Free My Sister's Keeper by Bill Benners

wondered if this once tranquil backdrop had been changed forever. The police tape and the colored flags would soon be gone, but would I ever feel peace here again?
    I moved to a wooden chair, sat, and sipped the whiskey. A strobe flashed inside my house. I laid my head back and closed my eyes. How could those panties have gotten under that cushion? As Sam moved about under the bushes, I replayed Ashleigh’s route through my house from the kitchen to the love seat, to the window, and back to the love seat. She never went near the couch.
    Sam came up the steps and paused. “Don’t see them. Would you mind walking me through the events of the other night again?” He lumbered past me leaving a trail of mud and went back inside. Danny’s flash went off again somewhere in the house. I drained the glass, rose, and followed Sam. Carrying the empty glass, I walked Sam through the re-staging of events while Lizard Lips picked through dirty glasses around the sink, put them in plastic bags, and labeled them.
    “ Do you mind telling me again what you did after you went to her house?” Sam asked.
    Danny followed Staten around taking photographs of anything the officer pointed out. I exhaled slowly. “I told you my attorney said not to say anything else.”
    “ I was thinking if you could just go over the same things you’ve already told us.”
    I squeezed my fingers against my eyes. “She...unlocked the door and we went inside. I had a flashlight with me and she pointed me toward the kitchen  ”
    “ Could we see the flashlight, please?”
    I sighed. “Sure.” I drained the last drops from the glass as I went to the drawer by the back door. As I pulled it open, it dawned on me that it wouldn’t be there. And it wasn’t. I closed the drawer slowly. “It’s still over at her house.”
    “ Could you describe it?”
    “ It was one of those long black metal flashlights  the kind you guys carry. Held three or four batteries.”
    Sam made a note. “What happened after you went inside?”
    As Staten feathered a brush along the edge of the back door, black prints appeared. I figured they were mine. I couldn’t remember Ashleigh touching the door. “She showed me to the box where I found the main circuit breaker switched off. I reset it and everything came back on.”
    “ You said before that the breaker was tripped.”
    “ Yes, I know, but—actually—it had been switched off.”
    “ How do you know?”
    “ When they trip, they only go half off and have a red marker. This breaker was off.”
    “ What happened after that?”
    “ She…fixed me a drink and went to her room to—”
    “ Bedroom?”
    “ Yes. To get ready for a pose she wanted to show me.”
    “ A pose?”
    “ For the photographs she needed to get an audition for that movie they’re going to be making here.”
    “ What movie is that?”
    “ I don’t know—a Brad Pitt movie.”
    “ And then you…?”
    “ Well…after that, I’m not sure. Like I said, I passed out. I didn’t think I’d had that much to drink, but I must have.”
    “ Where? In the kitchen?”
    “ I was…on her bed.”
    “ On her bed?”
    I could still feel her weight against me as she pushed me down and fell on top of me.
    “ Richard?”
    I looked up. “Yes?”
    “ You were on her bed?”
    The photographer looked over at me and waited to hear the answer. I lifted the bottle of scotch and poured a short drink. “Yes.”
    Lizard Lips worked his way to the den and began examining the items on the coffee table.
    “ And where was she?” Jones asked.
    I took in a breath and expelled it. “She was lying on top of me.”
    “ She was on top of you?”
    A smile passed over the photographer’s face. I chugged the scotch and swallowed. “Yes.”
    “ Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around?”
    I turned to the sink and filled the glass with cold tap water. “She was on top of me.” I drained the glass and filled it again.
    “ And that was around