Current Timeline
Adam was slumped in his seat, still coughing occasionally, an emergancy inhaler on the table in front of him that was being restlessly played with. His eyes were fixed on it, at once incredibly focused and yet obviously not seeing the inhaler.
He was going to fuck up. He was going to tell them everything. No, no he wasn't, because he didn't want to know what would happen if he did. He swallowed, coughed again, chest still tight and hurting as he forced himself to return to the present.
A tired, older officer made his way in, silently sitting across from Adam, taking him in at a glance, finding a multicoloured flakey kid in his professional opinion. Another little rabble-rouser probably more interested in what he could take instead of anything serious. Still, the job must be done. "State your name, please."
Adam looked at the officer slowly, red-tinged blue eyes staring at him a little longer than nessecary before he straightened himself a little. "...Adam Kilduff." He said, voice still barely above a whisper. Borderline insolence just about surfaced as he left off the inhaler, gloved fingers tapping on the table instead.
He scribbled that down, giving him a curious look at the voice issue, then remembered that there had been one hauled away after the tear gas. Right, that was this one. "And why were you here, Mr. Kilduff?"
"Mutant rights. Sir." He didn't like cops. He cleared his throat a little, the dislike of anything blue and shiny warring with the low-key panic that he'd been riding on since the tear gas. He turned his head and flicked his hair up, showing the very pointed ear, before facing him again. "Trying to fight against this shit."
Scribble. "Against which, the murder or the riot?" He capped his pen for the moment, propping his chin up on his hands as he waited for the answer.
"Against mutants being treated as sub-human." Adam said after a moment. "Trying to get equal rights. You know?" He flicked his eyes at the inhaler. He knows. "The riot...shouldn't have happened. Hell, the murder shouldn't have either." He said fervently, and with feeling. "All we wanted was a peaceful rally."
"And did you have any specific role in the rally or were you merely a participant?" The pen came out again and there was more writing, noting Adam's emotional response.
"I helped out, I guess. You know. Fliers. Being nice to people. Ignoring FoH. Trying to avoid buying anything. You know, rally stuff." Adam watched the pen, then stared at the cop again. No, stop remembering the sound it made.
"Buying what sort of things, Mr. Kilduff." The pen didn't cease scratching as he asked, absolutely gliding over the paper with the air of someone who did this far too often. He did glance up to look Adam in the eye.
"Apathetic, aren't you." Adam paused, before deciding fuck it, he'd had a horrible day, the cop could deal with snide. It meant he was less likely to blurt the truth. "Dodgy hotdogs, ice cream, those stupid birdcalls that make you want to find the guy who invented them just so you could punch him in the face..."
He just smiled briefly, the pen scratching harder on the paper as he jotted a few more notes down on the record about Adam's behavior; snide, possibly aggressive, also possibly defensive. "Now, at what time did you arrive at the rally?"
"Early-ish, I think. I helped set up." Adam shrugged, watching the pen, wishing he had one to fidget with and remembering he lifted one from JP. Locating it, he started to flick it through his fingers, the pen blurring. "I uh. I don't sleep. I offered the guy who was organising it a hand. Northstar?" He glanced up, then coughed again, wincing.
"Early meaning when, exactly?" He stopped in his writing, waiting for the more specific time to fill in. "And I will also have to ask you for names rather than these...'codenames' if you are able to provide them."
"Fine, but release 'em to the public and the fans may just kill you. Jean-Paul Martin." Adam scratched his cheek with the pen. "Time? Uh. Five-ish? I dunno, can't remember seeing any clocks." And he wasn't entirely sure just how long he'd spent calming down from possibly the worst shock-related panic attack he'd ever had.
"And Mr. Martin will be able to vouce for your whereabouts?" The smirk didn't quite go away as Officer Keel went back to his note-taking, glancing up once in a while to judge Adam's actions and demeanor further. "And what was your location before arriving at the rally's grounds?"
"Yup, he can, because I stuck to him like glue." Stop. Smirking. Stop it. Adam tilted his head. "...So...do you have any emotions? I mean, besides the whole scripted bullshit. I have heard this way too many times." Fuck. He hadn't thought of that. Haha, he was killing someone just before the rally!
Adam just about caught the unhinged giggle, gloved fingers pressed against his lips hard. Think, think, where could he have been, what could he have been doing...but he couldn't think through the numbness that suddenly pressed against him.
Well, now Officer Keels emotion would best be described as interested, now. "Do you have a history of problems with the law then, Mr. Kilduff? Please, take your time answering both questions if you need." He would note that in the record, of course.
"Not problems. History, yes, but not problems. Being interviewed for three hours when you're twelve after your parents died in a housefire will do that." Yeah, that's right, he could babble. "Then there was the whole investigation...did I mention I was in hospital that whole time?" He poked the inhaler for emphasis. "And then you bastards use tear gas, and now I can't breathe properly."
He grumbled to himself in gaelic for a bit, mostly to stall, before he got an idea. His studio! No one ever paid attention to when he was and wasn't around, he wwas just the nutty kid that nested in the studio. Best thing was, he could get JP to back him up. "As for where I was? As I said...I don't sleep much, and I have a job mixing music for a local club."
"DJ Toxic. I was in my studio, finishing up a couple before I headed out. Got a night booked in a couple of days...if I can even concentrate on it after this."
"And was there anyone in your studio that will be able to verify your whereabouts?" He quite happily noted all of what Adam was saying and what his opinions of it were. Damned kids, thought they could wind up in a riot and not expect consequences when the police had to break it up.
"No. Sane people are asleep, that time of night." He snapped. "Look, today was meant to be peaceful. The hippy singing songs? I know her. When that riot hit...and we saw the...the body..." It had twitched when he'd stuck it on the hook. Adam paled a little. "That shouldn't have happened. But it did. Me and the others, the mutants..."
"We tried to stop both sides breaking the lines. What else could we do? Let stupid people hack each other to death over name-calls and accusations?" Murderer. Yup, and other people were suffering because of it. He'd never imagined...
Aggressive and defensive got underlined at that point. He might not have a suspect but Officer Keel was definitely going to be keeping an eye on this kid to see if he made the final cuts as far as the suspect list after this.
"Now, the rally. Was there any point during when you arrived and the riot where you left the area of the rally?"
Adam tried to think. "Well...I went flying for a while...figured it wouldn't do for the kids to see a mutant smoking and wanted to see that the FoH were behaving." He flicked the pen again. Could he go now? Before he said something stupid again?
"For how long? Where exactly did you go?" More notes, obvious mutant and able to get from point a to point be in very unique ways that might not be noticed by others.
Adam pointed up. "Just a little above tree-height, I guess, and...maybe half an hour? An hour? Kinda did the circuit of the rally and then just sorta...hovered, I guess, where Cess - the shiny metal girl with the guitar - was doing her peace and love thing. Honestly, not sure the whole hippy thing's a good idea but it's better than fucking riots." He coughed again.
"And was anyone with you?" He was all ready on the next page, the smile becoming smaller but still present.
"Nope. Most of the fliers stayed on the ground." Adam shrugged. "Haven't long worked out I can fly so do it when I can."
So now it looked like their angry and defensive mutant had time windows open. "Now, please tell me about the moment when you came upon the scene."
"Was with the group on the big mecha thing." Adam stared off at some point beyond the guy's left ear. "Followed the sirens and..." He trailed off, listening to what he was saying but not, as if someone else was saying it. He was too busy trying not to remember the sound of the hook, the way the guy had whimpered, the way he'd jerked...
He took everything down, noting that Adam did seem a bit disconnected but, well, that was something that Officer Keel couldn't exactly blame the kid on. Not everyone was used to murder scenes, after all. "And the lead in to the riot?"
"Huh? The...the FoH started namecalling. Guess a few our side didn't appreciate it." Adam shook his head. "Sorry, just...really bad day. Might be from Ireland but I'm not used to...to this." He took a deep breath. "It started getting nasty, so me and the group tried to help keep the groups separate..."
"Why did you choose to take action?" The next question came firing in, Keel taking a rest from writing and just letting the end of his pen tap against the table as he took Adam's account in.
"Why? You mean one death isn't enough today?" Adam's blue eyes snapped back to staring at the cop. "You guys couldn't hold the line. We could. We're meant to be using our abilities to help humans, show them we're not something to be feared, so that's what we did." We are to be feared. We're better than you.
Him and the school had helped, had really helped to prevent more deaths, and yet...here they were, ziptied with the rest of them and being treated like criminals. "It's not our fault someone took Sammy's death personally and copied it, but there was no way I was having other people suffer for that bloody idiot." With feeling.
The smile came back and the scratching resumed, Keel's pen absolutely jumping line to line in notes. He fully intended to reward himself with some coffee or something after listening to this self-important child with his snappish little attitude. Sometimes he thought he was too old for this. "Right, now I am going to have to ask you for your contact information as we may have to schedule a second round of interviews."
Adam hesitated, before nodding and rattling off the school's address and his mobile number - and his work number, just in case. Why couldn't he have got that Vimes guy instead? This cop reminded him too much of the guy who'd tried to insinuate he had killed his parents. (He had, but that was beside the point.)
"You are free to go, then...I would suggest you not take any far away trips any time soon but you are free to go."
"Not planning on it, officer." He rubbed his nose, coughing, and standing up. "Really hope you catch the guy who did this. People got hurt today that shouldn't have." He gave him a quick, but genuine smile, before blurring out of the tent.
