Hmmm … how exactly to do that? Well this month, that’s the challenge and I, along with my other fellow blog chain participants have a huge task ahead of us. We’ve worked tirelessly to make our bad guys bad, and now we have to make them look nice? Or rather, show them in a sympathetic light. Now you tell me … have I succeeded?
The blog chain comes from Absolute Write, a writers forum in which I participate on and off.
Before me went Mariekeme and after me is Fokker Aeroplanbau. The rest of the chain is below.
Let me get started then. I write paranormal romance so in that, you only need to know that there is some group of my characters with otherworldly abilities. That doesn’t mean that all my characters have these abilities. As a matter of fact, usually only a very small subset of folks have those “extra’s”. Sometimes though, someone finds out and despite their attempts to thwart the supernatural, the good guys win. I mean, they have to in my world. It’s called the Happily Ever After. 
So, here, meet Julie. Julie is officially, the bad guy in Little White Lies. Julie is motivated by a number of factors, a long-term grudge (since we all know women are good at that), jealousy, greed and a strong desire to eliminate the competition though it’s 18 years after the initial event has occurred.
Well, Julie has been taken away, in cuffs, after she’s been caught ‘red-handed’ as the old saying goes and since that ‘ends’ the story, sort of, I decided I’d show you a bit of her interrogation by the police (which is not in the book). Little White Lies is written from Charley and Wyatt’s perspectives and this is no different, except that Charley is on the other side of a two-way mirror.
One thing to note about Julie though … she’s a master manipulator. 
Detective Kyle pulled out a chair opposite of where Julie sat, her hands cuffed in front of her. She straightened her shoulders and shook her hair which hung to her shoulders in soft waves, a heady contrast to the stark white room and silver table.
“Now, Ms. Bland, I understand from the witness statements that you and ah, Wyatt, the victim, severed your relationship nearly twenty years prior, is that correct?”
“He wouldn’t have left me if –”
“Answer the question, please.”
“I’m trying to.” She seethed through the statement, firmed her lips and drew a breath. “I’m sorry. This is just all a bit overwhelming. I’ve never been inside a prison before.”
“This isn’t a prison.”
A visible shiver ran through her upper torso. “I’ll do as you ask, sir. You’re correct, I haven’t seen Wyatt in almost twenty years.”
“Your husband,” the Detective shuffled some paperwork, “indicates you were the mastermind behind the entire scheme.”
“That lying pig.” Julie closed her eyes. “Again, my apologies.” She opened them again, stared at the mirror, a hint of a smile hidden behind a mask of despair. “He hurt me, emotionally, over the years. I’ll accept the title of a mastermind, if I must, but of nothing malicious.” The cuffs clanged against the metal table. “I didn’t have my hands in any part of what my husband or my sisters did. I swear it.”
“And yet you were there when we arrived.”
She laid her hands on the table, dropped her forehead to them. When she rose again, a sheen of tears glossed her eyes. “I was. He made me go. He said I had to confront my demons.”
“Your demons.”
She nodded, a single tear made it way down her cheek. “For twenty years I’ve suffered, struggled and watched as everyone around me excelled. I tried to keep up, but I couldn’t. Even in high school, the guys only looked at my body. When I met my husband, he showed me how important it was to break free of those bonds, so that I could grow into the woman I really am. He told me I could be more.”
“And thus you participated in the activities of the week and evening.”
She shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut. “Don’t they say that the bad guys always leave a fingerprint on a crime scene? Well, mine aren’t there, because like I said, I was only in it at the end — to let my own issues go. That’s part of all twelve step programs, too, you know. I have a therapist, she’ll tell you the same.”
More papers shuffled. “In these documents, all parties involved point to you as the–”
Another tear fell. “Ever since I was a kid, no one has believed in me. I thought my husband did. I thought my father did. And now you don’t. I should give up now.” She held out her wrists. “Just take me to prison, wherever that is. Lock me up. Throw away the key. My life is over anyway, whether or not you continue to question me since I have no friends to help me.” She sniffed, wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “There’s never hope when everyone is against you.”
Charley crossed her arms over her chest, stared at Julie through the glass. “She’s right you know?” Wyatt put his arm around her. “It starts in childhood and builds. Unless someone snuffs it out?” Charley shook her head. “It ends right here.”
And there is Julie’s motivation. So the key question is … is she, or isn’t she … lying.
Do be sure to check out other fellow blog chain participants!
CScottMorris
Aheïla
AuburnAssassin
DavidZahir
IrishAnnie
Anarchicq
Proach
devero
bri ness
hillaryjacques
LadyMage
M.R.J. Le Blanc
Mariekeme <--Before
aimeelaine <-- Me
Fokker Aeroplanbau <-- After
Irissel
CowgirlPoet
Collectonian
Alpha Echo
cryaegm
