interviewing the boyfriend

Jake drove to the address in Jeremy’s’s profile. After a minute, Sally said. “Boy, you were quite harsh back there.”

Jake looked at her with his lip curled, then focused on the street. “Well, what kind of principal doesn’t care about the interests of her students?”

“Like she said. It was after school. And she tutored them at her parents’ house.”

Jake huffed, then finally said. “But still. Never mind, forget about it.”

“What is it?” Sally exclaimed in a gentle tone.

Jake heaved a deep sigh. “What do you say we focus on this case. We’ve got a teenager, and a killer to find.”

Sally put her hands up in surrender and then dropped them in her lap.

“Here we go,”Mike said s he pulled into a driveway.

They got out of the car and made their way to the door, Jake knocked.

After a few seconds, the door opened. The woman on the other side was wearing blue jeans and red and white apron over her green sweater. She had thin, dark blonde hair that looked messy. “Can I help you?”

“Yes.” Jake took his badge out. I’m Detective Stone. And this is Detective Beaumont. Is your son home?”

The lady got a frightened look on her face. After a moment, she finally said. “He should be. Why?”

Don’t worry.” Jake quickly raised his left hand and let it down. “He’s not in any trouble. We just need to ask him some questions about one of his classmates.”

The lady looked at him skeptically, then turned around. “Jeremy,” she yelled.

As they waited for Jeremy, Jake walked next to the lady.” And your name is?”

“Oh. Sandra. She looked towards the hallway.” Jeremy.” She yelled again.

“Coming.” A raspy male voice said. A minute later, a Young man came into view. He was wearing White t-shirt with plenty of stains, and blue sweatpants. He ran his head through his thick black hair that hung just over his shoulders. Christ mom.” He cleared his throat. “ You know I like to rest on the weekends.”

“Yes I know.” Sandra stated with annoyance. “But you have some visitors.”

Mike looked at the detectives and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know these people.”He said sharply.

“Their detectives, dear,” Sandra said. “ They need to talk to you about a classmate.”

“Oh Christ.” Jeremy eyed the detectives. “What do you think I am? The class narc.”

“No.” Jake paused a moment, “Can we talk?” He glanced at Sandra , then focused on Jeremy, “Privately.”

Jeremy looked at his mom like a kid asking for permission.

Sandra shrugged her shoulders.” It’s fine with me.” She walked away and disappeared down the hall.

Jeremy looked at the detectives. “Why don’t we go to my room. “He turned and walked through a door. The detectives followed him in. The stench of sweat hit their nostrils hard.

The room had a bed with a bedsheet with cartoon characters that neither detective had ever seen. Jeremy plopped down on it.

There was a plain lamp sitting on the nightstand that nearly gave enough light to see properly. There was a mobile chair in front of a little desk that had a laptop on it.

“Have a seat,”Jeremy said as he ran his hand through his hair and then scratched his chest.

Jeremy motioned Sally towards the chair.

“I’m okay,” Sally said.

“We’ll stand.” Jake firmly said.

“Whatever.” Jeremy shrugged his shoulders. “So who is this classmate you want to talk to me about?”

“Cassandra Whitmore.” Mike bluntly said as he watched Jeremy’s Facial response.

“Oh, her.” Jeremy sat back, placing his elbows behind him to keep himself partially propped up.

“Yes, her.” Jake retorted, surprised by his lackadaisical reply.

“So what do you want to know?” Jeremy Casually asked. “Well, to start with, what is her relationship to her?”

Jeremy pursed his lips. His raised eyebrow said he was surprised by the question. “What relationship? She was a geeky person. I would never get involved with a person like that.” He coldly stated. “It would ruin my reputation.”

“How about her tutoring you?” Jake’s tone said he was getting irritated.

“Yeah.” Jeremy sat up. “So she tutored me. So what?”

“And there was nothing else going on between you two?”

“No.”Jeremy shouted. He took two deep breaths and continued in a calmer tone. “Look. She had the hots for me.” He ran his hand through his hair. “And maybe I thought she was pretty cool. You know. Like nice.” His face lit up a bit.” She was definitely not fake. I really liked that. It kind of made her hot.”

“But you weren’t involved.. Sexually?”

Jeremy twisted his lip, then finally said. “I can’t say it never crossed my mind. but_”

“I know. It would have ruined your reputation.” Jake sarcastically said.

Jeremy sighed and hung his head.”Yeah.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“Yesterday, at school.” Jeremy retorted bluntly.

“so, you didn’t pick her up for a party last night?”

“No,”Jeremy got a dumbfounded look on his face. “Where did you hear that?”

“Cassandra told her parents you were picking her up before she left the house.”

“Well, then you might want to tell her parents that she lied. Because I never...” He paused a moment. “Wait, why are you asking me anyways?”

Jake tilted his head as he gave Mike a serious look. “Because she is missing.”

Jeremy’s head snapped up. His eyes were wide open. :What?” He got to the edge of the bed and stood up. “Are you serious?”

Jake nodded. “I’m afraid so.” He pursed his lips. “And her father was murdered last night.”

Jeremy deeply gulped. “I.. oh my God.”He sat back down. “I don’t believe this. Look.” Jeremy’s tone finally turned serious. “I will help you any way I can.”

He took a deep breath and continued. “I'm just not sure if I will be of any use.”

“Maybe you can,” Jake said in a friendly manner. “ You can start by answering some questions.”

Jeremy gave a quick nod. “Sure.”

“We heard that Cassandra and your girlfriend, Carol Kendrick, got into an argument at school.”

“Yeah.” Jeremy replied quickly.” He let out a long breath while shaking his head. “My girlfriend was upset, or should I say jealous, that I was letting Cassandra tutor me.”

“Why? Did she think you two might get involved, physically?”

Jeremy chuckled. “I’ve never heard it put that way.” He paused and put on a straight face. “But no. She thought that I should be studying with her.”

The detectives gave skeptical looks at one another, then Jake faced Jeremy. “And you’re sure that’s the only reason?”

“That’s what she told me.” Jeremy got up and into a kneeling position. “ I had no reason to not believe her.”

Jake cocked his head and stared observed Jeremy a moment. “Why do I get the feeling you didn’t believe her?”

Jeremy looked around the room nervously. finally he focused on Jake. “Okay. You got me. It doesn’t take a genius to realize she was jealous.”

“Did she ever threaten to kick Cassandra’s a*s?”

Jeremy looked down then focused on Jake. “Once..But, she would never hurt a fly. She’s was all talk. “He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “She figured that tough talk would change my mind.”

He paused and got a confused look on his face. “Wait, you don’t think she had anything to do with Cassandra’s disappearance? “That’s crazy.”

“We don’t think anything yet,” Jake replied calmly. “But we’ve got to consider all possibilities.”

Jeremy sat up and let his legs hang over the side of the bed. “Well trust me when I say she wouldn’t hurt Cassandra.”

Maybe not. But we’ve got to question her anyways. Can you get me the address?”

“Dear God. You realize if you do that, it will fuel her jealousy. Jeremy pursed his lips. “ Then she’ll take it out on me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Jake replied casually. “But we’ve got a job to do. Besides, you’re a big boy. I’m sure you can handle it.”

Jeremy rubbed his chin and gave the detectives a desperate look. Finally, he said. “Fine. “ He got up off of the bed, went to the desk, took a piece of paper off of it, and wrote the number down.”But you're just wasting your time.” He handed the paper to Jake.

Jake took it out of his hand. “He looked and saw that it was the dress written below a drawing of a stream in what looked like a forest. He looked at Jeremy. “Wow, that’s pretty darn good.”

Jeremy smiled. “Thanks. “I love drawing more than playing football.”

Sally looked at the paper in Jake’s hand. “Damn, Well you certainly should look into an art school then.”

Jeremy nodded and smiled widely.

“We'd better be going,” Jake said. Then the detectives walked out of the room. They then made their way down the hall and towards the door.”

As Jake began to open it, they heard a female voice say. “Is everything okay?”

The detectives looked and saw Jeremy’s mom standing there, staring at them with concern.

“Everything’s fine.” Jake said. “You’ve got yourself a good son there.”

He opened the door, and the detectives walked out.

Once outside, they began walking towards the car. Jake finally said. “I hope Jeremy is right about his girlfriend.”