Interrogation

The cops didn’t believe I had nothing to do with the shooting, even though I was lying in a hospital bed with a bullet pulled out of my lower abdomen less than two days earlier. At that point I made the same mistake everyone who doesn’t assert their rights away makes, I thought asking whether I needed a lawyer or expressing my right not to answer would make me seem guilty when I knew I had nothing to hide about anything. Even though I knew about cops. I’m sure there’s some psychological reason for it, another tool in the policeman’s toolbox to get what he wants.

-You don’t show up to these meetings regularly, neither do the four guys we have in custody. You’re all friends. We know you hung out the night before. But you didn’t know what was going on Thursday?

-I didn’t know they were planning to go. I mentioned I would go, and they said they would come to protest.

As soon as I said that I felt like an idiot.

-You call that a protest?

-No, that’s what they called it. They didn’t tell me what they were doing. I didn’t care, I added.

-You didn’t care? Even though you came to join?

-I came earlier to avoid them.

I wanted to tell them I ran into Badger and they could check with her, but by then I’d regained enough of my senses to be more judicious about my openness.

-You can check the City Hall sign in logs, I added instead.

-We have. Not showing up at the same time doesn’t mean not being part of something.

-I wasn’t standing next to them, I said in my defense. I came for a different reason, I added hesitatingly.

-Oh yeah, and what’s that?

-To see the city council in action, the people’s business, you know, I said unconvincingly even to myself.

-Did you see anyone else at City Hall? Before you got to the council chambers.

I was in too deep now. There’s cameras in every hallway, and Badger might remember.

-Yes, actually I ran into Councilmember Badger in the hall beforehand. We’ve met a couple of times before so we chatted.

-About what?

-She’s my representative in the city government. I didn’t want to get into details.

-Were you complaining about the same things your friends were complaining about?

- I wasn’t complaining.

-Right, the cop said, rolling his eyes. That’s what you are, a professional complainer.

-I don’t even know what those three stooges, and Josiah, were supposed to be protesting, I said with slight exasperation.

-Everything about her, probably, said the other cop, who had been silent until now.

I decided to press the issue

-Am I under suspicion of something?

-Well, the cop started.

-You come here while I’m in a hospital bed and, you know, I’ll help whatever way I can with what I saw. But, like, I’m the one who got shot.

-Nothing’s ever ruled out. Curly’s in custody, the district attorney is deciding whether to charge him with attempted murder, attempted manslaughter or something else.

-You don’t seem too badly, the other cop said.

They would need my testimony. I didn’t say anything. I don’t know what I would’ve said. I wasn’t sure what to think.

-An investigator with the district attorney’s office will reach out to you, probably after you get out of here.

-I don’t like it, the second cop said.

Just then the nurse came in. That’s probably about as much company as U can take now, she said politely as she held the door open for the two cops. One thing about getting shot at City Hall, you get your own private room. She checked my vitals and asked if I wanted anything. To go home. Not yet, she chuckled. She showed me how the television worked but I wasn’t interested. I asked if the hospital had a library and she laughed. I momentarily thought about texting Josiah to drop something off, but remembered he had been detained with the others. The nurse left.

Some time later I heard a commotion outside my door, and then Kendra walked in.

I was speechless.

-Hello, U, she said with a warm smile.

-Hi Councilwoman, I finally spat out. Do you visit all your constituents in the hospital?

-The ones that take a bullet for me I should make time for, she said, taking a seat at the edge of the hospital bed. How are you feeling?

-Better, I said without thinking, finding my hand in Kendra’s and squeezing it gently.

She looked at me for a moment.

-The police had a patrol officer outside, she finally said.

-What?

-You’re a person of interest in an attempted assassination, she said plainly.

-Why would you be telling me that?

-I talked to the two cops who questioned you earlier. It’s obvious you weren’t involved.

-Still, what’s it to you? Send the cops in for mass arrests and let the courts sort it out, right? I’m not sure why I was getting hostile. It was a lot to process at once.

-You didn’t have to take a bullet for me, she said quietly. You were all the way on the other side of the chambers. I saw it.

-I didn’t want you to get hurt. Especially by idiots I know, I added. I’m sorry for them.

-Half-baked ideas, she said, almost to herself. That’s very sweet of you, if very risky. How could I repay you?

-You don’t have to, I said reflexively. You’re worth a lot of risks, I finally confessed. She looked into my eyes but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Confusion, maybe. Or pity. I had to say something else. Why don’t you let me take you out on a date?

She laughed out loud.

-What did you have in mind?