Alarm bells rang in my mind and I tried to open my eyes, but my struggle was futile.
I felt a sharp, prickling sensation in my arm, but I could not bounce up from the bed at all.
Once I regained my consciousness after some time, I looked at my arm and noticed an obvious track mark.
Before I could figure out what happened, two female cops opened the door and walked toward me. “Please come with us, Ms. Stovall.”
A line formed between my brows. I looked at them and asked, “What time is it now?”
“It’s five ‘o clock in the evening,” one of the cops said. “Come on. Let’s go.”
They were supposed to release me in another six hours.
As usual, they brought me to the same interrogation room, but I was not alone this time.
A doctor dressed in his white coat was in the room as well.
I sat down, and the cop asked, “Based on the test results, we believe you’ve abused illegal substances. So now, we’ll be carrying a more thorough body check-up, and we hope you can cooperate with us.”
I pressed my lips but did not respond to what she just told me. “Is my lawyer coming?”
She hesitated for a moment. “We’ve yet to receive any updates about your lawyer. Let’s begin the body check-up now.”
I was pretty sure I would cause more trouble for myself had I refused to cooperate with them.
So I nodded and followed the doctor, who seemed to be in his forties.
He collected the samples for the blood and urine tests and wanted to continue with an inspection of my nether regions.
I shot daggers at the doctor and outright rejected him. “Why do you have to inspect my private part if you want to find out if I’ve abused any substances?”
The doctor called the cop over, and she said, “Please stay calm and cooperate with us. The syringe we found in your bag contains HIV, so we need to find out and see if you’re infected.”
My expression turned grim. Do they expect me to comply with their ridiculous demand? This is madness!
“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to proceed with the inspection. There’s something fishy going on here and I’m feeling like this is all a trap.” I gave everyone in the room a disdainful look.
“You can detect HIV from the blood sample you’ve collected earlier, so there’s no need for you to inspect my private part,” I continued. “I want to speak to my lawyer.”
The expression on the cop’s face turned grim. “You’d better not challenge us, Ms. Stovall.”
I let out a cold snort and stopped playing nice. “What you’re doing is clearly a violation of the standard operating procedures. I’m just defending my right.”
I was aware that another five or six hours had passed, and I could definitely smell a rat now.
I believe Savini would have found me a lawyer or two by now even though he might not be as resourceful as before.
Yet, several hours had passed, but I was still here all alone.
Something’s very wrong here. I guess I can’t count on him anymore. But who else can I depend on since I don’t know anyone in A City?
I looked at the cop and demanded once again, “Let me talk to my family right now.”
She refused to budge. “Now is not the time for that. Let’s complete the inspection first.”
“No!” I roared. Upon noticing the phone in the doctor’s coat, I instantly pushed him to the ground and grabbed the phone from his pocket.
Yet, before I could open the phone, the cop instantly came up and snatched it away. Without any hesitation, she pinned me to the ground, pressed my face against the icy tiles on the floor, and cuffed my hands behind my back.
My arms were in so much pain, but I could not even utter a word.
The cop bellowed, “Scarlett Stovall, I can detain you for a longer period since you refused to cooperate!”
I could only press my lips since I could not talk. In the meantime, I was trying to think of ways to escape from this hellhole.
More cops came over and brought me back to the room where I was detained.
The chief came over, and a hard glint flashed across her eyes. “You’d better do as we said. You don’t want us to dump you in the woods and let you die and rot in the wild, do you?”
