The interview room was a box of grey concrete and fluorescent hum. Her wrists ached from the cuffs, the skin chafed red. Detective Harlan, a man who looked like he’d been carved out of granite, sat across from her. Detective Sato stood in the corner, a silent shadow with a pen. “Let’s try this again, Lena,” Harlan said, leaning forward. “The park. The bag. What really happened?”
“I told you! I found it empty!” Lena cried, her voice cracking. Harlan sighed, a sound of practiced disappointment. “You’re a woman with a nearly empty bank account, no job, and a late rent notice. And we’re supposed to believe you found a bag containing eighteen thousand pounds in cash, and the money just… vanished?” Lena’s heart stopped. “Eighteen thousand? There was nothing in there!”
“Every answer you give makes you look more guilty,” Sato chimed in from the wall. Lena felt the walls closing in. The more she tried to explain her honesty, the more it sounded like a frantic cover story. She had walked into the lion’s den with a smile, handing them the very evidence they needed to ruin her. “I brought it to you!” she screamed. “If I stole it, why would I come here?” Harlan didn’t blink. “Guilt. Or you thought you were being clever.”