Dust flew through the air which hazed out the horizon, a light wind blowing the corn into a feint hum that dispersed the air somewhat. Parker took a few paces into the makeshift intersection, two roads that crossed over each other with no right of way or proof of innocence; these lanes out the back of North End and Haverford were hidden passages through the town, no lighting to aid in safety and the lack of security cameras tempting even the most sensible of drivers… A few months ago someone had taken advantage of those flaws, driving away from a scene they had created — Too much speed and slow reactions, ploughing straight into his younger sister’s car as it flipped into a field. Late at night with nobody else around, the driver took off and is since to be found… It was a dog walker who found the wreckage, emergency services called as they did their best to save her life but the damage was already done when her heart gave out, a few blinks before her eyes rested one final time. Internal bleeding and shock, two things that could have prevented her death had the other driver stopped and called a paramedic.
Those were the thoughts that haunted him, his grief angered by a lack of cooperation by the detectives in charge of the case. Amber’s name barely made the papers, an obituary written by a friend and the date of her funeral which gained more attention than originally thought… Afterwards though, nothing. The case deemed ‘dead-end’ by a lead detective, who seemed more interested in keeping everyone else happy than his family informed. With no witnesses and a poor attempt to appeal for them, Parker was left with little choice; he had to find the answers himself. It’s why he was there late at night, the sun setting behind trees as he crouched down to feel the dirt tracks below. Part of him hoped to feel her, the baby sister they had protected all her life. The coroner had made it clear that Amber had suffered, which only added to his own troubles. In her name he would search until the truth had been revealed and as he paused on the ground, Parker allowed himself to shed a tear for the sister he had raised.
Promises weren’t his strongest suit, the past proving that he wasn’t good at keeping his word but never once had he broken it for Amber. The silence he listened to helped to clear his mind, but as scuffs and the sound of footsteps disturbed his remembrance Parker stood up abruptly and turned to face whoever was lurking. “What do you want?” He called out, wiping a tear from his cheek as brown hues scanned the shadows for movement. “You shouldn’t be out here this late—-” The man warned, knowing that perpetrators often revisited the scenes of their crimes if they felt guilty or curious. Maybe he was about to be faced with the person who killed his sister, “Not without a torch. It’s dangerous…” He spoke ironically, trying to amend the aggression in his previous statement. Parker didn’t have a torch or clothing to indicate he was there, but he wasn’t the one being hunted and searched for.
Her aversion towards Lanford was at an all time high today, having spent the morning sitting across from her dad at a table where she was not allowed to even think about touching his hand or giving him a hug. The only comfort to be found was in the fact that in two years this would all be over. He would’ve missed her graduation, both of them, Isaac’s too, his wedding as well, and all of Harper’s twenties. They would be gone, taken from him because of someone else’s greed, someone else’s disregard for North End and its people. Not once had she left Greene Correctional Facility and felt at ease — by god did she love her dad, but seeing him was bittersweet, a constant reminder of the injustice that had led to his incarceration. By the time she made it back to Lanford, her hands were trembling from gripping the steering wheel so tightly, and to make matters worse, she arrived just in time to catch her sister in law shedding a few tears in a quiet corner of the hospital.
They had sat on either side of Isaac as the chemo concoctions dripped from their clear bags with the big yellow CAUTION stickers slapped onto them. This was still new to Harper who didn’t remember this part of it from the first time Isaac went through it, but she followed his wife’s lead and pretended not to be as horrified as she actually were. They chatted and listened to music, ate a popsicle each that left their lips and tongues a beaming blue colour, and eventually Harper forgot about her dad and why she disliked Lanford as much as she did. The bliss was short-lived however, when Isaac brought up a girl — Amber Owens. The name was familiar, but by the time Harper left Lanford at eighteen, she’d suppressed close to all faces from her mind, eager to leave it all behind. But what had happened to this girl exactly? A switch flipped, and one question tumbled from her lips followed close behind by a second and a third, and five hours later when she walked through the doors of the hospital to the parking lot, her knuckles where pale as snow again, hands balled into fists.
She had planned to wait until tomorrow, but tossing and turning in bed for an hour was a sure sign that waiting wasn’t going to happen. By the time she made it to the sight, it was dark enough to leave everything shouldered in shadows and silhouettes, the light from her phone not doing much to remedy it. She sensed movement only a slight second before a voice rose above the hum of the lulling corn, her eyes thinning to make out the silhouette of a tall, broad-shouldered man standing right in the midst of it all. Her guard went up immediately, suspicion creeping in on her, no doubt fostered by her cynical side. “Who are you?” She asked. “And what are you doing out here this late?” The only sentences rushing through her mind was ‘sometimes they come back to the scene of the crime — sometimes they come back to the scene of the crime’. She didn’t particularly want to, but she stepped closer, wanting to get a look at the guy if she needed to describe him to anyone — not that it seemed like the police would listen, but there were other ways too. Once she got a better look at him, the feeling of being unsafe faltered diminished, but she wasn’t sure why. Did she know him? Once again, her suppression of Lanford’s existence after her departure ten years ago was making it hard for her to know for sure.
