𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐈𝐄 - 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

"𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭; 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠." - 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦, 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦

"Take a seat." Harper tried to remain expressionless as she instructed the boy that she had met five minutes ago to sit in the chair on one side of the table whilst herself and Howard took a seat on the other side.

Harry Winks visibly gulped and wiped the sweat off his brow before taking a seat in the dark room. It was intimidating even though Harry had been in the makeshift interrogation room hundreds of times before.

"We'll start off with a few easy questions but first, I need you to consent to us recording the interview." Harper spoke to the footballer. Despite how nervous he appeared to be, she had a gut feeling about him. The man looked like he would struggle to kill a fly, never mind butcher the woman that had been found earlier.

Harry nodded his head at the detective who he found to be very attractive since he still couldn't find his voice. Harper shook her head at the footballer and Howard snickered slightly. They had both been in this situation so many times before but neither of them had learned.

"We need verbal confirmation." Howard interrupted and Harry gulped once again, not sure if he could manage to find his voice. He was anxious and he was not making things better for himself. Harry could only imagine how guilty he was looking at the moment.

"Yes." The footballer squeaked out and Harper gave him a reassuring smile, hoping to put him at ease just a little bit. The detective usually wasn't this nice with her suspects but there was something about Harry and Harper was struggling to put her finger on it.

The detective duo started off by asking the boy in front of them with a few routine questions like his full name, his date of birth and his permanent residence. It was clear to see that after asking those questions, the footballer started to relax a little more and Harper took that as her cue to start asking him questions that were more relevant to the case.

"Harry, can you talk us through the events of your day from last night through to this morning?" Harper prompted the brunette boy who was across from her and he inhaled deeply before sighing. Harry knew that he would have to talk about it soon but he really didn't want to.

Harry Winks had ended the night previously by crashing at his teammate's house. Dele Alli had had a home invasion not that long ago and despite being embarrassed by his need for human company, he had asked Harry to stay the night so that's exactly what Harry did. The two boys had training the next morning in the early hours but when Harry awoke, Dele had already left as he was picking up Eric and Sonny. This was no problem for the midfielder because he had driven to Dele's in his own car so he just had to drive to Hotspur Way by himself. Harry had done this plenty times and had managed perfectly fine so he didn't think this time would be any different.

When Harry arrived at the training centre, it was empty. This should have been Harry's first sign that something was wrong. The footballer didn't think anything of it and made his way to the front door, noticing that it was cracked open slightly. Again, Harry didn't take much notice and made his way down the many corridors. The only thing that put Harry on edge was when he saw blood streaks in the corridor leading into the treatment room so the brunette followed them, hoping that whoever it was had just had a really bad accident but Harry knew what they said about hope. It breeds eternal misery. When Harry Winks entered treatment room one, he found Cassandra Barker dead. Not just dead but slaughtered. It was a harrowing sight to see and Harry knew that the image of his physiotherapist would forever haunt him. 

"So just to be clear, Harry, you found Cassandra at eight this morning?" The raven haired detective asked the London boy and when he hesitated, Harper started to panic. This boy was vulnerable and the killer would love that.

"I-I think so." Harry stuttered over his words, nerves taking over. If he was being honest, he had absolutely no idea when he found Cassandra or when he reported the body because everything was a blur for him. The boy wished that he had kept a better track of everything that had happened and the details that he needed to get through this interview but he hadn't. He hadn't kept track of what had happened properly and Harry had a feeling that he was going to pay for it.

"Interview ended at twelve forty-five on the twelfth of august, twenty nineteen." Howard spoke into the recording device before formally ending the interview.

"Thank you, Harry. You're free to go and if you have any other information, don't hesitate to get in touch." Harper handed over her card that had her work number on it and the footballer took it in his shaking hands before making a beeline for the door.

"What do you think?" Howard turned to the younger detective and looked at her inquisitively. He could see her mind working away, trying to figure out who had committed the ruthless crime.

"It wasn't Harry. It couldn't have been. The boy couldn't hurt a fly." The raven haired girl started to pace the room, the sound of her heeled boots clicking as she tried to figure out the case.

"Whoever did this knew that Harry would be here. It was all planned so we can rule out a crime of passion." Harper continued and Howard listened to her, agreeing with her theory.

"And if Harry goes down for this, Dele goes down too." The older man finished for her and that's when Harper knew.

Whoever had killed Cassandra Barker was going to be harder to catch than they had initially thought but now, Harper and Howard weren't just catching a killer. Now they were catching a killer and trying to protect innocent little Harry Winks and Dele Alli.

a/n: so i'm back after being away for a few days. this chapter is kind of where it all kicks off. as you can see, harper believes that harry and dele are innocent but are they really? this is definitely my favourite book at the moment and i may have an idea that is kind of similar to this one so keep an eye out for that in the future.

this book took so much time and effort to write. so much research went into this and i really hope that it shows.

if you are a reader of 'honeymoon fades', you would've seen that once that book is finished, i'm going to stop updating every second day per book as it's just not maintainable for me to do in the long run. i haven't decided on an update schedule yet but i just thought that i'd give you all a heads up.

i would like to take a minute to say rest in peace to chadwick boseman. he is such an inspiration to everyone but he has paved the way for so many aspiring actors of colour. rest in peace, king. wakanda forever.

what are your thoughts on this book so far? any plot predictions?

enjoy and stay safe!

lots of love, e x