"The Confession"

The Confession

Brooklyn. 1968. 

Cigarette smoke pollutes the air. Andrew Murray, slouching in his steel chair, clasps his hands over his head. The silhouette of Officer James Rodriguez of the Brooklyn homicide division can be seen through the dim lighting. 

Rodriguez stands silently in the corner of the room taking a final deep drag from his cigarette. He smothers out the flame of his cigarette butt right onto the table top and pulls a second chair out, never breaking eye contact with Murray.
 Rodriguez pulls another stick from his pack. 

This time Rodriguez offers Murray a cigarette. "Smoke?"

Murray nods yes.

The officer plucks out two sticks and shares one of his cigarettes with the suspect. 

Rodriguez pulls a lighter from his pocket and lights his own cigarette.

Murray leans over the table waiting for Rodriquez to light his cigarette.

Rodriguez instead stashes the lighter back into his pocket.

"Legally we can detain you a full 24 hours,"  Rodriguez informs Murray.


Rodriguez waits for a response but Murray keeps quiet.

Rodriguez sighs and throws down a file on the desk.  He adds: "Neither of us are going anywhere until I hear what I need to hear." 
The two stare each other down, one trying to read the other. 

To Rodriguez's bewilderment, Murray starts chewing up his unlit cigarette. Murray then spits out the tobacco, paper, and saliva onto the file. 


Rodriguez flies across the table at him. He lifts Murray up by the collar of his shirt and slams him against the back wall. Rodriguez stares through Murray, shaking with nervous energy. The officer throws Murray back into his chair. 


"I'm not playing any more games with you, understand?" Rodriguez yells.


"You've got to believe me I'm not making this up, it's the truth" Murray begs.


"You honestly expect me to believe that you have no memory of anything that happened in your life for the last 72 hours?" Rodriguez complains. "You see, when our guys picked you up at the scene and you gave them this story, we ran some tests... Can you guess what they found Andrew?" 

A silence consumes the room as Murray waits for the officer to finish is thought.

"Nothing." "No signs of trauma, no whiplash, no bruising, not even a scratch." Rodriguez cackled. "Certainly nothing that would justify this memory loss bullshit you're trying spout off." Rodriguez chides


"I'm telling you this isn't bullshit, something happened to me and everything went dark and the next thing I know it's three days later" "I'm begging you, you've got to believe me" Murray bawled.


"I'm done with you" James barks.

Rodriguez gets up from the interrogation table and throws his chair to the side. It slams against the cold concrete floor. Just as he is about to close the door and walk out.

"WAIT!" Murray yells.


James stops but doesn't turn around, he silently stands in between the room and the outside world waiting to hear what Murray has to say. An eternity, or what feels like one, passes as Murray looks for the perfect combination of words to grab the officers attention.

"I keep getting these flashes...little pieces of information" Murray grumbles

"I don't know what they mean, but I'm sure they add up to what exactly happened these last three days" Murray disclosed.


Officer Rodriguez turns around and stares at Murray. As he does the door slowly shuts behind him, the two are alone in dim and dark room cut off from the real world once again. With an expression of hesitant curiosity James picks the chair up from off the floor. He brings the chair back to its rightful place at the table and he sits down.


"I keep seeing little events that are obviously a prelude to a bigger picture" Murray confessed.

"But these things I'm seeing are so random and vague, they don't make any sense to me" Murray breathed.


"Tell me" James bellowed.


Then Murray tells James about all the little flashes he has seen in his head since he was picked up by the police, and up till the very instant the two men find themselves in. Murray tells him about seeing his wife enter their local bank, alone, on Wednesday. Then Murray tells him how on Thursday he saw her at lunch, sitting outside at a table with an umbrella above it at a little cafe in the village. How later that night she saw her leave a home in East Orange.


Murray pauses, he looks down at the table almost as if he is looking for answers. He raises his head up and looks into James' eyes. He tells the officer how he remembers sitting down at a living room table on Friday evening. He tells him that he wasn't sure how he got there, because he didn't recognize the room. He says then his wife came from around a corner and then it was just the two of them sitting there. He explains that he was at one end and his wife was sitting down at the other, but it seemed like the table stretched for miles. Murray tells James he remembers seeing candles lit, how the light was hazy but he could see the flames dancing in the darkened room. He then says he could see his wife's mouth moving but couldn't make out what she was saying. Murray tells him that as each word came out the room got darker and darker until there was nothing.




"The next thing I remember after that was you and five other police officers swarming me in my bed, pointing guns and flashlights at me" Murray continued.




James sits at the desk soaking in all the information, not moving a muscle nor saying a single word. Then taking his clenched up hand pressed firmly against his cheek away from the side of his face, James looks at Murray.




"How long has it been?" "How long have you and Michelle been separated Andrew?" James questioned.




"I'm not sure, it's got to be around 8 months now...why?" Murray pondered.




"Because with that story you just told me and the five separate times she called complaining about domestic violence, how do you not expect me to believe that you have nothing to do with her death?" James implied.




"Come on James that's bullshit and you know it!" Murray hissed




"WHY!" James exploded.




"Because you were the responding officer to all those calls!" "And you know every single accusation was bullshit!" Murray jeered.

"No evidence, no witnesses, no charges filed, nothing!" Murray noted




James gets up from the table and collects his things, and puts them in order. Then he leans over the table with both hands grasping the sides and leans in to say something.




"I know when we started talking you told me you didn't want a lawyer" James says




"Now I'm telling you, you need one" James cautioned.




Then James stands up straight and walks out. He slams the door behind him and leaves Murray alone in the room. Hours pass and all the while Murray has been yelling for James to come back. He yells that he refuses to seek council, and pleads for James to come back and finish talking with him. After some time James comes through the door once again, but this time he is not alone.




"Who is that with you" Murray asked. 




"We'll get to that" James states. 




James calmly walks back to the table and once again sits down across from Murray. Meanwhile the man in the corner is holding a large sized container, eagerly waiting to be called on by Officer Rodriguez. 




"I just wanted to ask you a couple things before we get started" James said. 




"Get started with what" Murray says with a stern but cautious tone. 




"What did Michelle find out about you" James questions. 




"I have no idea what you're talking about" a growingly confused Murray mumbles. 




Then James explains to Murray how he met Michelle at a fund raiser that was being sponsored by Murray's foundation a couple years earlier. How when they spoke all she talked about was Murray and how much she loved him. Then James asked Murray to explain what happened in a span of two years that caused their relationship to evaporate so quickly. How it could go from head over heels love to multiple domestic violence allegations. How it could go from talking about starting a family together to separating and hardly speaking at all. 




"What did she know?" James guessed "She found out something about you, and I think it's what started all this" "I think that whatever she knew made it so she couldn't stand by you anymore" "But she loved you to much to tell anyone or doing anything about it" James says. 




Murray's expression changes on a dime, instead of confused and scared he's become cold and calculated. Murray's silence says more than anything he has said to James all night. Then James explains that the man in the corner is here to administer a lie detector test. He asks Murray if he will sign a piece of paper that says he is fully and willingly cooperating with the test. The the examiner moves from the shadows and beings to set up the test at the table. James is standing over the shoulder of the examiner who is sitting in front of Murray. The examiner connects Murray to the machine and the test is ready to begin. 




"Okay Mr. Murray I am going to ask you some basic questions to start, just to get a baseline" the examiner says. 




Murray sits motionless staring at the wall. 




"Is your name Andrew Murray" the examiner asks. 




"Yes" Murray responds. 




"Is today June 20th, 1968" the examiner says. 




"Yes" Murray says once again. 




"Are we in Brooklyn, New York?"  the examiner asks. 




"Yes" Murray repeats. 




"Are you being held for questioning in connection to the death of your wife Michelle Murray" the examiner states. 




"Yes" Murray says again. 




"Did you kill or have any part in the death of your wife Michelle Murray" the examiner says. 




Then suddenly Murray looks away from the wall and looks straight at Officer James Rodriguez.