Chapter 8

The bell chimes and both girls jump. "Hello?" Derrick calls as he wanders the café. "Is that my brother?!" Jessica says frantically. "Looks like it," Erika says trying to hide from him. "Is it 2 already?" Jessica questions trying to find a clock. "No, it was just before eleven when the cops got here. It’s probably noon." The girls spy on Derrick from the bathroom door down the short hallway at the back of the lobby. He walks up to the counter and then bends over to see the back room. Hoping to scare Derrick, Erika calls out, "Hey, what are you doing?!" Just as the girls hoped, Derrick straightened up and looked around to find the source. The girls burst out laughing and Derrick spies them out.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Derrick says as he walks towards the girls. "Jess, cops came by the house looking for you." "They just left here," Erika said. Derrick scratched the back of his neck and awkwardly asked Jessica, "Is there something I need to know?" Jessica, filled Derrick in on everything while Erika made him an extra special treat. "Woah, how are you feeling?" Derrick asked Jessica after hearing her side of things. "I'm okay, but I'm worried about what happened to Shawn." Derrick clears his throat and sarcastically says, "I'm worried about the psycho killer who has our number now!" "Oh stop it," Erika says popping behind Derrick with a giant coffee cup. "Here, take this and take her home. Jessica your done for the day. Good work today." Jessica was so mentally exhausted that she was relieved to get the hours off. Today had been enough.

The car ride home with Derrick was quiet. Between the sounds of him drinking his precious coffee, Jessica took that time to reflect on everything. Once home, Jessica dragged herself up the stairs and into the shower. Derrick checked the messages, Mom had called twice and left a voicemail each time. "Hey guys, it's Mom… I had a visit with a couple of Officers here at the hospital, just hoping everything is okay. I'll try back." Derrick deleted the message and played the next one. "Hey, it’s me again. Mom. I am getting a little worried, D? Can you please call me? I love you guys." Derrick deleted the final message. He lifted the receiver and dialed Mom's cell. He figured he might as well clear things up with Mom before she had an attack.

Jessica finishes her shower upstairs and slumps onto the bed. She lazily puts on pajamas and decides she is finished with today. She slips on her pink fuzzy bunny slippers and then lays in bed over the blankets. Her little furball, Mindy is buried as always beneath the blankets and they snuggle and fall asleep. Derrick opens her door hurriedly and has a horrific look on his face. "You look like you've just seen a ghost," Jessica says to him as she wakes up. "You need to see this." He says to her, more serious than he's ever been in his life. The two jog down the stairs and Derrick points to the television in the living room. Banners flood the screen as the image shows people pulling a body from the lake that runs under the bridge out of town. Jessica looked at Derrick, reflecting the same horrific look.

"A couple on a bike ride this afternoon found what looked to be a body floating in the lake. 'I saw it on the edge, face down and bobbing. I stopped my bike and hopped off to double-check check what I saw was real, and sure enough.' Thank you, Peter. Peter Winter and his wife alerted the police immediately and they arrived on site in record time. The boy's family has been notified and will confirm with investigators if the body does in fact match the case of the missing person announced via amber alert this morning. Back to you Charles." The news announcer was gone and a man in a suit was explaining financial gains in the market and something about holding. Derrick watched as Jessica digested what she had just seen.

"That's him, isn’t it." He asked her. Tears fell from her eyes, she looked at her brother and started to sob. He wrapped an arm around her and she buried her face in his shoulder and cried. "He's wearing the same clothes." She sobbed into him. He just stood there, for as long as she needed. Jessica pulls away and wipes her eyes with her shirt sleeves. He looks just as emotionally fragile. "How did you know?" She asked sniffing and wiping her eyes. "I didn't. Mom told me, his body is at the hospital right now. She said he's been all over the news. Mom says doctors are assuming he jumped but she saw marks of possible foul play." Jessica swallowed hard, this was turning out to be a murder case and they had no idea if they were a target.

Just then the phone rings from an unknown number. "It's probably Mom," Derrick says confidently. Jessica reaches for the receiver. "I want to talk to her," Jessica says as she brings the phone to her ear. "Hello?" She says into the phone. There is no one on the line. Jessica turns up the volume on the phone and asks again, "Hello?" but she is only met with quiet distant breathing. Jessica's eyes widen and she covers the speaking part of the receiver. "There's someone on the line." She whispers, frightened. Derrick becomes white as a ghost, he reaches for the phone and says in the scariest voice he can, "Back off! We don't take kindly to prank calls around here!" And he slammed the receiver down.

Jessica cracked an awkward smile that puzzled Derrick. "What?" He asked confused. "We don't take kindly round here," Jessica repeated in her best cowboy accent. She burst out laughing and Derrick chuckled as well. Perhaps the stress was getting to them, but things felt a little lighter in the house that evening. Derrick ordered pizza for dinner and they stayed up late watching movies. The phone didn't ring again that night, but Jessica was still shaken by that call. "Do you really think it was a prank?" She asked Derrick, feeling like her four-year-old self asking if there was a monster in her closet. "Yeah, kids probably dialing random numbers. Don’t sweat it." Jessica sighed. It made sense, but she still felt uneasy. "I wish mom was home." She told Derrick, who shrugged and said, "She'll be home soon enough." Derrick yawned and started to fall asleep on the recliner. Jessica gently pulled the light blanket up to his chin and went upstairs to get some sleep.

The night seemed long, Jessica tossed and turned, praying for day break. As exhausted as she was, she just wanted it to be morning so she could fill her day with other distractions. All she could think about was Shawn. Would he jump off the bridge? He didn't seem like the type. But like, what is that type after all? Mom saw his body, she thought it looked like foul play. Is that why Mom isn’t here? Could she be observing the body right now? Thoughts drowned Jessica in a frenzy of cold sweats and a racing heart rate. She tried to calm down, but it was no use. The digital clock beside her bed changed to 3:33 a.m. She rolled her eyes, frustrated with her mind and its racing tendencies. She watched as the minutes changed, one after another. 3:44 am, she felt herself yawning, her eyes fluttering and finally giving in to sleep.