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“Thank you for coming,” I say. “Can I offer you a drink?”
“No, we’re alright, thank you,” Torres replies.
“Please, have a seat.”
They sit on the second couch adjacent to the coffee table and I drop back down beside Lila, my hand instinctively finding her knee.
“First of all, thank you for calling this in. I know it couldn’t have been easy,” Torres says, his notepad balancing on his knee. “Before we go any further, I just need to check - are you both alright? Do either of you need medical assistance?”
“We’re alright, thank you,” I say. “Just a bit shaken.”
He nods. “Understandable. We’ll need to take a few details, if that’s okay – names, addresses, contact numbers?”
We give them all our details as DS Blackwood notes it all down, quick and tidy.
“Thank you,” Torres says once the last note has been made. “Now, under normal circumstances, we’d speak to you both separately, but given the time and your state of shock, we’re happy to do it this way for now – but please just keep in mind that we may need to follow up with you individually.”
I rub my hand over Lila’s knee. She’s not facing any of this on her own. Not if I can help it.
“Can you walk us through what you saw, in your own words?” Torres asks.
“We were walking back from the bar, and had just turned onto Chando’s Grove, when we saw a car stopped at the junction, its lights on and passenger door open. There was a driver in the car. Then another man appeared at the passenger side, and they sped off.”
A tremor passes through Lila as her leg twitches under my hand, and I give her knee a gentle squeeze, attempting to reassure her despite the queasy feeling rising in my own stomach as I picture the scene again.
The officers stay silent, listening. Waiting.
“And then I looked across the road, and saw… a body. On the ground.”
Lila drops her head into her hands.
My heart aches to hold her and tell her everything will be alright, but we both know it’s not true.
“Thank you,” Torres says. “I’m sorry you had to witness that. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“No,” I say quietly. “It’s been a bit of a shock to both of us.”
Torres nods, holding a pause of understanding for a moment before he continues. “Do you know around what time that was?”
“I couldn’t say for certain. It must have been, just after ten, I’d guess.”
“Did you call the police straight away?” Blackwood asks.
“No,” I admit. “I didn’t know if anyone had seen us. I made sure no one was following us and got back as quick as we could.”
“Could you describe any distinguishing characteristics of either of the men in the car? Age, clothing, anything that might help identify them?”
I pause, turning my head ever so slightly to look at Lila, wondering if she’ll say anything. When she doesn’t, I look back at them and shake my head.
“No. It was too dark to see anything clearly. I think the man who got in the car was wearing a hat, but I couldn’t tell you what kind.”
Torres turns his attention to Lila. “What about you, Miss Evans? Did you see either of the men in the car?”
Lila drops her hands into her lap and clasps them tightly, keeping her eyes focused on her intertwined fingers.
“I’m not sure,” I say, not wanting to speak for her.
I don’t know why she’s not telling them that she recognised him, that he may have seen her, but it’s not my information to tell.