The principal looked surprised; he didn’t seem to know what to say when he saw me. But then his words finally came out as he said. “You shouldn’t be here young lady! Where are your parents? You should be at home!”
“What did she mean by ‘liar’?” a lady asked, she had black hair and a lean figure, a bit taller than Elain, she must have been a reporter. I think I had seen her before. Her blue eyes looked at me. “What did you mean when you called him that?”
“Oh, don’t talk with her unless her parents are present.” The principal stammered. “You’ll get her in a lot of trouble if you do this against their wishes.”
“I only have my dad,” I said to him. “You should know that since he’s on the radio every morning.”
“Wait…” the lady eyed me. “Are you… Mr. Hilmarsson’s daughter? Amalie Hilmarsson?” When I nodded, the woman came over. “I thought so, I was part of the news crew who looked into your mother’s disappearance, you look so big now.”
Was she?
I couldn’t remember much of that time, there were a lot of people who kept coming to our house and wanting to talk to my Dad.
Seeing my confusion, she handed me a card.
Diane Verity.
Besides her name is gave her number and what she did. She was a reporter and journalist
I don’t think I talked with her, but her eyes felt familiar.
She then knelt beside me so we could be eye to eye as she took out a recording device, one similar to what I had. “Tell me, why’d you call him a liar?”
I looked right at the principal, he looked even paler than before. “Because he is one, I told him before that I thought Mr. Green was doing something bad to the other kids, but he and a few other teachers didn’t believe me, I didn’t tell them all because… I didn’t want them to lose their jobs or be forced to quit. Mr. McCrae had tried too but was told he’d to be quiet and was threatened, same with Madam Andrews, they even went to the police.” I glared at the principal. “But you threatened them, and made it all go away.”
“I… I…” he stammered but I kept going.
“What’s more, I have proof!” I held up my phone, with the audio ready to be played. “Do you want to hear it? On the night Mr. Green attacked my friend and tried to hurt me before my Dad saved us, I was going to have this be played instead of the national anthem the next morning, but then you all know what happened.” My shoulders shook as I remembered Elain being hurt and his scary smile when he looked at me. “If he wasn’t there if he didn’t follow us… she wouldn’t have been hurt. It’s my fault that she got hurt…” I could feel the tears in my eyes but I refused to cry, I wouldn’t cry. I had to push through, to get it all out. “And it’s your fault too!” I yelled. “I told you! Again, and again! But you wouldn’t listen! Even when an anonymous email was sent I bet you didn’t even look at it, you just deleted it to make it all go away like before! TRY DELETING THIS!!!” before he could even get close when he finally moved to try and stop me, reporters and parents grabbed hold of him as the other reporter went to shield me only for all of them to freeze in place when I pressed play and the first thing you hear is a little girl’s scream.
Mia’s scream.
She screamed and screamed, then cried and whimpered, begged wanting it to stop, while Nick just made strange sounds and said mockingly as he had to me when I ran from him.
“Go ahead, keep screaming, no one is gonna believe a little bitch like you. Do you think that dumbass principal gives a shit about you? Any of you? Give him enough money and he’ll always turn a blind eye to anything---”
I stopped it there, even now I still couldn’t listen to the rest. It made me feel sick, I could barely bring myself to listen to the others, just the first few seconds and that was it. But it had the evidence that would make anyone pay attention. When Mia talked to me about what happened to her, and what Nick did to her, I… couldn’t bring myself to listen to it for a second time. It was awful. Even then I don’t think Mia was telling me the whole truth. I think in her own way, she trying to spare me from knowing it all. She didn’t have to, but she did, and I would do everything in my power to make her heard. Originally I was going to keep to the plan I had, making a new CD and placing it underneath the one for the national anthem, but seeing the crowd, that plan changed.
I looked at him again, with a knowing look and flatly asked. “Do you believe me now?”
The principal didn’t say anything, only turned back to the crowd of people and saw how everyone else looked at him, eyes and expressions filled with rage as they wanted to hurt him badly, but before that could happen another person spoke up, a voice I recognized.
“Stop, unless you want to get arrested alongside him!”
It was the woman from before, the two detectives that came to our home when Lauren went missing. And… the lady detective who came to my house when my mom disappeared.
* * *
Things happened quickly after that, the principal was arrested and brought to the police station, and my Dad and I were too, not arrested, but the two detectives wanted to ask me things about what happened, like after the attack Elain had from Nick when trying to protect me.
The lady detective asked me about what I had said when they came to the school, about the principal and the teachers that might have known, that word bugged me.
Might.
As if saying they didn’t know, when a number of the teachers did, they just didn’t care about the kids, like the principal.
I even gave the detectives a list of names of those who knew, those who weren’t aware, and those who suspected and were threatened by the principal to keep silent or lose their jobs and probably couldn’t teach. To the kids that were hurt by Nick and included if they had moved away or were still here. Very few kids had stayed.
The lady detective sighed; I think she went by Song. She was looking disappointed in me before saying. “Look, kid, I’m not mad, but if you had something like this before you should have said something sooner, talked to someone.”
I looked her right in the eye. “I did.”
She looked uncomfortable but didn’t seem to take my word. A look I’ve seen before. “I know, but what I mean to say is, you should have talked to the police, they would have listened.”
“Like you did when my Mom hurt my Dad?” she reacted to that with a scowl, while the other man who worked with her looked sad. It wasn’t on them, I knew that, but I wanted to prove my point, that this stuff, trying to get others to listen and take it seriously wasn’t easy. It never was, and it made it all the worse. “It’s only until I was hurt you wouldn’t believe it, how is that any different from this? A lot of the kids that were hurt by Nick didn’t want to say anything because they were scared and afraid, afraid that they wouldn’t be believed. That’s why I went around trying to get evidence so that those who refused to listen would actually believe it. Mia’s the only one who decided to work with me to get him to stop. The others were either too scared or moved away.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
She leaned back in her chair, looking at me then at my Dad and back to me. “Then why not your Dad? Why not tell him? Did you think he wouldn’t believe you?”
My Dad who sat next to me, merely looked at me with a faint smile. It’s not that I didn’t trust him, he was my Dad, after all, I knew he’d believe me. It was what I didn’t want him to do that might cause all of what Nick did to disappear that I wanted to avoid. “What would your parents have done if it were you? How do you think they’d react, or if it was your kid, what would you have done?” I asked this so I wouldn’t outright call my Dad a murderer. Even though I knew he was one.
“Beat him to an inch of his life, probably.” The other detective said under his breath, it was super soft, but I could hear it, and I knew my Dad could too, given how his smile twitched in response.
“You know exactly what you’d do, police or not. Why do people ask those questions, thinking it’s easy to answer when they know it’s not?” I asked but didn’t wait for an answer, I merely changed the topic slightly. “Are the principal and teachers going to be in trouble?”
Ms. Song sighed again, I guess she figured I wasn’t going to answer that question or answer the one I gave her. “We’re looking into it, but from what you’ve told us in your statement a good portion of them will be. I still find it hard to believe that a total of nine teachers knew and didn’t believe you.”
I gripped my dress tightly in my lap, fighting off the urge to shout at her as I looked down at the table.
“But it makes me wonder why some of these people were even teachers if they didn’t listen to a kid that brought up these claims while they were at the school.” She continued. “Though I imagine that principal also made it hard for the word to get out about it if he’s been covering for this long.”
I relaxed; I don’t think she was blaming me. “When can I have my phone back?”
Ms. Song looked at her partner before answering. “Probably in a few days give or take, is all of the evidence on your phone?”
I nodded; I did have it on a school’s computer but that was already taken by the police. I had it in case my phone was taken and destroyed by the principal, and the disk, but that was destroyed by Nick when he attacked me and Elain, so it couldn’t be used again.
I wasn’t about to use my laptop for that since my Dad would have discovered it.
Ms. Song’s phone beeped and when she looked at it, showed it to her partner who then asked me. “Hey Amalie, are you thirsty? We have a café here in the precinct that makes the best hot chocolates, you want one?”
Part of me frowned at the sudden question, it was like they wanted me to be away from the room so they could ask my Dad something. When I looked at my Dad his smile merely grew. “Go on my Dear, I’m sure you're thirsty from talking with the detectives.”
“Okay,” was all I could say before getting out of my seat and leaving with my Dad giving me a cheery smile as he spoke.
“Go and enjoy sweetie, I’ll see you in a little bit.”
I glanced one more time at my Dad and the detective lady before following her partner.
* * *
Kira eyed the man who sat across from her. His smile was ever-present.
When the police had spoken to him after Alastor brought his daughter and Elain Ortiz to the hospital after he said that he chased off Nicolas Green from trying to harm his child and a teenager, his smile was still there, much like now as his grey eyes looked at her knowingly. For reasons she couldn’t understand, it set her on edge.
“I take it there’s a reason you wished to speak with me without my daughter present?” he says. “Does it have something to do with my daughter’s phone? Or are these merely follow-up questions about what happened a few days before with that man? Were you ever even able to find him and drag him off the streets?”
Kira then silently placed Amalie’s phone on the table, sealed in an evidence bag. Alastor merely looked at it with a faint smirk before he eyed her once more and in a cold tone asked.
“Am I supposed to guess?”
Kira continued to watch him, eyeing him fully. This man… there was just something about him that she couldn’t place. “We managed to get the evidence from her phone, however, the IT guys found something that I wanted to ask you about.” She waited and when he gave no response she continued. “Why is there a tracker app hidden in your daughter’s phone?”
He tilted his head slightly. “Detective, is that a necessary question? I’m a single father, raising a seven-year-old girl and have high notoriety as a radio host with many fans. And though I don’t make this a public matter, I have had issues regarding some of the more enthusiastic ones, more so than others. While I get fan-mail or emails, there are some filled with… less than kind words about my daughter from a very select few. Those in particular have no returning address, so I have no clue as to who they are. Many of those letters go on to say that if it wasn’t for my lovely girl, I would have taken the stage in the world of acting by storm.”
She frowned. “Your daughter’s being threatened?”
“Yes, and I have sent several emails to your police department, you should have several files. So, to be safe, I placed a tracking device on my daughter’s phone. For her protection,” his fingers interlaced as he looked down at his hands, his smile faint. “She’s the only family I have left. And there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
“Including murder attempted?” regardless if he had been in the right to do so, the law was the law. The evidence, and his hands, pointed to the fact that Alastor beat Nick Green bloody before the man escaped. Alastor didn’t deny it, and it was clear he’d do it again, if not worse.
His grip tightened as his gaze snapped to her, becoming focused on her as the air around them suddenly felt cold, almost terrifying. Like being trapped in a room with a vicious animal out for blood. “What would you do, detective, if it was your child at the mercy of a predator?”
Kira didn’t respond, no answer was needed, they both knew what would have happened in this hypothetical question. Alastor then changed his question.
“How long would it be until my daughter can get her phone back?”
Kira took the phone in question off the table. “Not for a while, you’d probably be better off just getting her a new phone instead. We can email you any photos or videos that don’t pertain the to case so she can have those back. In case you were wondering.”
Alastor merely chuckled in response. “I take it that I can go, then? Unless you have something else, you’d like to ask me, detective?”
Kira was going to demand what transpired back in the school’s basement between him and Nicolas Green the events didn’t add up and bothered her greatly. But instead of demanding, as it would get her nowhere, she asked.
“Did nothing else happen between you and Mr. Green, when your daughter fled the basement?”
His closed-mouth smile grew faintly. “No, nothing at all. It’s like I said, he managed to escape before I could knock him out and since I was worried for my child and Miss. Ortiz, they took priority. Was that wrong of me to do so Detective?”
“No,” the video surveillance had been disconnected by Nick before Amalie and Elain Ortiz arrived at the school, so it was only Alastor’s word to go by. Yet something about all of this nagged at Kira. The way the scene of the crime looked, the state of the basement while pointing to a man fleeing, it almost felt like that should have been impossible.
“Really? Because it sounded to me like you’re blaming me for his escape. Regardless of the reason, I will never abandon my child.” He then said something odd. “If I had a choice of saving the world or my daughter, I would always choose her. Even if it means I let the whole world burn. To me, only she will ever matter, regardless of who wishes to be saved. Even if it costs my own life.” His eyes became cold as his smile became tight, almost mockingly. “If that makes me a monster, I suppose there’s nothing I can do to change your mind.”
* * *
I took a sip of the hot chocolate the other detective bought for me as we sat across from one another in the lunch area of the police department. I knew it was an old building that had an addition so that the original wouldn’t be lost, but I thought it was kind of odd to have something like a coffee shop in a police building. Then again, maybe this was normal given that a lot of police officers drank coffee, like in the shows on TV.
But what surprised me was that the other detective who went by Fredrick Louds said if I wanted, I could call him Freddie. But since I didn’t know him well, I called him by his last name.
“Mr. Louds, um… I mean, Detective Louds, is my Dad going to be in trouble? For beating up Mr. Green?”
“I don’t think you have to worry little lady,” he said with a warm smile. “Your Dad was just mad that someone tried to hurt you. I know I would have acted just as he did if it were one of my kids.”
I remained silent, I don’t think anyone could act the same way as my Dad, but maybe I was wrong on that given how many people lived in the world.
“Amalie, can I ask you something?”
“I don’t know what Nick intended to do to me…”
“No, no, not that,” he responded quickly. “Back in the other room, you sounded as though you didn’t like Detective Song when you were talking about what happened.”
He noticed. “I don’t dislike her,” I say as I then finish my drink. “I just don’t feel anything to her. But I don’t trust her.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“She called me a liar. Or that’s what I think because of how she looked at me like I was making something up. I told her something, something really important four years ago and she didn’t believe me. I haven’t told anyone since.”
“You mean about your Mom hurting your Dad?”
I shook my head, looking at the now empty cup in my hands. Should I tell him? My eyes went from my empty cup to the detective that sat across from me.
Though a few people were walking about minding their own business, their own lives, my grip tightened on the cup. I felt that this might be my second chance.
After a moment I finally spoke up. “My Dad killed someone,” I said to him, I wanted to try again even if nothing came from it. I just wanted to try. “That’s what I told her.”