned from outside. He'd interrogated Big Mac, Brian, Jennie, Sarah, and Worawat along with a few others but Steven had been spared.
He cast one last glimpse of the man and saw him stacking papers and talking in a hushed voice to Mrs. Shaunesty. She stilled looked quite mad at being silenced in her own classroom but they looked civil this time. They weren't biting at each other's throats, anyway…
"I can't believe they think Kira could be at our school." Cameron muttered when Steven took a seat at the table during break.
"Did you have a guy in your class too?" Steven asked.
"Yeah. Every class has one, I think."
"They asked me about Andrew." Baker said uncomfortably.
"What kind of questions?" Steven asked with a frown.
"Just stuff like…what my relationship with him was and how good of friends I was with him." Baker muttered. "I think they looked at all of our backgrounds or something to see who hung out most often with the kids that died."
"They think Kira killed Andrew?" Jacob asked, apparently shocked.
"Of course." Steven sighed. "With so many criminals dying out there and Hazen being the only school in Washington with so many deaths…Someone was bound to get suspicious."
"Does that mean we're all suspects?" Cameron asked, gulping. "Because we were friends with Andrew and Zito?"
"Don't forget Katlynn." Baker reminded him. "They probably think Kira made her kill herself or something…" And suddenly she slammed her hands down on the table in frustration. "How the hell is all of this happening?!"
They all stared at her, dumbstruck. Baker wasn't usually the type to have outbursts.
"It's not fair." Steven told her. "But it'll pass."
"If I ever met this Kira person I'd…" Baker grunted and crossed her arms, resisting the temptation to show any more of her anger to the group.
When break time ended, Steven went to third period wondering if he would see another government official there. Instead, however, he saw Mr. Redman standing next to Mr. Mjelli talking and laughing as if they were old friends by the table saw.
Steven frowned. Something about this wasn't right. Baker said each class had one government official in it, but then why was Mr. Redman here instead of staying with Mrs. Shaunesty? And then he remembered what Cameron had said about how they were all prime suspects for being friends with some of Kira's victims. Redman was following Steven. But then why didn't he ask him to come outside during second period? None of this was adding up.
"Mr. Leitch." Redman said curtly, catching Steven's attention unexpectedly.
"Yes?" Steven asked, pulling off a look of curious innocence.
"I was meaning to talk to you but I figured you wouldn't want to be bothered right away." Redman said, approaching him.
Steven frowned. "You suspect me?"
"Of course." Redman said. At least he was blunt and honest. But Steven couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by this man. He was tall, young, and had a hard, determined face. Now that he was closer, Steven could see a small scar across his forehead.
"Where would you like to talk?" Steven asked.
"Does outside work for you?" Redman asked, gesturing to the open garage door in the back of the woodshop classroom. Steven nodded and followed Redman through the underway of the door.
"I'll have your student back to you in a moment, Mr. Mjelli." Redman called to the teacher when he saw a look of protest upon his face at the sight of Steven leaving the room.
Steven leaned against the brick wall and crossed his arms, looking up at Redman with an unsure expression. This was it. He was going to have to act good enough to fool him. But Redman didn't look like he could be easily fooled.
"It's Steven, right?" Redman addressed him. "Can I call you Steve?"
"Friends call me Wemo." Steven smirked, almost a little defiantly. Wemo was a nickname given to him but Luke a long time ago combining werewolf with emo.
"Wemo?" Redman raised an eyebrow, almost a little amused.
"You can call me Steve." said Steven, a cold smile on his lips.
"You're saying I can't be your friend?" Redman smirked back.
"You want to be?"
"I'm not here to be your friend."
"Exactly. So what are you here for?"
"I'm the one who asks questions." Redman said, his smirk flickering slightly. Only slightly.
"Then ask away. I have a project I'd like to get done today." Steven told him.
"Joshua Zito." Redman began. "He was your friend, correct?"
Steven stared at him for a moment. "Yes. How do you know?"
"We're the government." said Redman boastfully. "And teachers—believe it or not—keep files on you and who your friends are so they know how to talk to you better when there's a problem."
"I usually don't get into trouble so I didn't think they'd have a file like that for me." Steven shrugged.
"Well they do." Redman said. "Now about Josh—"
"You think that I had something to do with my best friend dying?" Steven asked, his icy tone growing thicker by the second.
Redman studied him for a moment. "Andrew Craddock is also marked as a friend of yours. And they both died on the same day. This strikes me suspicious. And then less than a week later, Andrew's girlfriend supposedly commits suicide."
"What do you mean "Supposedly"?" Steven asked.
"What we mean is we don't think it was entirely her choice. Kira could be behind her death as well." Redman said.
Steven could see where this was going. Mr. Redman was trying to trap him. Steven decided he would pretend to fall for it, but not completely.
"Why would Kira want to kill all of my friends?" Steven asked.
"Why indeed." Redman said, raising his stiff eyebrows and staring down at him with his bright, blue eyes.
Steven paused. "I wouldn't kill my friends. If I was this Kira, then I would be smart enough to know not to draw so much attention to myself."
"Unless of course you were so confident in yourself that you could escape from being caught." Redman smirked again. "Assuming you were Kira, of course."
Redman thought he was winning. But Steven had him right where he wanted him to be. Steven's frown darkened as he uncrossed his arms.
"If I were Kira, how would I go around killing people?" He asked.
"I don't know." Redman admitted. "That's what we're hoping to find out. Do you believe in God, Mr. Leitch?"
Steven blinked, not expecting such an abrupt question.
"Yes." He decided to tell the truth.
"Do you think this is all really God's will?" Redman crossed his arms this time.
"No." Steven answered. "If God would do something like this, he wouldn't have let crime happen in the first place. All of this Kira crap would've happened a long time ago. And I don't believe that God is a prick, either."
"You believe Kira is a prick, then?" Redman's smirk turned into a grin of amusement.
"He killed my best friend!" Steven shouted.
The two of them stared at each other. Redman seemed to have gotten his answer. "Alright." He said, looking down. "You can go back to your class."
"Do you believe in God, Mr. Redman?" Steven asked, before he went inside.
"No." Redman said. "I'm an atheist to the core."
"I figured." Steven muttered.
"Why's that?"
"I could tell when you asked me about my beliefs that you think God is a joke." said Steven blankly, turning away from him.
"You're right about that." Redman laughed. "But Kira is no joke."
"And yet you're laughing." Steven sighed.
Steven left Redman standing outside looking at the garage door with a satisfied smile on his face. "Interesting kid." He muttered, turning to walk back to Mrs. Shaunesty's classroom.
Steven finished the rest of the day ignoring the government officials walking around the hallways and watching the classrooms and interviewing some of the students. Steven was never questioned again. And none of them seemed to have the intimidating or friendly appearance like Mr. Redman did. Steven knew his performance had paid off. And he felt somewhat at ease on the bus ride home.
When he stepped off with his sister and walked toward their house, Steven could see flashing, blue lights down the road by his house. His stomach lurched at the sight and he froze in the middle of the road.
"What's that?" Amanda asked.
"The Police…" Steven muttered.
"What? Why are they here?"
Why were they here? Steven ran down the road and stopped in front of the police cars. And to his horror, he saw that the big, glass window in front of his house had been broken. Steven could see shattered glass everywhere inside of his family room. Someone had broken in his house.
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