This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

twenty seven

Her grandma slowly turns back to Rafe, who smiles at her, and then back to Cassie. "Everything's closed."

"Yeah, well, they're—" Cassie searches for words. "They're— I left—"

"We're going to the Sheriff's Department to give Shoupe details on where we last saw everyone." Rafe says. "My sister's still missing, and I've been looking for her. That's how I found Cassie."

Cassie watched Rafe steadily, how easily he turned on a different persona to warm up whoever he was talking to.

"Oh, of course." Her grandma nodded, her eyebrows upturning in worry. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

Cassie looked at Rafe, unamused and slightly annoyed, watching him manipulate her own grandma right in front of her eyes. "Yeah, so," Cassie nodded. "We need to go."

Her grandma walked over to the kitchen where Cassie stood, and opened one of the drawers, fishing out the keys for her. "Gas tank is low." She says, handing them over.

Cassie nodded, then quickly moved for the door.

"Nice to meet you." She heard Rafe say from the porch, as she was already outside and in the driveway, unlocking the car. "Yeah, of course, thank you." He continued.

Cassie sat in the front seat in silence for a few seconds, unsure where this burning feeling of anger and annoyance had so quickly sprung up from. She took several deep breaths, staring forward at the wheel, until Rafe got in the passenger seat.

He looks at her for a few seconds, as she appeared to not even notice he'd gotten in the car, and then scoffed, turning to grab the seat belt.

She cracked her knuckles, then leaned up and turned on the car.

"We'll start at John B's." She says, rubbing her eyes. "I have absolutely no idea what we're looking for, but I feel like it's a good place to start."

The car ride was silent, for the most part. Rafe was on his phone most of the time, and when he did speak, he read aloud from articles he found.

"There's archives on Denmark Tanny at UNC." He says. "Letters, manuscripts, property documents," he pauses and reads on. "Donated by Ward Cameron in 2001."

Cassie glances at him, and then back to the road. "He found that at all at your house?"

"Yeah," Rafe says, still scanning over the document. "I remember going with him to drop it all off. But I don't think there was a diary."

"Singh wouldn't be doing all this if it was just sitting in a college library." Cassie sighs. "Would your father have kept it?"

Rafe thinks. "I don't think so. He kept a few things, like Denmark's portrait is in his office, and some blueprints of the house but I don't know why he would've kept a diary."

Cassie hesitated. "Do you think you could ask him?"

Rafe didn't respond for a while, and Cassie looked at him, then back to the road. He scratches his chin, and looks out the window. "He's in a coma."

She turned to him quickly. "What?" She says, surprised.

"Yeah, your friend John B beat the shit out of him before jumping off the ship."