~~~

A man sat alone in a dirty living room. In his hand was a beer, and he was vacantly staring at the ceiling. His eyes were entirely glazed over, as if they were inhabited by a ghost. If not for the rhythmic motions of his breath, one would be hard pressed to find any signs of life coming from the melancholic figure slumped over on a ratty chair. After a moment, a knock on the door disturbed the silence, and the man slowly turned his head in the direction it came from. He wondered if he was hearing things again, but another knock confirmed to him that it was actually happening.

He set down his beer on the floor and wiped his face with his sleeve. Mustering his energy, he stood up and moved to open the door. His confusion as to who might be visiting him only increased once he opened the door, as he was suddenly faced with a beautiful woman.

She was about 5’7 and looked to be in her 40’s, although the man would be beleaguered to guess the specific number. She was dressed in a simple white blouse and jeans, both of which were being hugged tight by her impressive curves. Her thick, cascading brown hair fell past her shoulders, and framed a gorgeously mature face that was showing an indescribably warm expression. The man couldn’t help but gulp and stand a little taller at the sight of the beauty in front of him, and he was utterly perplexed as to why someone like her would be visiting someone like him.

“C-Can I help you?” he asked, unable to prevent a small stutter. The woman flashed him an inquisitive smile.

“Are you Steven Randolph?” she asked, which elicited an unsure nod.

“Steve. Who are you?” replied Steve.

“My name is Elizabeth Dawson,” she answered, smiling brightly and extending her hand. Steve nervously smiled back, before reaching out and shaking Elizabeth’s hand. He marvelled at how soft her skin was. It felt like she had been applying lotion nonstop for days. Moving past this, Steve’s confusion returned.

“Nice to meet you, Elizabeth,” he said. “Is there something I can do for you?”

At this, Elizabeth’s face darkened slightly. She furrowed her brow and looked away, as if in deliberation. After a moment, she let out a small sigh.

“Well, there’s no easy way to say this,” she said. “I wanted to talk to you about Brian Bentley.”

Steve’s eyes widened, and he took a step backwards in shock. 

“W-What? Why?” he hurriedly asked, as his heart started to race.

“Well, um… because you’re the officer that arrested him, aren’t you?” Elizabeth replied, adopting a gentle smile. The blood drained from Steve’s face, and he looked down at the floor.

“No, no, no…” he muttered.

“Steve, it’s okay,” Elizabeth said softly.

“No, how do you know that?!” Steve asked angrily, as panic started to tug at his heart. “They told me that nobody would know that! They said… how do you know that?!”

“Steve, please listen to me,” Elizabeth soothed, raising both hands to show that she meant no harm. “I’m not here to cause you any trouble. I just wanted to ask you a few questions. I promise, that’s all.”

Her soft words reached his heart, and he got himself under control. 

“How do you know that?” he asked again, still looking at her with fearful eyes.

“It’s complicated,” Elizabeth answered. “May I come in, Steve? We can talk a little more.”

Although Steve wanted to slam the door in her face and run away, something about her calm demeanor compelled him to accept her request. He motioned for her to follow, before walking back into the room he came from.

“Sorry about the mess,” he muttered, turning back to face Elizabeth once they were both inside.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied with a smile.

“Anyway, what do you want? There’s nothing I can tell you about B… that kid, that you don’t already know,” he continued, his heart still racing.

“I’m not sure about that,” Elizabeth replied, before moving slightly closer. “I’m part of a group that is trying to reopen Brian Bentley’s case. We believe that his case was handled poorly, and we want to expose that fact to the public.”

Steve was stunned into silence for a moment. This woman was openly defending the Brian Bentley right in front of him? That was a first.

“You… why would you want to do that?” he asked incredulously. Elizabeth’s eyes softened slightly.

“Because we have good reason to believe that he was innocent,” she said gently.

Steve took a step back, as if he had been shot. Whatever blood was left in his face quickly evaporated.

“Y… You do?” he asked, after a long silence. Although he was too nervous to notice, Elizabeth developed a small twinkle in her eyes.

“You’re not dismissing the possibility,” she said slyly. Steve snapped out of it, and vigorously shook his head.

“N-No, that’s not possible,” he quickly said, before turning away.

“I don’t think you believe that,” Elizabeth replied, narrowing her eyes.

“Why?!” Steve asked angrily.

“Because I know what happened to you,” Elizabeth answered. “Two months after Brian Bentley was sentenced, you quit being a police officer. You got divorced, and lost custody of your son. You moved to this ratty location, and cut contact with everyone you knew. For all intents and purposes, you disappeared.”

Steve slowly turned back to face her. His look of panic had changed into one of dread.

“How do you know so much about me?” he asked quietly. 

“Steve, we believe that there was a massive conspiracy to frame Brian Bentley for that terrible crime. The problem is, for a conspiracy like that to work, everybody involved needs to be high-up. Senators, judges, people who can’t be touched. This is true of Brian Bentley’s case, except for one person. One person was a simple police officer, who happened to be the first on the scene. One person who, after their unwitting involvement in such a conspiracy, completely ran away from their own life.”

Steve sat back down in his chair, completely defeated. He felt like his deepest and most shameful secret had been discovered, and was now being held up for the world to see.

“What do you want with me?” he whispered.

“I want your help,” Elizabeth replied firmly. “You saw him. You saw the blood. You saw that he was trying to stop the bleeding with his jacket, not strangle him. You saw that he didn’t have a weapon. You heard him scream and beg you to go look for the actual killer. This didn’t stop you from arresting him, but it obviously created so much doubt later on that you completely self-destructed. I want you to tell the world what you saw. I want you to give the world the same doubts you have.”

“What I did destroyed my life,” Steve replied, as if in a trance. “You’re asking me to publicly obliterate what I have left.”

“No, I’m asking you to fix your mistake,” Elizabeth said earnestly, moving closer and placing one hand on his arm. “Whatever guilt is eating at you, whatever guilt led to your life being destroyed, this is your chance to make it right.”

“You think I haven’t thought about going public?” he asked, letting out a sigh as his eyes clouded over again. “You think I haven’t debated whether I should try telling the world what I actually saw? But every time, I just come to the same conclusion: it wouldn’t do any good. Everybody is too stuck into the narrative they were told. The people in charge would just find a way to bury it again.”

“My group wouldn’t let that happen,” Elizabeth replied, kneeling down next to the chair. “We have some influence of our own, and we’ve already done research into what media groups have ties to the people who wouldn’t want his case to be reopened. We wouldn’t let this get buried again.”

“Even still, what’s the point?” Steve muttered. “The kid is dead. Tortured to death.”

Elizabeth paused for a moment, adopting a troubled expression. Steve glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, which snapped her out of it.

“Regardless,” she said quietly, “it’s worth honoring his memory. Think about his family. Think about his little sister. The world shouldn’t remember Brian Bentley as a robot child murderer. And besides, there could be other benefits.”

“What-”

“Don't forget,” Elizabeth interrupted, “we would also be honoring Timmy Osment’s memory. Reopening Brian Bentley’s case means reopening Timmy’s as well.”

“It was three years ago. I doubt anything would-”

“Steve!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “Brian Bentley was an innocent eighteen year old kid. You saw what his mother was willing to say about him, you saw what the world was willing to say about him. He lived a life more terrifying and devastating than we could possibly imagine.”

She took a breath.

“Imagine your son going through what he did,” she whispered. Steve snapped to attention, and looked to her with wide eyes.

“Don’t bring up my son,” he said weakly.

“Your son is fourteen, right? That’s only four years younger than Brian Bentley was. Imagine your son, four years from now, with the entire world despising him. In jail for the rest of his life, where he would be treated like a child murderer by the other inmates. Believing that his own family gave up on him. Then, imagine him being re-sentenced to death via shrinking and torturing. You’ve read the stories of what Chevaliers do to convicts. Imagine that happening to your baby boy, when he did nothing wrong!”

Steve turned away, and began to quietly cry. He buried his face in one of his arms as his shoulders began to lightly shake. The thought was too terrible for him to imagine, and the guilt that he let it happen to somebody else was shredding his heart. Elizabeth wasn’t done, however.

“Now imagine that somebody out there had a chance to clear his name. And they were choosing not to, because your boy was already dead and they believed it didn’t matter anymore. Would you be okay with their reasoning?” she asked, her face darkening even more.

“N-No,” Steve choked out. “I would want to k-kill them.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“This is your chance to make it right. Come with me. Tell the world what you saw.”

Steve let out an enormous sigh, as the last of his tears ran down his face. At that moment, he came to a decision.

“I’ll help you,” he whispered. Elizabeth’s face lit up, but she was interrupted before she could respond.

“But I’m not coming with you,” he continued, before standing up from his chair. Elizabeth rose from her kneeling position and looked at him quizzically. 

“Once I realized the sneaky way they were handling the kid’s case, I pulled off a sneaky move of my own,” he started, walking over to a computer desk. He pulled open a drawer and began rummaging around inside.

“I don’t know why. Maybe I thought it would be of use some day. Maybe I just wanted a permanent reminder of what actually happened.”

He found what he was looking for, and pulled it out. It was a small, black flash drive, less than half the size of his little finger.

“I did end up finding a use for it,” he continued. “Every year, on the anniversary of his arrest, I watch the video that’s on this drive.”

He walked over to Elizabeth and placed the drive in her hand.

“I watch it, then debate killing myself,” he said plainly. Elizabeth’s eyes widened at his casual confession, and her heart began to race.

“But I’m a coward,” he whispered. “Regardless, it’s better off in your hands. With it, you don’t need me.”

“Wh… what’s on it?” Elizabeth asked, with tremendous trepidation.

“My bodycam footage,” Steve replied. Elizabeth’s heart stopped, and she instantly closed her hand around the drive and took a few steps backwards, as if to stop him from being able to take it back. Steve chuckled at her reaction.

“I’m afraid you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s really there,” he said. “I can’t let you play it here.”

“Why not?” Elizabeth asked.

“Because once you watch it, you’ll despise me,” he answered, with a somber smile.

“I see,” she replied quietly.

“You better get going,” he sighed. “There’s nothing else I can do for you.”

Elizabeth nodded, before moving slightly closer.

“Thank you, Steve. You’re doing the right thing. And one day, you’ll understand why.”

With that, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a soft embrace. After a moment of shock, Steve relaxed and closed his eyes. He knew that it might be the last time a woman ever hugged him.

Elizabeth released him, and with a small smile made her way to the door. Just before she reached the handle, though, she turned back.

“As a former police officer, what do you think the odds are that they find the actual killer?” she asked. 

“I have no fucking idea,” Steve replied instantly. Elizabeth let out a small sigh, before nodding and finally making her way outside. Once she was gone, Steve collapsed into his chair, grabbing his beer and draining the rest of it. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. A moment later, it evaporated as he came to a terrifying realization.

“How did she know what happened at the crime scene?” he whispered, wondering who in the hell he had just given his flash drive to.

~

Elizabeth got inside her car, and examined the flash drive. She couldn’t help but smile widely, thoroughly excited that she was literally holding the most important piece of evidence. After a moment, though, her expression darkened. The image of Steve crying reentered her mind, and she suddenly felt extremely ashamed.

“When did I get this way?” she whispered, drawing one hand to her mouth. A second later, she steeled her resolve and let out a huff.

“I’m doing it for Brian,” she said resolutely. At that, she picked up her phone and gave someone a call.

“Allie?” she said eagerly, after a few moments of ringing. “Brian was right. I have the fucking bodycam footage!”

~~~