It’s happening.
The police caught me off guard today as I headed outside my building. They didn’t waste any time and quickly cut to the chase. They were investigating Matthew’s case, and for reasons unknown to me, I was an interest. I momentarily freaked out when they first approached me, thinking it was all over for me. For a split second, I imagined myself spilling the truth and confessing to being an accomplice in one of the murders, but I didn’t. Somehow, I managed to hide the stress, and although I wasn’t required to answer any of their questions, I decided to do it anyway. I didn’t know how much they knew and kept on wondering how they found out about me in the first place. Flashes of the night of the crime started coming back to me. One bad move has turned everything upside down for me. If the police manages to connect me to the crime, I’m done.
As we headed inside the building and into the lobby area, I started weighing my options. Should I lie or should I tell the truth? Since I have no previous arrest histories prior to this, I knew I wouldn’t be convicted for the crime. As far as public record goes, I’ve led a rather stable, noncriminal life before the initiation of a hypnotic relationship with Matt happened. Matt lured me into his world and made me commit an act as brutal and as depraved as chopping human bodies in pieces before burying them deep into the ground. I’ve never done anything even remotely close to that in my entire life. I’ve never killed anyone. However, by definition of law, being an accessory to murder makes me as guilty as he is even though I practically had no intention in being his accomplice. I guess anyone can become a killer under the right circumstances.
If things go to court, I’m sure a good lawyer can easily convince the judge and the jury that I acted in the spur of the moment and that my unhealthy relationship with Matt resulted in a sudden change in my behavior. My assistance to the dismemberment of the victims’ bodies was more of a duty I felt like I had to fulfill because I was frightened by him and slavishly did anything he proposed. In this case, I’d be making Matt look bad, but does it really matter? Now that he’s been exposed, there’s no point in throwing myself under the bus too. I had to let him go. I still have my life, and I’ve been desperately trying to move forward after the shooting.
It doesn’t end here, though. Although the notion of me being an incipient serial killer would be thrown out of the window, I could still be charged as an accessory to the murder since I’ve failed to notify law enforcement and kept the incident a secret. It’s a tough situation to get out of. My best bet is to lie about being involved in the crime, and hope that they won’t find any fingerprints. It’s mind-blowing how anxiety can stimulate the brain. All of those thoughts came to me in less than two minutes. I’ve managed to analyze what my situation was and where I can take things. Consistency was key. I had to think twice before saying a single word. If my story didn’t hold up, if I ended up not making sense, I would’ve made myself look bad. But I managed.
I was eager to know how the police connected me to Matt, but I wasn’t going to ask them because I knew my concern would’ve led them to believe I was hiding something. Instead, I focused on answering their questions. The first one was how I knew Matt. I gave them a quick and clear answer, stating that I was introduced to him through William Ford, which is true. I stopped there. If I told them I hired Matt as my lawyer, questions of why would’ve followed and the whole Anita Peterson case would’ve came up again which I definitely needed to avoid although I did win the case and the charges against me were dropped. Having run a background check before the interrogation, I assumed they probably knew the whole story, but I didn’t see the point in elaborating further than that because I wasn’t pleaded guilty. Then they asked me if I had seen Matt after the case was closed, and I hesitated to answer the question. One of the officers gave me a suspicious look which immediately got me talking again. I said I did. That we were friends. Then they wondered if I had ever noticed anything suspicious in his behavior and I said I didn’t. So far, the police has linked Matt to one murder, the one I assisted him with, through fingerprints. That’s all they were willing to disclose to me.
Although the interrogation went by quickly and smoothly, I had a feeling they were trying to gather evidence against me which is why they asked me to take a polygraph test. There is no legal obligation to take the test, but I agreed to it anyway to establish my innocence although I knew it was a huge risk since the results aren’t always guaranteed to be accurate.
Felix Eberstark 