Having a White Rose agent read him his rights just stressed the fact that Gary was in a very serious situation. He wasn’t sure whether to be happy or not that the two were pursuing things the legal way and that included the recording in front of him. Just as Tom had said, they seemed to be treating him as a suspect… The only question was for what? Was this about Billy… or something else entirely?
The two White Rose agents sat down, Sadie staring at him far more aggressively now that they had moved on to the ‘official’ business. The woman seemed to be the type that would have much rather beaten any information out of him than waste her time questioning him. Just like last time, Frank was the one to play the Good Cop part, a friendly smile on his face, yet his body was leaning away from his partner, as if he himself was scared of Sadie.
‘They told me I could call an attorney, but I don’t have any numbers. Do I really need one, though? Sh*t, but what if I say something really bad? Should I ask them to refer me to one, but how would I pay for him? Argh, I spent a good part of the money for groceries yesterday and I need the rest to pay for the hospital!’ The teenager found himself in one of the most stressful situations he had ever encountered and to him it seemed as if the two adults were deliberately stretching time before asking him any questions.
“Let’s establish some simple facts first. Gary Dem today isn’t the first time you’ve met me or my partner Agent Nimper, is that correct?” Frank broke the silence and the high schooler just nodded. “For the camera, please consent or disagree verbally.” The male White Rose agent instructed him before he repeated the question.
“Yes, that is correct.” Gary played along earning him a satisfied nod from Frank.
“The first time we had the pleasure was when the two of us found you in the vicinity of the apartment block where the Bruntin family used to live. Can you confirm this statement?”
“Yes, I happened to be around that area.” Gary admitted as it didn’t seem to be to his detriment.
“Alright, see it’s not so hard. Now, could you please state your reason for being in that area?” Frank asked, his friendly smile suddenly appearing far more sinister.
“I was just…” Gary paused for a moment, even though he knew that wasn’t a good sign. Unfortunately, with how much he had been forced to deal with recently he had long since forgotten the lie he had told them that time. This was the problem when lying, one would have to keep track of them and for someone like Gary who wasn’t used to that, that wasn’t easy.
Nevertheless, this brief moment allowed him to think about why they had wanted to talk to him. There were many things he had been afraid White Rose could ask him about. The gangsters at the construction site, the Underdogs, what he had done recently at the Karaoke place, but out of all of them it turned out that they had come because of Billy.
‘Did they find out he’s a Werewolf like me? No, if anything they probably treat him as a wolf-type Altered. However, why did they come to me? If I listen to Tom as long as I don’t talk about that I should be okay… I hope.’
“Can we stop with these stupid games?” Sadie interrupted even before the teenager had a chance to come up with an answer, revealing herself to be the impatient type. “You were there to meet Billy, weren’t you? What other reason could you have had to go there knowing that a murder has taken place?
“At the time you told us that you didn’t know him, but we now know that to be a lie, so why don’t you just tell us the truth?!”
Hearing these words actually gave Gary an idea. He was terrible at lying anyway, so why not just tell the truth. Of course, he planned to skip out certain hairy details, but apart from that, wasn’t he a victim in all of this? Ultimately, the one thing that would be almost impossible to trace back, unless they found Billy himself, was the fact that Gary was the reason for the other guy’s supernatural powers.
“Alright, I’m sorry I lied about not knowing who he is, but I swear I barely know him.” Gary eventually confessed. “I’ve only met him once before that tragedy happened to his family! And… and I’m pretty sure he’s after my life now! Because of certain reasons he’s pissed at me and I had been hoping to find him and talk things out!”
The words sounded truthful and unlike before Gary’s voice was less shaky, but Frank didn’t miss that the high schooler had omitted certain details. Was he worried about implicating himself by admitting to having participated in those illegal fighting rings or was there something more to it?
It would make sense for a teenager to worry about those things, but the White Rose agents didn’t really care about any of that.
“When you say that you knew Billy…was it due to the…” Frank stopped there as he felt a breeze hitting him. He looked up ahead and noticed that the window was slightly open. The agent hadn’t been paying attention before so he wasn’t quite sure if it was open when they got in or not.
Regardless, he continued his questioning.
“Look, if it’s about ‘Billy Buster’, we already know about his fight against ‘Green Fang’, so you might as well tell us the whole truth, Gary. Please don’t try to deny it, we saw yesterday’s fight against the ‘Vicious Twins’ and we questioned the people there. The last time anyone saw Billy just happened to be during a certain someone’s debut.”
Once again, Gary’s heart felt like it was going to jump out of his throat. This was getting too close to the truth.
‘They know about the underground fights, and they were even there yesterday! If they know I was the last person that saw him, then maybe they will link him back to me.’
“Look, if you know that much then you should also know that I don’t actually know him!” Gary said, trying his best to sound frustrated. “I coincidentally found out about those and I needed the money. That’s it! I wasn’t lying about only ever having met him once!
“How was I supposed to know that he was a psycho? Not only did he kill his parents, he appears to be after all those he lost to in a fight! I’ve asked around, that university student was one of them and I bet so was the high school student, which means he’s after me as well! Please, you gotta help me!”
It was a panicked answer, but it also was a part of how he truly felt.
The two White Rose agents looked at each other. The story added up and sounded plausible, of course they would have to do their research and dig deeper to see if this was a coincidence or if Gary had actually revealed something they and the police hadn’t known about. If it was true then they might even be able to use the green haired teenager to lay a trap for Billy!
At that moment, Sadie felt a pain in her leg again. The woman started to rub it slightly. It didn’t usually bother her, but as an Altered it was strange for an injury to take so long to heal. Even stranger was that it had acted up right now in front of Gary, just like it had done yesterday during his match.
“We’ll have to investigate to see if what you say is really true. Still, there are a few more things that are… ‘unclear’. We’ve been originally called here because of another killing which had to have been done by an Altered. However, we suspect that our original killer is not Billy.
“Either Billy has been going on a rampage, deviating from his ‘hit list’ as you just revealed or, if my suspicion is correct, the more likely answer is that there are actually two Altered killers in Slough!” Sadie stated as she placed the photo of Billy out on the table, and pointed towards Gary.
The second reason why they had come here, was to find out whether Gary might be that other Altered!