Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS Chadwick taught Shaelynn was to never trust the police, after those who had sworn to protect and serve had beaten him up when he was only ten. But after seeing Chrissy's mangled body on the floor, her arms and legs broken at horrible angles, her jaw dislocated, her eyes gouged out, she couldn't think of anything but to stumble over to the kitchen phone and dial 911.
"And she didn't tell you she'd be going to Eddie's?" Chief Powell inquired of Shaelynn. She should've felt comforted given that he was Hawkins' first Black Chief of Police, having entered the police force in an attempt to reform an unjust system. But Chadwick had instilled in her a phrase in her that she couldn't ignore even now: once a cop, always a cop.
"No, we haven't really talked in a while," Shaelynn explained, yanking her flannel tighter around her shoulders. They'd migrated to one of the picnic tables, as she (and the cops) couldn't stand to be in the same room as Chrissy's disfigured body. Sure, she was cold, but she didn't want to risk inviting them into her trailer and waking up Ramona, only for her to get the wrong impression. "We didn't fall out or anything – I've just been distant since my dad died, that's all."
"But you've been friends for years," Powell continued, casually brushing over the subject of Shaelynn's dead father. "Did she ever talk about doing drugs before now?"
"No, never," Shaelynn responded immediately. It was the truth, and the last thing she needed in addition to losing her best friend was for the cops to learn she had smoked weed before. And just like that she felt bad for contemplating her own arrest when she had the privilege of being alive, unlike Chrissy. Unlike her dad. God, why was she so selfish? "Her mother's like, super religious. She wouldn't even go to parties until I talked her into it. But I don't know why else she'd be with Eddie... "
Chrissy hadn't even been gone for an hour and Shaelynn was already talking about her as though she was a was, not an is. Chrissy was her best friend. Was the girl she trusted with every fiber of her being. Was, was, was.
"And you say Eddie ran away?" Powell asked next as Callahan jotted down information on his notepad.
"Yeah," Shaelynn answered. She was sure that the police had come to the same deduction that she had; that Eddie had likely killed Chrissy. But that didn't explain his scream of terror or why he'd looked so scared when he'd run away. "I don't know where he went off to."
"We'll find him, don't worry," Powell assured Shaelynn. "We're just going to have to keep this quiet, okay? The last thing we need is people coming to the wrong conclusions."
"Wrong conclusions?" Shaelynn was overcome with anger for the first time that night. Chadwick was right that the police barely moved an inch unless they were tormenting people of color. They'd acted faster when Patrick had been caught drinking than they were now, when Chrissy's body was right there to give them proof that someone had slaughtered her. "You saw the same thing I did, Chief. Chrissy was murdered! Someone did this to her... "
