Buried Secrets || Sam Golbach

18.

TW - Death! And Suicide!

It was 10 mins before everyone finally made it to the storage box.

"I don't know how to say this, Uhm... I think Sam's dead" Jake said wiping a tear from his eye.

"What? No. No. No he can't be" Jade said breaking down

"No man, that can't be right" Colby said shoving past Jake toward the box.

"Colby-" Jake tried to stop him before Colby looked into the storage locker, Colby slipped from his grip and looked through the glass window.

What he saw shook him to his core, it was a tall blonde man lying face down in a puddle of what looked to be blood.

Colby tried to rip open the storage door but the lock and chain were just too strong for him to break.

"No. No Sam! FUCK! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" Colby felt himself break down and was screaming and throwing anything he could get his hands on.

"Colby! Stop! Please! You have to be quiet!" Everyone tried to shush him and calm him down but he couldn't.

He only stopped after his body collapsed from heartbreak and he could no longer hold himself up.

His best friend was dead.

"We need to call the police" Brennen said.

"I agree, we can't just let them get away with this" Tara said wiping tears away.

"I'll call" Caleb said grabbing his cell phone from his pocket and dialling 911.

He walked away to explain it to the police.

It felt like hours but in reality was only minutes before the group heard the sirens coming from the roads.

"Someone should go and meet them at the property line" Mariah said sitting on the ground beside her broken down husband.

"We can go" Carson and Nicole said.

The two started walking away to meet the police.

Jade couldn't feel anything. She felt numb. Unable to even form a coherent thought.

This was the worst thing she could ever feel.

The abuse she suffered from Justin felt like butterfly wings compared to the hammering in her heart from the pain.

She couldn't bring herself to look inside of the storage. She knew that this was all her fault.

And she couldn't fix this.

**

Hours passed and the crime scene was taped off.

Sam's body was covered up and brought to the morgue.

John Ohallen was arrested.

Justin was on the run. Nobody knew where he was or why he had done this.

The sun was coming up after the long hours of witness statements were given by everyone who was there.

Jade sat silently on a tree stump on the edge of the property watching as the lake rushed by.

Crackling of grass could be heard from behind her, but nobody made a sound.

"Hey Jade, we should really get going" Mariah said barely above a whisper.

Jade just took a deep breath before standing up.

The two walked silently back toward the house. A sound of something running behind them caused the two girls to turn around in a moment of terror.

The two turned around and saw a dirty, mud and burr covered Hercules.

"Holy fuck" Jade said jumping forward and wrapping her arms around the sickly looking dog.

"Oh my god" Mariah said doing the same thing.

"Oh my god, I missed you so much" Jade sobbed into his fur.

The two girl cried for a few minutes before walking back over to the car.

Colby gave the two a soft small smile upon seeing Hercules. He pet the dog gently on its head before the group got into the car.

They drove back to Mariah's and everyone walked into their own bedrooms, Jade carried Hercules into the tub to clean him up.

Once clean and dried, the two walked back into Jades room and cuddled while Jade cried.

She sobbed for the life she had made in Sedona.

She sobbed for the life she had before Justin.

And finally she sobbed for the life she could've had with Sam.

**

"This just in, the identity of the 26 year old man that was found dead in a storage container on a property of John Ohallen was identified today as missing Sedona resident, Sam Golbach" the woman on the news announced.

The three watched the news in horror as they announced their biggest fears.

"Police Chief Jim Masterson has announced that the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head. The police are ruling this as a suicide under suspicious circumstances, an investigation is still ongoing" the woman said.

"No. No fucking way are they ruling it a suicide" Colby shouted before turning off the tv.

"They can't be" Jade said looking at the two "we told them everything about Justin. They have to believe us right?"

"I don't understand" Mariah cried.

The group cried and sat silently in the living room for a while.

Hours turned into days and the only thing spoken of in the small town was the death of one of their own Samuel John Golbach.

Nobody could escape it. It was online. It was on the radio. It was on the news.

Everywhere you went. You heard about the death.

**

After 4 days, Jade and Hercules went back home to their own house.

Jade double checked all the locks at the front, she turned all the cameras back on.

She walked into the kitchen to lock the back doors when on the counter she noticed a few bright colours flyers on the island.

She walked over to see a few 'suicide prevention' programs sitting there.

"What the fuck?" She whispered, picking one up she noticed a small sticky note.

'Poor Sam, someone should've helped him'

Immediately recognizing the hand writing as Justin's, she called Mariah in a panic.

M: Hey?

J: I think Justin got to the police before we did.

M: what? What're you talking about?

J: I just walked in the door and there's a bunch of suicide prevention programs and a note from Justin saying 'poor sam, someone should've helped him' and now I'm thinking he got to the police before we could and paid them off.

M: no way? How can he pay off a whole police station? And the morgue? And the paramedics? There's no way.

J: but Mariah what if he did?

M: Jade, you need to let this go. I can't lose anyone else. Sam's gone. We can't get him back. Please, don't throw yourself into a line of fire.

J: but Mariah-

M: No jade, please. I can't do this anymore. Leave this to the police.

And with that Mariah hung up.

Jade put her phone down and leaned against the counter with her head in her hands.

*Beep*

Grabbing her phone she saw a message from a blocked contact. The only thing written was an address and a time.

'4718 Carpenter Road.
9pm tonight'