Riley's POV:
Our hands slipped away from each other's chests, "come on.. we have to get back on the road" he said, helping me to my feet.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was seeing everything with different lenses.
When we approached the car, across the department, Ryan and I proceeded to stay silent about the actions we just endured.
He eyed the road, as my thoughts were running wild, it was hard for me to catch up. But then I cleared my throat,
"so what's the plan?" I asked, not really aware of where we were headed.
"Since we couldn't find any evidence that leads to a different person, electronic wise, house wise, or even anything else material wise. We need to check the body" Ryan said, as my stomach turned.
It was hard enough seeing Jonathan's body, lying there on the floor, the body I tripped over, when I walked into his vacant apartment. And now we were about search it for evidence? I didn't know how I felt about that. But of course, anything at this point.. helps.
The sun was starting to set and the skies were appearing darker, once we made it to the morgue. When we walked inside, there was a man at the front desk, staring at some monitors. I fluffed my hair, and lowered the zipper on my jacket.
"What are you about to do?" Ryan asked, looking over at me.
"Follow my lead" I said confidently, walking over to the man behind the desk and resting my elbows on top.
"Well hello there.." I said softly, with the flirtiest smile I could conjure up.
"Hello?" the man asked, as if it were a question.
"Do you think you could be a dime.. and let us by?" I asked, as Ryan scoffed behind me.
"Uh..can I help you two?" the man asked, as my cheeks flushed red.
Great, my flirting wasn't working, and I hate to admit this but.. I was a little offended.
"We need to see the body of Jonathan Dwyer, on behalf of the Scattervale Police Department. Officer McKennedy" Ryan said, as he revealed his badge for the man to see. He took his badge, as I read the man's name tag. Tyler.
"He's in the back, I'll show you myself" Tyler said, as Ryan nodded.
"A dime? seriously?" Ryan laughed, as I shoved him.
"Shut up" I said, feeling embarrassed that Ryan had to witness all of that while he just laughed even more.
"Here we are" Tyler said, pointing to a morgue drawer, as he pulled open the door, and grabbed the tray of Jonathan's corpse. When he rolled him into view, my heart was racing. And memories were haunting me again from when I saw him before.
"Thank you..Tyler" Ryan said, folding his arms, as Tyler nodded, before heading back to his desk.
"Okay, we gotta be quick, before he runs my badge through the database and sends the police after us" Ryan said, grabbing some gloves from the other table and peeling the sheet off of Jonathan's body.
I needed to stay away from his body as much as possible, so I walked over to his clipboard, hanging at the bottom of the tray, as I skimmed through it.
"You don't have to be in here Riley, you could have waited in the car" Ryan said, as he examined Jonathan's head. I shook my head, as much as the room was making me nervous and nauseous, being in a place with dead corpses. One of these bodies could be probably my mother. Who knows where she could be.
"Bullet wound to the skull, internal bleeding, rupture of the frontal lobe, no signs of a struggle. Fingernails are clean of skin tissue." I read aloud, as Ryan examined Jonathan's body.
"Frontal lobe rupture? so he must have been shot in the front. Not the back. Which means he was facing the shooter, when this happened. He must have saw his killer before he died" Ryan said.
"Maybe, he was taken by surprise? there's no way he would have just stood there and allowed himself to get shot." I said, knowing Jonathan personally.
"Was he expecting anyone else that night?" Ryan asked.
I shrugged, "not that I recall" I said, wishing we could look through his phone again.
"Well, I still think that guy you were talking too. What was his name? Cash? he's a drug dealer" Ryan said, as I frowned.
"Okay..and?" I asked,
"and.." Ryan said, walking around Jonathan's body and lifting his arms, eyeing his skin closely.
"Drug dealers usually leave behind some sort of tattoo mark." Ryan said, as I walked over to him.
"Look" Ryan said, moving Jonathan's head and showing me his neck. A small mark was there. Right under his hair.
"The police must have assumed this was some sort of tattoo. But you do recognize this symbol?" he asked, as I looked over the tattoo again.
Trying to remember.
"That symbol.. I've seen it before." I said, as the memory of the meth houses comes to mind.
"In the meth house that night, they had it written on the wall" I said, as Ryan narrowed his eyes.
"I've seen it before, but I don't know what it means. No one even told me what it meant." I said, as Ryan was left in thought.
Our eyes didn't pull away from each other, and in this moment I realized how close we were. I also wondered what he was possibly thinking.
I backed away from Ryan slowly, to give me some room to breathe, through all this tension between us. Even though everything in me, felt like it was being pulled towards him.
Ryan took out his phone, snapping photos of Jonathan's neck.
"I'll google it tonight, see what pops up and hopefully it's something that helps us" he said.
"What about the surveillance footage atJonathan's apartment complex?" I asked, as Ryan nodded.
"Good idea, we should check that too" he said, as he placed the sheet back on Jonathan and pushed him back into his morgue slot. Taking off his gloves and throwing them in the trash nearby. He then went to wash hands, which I appreciated.
"You okay?" he asked, as we left the morgue, heading back to the car in the middle of the night.
"I'm fine" I said, as he opened the door for me.
We headed back to Jonathan's apartment complex and went inside the office.
"You guys have surveillance footage, right?" Ryan asked, as the two women looked at him.
"And what is it to you?" they asked.
"I'm officer McKennedy, with the Scattervale Police Department." he said, and I have no idea why but I'm starting to think it's hot.
Really hot.
"I already showed the police the footage" the blonde woman said, as she seemed as though her name was Betty. filing her nails as the other women had lipstick on her teeth.
"We just need to take a second look, so they sent me" he said, "this late in the night?" the other woman asked. As Ryan smiled and sighed,
"this is the last thing I need to check off tonight, I know we are one step closer to finding out who murdered Jonathan Dwyer in cold blood. But I can't get to that step, if you two wonderful ladies won't help me. Could be a dime? and help us get by?" he asked with a smile, only I hadn't seen this smile before. And I was appalled he reused my pick up line. They blushed and then smiled, battling their eyelashes.
"Well why didn't you just say so?" the woman asked, as I scoffed.
"Thank you so much" he said, as they handed him a small flash drive. When we walked outside the office,
"I can't even believe you right now" I said, as Ryan laughed.
"Oh you know, just follow my lead" Ryan said, as I rolled my eyes, laughing with him.
"I hate you" I said, as we walked past Jonathan's apartment.
And just like that my smile vanished, and I felt like I could see myself, that night, walking into his apartment. Calling out to him, asking him where he was in the dark, when he was rotting on the floor.
"Hey, come on" Ryan said, as I took a deep breath and followed him to the car.
We pulled into a hotel nearby, and found a room on the second floor.
"There's literally hours of footage on this thing" Ryan said, as he plugged it into his computer.
"We're gonna need to wait for it to load" Ryan added, as I grabbed our ice bucket and his card for the vending machine.
"Then we're gonna need snacks" I said, as he grinned.
When I came back from the vending machines with some snacks and a bucket of ice, I took a seat next to Ryan and opened a bag of Fritos.
"So how did you become friends with this Jonathan guy anyway?" he asked, as I smiled, plopping a chip into my mouth.
"We were friends, after the overdose I wanted to stop doing drugs. You know, not end up like my mother. I never wanted to overdose like she did. Ever. But as crazy as it sounds, drugs become addictive when you have nothing left to live for." I said, as Ryan didn't seem to like that answer. I know how much he hates it when I speak the truth.
"But anyways, as crazy as it sounds I started to feel like I could see and hear my father again. I missed him. An drugs became my only connection to him. To the only parent who put forth the effort to be a father figure towards me." I said, as Ryan placed his hand on me knee, providing me with comfort, as he caressed it.
I sighed, "Jonathan was the first guy to help me get off the streets. He gave me a couch to sleep on, food to eat, and some money when I needed it. He was a close friend of mine. The only person I was ever in my life close with... aside from you. He was someone I could trust. And I was the same for him." I said, as I felt a tear leave my eye.
"I don't know who would want him dead, or would even want to kill him. But I do know, whoever did this, I want to kill them." I said.
"Don't say that, this person who killed Jonathan wants to make you feel like this. But we're close, at least now we are close. To finding out who killed him. You can trust me. You still have me, Riley. And we're gonna bring justice to his name. You're not going down for this" he said.
"But promise me something Ryan, if I do go down, you're not coming with me. Don't throw away your life for me, your dream career for me. You have been working for this, your entire life. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you did." I said, as I stared at the tape, and before Ryan could say anything.
A black hooded man appeared, shooting Jonathan in the head and then getting in the car to drive off.
A few hours later, I showed up to check on Jonathan. But that part of the video wasn't here. It's like someone scrapped it.
"Yep, someone is definitely trying to frame you" Ryan said,
"no shit Sherlock" I said, as we rewinded the tape.
"He had to have known you were showing up that night. To get pills or something from Jonathan. So he framed you. Did you know anyone else that Jonathan was selling too?" Ryan asked, as I thought for a moment.
"I always asked him, if he could make a list or something. Or even if he had a list, but then he would tell me, would I want anyone to know that I was taking drugs from him? and I didn't. So he kept his customers a secret." I said, as Ryan sighed, slouching in his chair. I think for the first time ever.
"Did you ever pay off the debt with cash?" Ryan asked, as he looked over at me, laying on the head of the chair.
"yes I did, Jonathan helped me with the money. He protected me from him." I said, as he frowned.
"Protected you?" he asked, I nodded.
"Cash was a bit touchy feely if you remember." I started, as Ryan clenched his jaw. Clearly he did remember.
"And after I paid back my debt, It did take me a few months before I found Jonathan. Nonetheless, Cash was still following me around. Asking me to work for him again and stalking me. Telling me no one's gonna take care of me like he did. A bunch of bullshit. But Jonathan told him to stay away from me. Sure it pissed him off, but Cash stayed away after that." I said, as Ryan rubbed his forehead.
"This is exactly why I believe cash had a motive.. when it came to Jonathan." he said, as I started to believe that.
"Maybe.." I said, starting to feel guilty.
"It's getting late.." Ryan said, turning off his laptop. Which was now a dead end.
"We should go to bed" he said, as I nodded.
"I'll watch the video again tomorrow and see if I can get a license plate on that car. Run the plate, track down the car. All that police stuff." he said, as I chuckled.
"I just need to get a clearer image, unblur it or something" he said, as I nodded.
We laid on the bed together, since they only had a single available. Ryan sighed of stress, as I tried to muffle my crying.
"Why are you crying?" he asked, as he leaned over to me, placing his head on his hand, as he rested on his elbow. I rolled over to face him, as tears streamed down my face.
"What if.. whoever did this, wanted it out for me and that's the reason why he killed Jonathan? what if they did this to get back at me? For what reason? I have no idea! and that is what is so worrisome and terrifying." I said, as he put his hand on my shoulder and listened to me talk.
"I hate that I'm the reason why Jonathan's dead.. it's my fault Ryan! it's all my fault. My best friend's blood is on my hands. Almost like I pulled the trigger. Just knowing me, got him killed." I cried, as Ryan laid down next to me.
"Riley, we don't know that for sure.. this is what he wants you to think. He wants you turn yourself in because you feel guilty abut what he did. What the killer did. Not you. And if you do this Riley, if you blame yourself or even turn yourself in. You're giving him what he wants. Cause then he'll be off the hook. And you will be the one who goes to jail. Where not only you believe that you belong there, but the killer agrees with you. Don't let him win." Ryan said, as he pulled me onto his chest and I held on to him.
"We're gonna show everyone, you're not the killer by cracking this case. You're not the killer Riley, and you never have been." he whispered, as I wiped my tears.
"I just wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I wish the world could too." he said, as I closed my eyes. My heart skipping.
We laid there together, in silence, as he stroked my hair, and my eyes were closed. This reminded me of when we slept together for the first time. And how I lied about needing body heat to keep warm. When really I could only ever sleep when I felt safe and secure. And that was when I was at home. At the time then, I didn't know it.
But Ryan was my home. And I know this now. I held onto him tighter, feeling my sadness disappear.