24. Gone Girl
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January 27th, 2014
Dear Kevin,
You must understand how hard this is for me. To reveal myself to you right now may not really be the best thing to do. I take it back. We shouldn't meet. It's already scary enough sending you these letters. What if your parents end up intercepting them one day?
— X
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February 1st, 2014
Dear X,
We've been in communication with each other for quite some time now. I think it's best we finally meet. I mean, that's been your goal thus far, right? Don't worry, my parents respect my privacy. That's not an issue. What do you say?
— Kevin
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February 3rd, 2014
Dear Kevin,
I don't know. I'm getting serious cold feet. It's just that this is actually happening for real and I don't want to mess it up. But you're right. You need to see me for yourself. Then you'll know for sure that I'm not lying. Not that you don't have enough proof yet after that photo I sent you.
— X
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February 7th, 2014
Dear X,
I can't believe they'd keep something like this from me. I can't believe I have another brother. We can meet at this one place I know of here in Hillbury. It's in the woods. An abandoned shack. This day, next week? Around 9:30pm?
— Kevin
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February 9th, 2014
Dear Kevin,
See you there... Brother.
— X
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Letter after letter after letter.
Kevin typed his letters by computer, so obviously he'd made copies to make it possible for me to read what he'd sent out. The other letters were all hand written by the receiver.
They dated all the way back to two years ago, early January. It was like discovering a completely different life Kevin was living. He'd actually been in contact with this kid who went by "X" in the letters... This boy.
Our brother.
I carefully read each one. In the beginning, "X" contacted Kevin explaining that there was something important that Kevin needed to know, which was the fact that he and Kevin were related. Brothers, in fact.
Kevin obviously wasn't buying it at first, but the tone of the letters changed apparently after some photo was sent.
A photo? I thought.
I searched the pile, eyes peeled for this photo, but I wasn't able to find it. This only made me frustrated. Why would Kevin leave this envelope for me if he wasn't gonna put everything I needed to see in it?
After thinking about it critically for a second, I concluded that it was most likely due to the fact that he never got the chance to finish. He was attacked and left town. Maybe he hid the photo somewhere else for some reason and never had the opportunity to leave it in the envelope for me. After all, I still had yet to find the video diaries and he obviously planned on leaving those for me as well.
What really wasn't adding up was the fact that "X" had made it clear that he was a patient at SPI in these letters, which I'd known since I'd seen the first letter some time ago. So what was the purpose in Kevin lying about "X" living with Raymond instead of being at SPI?
I shook my head and picked up another letter:
March 14th, 2014
Dear X,
STOP! This has gone on long enough. It doesn't have to get this ugly. I want to help you, I really do, but you can't be doing what you're doing. It's not fair to me. I haven't done anything to you. Can we resolve this?
— Kevin
I frowned at this new letter I'd discovered. What the hell had just happened?
I looked at the date on this letter and the letter that I'd just finished reading before it. There was over a month's time in between the two. Meaning that something in real life had been going on, and since they'd made plans to meet up previously, I assumed that's when it all started.
There were only three things left from the envelope; two other letters I presumed and a small folded piece of paper. I picked a letter up first.
March 17th, 2014.
Dear Kevin,
You're right, I'm sorry. It's just that I've been excited being out and about and I got a little reckless. You understand, right? Hey, we can meet this day, one week from now. I want to clear the air face-to-face. You know I'm good at sneaking out by now. Same place, same time as always. Deal?
— X
The last letter was from a couple days after "X" sent this one and it was from Kevin, agreeing to meet with "X" again, obviously it would be at the shack.
One week from March 17th.
My eyes widened and my skin crawled when I realized that they had officially agreed to meet on March 24th, 2014.
The day Kevin went missing.
Did "X" really have something to do with Kevin's disappearance? It couldn't be coincidence. Luke and my friends were the ones who had attacked Kevin supposedly, but at no point during his story did Kevin mention meeting with "X" as well that night.
It pained me continually finding holes in Kevin's story. He was lying. His story was a lie, or at least not the full truth. But if he wanted to come home so badly, why wouldn't he tell me everything? What was he scared of me finding out?
I grabbed the last item left, the folded piece of paper, and unfolded it. There were only a few words and numbers on it.
An address.
I quickly went to my laptop and opened the Google Engine. I typed the address in and clicked the search button.
Seconds later, the screen loaded with images, a name and more. I found myself not as shocked as I thought I'd be. Where else would the address had led me to?
The address belonged to SPI.
I made up my mind; I had to visit that place.
It seemed as if a lot of roads were leading back to it and I needed to find out why. I needed to find out who this kid was. I needed his name. And I needed to know why Kevin's picture was on that site accusing him of escaping.
I clicked the official website link and looked up visiting hours. I was disheartened to learn that they were not open to visiting hours today. I mentally cursed at this knowledge because I would've head out immediately if they were open now.
The next time the hours would be available was a few days from now at three o'clock. This worked for me because I could leave right after finishing school and make it before the hours closed at eight.
I was finally going to get answers. Real answers.
I couldn't wait.
___
As I drove myself to school the following day, I thought about how I would approach the situation when I arrived at SPI. I needed to talk to someone there. I supposed the only thing I could do was be as direct as possible without giving too much away. Someone had to know something. It would make no sense if that weren't the case.
I pulled up to the school and immediately noticed the police vehicles. There had to have been at least four of them. There were crowds of students, standing around, gossiping about whatever had gone on.
I parked my car and got out, narrowing my eyes at the scene presented in front of me. I saw deputies talking to students and I approached the only man I knew personally; Sheriff Carter Pihlstrom.
"Mr. Pihlstrom," I called to him as I walked over. His attentions turned to me and he dismissed one of the underlings he'd been speaking to.
"Hey, Ricky," he greeted me once we were standing right in front of each other. "How are you?"
"Okay," I lied. "What's going on?"
Pihlstrom frowned at me. "You mean you don't know? You haven't spoken with your friends?"
"I don't have a phone right now and I've kinda been keeping to myself lately," I said. "What happened?"
"Well," Pihlstrom began. "I'm not exactly sure how to break this to you, but Danielle Robins is missing."
"What?!"
"Since Saturday night."
Danielle had been missing since Saturday? The night of the party at Eddie's place.
"Witnesses say they saw glimpses of her leaving the party, but no one really payed much attention," Pihlstrom continued. "They say she looked pretty intoxicated."
"There aren't any leads?"
Pihlstrom shook his head.
This was unbelievable, and I was getting deja vu. This was way too similar to how everything went down with Kevin. The police at the school. The gossiping. The rumors.
Way too familiar.
"How's Luke doing?" I asked, curious for more than one reason.
"He's..." Pihlstrom trailed off, thinking of what to say. "Reserved. He hasn't spoken to me. It's worse than ever."
"But he's home?"
"Yeah."
Luke's relationship with his father had progressively gotten worse ever since Luke's mother died. And it didn't help that Carter was the sheriff, making it hard for the two of them to spend quality time together.
At least I knew for sure that Luke was still around. But what would his next move be with the whole Kevin thing? And now this?
"Luke can't lose this girl," Pihlstrom said. "He's already lost his mother; my beautiful wife and a good friend; mentor, even."
He was talking about Kevin. If only he knew.
Pihlstrom shook his head. "He can't lose Dani, too."
"I'm sure she's alright," I said.
"Let's hope so."
I saw a man approaching from behind Pihlstrom and I tensed when I recognized who it was.
"Hey, there, Ricardo," Deputy Downing greeted.
"Hi," I said.
I hadn't seen this man since he practically interrogated me after that night with Travis. He was able to tell something wasn't right with the story I'd told him, but thankfully I hadn't run into the problem of facing him again.
Until now.
"You been safe?" Downing asked.
"Of course," I said. "No other break-ins so far."
Downing nodded.
"I had almost forgotten that you and Downing have been acquainted already," Pihlstrom said. "He's one of my top deputies, you know."
"That's great," I said.
"The girl is a friend of his," Pihlstrom said to Downing. "Him, my son and a couple others."
"A couple others?" Downing's eyebrow arched. "Would you happen to mean those kids over there?"
He turned around and pointed to the courtyard where Sayora and Jory stood, looking over at us standing here.
"Yeah," Pihlstrom said. "That's them."
"Just finished speaking to them," Downing said. "They all were at the mayor's house for that party. Neither of them know what exactly happened to her, so they claim."
"Mayor's not happy about this at all either," Pihlstrom commented.
"Simmons is so used to the town being so perfect," Downing agreed. "A teenage girl going missing at a party his own son threw is very bad for image."
"And I'm sure that's all he cares about," Pihlstrom added. "This town is going into uproar again. Wasn't Kevin bad enough?"
I shifted uncomfortably and Pihlstrom took notice, looking as if he immediately regretted saying those words.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Look, you should go on in. Make sure you get to class on time."
"Okay," I said.
I walked away, but I wasn't heading for the school. I went for my friends.
Or at least the people I thought were my friends.
Both of them looked very worried.
"What the hell is going on?" I spat at them in an accusatory fashion.
"Danielle's missing. Didn't you just finish talking with the police?" Sayora asked.
"Don't play dumb."
Jory's eyes widened. "Ricky, maybe you shouldn't—"
"Shouldn't what? Danielle's missing! We've been through this before, so spill it! What is going on?"
Both of them looked at me like I was crazy.
"What the hell are you on, Ricardo?" Sayora said. "You think we know something?"
I was practically shaking and was risking a lot by even having this conversation, but I didn't care anymore. Danielle going missing suddenly in the midst of this huge conspiracy wasn't by chance. They all were involved in what happened to Kevin. Now he was back and Danielle was gone. That was fishy.
"She could've ran away," Sayora finished.
"Yeah, and why would she do that?!" I retorted. I had concocted the theory that Danielle was afraid of Kevin being back and ran away already. It would make sense. She was just that afraid of telling the truth.
I just wanted to hear them admit my theory was right.
"I don't know, I'm just hoping she's okay!" Sayora said.
"You're still gonna act like you don't know anything," I said.
"Ricky!" Jory interjected. "Can I talk to you alone?"
"What's wrong with right here, huh?!" I challenged.
"Don't be an asshole," he said.
I glared at him and he gestured for me to step to the side, out of Sayora's hearing distance.
"What do you have to talk about that I can't be a part of?" She asked, offended at the display. "Guys, what's happening here?"
We both ignored her and once we were away, Jory looked directly at me and spoke.
"Sayora is innocent."
"What?"
"She's innocent," he reiterated. "She's not in on any of this, so you're completely out of line talking to her like that."
I stared at him. I felt stupid for a moment, too, kinda taken aback that he was openly speaking on what we both knew he was speaking on, but I couldn't help but feel a sense of relief in knowing that Sayora was possibly innocent.
Sayora was innocent.
Hopefully that was at least true in this sea of lies.
"Okay then. So where's Danielle?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"That's what I said."
"Just like you didn't know what happened to Kevin?"
Jory froze and was obviously fighting within himself. If he responded in a way that validated what I'd known to be the truth, then it was over. He would officially be admitting to knowing what happened to Kevin.
"You think you've got it all figured out, don't you?" Jory said.
"So you really were involved. Kevin said he only heard Danielle and Luke, but you were there, too," I said.
"Ricky..."
"You're spineless, you know that?" I said. "You're the nicest one of us all and you could've done something. Told someone. You guys left my house that night with the intent of hurting my brother. How could you?"
"He forced himself on Danielle."
"I'm glad you've convinced yourself that what she claimed was the truth."
"It is. You weren't there. You didn't see her."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure her story was very believable."
"It's believable because it happened."
"And why wouldn't you tell me?!"
"Tell you that your brother intimidated your friend into sex? It would've torn you apart," Jory said. "Or worse, you would've taken his side... Like you're doing right now."
I scoffed incredulously. "So beating him half to death was the best solution? For something that was fabricated?!"
"And how do you know it isn't?!" Jory spat.
"Because Kevin told me Saturday night," I said. "He's alive, remember?"
"And he's so trustworthy?" Jory retorted. "Luke texted Danielle and I in the group chat we have after he fought Kevin. Said he found you two in the woods. That's why you left the party. Not because of Eddie."
"Congrats, you have a brain," I said.
"Have you even stopped to think about how suspect Kevin is?" Jory inquired. "Do you actually believe he's telling you everything?"
Truthfully, I knew Kevin hadn't told me everything, but he had good intentions. I knew my brother. I had my doubts and I knew he was being sketchy, but if he was lying, it was for good reason. It had to be.
"I have to take his word for it," I said simply.
Jory let out a dry laugh.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"The fact that you're actually a dumbass," Jory said.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Jory stared daggers at me, and he was now extremely serious. "You're still not considering one thing."
"I've considered everything," I said.
"Then you haven't considered it enough."
"Then go ahead," I said. "Enlighten me."
"Like I said you're acting like you've got this all figured out," Jory said. "But remember this; we all thought Kevin was dead. Me, Luke, Danielle, Sayora, you and the rest of this damn town. You recall that? There was a body found. So let me ask you: If we thought Kevin was actually dead because of what we did, but it turns out he actually alive, then who was actually killed?"
This question stumped me. Of course I'd considered this plenty of times, but I hadn't done much investigation into the matter. There was so much I was trying to figure out and everything else seemed to just reveal itself to me in ways that this topic hadn't.
"Sure, you can blame Danielle and I for helping Luke beat your brother up," Jory continued, "but some guy is actually dead. Some guy whose casket we all saw get buried at Kevin's funeral. And the real criminal, the one who killed that guy, is still out there... Still out there roaming free."
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