Detective On Duty-Chapter 23: Interrogating Ava

The apartment, with its plush sofa and carefully arranged knick-knacks, felt strangely cold under the scrutiny of the three investigators. Ava, a study in forced composure, sat opposite them. Her hands were clasped so tightly her knuckles were white, and her pale face was a battlefield of fear and calculation. Miles’s gaze was relentless, and Ava knew the polite veneer of their visit was gone. Her mind was facing a crumbling bridges of thought. "They know too much. What did James tell them? If the full truth comes out, the truth about me... I will go to jail. I can’t be the only one adrain must follow me!"

Miles gestured toward the sofa. "We appreciate you agreeing to talk, Ava. We understand you and Katherine were close friends."

Ava nodded slowly, her voice soft and mournful. "We were the best of friends, right up until she passed away. A tragic, tragic thing."

"Do you know what really happened to her?" Ethan pressed, his voice low and firm. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Ava closed her eyes, gathering her courage. When she opened them, her expression was one of manufactured sincerity, mixed with genuine distress. "I’ll tell you all I know about me and Katherine. Every bit of it." Was she? ’For me to avoid myself telling them about how she died I have to tell them some truth and lies.’ Ava thought.

Flashback: 1957

The main office of Sterling & Sons Publishing was a hive of activity, smelling of stale coffee and fresh ink. Katherine, radiant and slightly breathless, found Ava by the filing cabinets.

"Ava, I have to tell you," Katherine whispered, pulling her friend close, her eyes shining with pure, unexpressed joy. "You won’t believe what I just overheard! I was passing Mr. Sterling’s office, you know, the door was cracked, and he was telling Miss Monroe that the promotion to Assistant Manager is finally yours! He said you had the brightest mind in the building and deserved the recognition."

Ava hearing this was filled with excitement like her friend, "really, I knew I deserved it, don’t worry when the time comes you will have your own promotion." Ava said to Katherine, who just took her words as a symbol of friendship.

The next morning, everyone was smiling at Katherine instead of Ava, Katherine was confused by the situation and asked Ms Monroe, "ummm, what is going on?"

"You don’t know?" Katherine shook her head confused but later smiled and thought maybe they were happy for her, because she was Ava friend and Ava got a promotion, but her ears heard otherwise, "you just got the promotion as the assistant manager."

"What?!"

"I can’t believe I got the promotion, so sorry I got the wrong message and told you!" Katherine apologized and hugged Ava.

"It’s okay, I’ll just take back what I told you yesterday and keep it to myself," Katherine chuckled at her delightful words but, Ava forced a bright, wide smile, instantly offering congratulations, but her throat felt suddenly tight.

She had been with the company longer. She was the one who worked the late nights. Yet, it was always Katherine, easy, sunny Katherine, who received all the attention, all the good fortune. A cold, knot of resentment began to form in Ava’s stomach, turning a lifetime of affection into simmering bitterness. The next few hours the promotion was officially announced, and it was Katherine’s name on the memo. Ava clapped louder than anyone, but the feeling of being eclipsed only deepened her resolve to change the score.

Miles’s voice brought Ava sharply back to the present. "Did that jealousy, Ava, lead you to kill Katherine?"

Ava flinched violently, denying it instantly. "No! I didn’t kill her! I did... I did some things, yes, but I didn’t go as far as to kill Katherine!" Her heart hammered against her ribs, her mind screaming, "I didn’t kill her, it was a suicide, why are they investigating a suicide, do they know it was a murder?" She knew, deep down, the answer was yes. I have to tell Adrian the detectives were here.

"Tell us what you did," Ethan demanded, leaning forward, his shadow falling across her. "Start from the part where you slept with her boyfriend, James, and tell us why you did it."

Ava gasped, her face draining of all color. They had met James. They knew about the cheating. Her carefully constructed facade was crumbling rapidly.

’I was part of the scene... I can’t let Adrian know they’re onto him. If I were to drag Adrian into this, what if he spilled the whole truth about the drowning?’ She desperately tried to calculate her next move. ’What does James even know?’

A darker thought, a terrifying piece of leverage, surfaced, ’Should I still tell them about the stalker who cornered Katherine when she was drunk and almost had sex with her?’ her head was just clouded by questions, she was even tired of creating more.

The full scope of her betrayal hit her. The promotion, the betrayal with James, the stalker incident, the confrontation before Katherine’s death...

Miles’s voice was a sharp crack, pulling Ava out of her spiraling thoughts. "Spill it, Ava. We don’t have all day."

She flinched, snapping back to the present. The two detectives were staring at her, waiting. She was acutely aware of the black-haired man, her current partner, sitting nearby, his presence a silent witness to her crumbling composure.

1957-Current year, before the death of Katherine Vance

A wave of internal resentment washed over her, a bitter cocktail of past and present fury. Her mind drifted to the root of her sickness: the comparison that had ruined everything. It was jealousy, she thought fiercely. James was hotter than Adrian, richer than him, everything Adrian wasn’t. It was a rage born of envy, not just of Katherine, but of the life Katherine possessed and the men who craved it.

The brown-haired man, Adrian, stood and crossed the room, sensing her distress. He sat beside her on the sofa, reaching out to offer comfort, his hand trailing toward her waist seductively, kissing her neck, It was the wrong move.

Ava recoiled instantly, slipping his hand away as if his touch burned her. She sprang to her feet, a raging desperate energy seizing her. Grabbing her bag, her eyes wild, she made a sudden dash for the door.

"I have to go!" she cried out, her voice strained. Without a glance back at the stunned detectives or her boyfriend, she th

rew the door open and rushed out. Her destination was clear in her mind, she was going straight to James’s home.