Dying to Remember (The Station #2) by Trish Marie Dawson Page A

small notepad.
    It's okay.
Tell the truth. Take a deep breath, and just…tell them everything.
    Her throat
clenches tight as she attempts to keep from bursting into tears again, but
after a few deep breaths she is able to clear her throat and speak, "I
told you; we were arguing and when I went to walk away he grabbed me, started
choking me and I didn't think he'd let go. He had me by the hair and all I
could do was kick or scratch him, so I tried that and finally…he let go of me.
Then…then…" she stops briefly, giving her voice a chance to recover.
"And then…I must have gotten his eye pretty bad because he yelled and
stumbled backwards. He just fell over the wall."
    "So, you
didn't push him over the wall?" The short detective peers up at her
over his notepad to gauge her reaction.
    "No! I
told you, he stumbled backwards. I was already trying to run away. It wasn't my
fault!"
    "Right.
Well, he could have easily lost his balance had you pushed him."
    "Don’t
respond to that, Jessica," says a man hovering behind the sofa in a suit
just as expensive as Jess's fathers, if not more so. He turns toward the
Detective with a warning glance and says flatly, "She's already answered
your question, move on."
    "Relax,
you know I have to ask," sighs the detective before flipping his notepad
shut and tucking it tenderly into the breast pocket of his jacket.
    "This
was clearly a case of self-defense, Detective Manning, nothing more," says
the man whom I now understand to be the family attorney.
    "Well,
that may appear to be the case but we need to finish doing our job. You'll hear
from me soon. And Mr. and Mrs. Levy, please don’t leave town, got it?" The
Detective shuffles out of the room after speaking to a few of the uniformed
officers and slowly the group of various officials begin to clear out of the
house. Chris's body was long ago loaded onto an ambulance, and now that they
have Jess's informal statement on record, there wasn't much to do here.
    "Oh,
this is just fantastic!" Mommy Dearest breaks the silence first by
throwing her slender arms up into the air while she begins to pace behind the
sofa that we sit on.
    "Mom, it
wasn't my fault. I didn't mean for this to happen," Jess whimpers. Her
mind races at the same speed as her blood, and a thought carries along with
it…Jess wished it had been her that had died.
    "It was
an accident, Jessica. We understand." Her father pats her shoulder
awkwardly, unsure of how to comfort his daughter.
    "An accident ?!
We just found a dead boy on our property, Jules! A dead boy! Oh my God. I have
to make calls. Do I call Chris's parents? Vincent, what's the protocol for
this?" She snaps her fingers at the Attorney who is looking frustrated and
concerned at the same time.
    "Now
wait a moment, Andrea. We don't need to contact anyone right now. In fact,
please don't. Let the police handle that. Right now we need to make sure that
Jessica is alright, and decide on our next move if the police come back with
more questions," Vincent the Attorney replies.
    Jess's mind
is like a bee hive; thoughts are swarming in and out and spinning in all
directions so quickly that I can't grab onto one long enough to understand it.
But I do know she thinks this might be a good time to mention the baby.
    Wait,
let's just wait on that. You can talk to them about the pregnancy later. Not
now.
    She slumps
back into the sofa cushions with a heavy sigh, her arms folded across her
chest, and stares between the three adults that are still in the room. Isabel
has rushed off to the kitchen in an attempt to save what is left of dinner, per
Mommy Dearest's barked order.
    I take her
immediate adherence of my suggestions to mean she is simply too exhausted to
fight me. But in the back of my mind I remember why I'm here. This is a test. All
of it . To see how well my Assignments can really hear me. I know Rush and
Niles are watching me somehow, which is like having a boss breathing down your
neck. It's not a comfortable