In the department store there are two ten-year-old children, a boy with curly hair, big and bright eyes, and a blue coat. The other was also a boy, with some freckles on his face, and always with a solemn look after laughing.

The two often get together after skipping class, running from stall to stall, stealing candy, potato chips, and soldier toys. If the salesman hadn't found them in time, I'm afraid they would have been scolded by the boss again.

Two children lie on a bench and enjoy their stolen snacks. They pointed the GI toys in their hands in all directions, and the sound of firing in their mouths was so childish and full of innocence.

When they got tired of playing with the GI toys, they stood on the slide and found a high position, and then smashed it to pieces. The two walked boredly through the mall until they met a three-and-a-half-year-old boy with curiosity written all over his face.....

"Jon...."

A man in a police uniform sat across from the curly-haired boy, calling out to him, but the voice was ethereal and hazy.

"Jon." Kane whispered to him again and asked, "Do you know why we're looking for you?" Jon? ”

When he came back to his senses, Jon realized that he had arrived at the police station, and his mother was sitting next to him. It was a police office, which was temporarily turned into an interrogation room for the sake of the child's humanity.

"I don't know." Jon replied as he looked at him.

Kane said, "Why am I talking to you? ”

"Because of that boy?" Jon suddenly understood what he meant, and his tone was a little higher, "It's not me, I've never been to Selmo!" ”

"Let's not talk about this yet." Kane began to ask him some other topics, and he wanted to make sure that the child was not mentally or mentally flawed, "Do you know what the truth is?" ”

The boy was silent for a moment, and then said, "When you did something, and you really did it." ”

Kane then asked, "Do you think it's bad to lie?" ”

"Yes."

"If I say your face is green... Or do I say your face is pink, is that a lie? ”

Jon nodded.

Kane pushed his tongue to his cheeks and sat up straight, an answer that sent him a chill. He reluctantly said, "Okay, so you know what lying is." ”

In another office at the end of the hallway, the boy with the freckles on his face was also being questioned by several police officers. His mother sat next to him with a very unsightly expression on her face, and she thought that the police had arrested the wrong person.

Compared to the innocent-looking Jon, he was very calm, staring at people with a pair of cold eyes that did not match his age.

"Robert, the patrol found you near the bridge in Anfield, and they said you and Jon were going to throw the kid into the river." Director Greck asked him.

Robert: "No, they weren't talking about me, because I hadn't touched her at all, I just happened to be passing by." The little boy replied calmly.

Gleike: "Okay, let's not talk about this girl, let's talk about Benjamin. Jones. You recognize him at a glance on the surveillance footage you've shown you earlier, and we think you and Jon took him. ”

Robert: "Who said that?" ”

The director and his colleague looked at each other for a moment and said, "We." ”

Robert: "No, we never took him away. ”

Greck was a little annoyed by him, rolled his eyes and said, ".... Just directly... Tell us what happened next. ”

Robert was a little annoyed and said, "I've never touched him, I've never touched him......"

Gleick's colleague added: "We had an old woman's testimony that she had seen two little boys with a small child near the reservoir, and I think she was talking about you and Jon. ”

When he said this, Robert remembered the old woman of that day. She was hunched over her crutches, her legs were not very sharp, and the sun shone on her silver curls, and she looked kind.

"What's wrong with this kid?" The old woman asked, pointing to little Benjamin.

Little Benjamin sat between Jon and Robert, as if he had just cried, with a noticeable bruise on his forehead.

Jon thought for a moment and said, "We just found him at the foot of the mountain, and it looks like he's lost. ”

The old woman reached out and opened the curtain on Benjamin's head, looked at the scar and asked, "Did he fall?" The bruising looks severe. ”

"That's what happened when we found him." Robert said.

The old woman was puzzled, but she didn't think much of it. She looked at the poor boy and said, "You'd better take him to the police station quickly, do you know where the police station is?" ”

"Yes, we'll take him there." Jon said.

Coming out of the memory, the boy looked at the police officer in front of him again.

"Jon, you should know that Robert is also at the police station and has a different say about this." Kane watched him preach.

Jon's eyes instantly welled up with tears, and he said with a look of grievance, "... Robert may be lying. ”

Kane's colleague asked, "What do you think Robert might have lied?" ”

"I don't know.....," Jon looked down and thought for a moment, then cried out to them, "you think I killed that kid?" ”

His mother immediately reassured, "No, they don't, don't be afraid, Jon. ”

Kane: "Nobody said that, Jon. ”

Jon's mother stroked his head and said, "They just want to make sure where you've been, and tell them if you've just been playing all day." ”

“.... I've never been to Selmo.....," said the little boy with tears in his face.

Kane: "Is this the truth or is it lying?" ”

Jon: ".... The truth..."

The boy's mother felt sorry for him and defended herself to the police: "Jon told me that Robert is a very good liar, and often makes up a big lie for a small thing. ”

Kane continued: "Robert said you were together all day that day, and you went to Selmo together. ”

Jon: "No! I didn't! ”

Kane: "But Robert said you have. ”

Jon immediately changed his tune and said, "Yes, we've been, but we've never touched the kid. ”

His mother's eyes widened for a moment, and she looked at her son, feeling deeply deceived.

Kane: "So you did go to Selmo?" ”

"You've really been to Selmo??!!!" His mom asked loudly by pinching his shoulder.

"Yes! But we didn't catch the kids! Mom. ”

Jon was clearly frightened by his mother and cried out loudly, "We didn't catch the baby, Mommy!" We don't! ”

Kane hurriedly signaled, "Mrs. Werther, please don't be angry with him, please don't..."

"Okay, okay, I got it." His mother held him in her arms and comforted, "Shhhh Jon, okay, Jon. ”

Jon's mood calmed down a bit, and he said, "We've been to Selmo, we've seen the kid, but we've never touched the kid..... You think we did it, Mom, but we don't, we don't have ......"

Kane and his colleague looked at each other and looked at him speechless, this kid was very good at lying. When the boy was quiet, Kane said to him, "You have to be honest, Jon, you've been making up stories. ”

"I've never touched him! I've never touched him! ”

The colleague then asked, "So Robert did it?" ”

The boy nodded.

The colleague and Kane looked at each other and said, "Okay, let's go back to the scene and make sure." ”

The little boy shouted excitedly again, "I have never touched him!" I've never touched him!! ”

Then he rushed into Kane's arms and cried, much to Kane's loss.

"Oh, okay, okay, kid, it's okay, calm down, kid." Kane stroked his back and soothed, "Okay, okay, relax, go back to your mother." ”

The little boy returned to his mother's arms, sobbing and saying, "I didn't. Mom...."

With tears in her eyes, the mother choked up on her son's face and said, "I know you will never treat a child like that." ”

Robert, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm. Even with ironclad evidence, he has always denied that he has ever been in contact with Benjamin Jr., which makes the police exhausted.

"Robert, if little Benjamin is bleeding and we find blood on your and Jon's shoes and pants, you were there when he bled out." Greck explained to him.

Robert: "How do you know it's his blood?" ”

Greck: "We know because we have his body. ”

Robert: "Where?" ”

Greck: "Wherever he was, it's possible that he went to the hospital to have his blood drawn first. ”

Robert obviously didn't understand the process of the blood test, and wondered, "What are you going to the hospital for?" He.... Are they trying to save him? ”

Gleik: "No, they don't have that ability. ”

Hearing that the little boy could not come back from the dead, Robert's expression suddenly relaxed a lot, and he raised his eyebrows with an indifferent attitude. "I heard he was split in half, so there's no way he'll come back to life, right?"

Greck looked at him creepy, feeling like he was looking at a demon, his brows furrowed and shocked.

The little boy noticed that the chief was looking at him, gave him a disgusted look, and raised his hand uncomfortably to scratch his neck.

"The blood may be mine because I scratched it." Robert argued.

Greck's colleague couldn't take it anymore and spread his hands and said, ".... Scratches don't get on your shoes, and you get blood on your shoes. ”

Robert frowned and shouted angrily, "You just want to say that I killed him!" Why not ask Jon? I've never touched that kid! ”

The interrogation is at an impasse again, and whoever it is, the two children have always denied that they have touched little Benjamin, and they have shifted the blame to each other in order to exonerate themselves.

The first interrogation was fruitless, so the police had to leave them at the police station first, ease each other's minds, and discuss how to get the two children to speak by the way.

On the couch in the police lounge, Jon's mother held her son's face and looked at him, she probably realized that he had done something terrible and cried all his makeup.

"Jon, Dad and I want to have a few words with you." She choked up at her son.

"We want you to know that no matter what you... What have you done, even if.... Something with very, very serious consequences .... We want you to know that we will always love you for the rest of our lives, Jon. ”

"That's right, son." Jon's father said as he sat on the other side of his son, his body like a backer, "But you have to tell the truth, Jon. ”

After a moment of silence, Jon finally broke down, buried his head in his mother's arms and cried, "I killed you..."

He was like a child who had done something wrong, no, he was a child, crying and begging his parents for forgiveness. His mother's expression was like a thunderbolt from the sky, and she hugged him and cried bitterly.

“.... I killed that child..."

In the shadows across from the family, Kane stood by the door against the wall, his head hung and he didn't say a word. It was a cold day outside, and white light shone through the window into the house and on the family.

They hugged each other and cried for a long time, and all Kane could do was be silent.

Jon looked up from his mother's arms and asked Kane, "What about the child's mother?" ”

Kane lowered his eyes instantly, not knowing how to answer him.

"Can you tell her I'm sorry?" Jon continued.

The walls of the corridor of the interrogation room had long since become old, the lower half was tulip blue, the upper half was yellowish off-white up to the ceiling. It's as old as this police station, it's so oppressive, it's not like a place for kids to be.