Rewind
You couldn’t tell Olivia was crazy just by looking at her. You could tell there was something not quite right. It was in the eyes. She looked at you with a sense of knowing reserved for kooks and psychics, of which she was actually neither. I went back through the tapes after her 3rd arrest. That was how I found out.
The first time she came in it had been snowing. Fat white clumps still clung to the shoulders of her overcoat, mixing with her stringy blond hair. She was smiling, showing full lips and shallow wrinkles. She didn’t at all look her 22 years of life. Her hands were cuffed in front of her. The officers had been gentle despite the pleadings of the man she beat up.
Calloway conducted the first interview and the 3rd coincidentally. The camera panned down over his head showing the bald spot that looked like a desert island in a sea of black water. He asked her if she understood why she was here and she shook her head. Then he showed her the pictures of her boyfriend. The red welts on his face leapt out at me. It looked as if he didn’t even try to defend himself, though he said he did. He said she knew what move he was going to make before he did it.
The thing was, he tried to hit her first. She didn’t so much say that, but I knew. I grew up in a house like that where pop got a little angry on the days work hadn’t gone so well and then things didn’t go so well for us. However, she wouldn’t say that. Instead she shrugged and said, “I thought I was in danger.”
It wasn’t till after the third interview that I realized she knew.
Some Thoughts:
- Might continue this tomorrow. Out of time now, but the idea is stuck in my gullet.