WHO: Owen and Alpha WHAT: Detective Moran interrogates Alpha. Alpha is super crazy and not-super-but-for-reals-he-didn't-do-it-this-time innocent.
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This was going to be a lot more difficult than interrogating Madeline.
Owen had finished with her and he was tired. Four hours with her. Shouldn't have taken that long but her indignation over the situation just made her suspicious. Or maybe he was stalling. He didn't want to lock himself willingly in a room with Alpha. With Alpha.
He'd been trapped with Alpha before. He knew what Alpha was capable of doing and he didn't want to be part of this. At all. Part of it was that he was afraid of Alpha. The other part was that he wasn't sure what he'd do to him if left alone with him. He wanted to kill him, and that wasn't a possibility right now.
He sat down after admitting Alpha into the room, watching him closely with a hard stare. He looked like he wanted to jump across the table and throttle him.
"Come on, Alpha. Quit the game."
Alpha seemed relaxed, at the moment. He leaned back in his chair, one arm over the back while the other rested on the table, legs lazily falling open. He watched Owen with more annoyance than anything else, touching his tongue to the side of his upper lip.
"I can't, Detective."
Owen willed himself to relax and not beat the shit out of him with his prosthetic hand. "It's your style. You're the one in control. You take out the one who used to be in control, the one who put you here, the one who made you like this. You're not getting along so well with yourself these days, are you."
"And I would lie about it ... why?" Alpha shrugged. "I was busy when she was killed. Ask the people across the hall."
"Busy doing what."
Alpha snorted. "What do you think? I was fucking Whiskey. Loudly."
Owen didn't blink. "You have fun?"
"Loads. Want to know how?"
"Helps build your alibi. Shoot."
"Up against the bookcase, in the ass, and I may or may not have been calling her Brittany for most of the night. There was also whipped cream and handcuffs," Alpha said casually, his smile lewd. "Then again, that's just a normal evening you for and Miss Sinclair, isn't it?"
"Yep. I should have known you were downright vanilla, Alpha." Owen shook his head. "'Most of the night' isn't 'all of the night.'"
"It was a quiet night." Alpha shrugged. "The rest of the night, she was fucking me. And then we went to sleep."
Owen didn't look bothered. "Can't gross me out, man. Give up. So you and Whiskey went to sleep. At the same time? You sure she didn't get up and sneak off? Give you a little present to make you proud?"
"I'm not trying to gross you out, Owen," Alpha replied, matter-of-fact. "If anyone lets his girlfriend shove a cock up his ass, it's you. You asked. But if that's a challenge, I'll get back to you when the horse is involved."
"Stop protecting her, Alpha."
"Who's protecting her? Crystal can handle herself just fine." Without meaning to, his voice had taken on a slight Southern swing. "Girl wouldn't go killin' anyone without me. 'Sides, she was with me all night; I don't sleep so well, I'd've noticed her leavin'."
"Are you always aware of what every other brain up there is doing?" Owen watched him carefully. "Do you always know?"
"Always. I'm always awake. I see everything---it's why I can't sleep, why everything, every little tiny thing I do, both elates and sickens me. I'm never asleep." Alpha fidgeted, his hand flexing before his fingers drummed against the table.
Owen grunted. "Honestly, I don't give a shit whether you killed Adelle."
"I didn't do it!" Alpha snapped, as if he hadn't even heard Owen say he didn't care. "I wouldn't have done it that way. I wouldn't have done it now."
"Oh, yeah? Do tell. I'm just dying to know, Alpha. Really. I didn't know the bitch. I don't care about her. Just so we're clear."
For some reason, that infuriated him. Alpha stood, shoving the table in Owen's direction. "She was brilliant! You're no one, Detective; she was better than you, better than nearly any of these people. The way she died is the way I would kill you, not her."
"I'm sure you would," Owen said quietly. He caught the table with his foot before it actually hit him, and now he rested his foot against it. "Just like you killed all those other people. Just like you trapped everyone, even innocent people who got too close. Just like you played with us like we were your toys, your puppets. But Adelle was special, was she? Adelle was above all that? You trapped her, you tortured her as much as anyone else. And now that she's dead you have the gall to call her better."
"No no no no, what I did never got to Adelle the way it got to them. She was so put together, so perfect. She was a goddess," Alpha commented, wistful all of a sudden. "Athena reborn. No, I would never kill her. Dominic, maybe. ...Definitely. Would have definitely killed Dominic, and once he was dead I could have made her love me."
Owen stared at him. Well, shit. He wasn't expecting that. "But she didn't love you, Alpha. You destroyed her house."
"It was just a house of cards, Owen. It was falling long before I came." He sighed, shaking his head. "It was a game. Just ... foreplay."
"Wasn't a very fun game."
"Not for you, maybe." Alpha shrugged. "It was always a game. Whiskey, Topher, Dominic. Everyone else. You made it what it was, not me. I just helped a little. Besides, you got something out of it. You saw your little friend alive and you found someone slutty enough to keep you company. I don't know what you're complaining about."
"If I was just a little more corrupt I'd shoot you right here. But that's not my right."
"Try it. You wouldn't even have time to draw your gun. She knows she's a slut and you seem pretty comfortable with it." Alpha shifted, relaxing a bit. "You have the wrong person."
"You insulting Beth is the least of my problems with you, Alpha. I know you didn't kill Adelle. But you don't deserve to get off." Owen grimaced. Fucking injustice. This was ridiculous.
"I am your best friend in this place, Owen. You have no idea." He brushed some lint off of his shirt. "I'm leaving now. I'm bored."
"Get out." Owen couldn't take it right now. Alpha didn't do it. He would have let everyone know. He wouldn't lie. Other people would lie. They required more time. Alpha... not so much.
Alpha's only response was to laugh, holding his stomach on his way out. He made it about as far as the next room before he sank down into a chair, the laughter turning into heavy, painful sobs.
Owen lifted his head and winced. He suddenly felt guilty for listening. No. He'd scratch Alpha off the list.