Chapter 79
I had forgotten how the police station looked like, and there seemed to be a mismatch between the place I was seeing now and the waiting room where Jack and I had sat not too long ago. And how long ago was it anyways? Time had begun to loose meaning. Avery was already walking along the hallway, when I turned around and stopped a moment longer and stared at the room.
“Is everything all right?”, Jack asked, reading the confusion on my expression
“Yeah…but doesn’t it seem to you like this place is not the same as it was last time?”
“Not sure, I wasn’t paying too much attention last time”
“Let’s go guys”, Avery urged us from the end of the hallway.
She was very tense, and although she managed to appear calm on the surface there were flashes in her expression, in her movements and tone of voice that betrayed her worries. I felt she knew or doubted something she hadn’t told us, and I wondered what it was. Or was it something else? Was she thinking about her daughter at home, with a new nanny after her previous one had died in the lake? The lake and the girl. I had to shake my head to chase away the image.
“Come on guys”, Avery repeated
I caught up with her and said, “You know Mariam, I think my polymer killed your daughter’s babysitter and that it will probably kill me. And Jack. And who know whoever else. Everything is blurring in my mind, I don’t know what to do anymore. I am sorry, and…”
“Iris”, Avery said cutting off my words and gripping my arms, “Do not break down now, I need you. What happened is not your fault and I will not let you die. Am I getting through to you?”.
She pronounced the last two sentences slowly, marking every syllable. I had never felt so close to Mariam Avery as I did then. It wasn’t so much the exchange of words, but the eye contact, a subtle flow of feelings, and perhaps the physical contact. Her grip on my arm.
I nodded and she said, “good”. She led Jack and me to a room with a glass on one side. We could see Mark Gill sitting alone in front of a long table.
“He can’t see or hear what you say. You’ll be able to hear Gill’s answers to my questions, I want you to tell me what you think about them after I’m done with him, ok?”
“Ok”, I agreed
Avery patted me on the shoulder and nodded at Jack, then left closing the door behind her.