CASE 156724-1801: V. S. Ramachandran Murder
Let the record reflect that this statement was taken over four hours on 11/4 and 11/5 at the home of Mrs. Clara Whitmore, the Garden Terrace Apartments, 1575 College Ave.
Video deposition: Det. R. A. Cullen, interviewer
INT: All right, ma'am. The tape is running. You may proceed. Please state your name first, for the record.
SUBJ: Clara Orfila Whitmore.
INT: Your age and occupation, please.
SUBJ: (long delay) I am seventy years old, young man. Retired. I was a toxicologist. A forensic scientist, and I… I am retired.
INT: You understand that you are under no suspicion in this case?
SUBJ: Oh heavens, of course not.
INT: You have waived your right to an attorney, is that correct?
SUBJ: I have no need of an attorney, detective.
INT: OK. Now, please explain how it is that you knew the two children involved in this case. Start by stating how you met the girl. The court is very interested in the girl. Where were you when you met her?
SUBJ: (barely audible) I was dead when I met Ruby Rose.
INT: I'm sorry?
SUBJ: Oh, I don't mean dead dead, detective. I mean numb. Numb, like you feel when a good friend turns away and you don't know why. Cut off. Left behind, just… I don't know. Playing out my days. That's where I was when I met Ruby.
INT: No, I meant-
SUBJ: I laugh at it now, I do. At all the little girl did. How she and her friend Rex solved a murder case-the famous Ramachandran case, no less! But you cannot begin to understand how that happened, detective, without knowing why. You see, this girl had no choice. None. Her father was headed for jail, and he was all she had. She was cornered. Trapped.
I have come to believe, over my many years, that the only time we face a problem directly and ruthlessly is when all other doors are closed. When there is no other way out. When our doubts about ourselves shrink in the shadow of some larger threat.