The corpulent sergeant leaned awkwardly across the cluttered desk. “Name?” he grunted, against the hubbub of the busy room.

“Juliet!” she said, without raising her eyes from the floor.

“Ju-li-et,” he pronounced ponderously as he typed. “Is that with two “t”s and an “e”?”

“No! Just the one “t” and no “e” on the end”

“No “e”,” he said slowly as he daubed the booking sheet with Whiteout. “Surname?”

“Capulet!”

“Cap-you-let.”

There was a small delay before he spoke again, his chubby fingers striking several keys at once, forcing yet more corrections. “Address?”

“Verona.”

“Street name and number?”

She looked up for the first time, eyes empty dams, drained of life and tears. “Are these questions really necessary?”

The sergeant offered a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Miss, it’s routine. Capulet, you say? Your family’s pretty well known over that way, right? Your old man’s a big name in politics?”

Her mouth twisted as she turned away without reply.

“How old are you?” He lit a cigarette as he waited for her answer.

“Thirteen!”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph! They get younger every day. I guess that does it. We’ll need an adult with you for the interview. Can we call your father?”

“No!”

“What about your mother?”

“No! I don’t want anything to do with my family. Can’t I just talk to you?”

He pulled out a grimy handkerchief and blew his nose loudly. “Don’t you understand the trouble you’re in, girl? You were found next to the body of this…  this… Who was it again…? Rome…”

“Romeo! Romeo Montague.” Her body began pulsing again, shaking in grief.

“Oh, yeah, Romeo Montague. Another big time family. Say, what’s going on over there? A feud or something?”

She replied with her head resting in her hands, voice slightly muffled. “That is how it started. The families had been quarrelling for awhile.”

“Ain’t it the pits? How did it start today?”

“I heard Sampson bit his thumb!”

“Say again?”

“Sampson! He’s a family retainer. He bit his thumb at one of the Montague retainers.”

“Sure he didn’t bite the other guy’s thumb? That I can charge him for.”

“No! His own. Where we come from that’s an insult.”

“Well, I’ll be… It’s an insult to bite your own thumb? It must be real insulting to cut off your own leg.”

“Don’t make fun of it,” she protested. “My boyfriend’s dead, my cousin’s dead, and all you can do is make jokes about it?”

“Sorry, girl!” he said, wiping his eye. “This Romeo? You say he was your boyfriend?”

“He was my lover, my moon and my stars. He stood beneath my window and said the sweetest things.”

“Such as…?”

“Well, “what light through yonder window breaks?” just for example.”

“OK! That’s property damage then, as well as murder.”

“What? Nothing was broken. He was talking about me. I was his sun.”

“You’re his son? Jesus, you fucking society people! I could have sworn you were a real girl.”

Juliet’s eyes closed for several seconds as she whispered to herself, “Love, give me strength.” Then, opening her eyes, she glared at the ruddy faced sergeant. “Can we get this over with?”

The sergeant’s eyes fluttered self-consciously. “Ok!” he said. “What I want to know is why you killed Romeo?”

Her face flushed. She stood up to roar at her accuser. “Me? Kill my Romeo? I’d rather kill myself and my whole family before I’d harm a single hair on his beautiful head. He killed himself.”

“Now, why would he do a dumb thing like that?”

“Because… Well, he thought I was dead. He was blinded by grief.”

“I see! But you weren’t dead, were you?”

Her penetrating look made him scratch his groin, nervously. “As you might be able to figure out, Sergeant, I was still very much alive. Romeo just assumed I was dead.”

“Why?”

“Because I had taken a potion the friar gave me.”

“Ah ha! So, it’s date rape then? And you only thirteen. And you say the guy was a priest? This gets worse by the minute. Okay, so this stuff knocks you out and the friar has a feel, I suppose?”

“Nothing like that. I believed the potion would kill me. The friar was trying to save my life.”

“Yeah? I’ve heard better excuses from scout leaders. So you took this drug. Then what?”

“Then, my family found me, thought I was dead and put me in the family tomb.”

“What? Without the coroner’s permission. There are strict rules about stiffs. Your family could be in a lot of trouble.”

Juliet sighed. “Sergeant, do you think we could take a break?”

“Look, we’re nearly finished here. So, Romeo comes in and finds you looking like road kill. What then?”

“He was so upset, seeing me as if dead, so he swallowed poison.”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Just like Days of Our Lives. Do you watch it?”

Juliet ignored him, taking out a crumpled tissue to dab at her nose.

“Yeah, well, look at it my way,” the sergeant continued, “we arrest you standing over two dead bodies. One is Romeo and the other some dude called Paris. Now, this Paris guy has been stabbed to death while the Romeo guy is green from the poison someone’s slipped him. Now you claim you were just going to drink the poison when our guys stopped you. Lady, you must think I was born yesterday. Who would believe a story like that?”

Juliet smiled at him and he felt a chill down his spine.

“How much do you earn a year, sergeant?”

“None of your business, girl.”

“Well, let me set you straight. You see, I’ve already got a book deal signed with Parker-Hamilton, I’ve got a half million from Sixty Minutes and the magazines all bidding to sign me up. Don’t forget I’m still a minor. The chances of me getting jail time is remote. Now, I’m getting tired. How about running along and getting that adult for the interview warmed up.”