Crimson Eyes and Family Lies

A Missing Dead Person?

"Natalie come on! We are going to be late!" shouted Vivi from the parking lot. I had finally gotten my own car due to my good grades, which I painstakingly managed to bring up due to my abnormal amount of absences. It wasn't like it was my fault, I had a lot of things happen to me in the matter of five months. Even so, my struggle has just begun. Not only do I have to worry about trying to keep my grades up to get into the college I want to, I have to find out why Nathaniel's father, who should be dead, keeps sending me letters. The recent letter had scared me the most. It had read,
Hello again Natalie, how have you been? I can't wait to see you again, so keep an eye out for me!
-Mr. Gray
I hadn't told anyone about this, but I knew I needed to let Detective Brooks know. Every letter I have received I have told him about, trying to avoid giving Nathaniel anymore of a reason to go out and search for his late father. I know he was dead, I had shot him at point blank. His blood was on my hands, so Brooks and I think that maybe the person sending these letters is just someone who admired Nathaniel's father.
Speaking of Brooks, my phone was going off with the caller I.D. being his number. I motioned for Vivi to go on ahead before I answered. "You got my message?"
"Yeah I did. From the picture you send me, it looks like it is the same handwriting as the last few messages, but something is off this time."
I frowned as I closed my car door. "Why do you say that?"
He sighed before he answered, "It's hard to tell, but there is one slight spot in the letter that is different. The other letters had Nathaniel's fathers exact handwriting, but this one is different. One word doesn't match Nathaniel's fathers handwriting."
Hearing this made me sigh with relief. So it isn't Nathaniel's father, it's someone else trying to impersonate him. "So our hunch was correct, it's just someone who wants to scare me into thinking Nathaniel's father is alive."
"Yes, but there is also some bad news." He paused, but I could hear the rustling of paper on the line. He took a breath before almost whispering, "I haven't told Nathaniel yet, but I know this is going to upset him. I wanted to warn you ahead of time before I let him know."
"Let me know what? What happened?" I didn't know what he had to say, but I could tell it was troubling him.
"We had received a call from the morgue this morning... Nathaniel's father's body is missing."
Ice chilled my bones, making my hands become numb. "That's impossible, I thought they were going to bury him tomorrow!"
Brooks sighed in frustration as he went on, "They had everything prepped and ready to bury him, but they had gone in this morning to find his body was gone. There was no sign of forced entry, and the security cameras weren't working at the time. We are trying to find more leads, but for the moment we don't know anything."
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache forming between my eyes. "Why would someone want to steal a body? I don't think anyone would be that obsessed with a psycho like him."
"That's what we are trying to find out. I'm going to look up all the people he has had connect with, but seeing as he hadn't shown his face until you showed up..." He paused, as if worried he said something wrong. "It's going to be hard, but I promise I won't give up."
I nodded, hearing the determination in his voice. It is true that Nathaniel father hadn't shown himself till Nathaniel had met me, so finding out his patterns from the past few years is going to be tricky. Brooks isn't going to have an easy time, but I believe in him.
"I'll let you know if I find anything else. I have to tell Nathaniel what happened, but if you see anyone suspicious let me know immediately."
"Okay, I'll try to be careful. I hope you find something."
Then he hung up, leaving me to my thoughts. So it isn't Nathaniel's father trying to get revenge, but I had this uneasy feeling sitting in my gut. Who would want his body? Why would they try and impersonate him just to torture me? Or, are they really after Nathaniel? Torturing me, and therefore torturing Nathaniel?
I shook my head, ignoring this thoughts as I rushed into the theatre, where Vivi and Valerie were waiting to watch the new Beauty and The Beast movie. I found it funny how my life was more about a beast