RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,140

were in the box for nine hours?” Aimée whispers.

I look from the female detective to the man sitting next to her, back and forth, back and forth, trying to work out the complex expressions they're wearing. “Yes?” The guy's face creases into a mask of horror. He clears his throat, but it sounds more like he's choking. He pushes away from the table, bolting for the door. “Jesus Christ. I can't...I'm sorry. I need to get some air.”

The door makes a quiet shush as it closes behind him.

Aimée sits back in her chair, rubbing nervously at the base of her throat. “We cannot continue this interview without two detectives present, Elodie. I'm sorry. But...you should know...you were not inside the box for nine hours. Today is Tuesday, my love.”

I frown at that. That doesn't make any sense. “Tuesday?”

She nods.

“I was...in the box for...five days?”

Aimée looks away, covering her mouth with her hand.

Five days.

Pissing and shitting on myself.

Gagging on the smell of my own filth and the reek of my mother rotting on the other side of the room.

That thin straw poking through the hole in the box, providing my only supply of water.

The tiny pinpricks of daylight, blazing against the back of my eyes, and then the darkness creeping in. Rinse and repeat. Did it all happen that many times? Did that many days really blur into one another? How could I, could anyone, survive something like that without losing their minds?

But then again, have I kept mine?

Aimée leaves the room and comes back again almost immediately carrying a jacket. She places it on my shoulders, wrapping me up in it. “Come on. I know this will be hard, but I'll be with you, okay? I won't leave your side, I promise.”

We aren't even out of the building when the military cops show up. In full uniform and armed to the teeth, a man I don't know with three stripes on his arm stops Aimée in the hallway, thrusting a piece of paper at her.

“The girl needs to come with us,” he clips out.

Aimée's horror-stricken. Her eyes wide, mouth hanging open, she shakes her head, tucking me into the side of her body. As if she can protect me from what's about to happen. “This girl has been sexually assaulted and tortured, Sergeant. She's not going anywhere with you. I'm taking her to the hospital.”

The sergeant side steps in front of her, blocking her way out of the building. “I'm afraid that's not possible, Detective Berger. This young lady is a minor and an American Citizen. And she was witness to an accident that took place in a building owned by the U.S. government, which is technically U.S. soil. Israel Police has no jurisdiction here.”

“Accident? Her mother was murdered! And that building wasn’t on your base. It was on Israeli soil! It doesn’t matter who owns it.”

“Take it up with your chief. We have our own way of doing things, Berger, and we have our own police. We've investigated the scene and deemed Mrs. Stillwater's death an accident, as a result of an unfortunate fall. You understand, Colonel Stillwater's a very well-respected man. There's no way he would have laid a finger on his wife.”

Aimée's mouth works. She can't seem to find the words she's looking for. “Your precious Colonel Stillwater raped his own daughter! What kind of man does that?”

“Not the kind that commands thousands in the U.S. military, Detective Berger. I'd be very careful if I were you. Repeating slanderous accusations like that can have dire consequences.”

The sergeant's hand closes around the top of my arm. He pulls me out of Aimée's grip. She reaches for me, grabbing, but it's no good. I was already far beyond her reach before these guys even showed up. She just didn't know it yet.

I don't know what happens next. The world begins to shrink in on itself, darkening around the edges. The next thing I know, I'm falling forward, legs collapsing beneath me, and the ground is rushing up to meet me.

34

ELODIE

I saw that police report once. It was very detailed. Incensed by the way the army handled my mother's death, Detective Aimée Berger petitioned the Israeli government to try and pursue the criminal case in-country, but the whole thing turned into a political nightmare. Her hands were tied, and so she could do nothing but sit by and watch as the military swept the entire thing under the rug. My father was exonerated of any wrongdoing, I never received that