Chapter 311: Worst Case
The lawyer immediately looked at him. "How is that relevant to the case?"
"Just curiosity."
"Curiosity is not a line of questioning."
Kael shrugged. "Just a random dude, man."
The detective looked back at him. "That doesn’t say much now, does it?"
"What do you want to know? You probably have all my information in that file."
"Fine. Fine." The detective flipped one page. "Where were you around midnight on the day of the incident?"
"In the Tower."
"We have reports saying you were the last person to remain at the construction site."
Kael shrugged. "I got invited then. I took the invitation."
"And you got this buffed in a few hours?" The detective glanced over Kael’s shoulders and arms. "And made it all the way to Floor Nine in that time?"
Kael shrugged again. "What can I say? I got lucky."
The lawyer turned toward the detective. "Are we going to ask real questions, or should we leave?"
"I’ll get to it." The detective tapped the file. "We can only pinpoint you and the reporter in that building. Who says you’re not the one who killed her?"
"Thank God we’re in a country where I don’t have to prove I’m innocent and you have to prove I’m guilty," Kael said. "Am I right?"
The lawyer looked at him, faintly impressed. "Do you even need me?"
"Probably."
The detective’s gaze cooled. "The evidence says you are involved."
"What evidence?"
"The fact you’re a climber, and the mana traces..."
"Told you before," Kael cut in. "I’m manaless."
"You could fake that."
"No, you cannot," the lawyer said immediately.
"The Tower has strange things," the detective said. "Who says he can’t?"
"Until you find an example of those strange things," the lawyer replied, "my client is innocent."
The detective’s jaw shifted.
He flipped another page. "We have reports of sightings and camera footage of you swimming out of the Hudson River a few hours after the collapse."
"And how does that matter?" the lawyer asked.
"Because we can clearly see that he fled the incident and tried to swim away from the building."
Kael looked at him. "Did it ever occur to you that I ran from the collapse and fell into the river?"
The detective’s eyes sharpened.
"So you were there when the building collapsed."
"Of course I was."
The lawyer closed his eyes for half a second.
"Then why didn’t you report it?" the detective asked.
"Again, because I was invited. You can’t refuse a Tower invitation."
"Of course you can."
Kael sighed. "What does your report say about me? Let’s go back to that question."
The detective hesitated, then flipped through the file.
"Kael Ardent. Age twenty-eight. Decent A-grade student. High presence in college. Impressive academics. Quit school to work and support your mother." His eyes moved lower. "Mother suffering from mana poisoning."
Kael said nothing.
The detective looked up at him.
"You went to the hospital this morning," he said. "And we also got a report that she has been cured."
The room settled into a different kind of quiet.
Kael leaned back. "Can you make the dots, or should I do it for you?"
The detective stared at him for a few seconds.
Then his expression changed.
Not softened completely. He was still a detective. But something in the angle of his suspicion shifted into understanding.
"I understand," he said. "You didn’t want to lose the only opportunity you had to save your mother. The Tower offers a lot of rewards. Rewards good enough and expensive enough to save someone from that disease."
"Yep."
"That is why you accepted the invitation instead of reporting the incident."
"Yep."
The detective closed the file.
"You must be a good son."
Kael’s face did not change much, but the words landed.
"I try to be."
The detective looked at the lawyer, then back at Kael.
"You really didn’t kill her?"
"No."
"You didn’t assist or help in any way, shape, or form?"
"No."
"Did you see who killed her?"
"No."
The detective became still.
Then he leaned back.
"So far," he said, "that is the only lie you told."
The lawyer snapped toward him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The detective’s gaze remained fixed on Kael. "I am also a climber. And I have a method to tell truth from lies." His voice lowered. "You know who killed her. You even saw him. So why are you refusing to tell us who?"
"Do not answer that," the lawyer said immediately.
Kael looked at him.
Then at the detective.
"I have to."
The lawyer’s expression sharpened. He studied Kael for a moment, then turned to the detective. "Give us a moment."
The detective did not move immediately.
The lawyer’s voice hardened. "Now."
The detective stood, gathered the file, and left the room with his partner. The door shut behind them.
For a few seconds, the room held only the low hum of cameras.
The lawyer leaned toward Kael. "What is going on? Who the hell are you protecting? No one in the world could actually get away with murder or threaten you if we are backing you."
Kael tilted his head slightly. "Is that so?"
"Yes, of course."
"Think of the only person you guys won’t be able to protect me from."
The lawyer frowned.
Then his eyes widened.
Kael gave him a humorless smile. "Yeah."
"Shit."
"Stinky one at that too."
The lawyer sat back very slowly.
For the first time since he entered the room, the expensive suit did not look like armor. It looked like fabric.
Outside the interrogation room, the detective stood behind the two-way mirror with a device pressed near one ear.
Another officer beside him glanced at him. "You know that’s illegal, right?"
The detective clicked his tongue.
He had heard enough.
"Shit," he muttered. "This isn’t good."
"What is it?" the other officer asked. "Was it him?"
The detective looked through the glass at Kael, who sat quietly beside his lawyer, calm enough to be terrifying.
"At this point," the detective said, "I’d rather wish it was him. "The killer was our primary suspect all along?"
The officer’s face tightened. "Asher Vylan?"
"Yeah," the detective said.
He looked down at the file in his hand, then back at Kael.
"Fuck."