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Outer Banks, the police station July 20th, 2020 12:52 am
When I arrived, out of breath, I saw the Twinkie parked near the station and realised they had probably been waiting for me for such a long time. If they questioned me about where I had been, I couldn't really lie, so I was screwed, but it wasn't really what mattered today. I swung the station's door open and immediately made my way to the Sheriff's office since I knew the place extremely well.
Susan and I had spent hours talking in her office after my father had disappeared, sometimes I cried, sometimes I screamed at her, but she was always here for me. I had never been here with John B though, since he wasn't as close to Susan as I was, and because when he cried or scream, it was at home with me. To remember all this had increased my anxiety quite a lot but as I walked in her office, I understood it was getting really serious.
"Hi, I'm so sorry for being late, I was asleep," I tried to apologise, sitting down.
Susan was facing us and she shook her head, as if she wasn't mad or annoyed that I had showed up so late. "It's fine sweetie, I shouldn't have called you at this time of the day, especially since there are bad news," she expressed.
I stared at John B and he placed his hand over mine, as if it could help me calming my anxiety down, when I knew he was the one who needed contact. I didn't move, I just stared at him and tried to smile at him so he wouldn't perceive I was just as worried as him. "So what's up?" I asked.
Susan Peterkin sighed and handed us a big file, where was written «confidential» in huge red letters. "I'm not supposed to show you this, but hum- so the investigation I led alone was successful, and well.. we- I.. found your father's body. He was off the coast on a tiny island," she explained.
It was like being stabbed in the heart a million times, being ran over by a bus, falling off a plane or being shot in the brain. I had never doubted in my father's death, but hearing those words made me realise it was real, he would never come back, and this whole time he had been dead on an island, alone. John B him, still believed he was alive, until this exact moment, so when I looked at him, the words echoing in my head, I didn't even recognise my brother. He was livid, so pale that he looked like a ghost, and I squeezed his hand a little, to check if he was still here with me.
"C-can we see him?" were the first words that managed to escape my mouth, as tears rolled down my cheeks.
"You will if you want, but there's something else you need to know before you do that, because you'll notice it anyways when you visit him at the morgue," she told us and since our mouths were closed, she went ahead without waiting for answers. "He didn't drown, your father didn't die like people said he did"
John B let go of me and I took my face in the palm of my hands, trying to process her words without crying more. I had been right this whole time, he didn't drown, how did people even think we would believe in it? We knew our father better than anyone else and we knew he wouldn't have sailed if the weather wasn't good, and even if he did, which would have been surprising enough, he wouldn't had died.
