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“Me, Carmen, am the main suspect, though, I wasn’t even there when the death took place! I mean, what kind of logic is that?
“Carmen, I’m repeating this one more time. Where were you at the time of the death, 4:50pm?”
That snapped me out of my semiconsciousness.
“I was in the restroom, like I said! Why won’t you believe me?” I rolled my eyes.
“We have reason to believe that you are the murderer,” the detective said.
This went on and on for another hour, but it was really boring so I’ll spare you the details. They just questioned me a bunch stupid questions they should’ve figured out themselves if they were capable adults. But they weren't, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I looked through the crime scene, avoiding leaving traces of me ever being there, and began searching for the first item on my list : the murder weapon.
I figured, since there wasn’t any blood, that the murderer probably poisoned the victim, presumably with some cleaning product.
“Carmen!”
A tiny girl jumps at me bawling her eyes out, and it takes me a moment to realize who it is.
“Aria! Are you okay?” I say, startled.
“No!” she wails. “One of my friends just died, do you think I would be okay?”
“Ah,” I wince. I forgot the victim -Dante- was one of her closest friends. “Sorry, that was stupid.” I better go search for the poison, if I waste my time I might be in juvie. I shuddered at the thought, then sprinted towards the kitchen with Aria trailing behind me.
“Where are we going?”
“To the kitchen. I want to see if I can solve the murder myself since the police are so incompetent.” I say as I rummage through the cupboards, searching for something, at least some evidence, that she was innocent.
“Carmen?”
I jumped, forgetting there was someone else in the room with me.
“Hmm?” I responded.
“Carmen!”
I turn to face Aria, who looks pale and jumpy.
“Yeah?” I say, confused. “Why do you keep calling my name?”
“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” She whispers nervously.
“Nope,” I respond, “we’re not allowed to be here at all. It’s a crime scene, what do you think?”
“Then, do you think we should go? I don’t want to get in trouble with the police,” Aria sniffs.
“Well, you can go if you want. I don’t care, I just need to prove that I’m not the poisoner.”
“How do you know that Dante was poisoned?” She says uneasily.
“I just know it. Now please stop bothering me and help me or not, I don’t care.”
I glanced back at her, and cringed when I saw she looked hurt.
“Sorry,” I apologised. “But if you aren’t planning to help, I’d appreciate it if you stopped distracting me.”
“Oh. alright.” Aria mumbled, then left the room. I wonder… Nevermind that. I continued to rifle through the cabinets, searching for the poison. I look at the highest shelves, find I am too short to reach them, and grab a stool. When I step onto the stool, the untidiness up there is disturbing. It looks like someone shoved something to the back in a fit of hurry, perhaps a bottle of poison. I glanced around the shelf, then something glinting in the dark caught my eye. I reach towards it, feeling a smooth, cold, rounded surface. I pull it out, expecting some kind of liquid, but instead my gaze meets- berries? It takes me a second to register what they are. Atropa belladonna, more commonly known as deadly nightshade or just belladonna, is highly toxic and is renowned for its purple, bell-shaped flowers and shiny black berries. This probably is what the murderer used. I quickly pocket it, and head home.
I sealed the bottle of belladonna in a ziploc bag, put on my jacket but then stopped to contemplate whether to keep my plastic gloves on. I decide against it then slide my jacket on and head downstairs.
“Where are you going?” My mom questions.
“Oh, I’m just going on a walk, be back in around thirty minutes!” I answer. Not wanting to talk further, I rush out the door, almost tripping over the porch steps in my rush to get to the station. Five minutes later, I’m in the office of the officer who’s the leader for this case.
“I have proof that I’m not guilty.” I say. “Just hear me out.”
“Alright.” the officer grumbles.
“While I was looking through the kitchen–”
“Which is technically trespassing on a crime scene, and I can already charge you for that.”
“Okay, jeez.” I roll my eyes. “ Anyways, I found a bottle of belladonna at the very back corner of the highest shelf. It’s possible someone might have mistaken it for black nightshade, which is not uncommonly used in our famous nightshade pie. But since I know the difference between belladonna and black nightshade, only I go foraging for them. I would definitely not poison someone on purpose! Besides, if you look under the cap of the bottle, there’s a label with a name on it.” The police officer looks under the cap, which indeed has a label.
“Rrr-ll–aa?” He says.
“I think it’s ‘Ria’” I correct.
“There’s something in front of it. Looks like an… O?”
“Well, I have reason to believe that it’s ‘Aria’.” I murmur. “She was acting pretty suspicious when I was searching for the ‘murder weapon’.”
“Okay, we’ll scan this for any DNA traces. Did you handle the bottle with your bare hands?”
If I rolled my eyes anymore they’d probably burst out of my head.
“Obviously not, I’ve done my research and it’s common knowledge that you shouldn’t touch evidence with your bare hands.” I say snarkily.
“You should head back the way you came.”
“Alright, thanks for your time” I grumble. I’m pissed at him for not giving more context. I want to know if they’re gonna search and arrest Aria, or if they’re not gonna do anything about it. I roll my eyes again. My mom says I need to stop doing that or it’ll stick. Whatever. Later, the police come to my house saying that Aria’s in custody and refuses to talk to anyone but me. I get to the interrogation room and look at Aria. Before I went in, they told me to ask her two things :
What was your motive behind killing Dante?
How did you murder him?
And they said I could ask her a few things of my own, though I’m not sure if I should.
“Hello, Carmen.” Aria says meekly.
“Hi Aria, the police have asked me to ask you a few questions following Dante’s murder.”
“Go on.” She told me.
“What was your motive for killing your best friend?”
“Oh… how do I say this– he confessed to me, and I wanted to stay friends.”
She answers.
“How did you kill him?” I question her.
“Oh, in a fit of anger, I rashly decided to make a belladonna pie for him. He trusted me, and ate it.” Aria gazes blankly at the wall behind me and laughs manically. “He died looking at me with a betrayed expression, and I didn’t like that because he betrayed me first. So, when the life faded out of him, I gouged out his eyes, put a few belladonna berries in their place–two in each socket, of course– and shut his eyes.” She laughs again.
I then ask her, “Do you regret killing him at all?”
She looks at me, her gaze fixed on my eyes. “No.” she simply says. “No, I do not. But, I just wish he didn’t do that. Oh, no. He shouldn’t have done anything like that at all.”
“What do you mean?” I say, a bit disturbed.
“Oh, the week before he confessed, he got me a little ring. The week before that, it was chocolates, and the week before that, it was flowers. I never liked that, I just wanted to be best friends. That’s it. Nothing more. But then he had to go and ruin it all, and I couldn’t accept that. Is that all your questions or is there more?” She looks disoriented, like she’s in a completely different world. Maybe one where Dante didn’t confess.
“Yes, that’s it. Thank you for your time. I have to go now, Aria.”
“Oh alright. Bye Carmen.”
I walk out of the room, a bit terrified of what Aria has become. When I’m out of the room I quickly shut the door, and tell the detectives everything.”
Okay, and that’s what would’ve happened if Aria had reacted the way I had and was the murderer.But, alas. I am the murderer.Oh well, I’m currently serving years in juvie, but I quite like it here. I might do more crimes to stay. Who knows!