“Yes, of course.” The woman’s eyes darted around. “I’ll be right back. Why don’t you have a seat?” She pointed to the four chairs along the back wall.
Augusta walked over to the chairs but didn’t sit. She paced back and forth with her arms folded across her chest as she tried to stop shaking.
“Hello, Augusta, was it?” an officer asked from behind her.
She whipped around to see a tall, large officer.
“Yes. I’m Augusta. I need to report a crime.” She clutched her bag to her chest and her voice began to crack as she finally started feeling safe, safe enough to share her story with the police without fear of being rejected.
“Okay, miss, calm down. We’ll come right over here to my office and fill out a statement.” He led her into the room next to the waiting area and pulled out the chair across from his, allowing her to feel more comfortable.
“Let me just grab a sheet here, and then you can begin telling me what happened.” He fumbled around in his desk drawers for a few seconds and then pulled out a big thick pad of paper and a pen.
“All right, I’m ready to start whenever you are.”
She sat there still for a moment, not knowing where to begin. She hadn’t really had time to process what happened. She knew she could get in trouble for being at the slaughterhouse in the first place, but she couldn’t let the crime go unnoticed.
“Well …” She looked down into her lap and nervously played with her fingers while her knee bounced up and down. “I was out at the old, abandoned slaughterhouse, taking pictures for my photography class.”
“Why were you doing that there? That place has been closed to the public for years,” he interrupted.
“I know. But I really don’t think that will matter as much as the rest of what I need to tell you.”
“All right, I’ll overlook that for now.” He sighed. “Please, continue.”
“Yes, so I was taking pictures of the structure, lost in my own world. All of a sudden, I heard someone scream. Of course, I couldn’t ignore someone’s cries for help, so I tried to find where the noise had come from.” Her hands started to tremble as her voice sounded weaker.
He nodded, just listening and writing down her words.
“I found two men standing over another. The one guy was on the ground, absolutely still. I accidentally dropped my camera, and the flash went off, alerting them that they weren’t alone. So they both ran after me. But one of them changed.” The sound of confusion flooded the room.
“Changed?” he questioned.
“Yes, changed. I turned around to see, and one had shifted into a wolf!”
“Okay, whoa. Can you pause for just a moment? I need to grab my partner for this.” He stood from his desk and called down the hall.
Another man pulled up a chair beside him, and they both stared at her. The first officer handed his pad of notes to his partner and gave him a second to read it.
“A wolf, huh?” The guy laughed.
“I’m not sure what’s funny about that, but yes, a wolf.” Being laughed at by a man who was paid to protect the town caused her anger to rise. She knew she shouldn’t trust anyone. Humans hurt other humans and she was tired of playing that game.
“Miss, were you maybe at the slaughterhouse for a different reason, maybe, to hide your usage?”
“Um. Excuse me. Absolutely not. I have the photos on my camera to prove what I was there for.”
“I thought you said you dropped your camera?” the first officer chimed in.
They seemed to be teaming up against her.
“I did. But I grabbed it before I ran. I wasn’t leaving it there.”
His partner had clearly started to persuade the first officer, making her seem like she was doing something worse than just taking pictures instead of actually listening to the crime she was there to report.
She didn’t understand why he didn’t believe her, but he was making the first officer change his mind about her.
“I think we need to be talking about the fact that you just admitted to trespassing.”