Defeatedly, Annie followed Ricky to the car to leave to… literally anywhere, right now. Though her attention was quickly switched to the cop car that was parked at the front of the school. She looked back at the building, but there was nothing blaringly obvious to have brought the cops to the place. That’s because the cops weren’t headed towards the building, they were headed to her. What now?
”For what?” Annie couldn’t help say out of shock after Officer Montoya declared what she was being arrested for. The murder of Finch Castillo? She didn’t get much time to question further before her wrists were pulled to behind her and she was put in handcuffs. What the fvck has linked Annie to be connected to the murder? What do they have on her right now? Whatever it is… this was pretty fvcking bad. Though she didn’t protest, how did she even begin to argue with an accusation like that. She gave one short glance towards Ricky, who was reacting quite opposite to her, but there was nothing she could say before she was in the back of the cop car.
After very briefly being booked, as her biological details were already gathered from.. previous visits to the police station, and when offered to make a phone call, she made one that didn’t answer. She should have expected that, in what world was Paige Pierce Annie’s first person to call in this situation? Well, in a world where her father didn’t know who she was and her mother was, like, on the other side of the world shooting a movie: this world.
Therefore, it wasn’t long before Annie was taken into a cell to wait for an interrogation room to be free. In the moments of silence, Annie pressed her back against the wall and tried to recall the entirety of Finch’s death. What did she do? What evidence did they have? But whatever it was, it could mean that she would be in a cell like this.. for a long time.
Thousands of thoughts later an officer escorted her out of the cell, and into an interrogation room, where he sat across from her with several files in his hand, placing them onto the table. He started with one she recognised, her own.
”According to your file, you have.. quite an impressive criminal history,” The officer told her, not once actually looking up a her. ”I didn’t think a speeding ticket would make someone capable of murder,” Annie finally responded after clearing her throat in a light-hearted manner, despite knowing charges reported against her name would beg to differ. ”Speeding, and.. you started a forest fire?” ”That is true,” Annie sighed, should have known that one was going to come back to her. Thank you, Ezekiel. ”And you crashed a car into a house?” ”.. Who hasn’t?” She said with a weak smile that faded immediately with the glare shot her way. ”That amongst countless speeding tickets, report of frequent violent behaviour in your school, and even a charge of assault,” Annie was now looking down at the table, waiting for whatever repressed moment in her life he was going to bring up next.
”Seems like you are quite the troubled teen, seems like it was only a matter of time before you ended up here for good,” ”Thank you,” Annie said insincerely, not sure where this was going. ”Do you think your life before being adopted could be-“ ”Objection, relevance,” Annie interrupted, sitting up with slight annoyance sparked, more so at the amusement that appeared on the officer’s face. ”You’re not in a courtroom yet, Miss Williams,” He said with unavoidable emphasis on ‘yet’.
The officer then opened another file, the contents of which becoming clear by the change in subject of the questions. ”What was your relationship with the victim, Finch Castillo?” Her heart sank at the word victim. Is that what they considered Finch to be? Her victim? ”She was my best friend,” Annie said, initially through a saddened voice, though it quickly triggered a stronger one. ”She was my best friend, why would I- what reason would I have to kill my best friend?” Annie told him with frustration that had been kept in since the moment she was arrested. ”The house you crashed into. That was owned by, and ultimately injured, your father, correct? Could have killed him, correct?” Sh!t. ”If your father was fair game to you, who else would be?”
”And so with your.. history and the evidence against y-“ “What evidence do you have right now?” Annie asked him exasperatedly. ”Aside from the fact that you were present at the time of the murder-“ ”I was going to stop it from-“ ”And that her own brother publicly accused you-“ ”Quinn Castillo doesn’t know shi-“ ”You were seen again at the scene of the crime, recently. Trying to cover your tracks?” That quickly silenced Annie. She did, yes, go back inside that building. Annie waited for a moment, and if the officer was quite finished, she knew some explaining was necessary from her.
”I was being threatened, on Instagram, and they told me to go to certain location- that hotel- otherwise they will kill my sister. They had pictures of her, but I didn’t believe it, get sh!t like that all the time,” Annie explained, reciting the events in a matter-of-fact approach, detaching herself for a moment to retain composure completely. ”Finch saw it, believed it. She went to the hotel, I didn’t know, and I went there later just in case she had gone but I was too late,” She finally looked back at the officer who was writing her words down. Maybe her words were actually being believed.
”And you have the messages?” The officer looked intently at Annie, a glimpse of belief in his face. ”These messages on Instagram from whoever that person was?” Fvck. The decision to deactivate her Instagram after those events meant those messages were deleted with it. At the time she didn’t think those messages being deleted were that big of a deal, the stalker cleared their traces immaculately, there was no way they were being found from merely Instagram DMs. What she didn’t realise was that months later those messages probably would have saved her right now.
”No,” Annie reluctantly said, watching the officer’s belief die at the word. With that, the files were closed and stacked up, and the officer stood up. ’You’re not charging me right now, though, right?” She asked, though knowing the answer. ”That means you can’t keep me longer than 24 hours?” Yeah, she did her research. ”No, but after that, you’re going to need a good lawyer,” The officer shortly left, replaced with two more that took her back into a cell.
benitz786 Enrique Montoya and Paige Pierce
LittleFeets Quinn and Finch Castillo time to bring in the father
astxrism Ezekiel Griffin mentioned