Red Leather (Book 2)

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

In the couple of days that followed Tammy suicide, strange things began happening. Surely it wasn't that big of a surprise, seeing as the entire world's eye was focused on us.

And it would remain focused for a while. The press was unrelenting.

Cora's parents and Tamara's father decided to fuse both funerals together. It had been organised pretty quickly, despite the raw pain still eating Officer Lilley up from the inside out. It was very small and not at-all overdone, and I spotted various touches that Tammy and Cora would have liked, such as the lilies used for decoration, and the lonely little quartet playing a haunting symphony.

I'd been to enough funerals – both caused by me, and by others – to know how the drill worked. First, I assumed my role as the grieving close friend and hugged Yuri, Sal and Becca to me, comforting them with my own shared misery. Then Daddy and I made our way around the sea of people and towards Cora's parents, offering our condolences to them. Charlotte remained dry-eyed, while her husband Arthur was almost drowning in his tears.

When it came to Tamara's dad, however, Daddy told me to stay back. "Be with your friends, Poppy. They need you right now."

I irritated at the fact that he was pushing me away, and I wanted more than anything to refuse and follow him to Officer Lilley, but the look in his eyes made me stay where I was. Just barely.

I found my way to my friends, and after quiet attempts at conversation, we were met with a strange sort of silence.

Yuri was the one who broke it. "So we're the only ones left, huh?" she asked bleakly, looking around our sad little group. Just months ago there were eight of us, smiling and laughing and alive. Georgia and Shanelle's secret had still been hidden from prying eyes, Cora was still trying and failing miserably at getting to a healthy weight, and Tamara was still trudging on, smiling and pretending that her life was perfect.

Now there were four.

Becca had only been managing to keep herself from falling apart. Now she had broken down, sobbing loudly into her hands. Sal did her best to comfort her, but she knew. They all did.

Comfort did little good. In the end, we would never be quite the same again.

After a long, long day, Daddy and I could only drive home in silence, lost in our own little melancholic atmosphere. 

"How was Officer holding up?" I had to ask. Daddy had obviously wanted privacy, and privacy between the two of us was not something I endorsed.

It took a moment or two for him to answer. "They've taken the boy to a facility."

And I immediately knew what he meant. I myself thought it had been odd that Timothy hadn't been at the funeral. Now I knew why. Daddy still hated himself for dragging that boy away like that, and I knew, from the haunted look on his face, that he wouldn't be forgetting that afternoon for quite some time.

"Oh, Daddy," I sighed, rubbing his arm. Without his wife and his children, Officer Lilley now had nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Daddy's only response was to catch my hand with his. We remained holding hands for the rest of the trip home. "Just stay safe, Poppy. All I want is for you to be safe."

***

Later on that night, I received a phone call. For a long time I sat frozen in my half-asleep state, almost convinced that the person on the other side of that call was a certain witness whom I thought was out of my life forever.

But I knew better than to be weak. I would answer that phone with as much confidence as I could. Renee Griffin was a lot of things, but she was never weak.