This is the sixteenth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV, and Part XV before continuing.
Officer: What did you do with the murder weapon?
Suspect: I don’t have a weapon.
Officer: How did you dispose of it?
Suspect: I didn’t.
Officer: This will go a lot easier if you cooperate.
Suspect: I am cooperating.
Officer: All right, let’s back up. You’ve admitted to having a history of memory issues.
Suspect: Blackouts.
Officer: What’s the difference?
Suspect: Memory issues refer to something you experienced, but you can’t access the memory. Blackouts are when you don’t experience it in the first place. You can be there physically without being there mentally.
Officer: You seem to know a lot about this.
Suspect: I made sure they explained it to me when I got diagnosed.
Officer: When was that?
Suspect: 2019
Officer: Who diagnosed you?
Suspect: I don’t remember the doctor’s name.
Officer: Do you remember the hospital?
Suspect: Yes. It was the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Officer: We’ll check all that out and get access to your medical records. In the meantime, let’s get back to the boy. Why’d you want to kill him?
Suspect: I didn’t. He was the first one in a long while to show me any kindness. I never wanted to hurt him.
Officer: Then why did you?
Suspect: I didn’t.
Officer: You just admitted to having blackouts. You could have blacked out and killed him.
Suspect: Not without a knife, or something very sharp. And I don’t have anything like that.
Officer: You don’t have it because you got rid of it after you murdered him.
Suspect: No. I never murdered him. And I haven’t owned a knife in a very long time. Not since I had my own place.
Officer: Not even for protection? Sleeping under bridges leaves you pretty vulnerable.
Suspect: Sleeping with a sharp object when you have a history of blackouts isn’t exactly safe, either.
Officer: You could have gotten a knife that night, killed the boy, then dropped the knife in a dumpster across town before returning to the scene of the crime to watch the parents discover the body of their little boy. Did that give you the satisfaction you were looking for?
Suspect: I never hurt him.
Officer: How do you know?
Suspect: I would never have hurt him.
Officer: Not even if you thought he was someone else? Someone who was threatening you? You said you had violent dreams that night.
Suspect. I did, but I never had a knife.
Officer: How do you know?
Suspect: Where would I have gotten a knife?
Officer: You could have stolen it from the West home while you were washing their dishes.
Suspect: I never stole anything from them. They were good to me, and I was grateful.
Officer: How do you know you didn’t black out while you were in their home? You could have stolen a knife without realizing you were doing it.
Suspect: I never blacked out while in their home.
Officer: How do you know?
Suspect: I have no gaps in my memory of my time there.
Officer: You remember everything about that night?
Suspect: Right up until I fell asleep under the bushes.
To be continued…