The Sinner

69

I found myself wondering where Rafe was, multiple times today.

It was a day or so after the goodbye at Barry's. It had also been a day since my father and Maggie had told me to stay away from him.

I had a gut feeling that avoiding Rafe was the best option. He's very mentally ill, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just he refuses to get any help.

That is a very difficult scenario to be in. You can never force another person to do something they don't want to do. But I am confident that he will improve if he does receive treatment.

Rafe regrets what he did; he never intended to harm Peterkin. He claims that he did it because he was worried Peterkin would attack his father and didn't want it to happen.

To be completely honest with you, I still don't know the whole story about what happened that day.

But I do have some theories.

Rafe may have thought he acted correctly because he honestly thought Peterkin would've harmed Ward. Honestly, if someone had a gun aimed at my father too I'd react the same way he did. Sometimes he does things without thinking, and I'm not sure if it's because he's a stupid young boy or because he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong.

Half of me wishes that I was awake for that part to know what to believe. Yet, the other half of me is terrified to think that Rafe did know what he was doing and purposefully shot Peterkin.

But I don't think he would randomly try to kill people. He cares about me, he shows remorse, and he shows visible signals of anxiety, none of which would be characteristics of a psychopath. I don't know, but it's not my responsibility to figure out. If Rafe wants to get help he'll do it on his own account.

The doorbell rings downstairs. I don't bother going down to see who it was, I know that Maggie was home. I doubt she was expecting anyone, so I wonder who it was. Maybe Ward? But he wouldn't ring the doorbell.

Anyway, I've been thinking about Rafe and his circumstances nonstop for the past day.  I'm not sure if it's because I care about him and can look beyond the fact that he's truly not that great of a person. Or maybe he really is good and nobody else wants to give him another shot besides me. I don't know. I hope he -

"Corrine? Can you come down here for a second?" Maggie's voice carries from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah," I shout back. I hop off my bed, walk around the corner and down the hallway. I start to hum one of the songs that I had heard on the radio when driving to go pick up breakfast this morning. "What's up? Who was at the door-"

When I realize it's Shoupe, I freeze in my steps. He puts his sunglasses on his head after removing them. He looks at Maggie, before she opens the door a bit wider for him to come in. He keeps looking at me, and I feel my stomach drop. Something's wrong. It's obviously not a good sign that he's here.

"Shoupe," I say as I look at the other officer standing behind him. He was the bigger one that I've seen following him around. "What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to ask you a few questions," He says. Rafe said this was going to happen. "Down at the station if that's alright with you."

"Questions about what?" I ask, trying to keep my composure. Act normal Corrine, they'll figure something's up if you freak out.

"Your boyfriend," He says and pulls his lips together.

"Ex boyfriend," Maggie jumps in. She puts her arm around me protectively.

"Ex, boyfriend," Shoupe corrects himself. He stares between the two of us, noticing Maggie suddenly became protective. "You're eighteen, right?" Otherwise, he couldn't question me if I wasn't.