“You!”
Jay cut himself off before the curse could leave his mouth, forcing himself to stay calm.
“Stay here and take the statements properly.
If you want us to sign off on your internship papers, you’d better learn some manners.
Got it?”
“Yeah, yeah… I know.” White shrugged.
Mariana stepped in, clearly trying to put an end to the chaos.
“It’s Sunday, and we’re short-staffed.
We had no choice but to call in the interns and split them into shifts to take statements.
The suspect has rather a lot of friends.”
She shook Steven’s hand, polite to the very end.
Jay did the same, though his eyes still carried barely contained irritation.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” Jay said.
Then he immediately shot White a look.
“And you?
Where are your basic manners?
Shake the man’s hand, intern.”
White blinked, as if she had only just remembered.
She held out her hand but instead of an empty hand, she was holding an unopened packet of biscuits.
Steven stared at it.
Jay and Mariana looked at each other.
Neither of them had a word to say.
Mariana raised a hand to her forehead, her thumb rubbing lightly against her temple, as if one more second might make her brain leave her body entirely.
Jay had even less patience.
He snatched the packet from White’s hand, his eyes blazing like a tiger whose tail had just been stepped on.
“Shake his hand”
The barked order was quiet, yet sharp enough to cut through the air in the courtyard.
Alice (White ) froze for half a beat, then held out her hand.
Her voice came out in a stammer, sounding like she was desperately trying to keep herself composed.
“It’s a pleasure… having your cooperation.”
An awkward handshake followed.
Then Jay and Mariana turned and walked away together, as though staying around Alice for even a few more seconds would drive them completely insane.
Steven gave them a small nod of farewell and closed the door.
Before the latch had fully clicked into place, the corner of his mouth twitched into a strange, thin curve.
Thin as a blade hidden up someone’s sleeve.
And of course, White saw it.
…Saw it.
And filed it away in her mind.
Once Jay and Mariana had disappeared completely from sight, Steven turned back only to find Alice, or rather White, nowhere to be seen.
He tilted his head slightly.
A second later, she came around from behind the police car, carrying an absurdly large bag of candy and snacks as though she had just been shopping rather than investigating a murder case.
She pulled out a chocolate bar, expertly tore open the wrapper with her fingers, and took a bite.
Then White walked straight into Steven’s house, casually parroting Jay’s earlier words in a tone so indifferent it bordered on outright disrespect.
“You want us to sign your certification papers?
Then you’d better behave yourselves, got it?
You don’t wanna sign them?
Fine.
I’ll go tell my grandpa and see what happens to you people.”
She walked straight into the living room without even taking off her sandals.
Steven stared at her, visibly taken aback.
He cleared his throat, trying to recover the polite manner he’d had earlier.
“Ah… um.
This is the living room.
And I’m Steven, a third-year medical student.”
White tossed the bag of snacks onto the table and dropped onto the sofa as if gravity had suddenly doubled.
“Alice.
Second-year police academy student.
Internship… just to make my résumé look better.”
“So I’m a year older than you, then.” Steven smiled.
White didn’t answer.
One hand held her phone.
The other held her chocolate.
She looked absolutely nothing like a police officer.
Steven brought over a glass of water and set it on the table.
“You’re not going to take my statement right away?”
White glanced at him over the top of her phone screen, then pursed her lips.
“Take it early so I can get back early and be everybody’s errand girl?
Those people back there were chewing me out like I was their own kid.
They don’t think interns are worth a damn.
And honestly, they’re not that much better than us anyway…”
She took another bite of her chocolate.
“Twelve people dead.
Three months of investigation, and they still haven’t solved a thing.
They had to bring in a private detective for help.”
She chewed for a moment.
“Gotta admit… pretty pathetic.”
Steven fell silent.
Only for a moment.
But his eyes shifted slightly the kind of small, unconscious movement people made when they were trying to hide a reaction.
“I understand,” he said quietly”