@forceworn liked this for a benoit blanc starter!
the hard plastic and metal of the chair was beginning to wear on him. benoit glanced briefly from the newspaper on the table in front of him to the watch on his wrist. just over 40 minutes. he had known he was playing the long game here, but now he wished he’d requested some more plush chairs for him and his companion.
she sat across from him, handcuffed to the interrogation table. he’d requested that the officers remove them for his interview — because indeed, that was what he preferred to call his conversations, far more than the word ‘interrogation’. they’d refused, of course. they believed her guilty of murder. blanc supposed she was an easy scapegoat for them, connected loosely and more or less having admitted to the crime itself… but no. the pieces didn’t fit, and some outright contradicted what he knew to be true. there was more at play here.
still, it would be hard to prove her innocence and find the real culprit behind the crime if she refused to speak with him. the local force would only tolerate his continued poking for so long before they wrote the case off as solved. blanc turned his attention back towards the crossword, tapping the eraser of his pencil against the side of his cheek.
❛ i seem to be a bit stuck, ❜ he confided in her after a moment, ❛ 111 across, six letters, three and four ’s’ and ‘a’, ‘attack fervently’. i’d thought assault, but that’s- well, that’s maddeningly one letter too many. ❜
