“Brenda Johnson, an employee at Seth’s Coffee, informed us that you had frequently been visiting the victim, Kelly Summers, days, weeks, if not months leading up to her death. Is that true?” Sheriff Stevens asks.

Jesse seems to become more comfortable at that question. He straightens up in his seat, brushes his hair out of his eyes, and folds his hands in front of himself on the table. “Yes, I knew of Kelly Summers as I do frequent Seth’s Coffee, so that is true. I really enjoyed her service,” Jesse says calmly.

Sheriff Stevens looks him up and down, almost evaluating and sizing him up. “You enjoyed her service?”

“Yes.” Jesse nods

“What do you mean by that?”

“She was friendly. She always refilled my cup, and I left Seth’s Coffee satisfied every time.”

Sheriff Stevens gives him a dirty look, and it’s then that I wonder if Jesse is playing some sort of game with him. “What do you mean by ‘satisfied?’”

“Well served,” he answers quickly. I can hear Sheriff Steven visibly groan. Jesse appears to have taken hold of the confidence he didn’t have earlier, and I’m not sure what changed.

“Since you were at Seth’s Coffee a lot, surely you would have noticed Kelly Summers and anyone she had been frequenting there with or speaking with.” Sheriff Stevens glares at Jesse.

“I’m sure I would have.” Jesse folds his arms into his chest.

“Brenda mentioned that you may have been a bit obsessed with Kelly. That the attention was unwanted.”

Jesse once again grows uncomfortable. His confidence drains from his body like a sand hourglass timer. “That’s not true,” he says with the last bit of assurance he has.

“What’s not true?” Sheriff Stevens matches his demeanor folding his arms in front of his wide chest.

“I wasn’t obsessed with Kelly. We were friends.”

“Well, what kind of friend tells the other to leave them alone or begs their co-worker to intervene?”

“What are you trying to say?” Jesse’s eyebrows pinch together.

“From the sounds of it, Kelly wasn’t comfortable with your presence. She would ask her co-workers, specifically Brenda, to take your table whenever you came in, because quote, ‘you made her uncomfortable,’ unquote. Why do you think that is?”

Jesse’s face turns a deep red. I can see him let out a large breath of air that blows his hair out of his eyes. “She’s lying. Kelly and I were friends. She gave me her phone number and everything.” He slams his fist on the table.

“Yes, we saw you had texted her on the night of her murder ‘I’m sorry.’ What were you apologizing for?”

“I don’t know. She hadn’t been answering my phone calls. I figured she was mad at me for something.” He regains his composure and just shrugs.

“It doesn’t seem like you two were actually friends.”

“But we were.”