#hhqtask02

[nina-heilig]

task 02 ; where were you march 2nd?

Nina sat in the interrogation room, the cold steel of the hard chair beneath her making her shift slightly in her seat every now and then. She was sure that made her look suspicious but she had nothing to hide, save for her knowledge of the eerie phone call she’d received from a public pay phone just days ago now. “Erm,” she started, her hands tucked neatly in her lap, her brow furrowed slightly as she tried to recall the evening in as much detail as she could, whether that was useful to the police or not. “So, I’d finished work a wee bit late, I’d say ‘round eight or so, see I’d stayed back to count up and give the place a clean. After that, I’d had something to eat, erm- just a sarnie, brown sauce, a cuppa with it and then a belgian bun before I packed up and walked home,” she wasn’t sure they’d needed to know exactly what she’d had for dinner nor how she’d seasoned it but she was trying to be helpful, that much was true. 

“Could I have another cuppa? Would you mind?” she asked, reminded then that the mug in front of her was near empty now, perhaps she’d been drinking more quickly than usual from the nerves. She wasn’t used to this setting and something about it just felt odd. “Cheers,” she chimed sweetly when her request was swiftly accepted and fulfilled. “So then am walking home and I stopped, pulled my headphones out of my ears. I’d felt something odd but I couldn’t describe it well, it was like a pain in the back of my head, I suppose but not like a headache. I don’t know- anyway, then I started to smell the smoke and that’s when I saw George across the way. George Carmichael, that is,” she clarified, though she was certain they knew that already, “I asked him if he knew what was going on but he knew nothing more than I did and so we called emergency services and told ‘em to get to Holy Cannoli! as soon as they could,” was there anything she was forgetting? She didn’t think so. “We were just standing ‘round doing nothing and because we felt so properly useless we thought there’d be no harm in just having a look, seeing if there was any way we could help out before the fire and rescue got there. George went over to have a look through the window and I stayed put, making sure I could flag the emergencies down n’all. Then the fire blew out the windows and George was knocked right back on the flat of him and I ran over. He was hurt but he was talking and conscious n’all, I think he was just shocked. I was too,” she cleared her throat then and took a sip from her cup of tea. “Didn’t see anybody else though, not before or after. I couldn’t tell you who was around the place that night, I didn’t lay an eye on a single soul save for George and like I said, I had m’headphones in too, so I’d not heard anything strange either,” 

[gxorgx]

George sat on the interrogation chair, hands clasped in front of him, with a detective sat in front him. A table separating them, holding two cups of coffee and a bag of chips. Tiny cuts could be seen across his face as proof of what had happened that night in the Holy Cannoli. Something that made his current situation uncomfortable and confusing. Everything he had had to say he had said the night of the fire. Everything he knew.

"I'm not sure how much more I could help," he answered, fingers twitching reaching for his cup. Calm. George was everything but calm. The only thing that kept him in that chair, instead of pacing around the small room, were the years of training he had lived through under his parents. Expectations could make someone's entire personality a lie. "I was walking after a long night of helping the local greenhouse. The smell of something burning led me near the Holy Cannoli. That is when I saw Nina. A couple of seconds later a small explosion happened," he breathed in deeply, the memory of what happened still present in his mind. "I couldnt not check, you? I had to know. Had to make sure there was no one inside, but it was too late. I couldn't go in, and when I tried to look through a window...well, you know." George gestured to his face, smiling sadly. Small scabs that would heal and disappear, but the memory of it all will never leave.