“What’s your name?”
“Sappho.”
“Is that your first name or last name?”
“It’s my name. There’s no more.”
“Look, the boss asked me to interview you, but it’s my reputation on the line here, so if you’re not going to be straight forward with me, I’m not doing the interview. This is my career after all.”
“You’re Stephanie right? I’ve seen you do the news before.”
“That’s right.”
“Stephanie, I don’t think you understand that this will be your career maker. I’m bringing you a story as a witness to the crimes.”
“All right. Let’s just roll and we’ll see where it goes.”
Stephanie calls the camera man over and a makeup lady. After a lot of fuss and setup, she sits down and introduces me to the camera.
“So, you call yourself Sappho? Is that an alias?”
“Sappho is more like a nickname. It’s what people call me.”
“Right, right. Well, from early reports that we’re getting, you and your accomplice Stain sexually assaulted a retired woman, assaulted a man, ran away from the cops when you were wanted for questioning, robbed a bank, murdered a woman, assaulted several police officers, and now you have escaped police custody. Why the rash of violent crime? What are you rebelling against?”
I slip off my shoes and stretch out my legs.
“Stephanie . . . uh, may I call you Stephanie?”
“Yes of course.”
“I apologize ahead of time if I’m not well put together. Today has been particularly rough. I’ve never been on television before, and you’re quite lovely. I’m sorry if that makes things awkward, but I find it difficult to talk to you because you’re just so ridiculously beautiful.”
“Oh. Well. OK. Thank you.”
“Stephanie, I believe you asked me about the bank.”
“Among other things.”
“Stain and I saw a bank robbery in progress. We went in to see if we could stop it. We wanted to see if we could talk the robbers into putting down their weapons and walking out.”
“How did you know there was a bank robbery? Did you have a police scanner?”
“No, no. We wouldn’t do that. We saw a police car outside the bank and people acting strangely nearby. We figured there was robbery.”
“So, you broke into the bank while it was under police control?”
“No no. Stephanie, no. We just walked right through the unlocked front door. Nobody tried to stop us.”
I rested my foot on top of Stephanie’s.
“What? Um, what did you see when you got inside?”
“There weren’t too many people around, but I wasn’t really focused on that. We saw two robbers with low caliber rifles. I talked to the leader to get him to surrender, while I was doing that, Stain got the rifle from the other robber. Soon after that, Stain discovered that a woman in the bank was somebody that he met recently, someone that he fell for.”
“So, Stain was in love with this women?”
“It would seem like an instant connection, yes.”
I began running my foot up Stephanie’s leg, and she just smiled at me.
“Tell us about the gunshot.”
“The police shot into the bank at that point, killing Lily, the woman of Stain’s adoration. Stain lost himself to that moment. He held Lily while she departed from this world. The police then shot into the bank again.”
“What did you do then?”
“I got everyone to leave the bank. I was afraid the police were going to kill everyone. The robbers actually helped to evacuate the bank. They were villains, but they turned into heros.”
“Now, what do you say to the police when they say that Stain shot that woman from point blank? They say that the bullets came from inside the bank and shot out the bank window.”
“There were two shots. One came through the window and landed in Lily’s head. The bank window shattered inward, into the bank. The second shot, I don’t know. I don’t know where it landed, but they’ll find it in the bank, and they’ll trace it back to a cop’s gun.”
“They say that Stain was holding two rifles at the point the female victim was shot.”
“Stain was securing the robbers weapons. They had agreed to surrender.”
“So, why escape police custody?”
“I didn’t escape. I was never arrested. I was never read my rights. I wasn’t processed or put in jail. I walked out of the police station. I did that legally. Anyone who checks their records will see that.”
Stephanie takes a long pause. “Is there anything else you would like to say?”
“Yes. As far as I know the police still haven’t arrested Stain for any crime. They are holding him illegally, and I would like to ask for his immediate freedom.”
Stephanie takes a long pause again, smiles at me, and says: “that’s a wrap.”
Stephanie gets up and begins walking away. I put my shoes back on and follow her.
“Stephanie, where are you going?”
No answer.
“Stephanie, I thought that went well.”
“Did you? You know I’m a professional, and running your stinky foot up my leg while I’m trying to interview you, well it demeans me. It makes a fool of me and what I am and what I stand for.”
Stephanie opens the door to her dressing room.
“Stephanie, please forgive me. I respect you and your profession, and I don’t want you to think…”
Stephanie grabs my hand. “Shut up. I don’t care what you have to say.” She pulls me into her dressing room and shuts the door behind her.
Stephanie removes her shirt.
I absorb Stephanie’s image. “You are beautiful.”
“Why do people call you Sappho anyway?”
“I’m a superhero.”
“Yeah, right. What’s your superpower?”
Stephanie unhooks her bra and smiles at me. I smile back, say nothing and kiss her on her big beautiful pink lips.