And score one for me, I wasn’t bitten!
“Did anyone ever hear a yes or a no?” Truth asked as he pushed away from the wall where he was slumped. “Tally, did you say yes?”
I got up off my knees, letting the paramedics have her.
“Don’t let her get those cuffs off,” I ordered. “Leave your gurney at the hospital if you have to and make sure that she has a police escort at all times.”
Anson, a seasoned medic who knew what he was doing, gave me a salute. “10-4, Doc.”
I grimaced and walked to the counter, leaning on it with both elbows, and stared at Tally.
“You need new friends,” I moaned.
She snickered, “Well I guess it’s a good thing that I have a fiancé now, and he comes with great friends.”
I looked over at the boys at my back, and nodded my head. “Yeah, you do, and he sure does.”
***
“Don’t get close to her. Don’t feel sorry for her. Don’t fall for her bullshit,” I ordered Tally, hitching Tallulah up onto my arm. “She’s not going to get out of here, and she tried to kill a police officer and you today. She’s not going anywhere, even if you do feel like you should drop all the charges against her.”
“You don’t know me that well,” she challenged.
I opened the door to the interrogation room, where I’d asked Big Papa nicely to put her so Tally could get the answers to her questions.
He’d complied, but only reluctantly.
Apparently, she was still in a very nasty mood. However, Tally didn’t care. She wanted to know why her friend did the things she did.
What had happened.
“Ohh,” Tally breathed.
“Remember what I said,” I ordered her lowly.
Not low enough, though, because Hadley heard us and lifted her head from where she’d been staring at the metal table in front of her. Her eyes were wild, and the moment they narrowed on the three of us, her face darkened.
“I’ll be right out here. She’s chained to the table at hands and feet, but still, don’t get close to her,” I repeated again.
She rolled her eyes and walked inside, closing the door behind her as she went.
I walked down the hallway, my heart in my throat, and went inside the viewing room that held the monitoring equipment that would allow me to listen to their conversation along with the two-way mirror that would allow me to watch them.
The moment we were in the room, I set Tallulah onto a chair in the corner of the room and pulled out my phone, unlocking it and opening up the only somewhat child-friendly app I had on my phone before I gave it to her.
Tallulah didn’t know how to play Angry Birds yet but she could touch the pretty birds on the screen, and the moment my phone was in her hands she squealed in delight, causing the men in the room to turn from their contemplation of the window.
“You brought a baby to a police station?” Aaron said, looking at me like I was nuts.
“She’s almost a year old. That’s hardly a baby. And what, exactly, was I supposed to do? Stay at home while she did this?” I asked him, indicating the swelling around one cheek bone and the bruising that was starting to appear along his jaw. “I know it’s crazy, but there was nothing I could do. It was either bring her or stay at home with her, and we both know that I wasn’t staying at home.”
Aaron shrugged, then turned back to the window.
“Were you able to get anything from her yet?” I asked, ignoring the sounds coming from the phone.
I tried turning the sound off once, and Tallulah had the hissy fit to end all hissy fits.
So, to keep her happy while I watched, I left the sound blaring, even though it hindered my ability to hear not only the conversation on the other side of the glass but also the conversation happening in the room with us.
Nobody seemed to mind, though, leaving me to watch the interrogation closely.
There was another woman in the room with Tally and Hadley. The police officer who had originally taken Hadley’s statement accusing me of rape.
She looked pissed off and I wondered why.
“What’s wrong with that officer?” I asked bluntly.
“She’s mad that she looked stupid in front of two entire police departments for pushing Hadley’s case so hard,” Big Papa murmured. “Even when we told her the accusations were false.”
“Hmm,” I hummed. “That’s interesting.”
It wasn’t, not really.
Everyone knew that the female officer was a serious bitch. She came off as a hard ass, and she was always trying to prove herself when, in actuality, she really didn’t need to prove anything at all. Hopefully one day she’d figure that shit out.
“I hate you.”
Hadley’s words had me turning to see what else she had to say, and her next words had my fists tensing.
“I’ve tried to kill you thirteen times this year.”
I looked over to Big Papa, who nodded and started writing stuff down.
“Ms. Dunston, I’d like to remind you of your rights that have already been explained to you, namely that you have the right to have a lawyer present and that anything you say can and will be used against you.” The officer interrupted.
I wanted to punch her in the face.
“Shut the fuck up and let her talk, officer,” I growled.
“Uh, uh, uh!” I looked over to see Tallulah at my legs, pulling at my shirt tail.
I picked her up, and then settled her on my arm before turning back to Tally.
Hadley had just finished waving her hand at the officer, and relief poured through me.
“The first time I tried to kill you was the first night you left Tallulah with me.”
Fear shot down my spine.
Oh, God. How many times had these two people who owned a huge piece of my heart nearly seen their deaths at the hands of this crazy woman?
Tally’s spine stiffened. “I thought you were my friend. What did I ever do to you?”
Hadley studied Tally with soulless eyes.
“You stole my life.”
She blinked. “I might’ve done that in the end by bringing light to the fact that you were off your rocker, but I surely didn’t do it in the beginning.”
“You had a baby when I didn’t,” she said simply. “I had to watch you with your child while mine was in the ground.”
Tally froze.
“You…you had a baby?” Tally whispered, taking a step forward.
“Two weeks before you.”
Tally look confused and then her eyes widened.
“That’s why you gained all that weight, and then missed the last three weeks of class and had to make up the days with me?” she gasped. “I always thought it was because you caught the flu.”
“It was because I caught the pregnancy,” she grunted. “And my baby died, while yours lived. Why couldn’t it have been your baby?”
That’s when Hadley started crying.
Tally started crying, too.
When she took another step forward, Officer Stephanie held up her hand and shook her head.
Relief poured through me.
This might all be the truth, but even handcuffed Hadley could still harm Tally if she got too close.
Tally nodded that she understood, and then took a seat across from her waiting for her to stop crying.