"I can't answer that. I don’t know." He hung his head.
"Eleanor!" The warden's voice boomed from a different hall and found us a moment later. He smiled tightly at us, but it didn't reach his eyes. "We'd like to talk to you about Milton."
"Why?" I looked at Callahan for a split second. "I told you I don't know anything."
"Yes, you did say that. I'd like to dive a little deeper. Come. You too, Callahan, she needs an escort."
We followed behind the warden, but when we reached his office he wouldn't let Callahan inside.
"You stay here."
Callahan tried to protest but the door was slammed in his face.
"Sit, Young Lady," he barked the moment we were alone. I did as I was told and stared down at my lap. I wasn't sure whatto do. If he'd caught us two minutes before Callahan had told me the truth, I'd have no issue confessing what I knew. But now... did my original Daddy and Milton deserve justice? Or had it already been served?
"Did you have sexual intercourse with Milton Hapschatt?" he asked, plopping down on the other side of his desk.
"What? No, of course not!" I exclaimed.
"Be truthful. Eleanor, I know you were sweet on him."
I shook my head furiously and dripped the arms of my seat. "I swear I never did. Just a few kisses.” A door to the left opened and Dorothy and a nurse came in and stood behind the warden. The warden sat back and shook his head.
"Your story doesn't fit what we found at the scene."
"I don't understand." I looked at each of them, trying to figure out what they wanted from me.
"A pair of pink panties with your name on the backside were found on the tram, Eleanor. Along with your shoes, also embroidered. So either someone is stealing your underclothes, or you were there when he died," Dorothy explained.
I blinked.
Oh no.
"I--"
The warden leaned forward and then stood. "If you just told us the truth it would make things so much easier, Eleanor. We know he'd made promises to you. He was going to talk to me, about marrying you. But he was lying. That upset you, didn't it?"
"How do you know what he had planned?" I asked softly. It felt intrusive, them knowing these things.
"Milton often mocked your innocence in the DIT bunkers. He would brag about how he was stringing you along, giving you false hope for a life you both knew would never happen. You signed a contract, after all. Young Ladies don't get to do such frivolous things like that."
Tears stung my eyes at the truth of that. How dare we want those things? All of our media, books, Television, movies, and magazines, told us the dream was a happy husband, children, and home. But we were allowed none of it. It was cruel.
"This is what I think happened." The warden came around the desk, sat on the edge of it and clasped his hands.
"You went out to find him. You were still lovesick. Milton was already in the process of turning into a creepie. We tested what was left of him and found his DNA altered. He wasn't quite there yet, but it was enough to tell. And you saw it."
I shook my head. "No, that's not what happened at all. I never saw Milton on that platform."
He continued, ignoring me. "You tried to back out of the situation, but Milton, delirious from the radiation poisoning, refused to let you go. He raped you, didn't he?"
"No!" I cried out.
"He raped you, and when he was done you tried to run away, but he caught you and in fear of your life you pushed him off the edge and he was impaled. Tell the truth! Isn't that what happened Eleanor?" The warden screamed in my face. I cried. I shook my head and covered my face.
If I had known Milton was there, dead or alive, I wouldn't have just left him. How could they think that?
"Eleanor, we know the truth. The evidence is all there," Dorothy said in a much calmer, but still stern tone.
