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Chapter Fifty-Five
Point of View: Nick

Zoe was driving me home - it was 9:15 AM. Instead of having me drive, Zoe had given me the first of the tests that she expected me to pass before I got my forms signed. The first ten hours of driving with Zoe had gone insanely fast, despite all the set backs and cancellations. Actually, she'd pointed out, we were at 10 hours and 20 minutes, thanks to the day with the frogs. The test, she said, would count as the eleventh hour.

"The eleventh hour, huh?" I said, "Isn't that like a cliche or something?"

Zoe raised an eyebrow, "It usually means just before the end, as in the eleventh hour before the twelfth, which is when it starts over again. But you've got 89 hours still, so don't get too excited."

I dunno how I did on the test. It was strange because it was all stuff I knew but more than one answer sounded like it could be right, and the essay stuff - Jesus, I was bad at stringing words together. I tried drawing pictures to accompany my words because I was better at expressing what I meant that way. Luckily Zoe said she was ok with that. The very last question had been hand-written onto the page in Zoe's cursive, and was labeled as a bonus question. What do you like most about driving? it said.

By the time I was done with the test, and pushed it over to her, it was 9:10 and she'd offered to drive me home. Kayla had already left to go to her rehearsals driving the Camaro, which she was going to bring to my house that night. Zoe was planning on picking us up when she got done driving with students, she was making lasagna for dinner.

"I'm gonna be late for my appointment with Dr. Haseltine," I complained as Zoe pulled into my driveway by 9:25. "I was supposed to be there at 9:30."

It wasn't until I'd tried to call Brian to let him know we were running late, that I realized I'd left my cell phone in Zoe's guest bedroom. "All the more reason to come over tonight," Zoe laughed. But the laughter melted from her face as she pulled down my driveway, and Brian, who was standing on the edge of the fountain, on his cell phone, came running down the driveway to the car, a cop leaning against his cruiser.

She looked over at me as Brian started pounding on my window.

I unbuckled and threw the door open, Brian jumping backwards from it as it almost hit him, and he grabbed my shirt sleeve roughly. "Where the hell have you been?" he snapped, "Why the hell weren't you here?"

I glanced at Zoe, Brian was hopped up, I hadn't seen him quite this agitated in awhile. "Um I'm sorry, I was at Zoe's last night." He pulled me up the driveway. "What's um going on?" I asked, looking at the cop. "I gotta talk to you, Brian, like before we go to Dr. Haseltine's office."

"I already called Dr. Haseltine and postponed for tomorrow morning," Brian snapped, on edge.

"Okay," I answered, "Jesus, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or what?" I heard Zoe getting out of the Prius behind us.

"I've been here all morning," Brian hissed, "With a cop who has to talk to you urgently about Krystal. What kind of mood do you think I'm in, oh one who didn't answer ANY of my forty-seven phone calls?"

"Sorry," I muttered, "I was eating, then I had a test and--"

The officer cut between Brian and I suddenly, and Brian stepped back a few paces, releasing the grip he'd had on my shirt sleeve. Zoe came up behind us as the cop introduced himself, "My name is Officer Theo Walters," he said, holding out his badge for me to inspect. I was never sure what I was supposed to look at when cops did that to me, I usually just noticed how shiny the badge was so I had something to nod at. "I'm the investigator working on the Krystal Armaletto death and I have some extremely important questions to ask you."

I blinked in surprise, "An- investigation? It was a car accident," I stuttered. Through the haze that was the memory of yesterday, I suddenly heard Kayla's voice asking me "Did you kill Krystal?" and I felt sick.

"Yes, it was a car wreck," Officer Walters said, rewording what I said to remove the word accident, "But we have reason to believe that it wasn't entirely accidental."

Zoe's voice shot out from behind me, shocked and more high pitched than I'd ever heard her. "You aren't saying Nick killed her, are you?" she demanded.

Officer Walters glanced at her, then at me, and back to her, "I'm not saying anything yet," he responded, "I'm just here to ask Nick some questions about the situation." He looked to me, "May I speak with you alone?"

I looked at Brian, who shrugged.

"Um, sure," I said, and I nodded towards the house. Officer Walters and I walked into the house and I was sickly aware of the click of the door shutting behind me, leaving Brian and Zoe outside.

Officer Walters carried no hesitation. We weren't even sitting down yet, I'd just led him into the living room, which Brian had cleaned up since the freak out I'd had when I'd initially found out about Krystal's death, and he already had pounced with a question. "We know because of your statement the morning after Ms. Armaletto supposedly trashed your home that she was here just before her death... Correct?"

My mouth felt dry. "Yeah, she was here..."

"Combined with the estimated time of death being around 11:37 PM, which is the time that the crash took place...and you reported her being here until 11:00... You were most likely the last person who saw Krystal alive... Correct?"

I nodded, "Yeah. I mean, I guess. I dunno. There's a lot of places you could be in 40 minutes in Los Angeles."

"In your report you didn't mention she was driving under the influence. Why?"

"I didn't want to get her in trouble," I muttered.

Officer Walters walked to the mantle my TV hung over and studied the empty shelf there. "Instead, she died," he said coldly, staring at the mantle instead of at me. All the little things I'd had up there - shot glasses from around the world, a Japanese waving cat figurine, a seaglass turtle - had been ruined when Krystal had thrown her fit. He paced down the length of the mantle twice, then looked at me. "Nick, were you aware Krystal Armaletto was pregnant at the time of her death?"

I dropped backward onto the sofa, stunned, "She was what?" I asked, feeling like my head was spinning.

"Pregnant," Officer Walters replied.

I blinked up at him, "No," I stammered, "No I had no fucking idea." Some part of me felt hollow.

"She was eight weeks," Officer Walters stated flatly.

During the tour, I thought, Not mine. Officer Walters studied me, and seemed to read the words off my mind. "Is there any possibility that baby was yours, Nick?"

"No," I answered, too quickly. "No," I said again, my voice more gentle. "We were both on tour at that point. Krystal was in a totally different city than I was." She was cheating on me, I realized, Long before I went to rehab. It felt like ice water. I brought both my hands to my forehead.

"We're working on the forensics, Nick," Officer Walters explained slowly, "I'm going to warn you now, though, that a confession before evidence piles against you while you deny involvement will work a lot better for you, as far as time spent in jail."

My head snapped up. "Jail?" I whimpered.

The officer shrugged, "I'm just saying. If there's anything you're hiding about that night --" he paused, "Now is the time to get it out there."

I could see it in my mind - the line I'd done after she'd left. My nose could still feel the burn of it. The phone in my hand had felt ridiculously heavy, and all I could remember of the call was Krystal, answering... Forty minutes, from when she left to when she died, forty minutes for which I could account nothing more than the first five or so. The next coherent memory involved laying on the front lawn, dressed up as Spiderman, being nudged awake by Zoe Sinclaire. Everything else... was a blur of haze.

"There's nothing," I whispered.

He nodded, "Very well." He turned toward the door, "I'll be back if I have any further questions, Nick."