Chapter 5: Instinct
Melissa's expression softened at the mention of her family's name. "Yes, the Egans have been a part of this community for as long as I can remember," she replied, a hint of nostalgia in her voice.
She pointed at the fisherman coat that was hanging on the stand, "We are a fishing town as you might know and my daddy created a really good business out of it, but even before that we have living here for... god! I don't even know exactly."
"That's okay." Jaxon smiled, "I see there's no one around here, are you the last living Egan?"
"Yea! You can say that." She said as she kept her hands on her chin, "My daddy died not too long ago, and my mother well she is in a home, as she didn't take too well after what happened to my brother."
"Your brother?" Jaxon said as he flipped through his notes acting as if he really had something written there, "David, was it? I heard that he led the local team, Marlins to a 2 state championship, there were few people that I'd talked to before who kept mentioning him."
"..." Melissa didn't say anything as she just nodded looking sentimental at the mention of her brother.
"I am sorry, it must be already hard for you to manage all this by yourself and you have a stranger coming around bringing up what seems to be a sour subject." Jaxon let go of his pen as he got on his knees grabbed Melissa's hand and gently patted the back of her hand.
"It's okay." Melissa nodded at Jaxon's gestures, "It's just things have been terrible after his death."
"I see, this isn't part of the interview at all, but if you want to talk about things, I can be a good listener," Jaxon said with a small smile on his lips trying to cheer up the girl who seemed genuinely distraught,
"My brother David was a big part of it all, you know, he was the glue that held everything together." Melissa continued accepting Jaxon's gesture, with the reputation of her family in shambles with the incidents that occurred and her family destroyed by the accident, she didn't really have anyone to share her story with, "He was younger than me, but boy was he a star."
Melissa went on to talk about David's life and his engagement and how happy everyone used to be, "And that's when things went wrong you know, after that night, he regretted ever stepping foot out, he wished he never drank that day. The whole town blamed him for her death and he believed it himself"
"Things were looking well for a bit better after a couple of months, I believed he was learning to forgive himself for what happened and move on, and then on the death anniversary of Susie he went ahead and killed himself."
"You know the funny thing is, he left a suicide letter, that both mommy and me couldn't even understand." Melissa tried to hold herself back as she let out the words that made Jaxon's ears perk up, "I will never forget last summer, that all he wrote..."
Melissa let out a single drop of tears that dropped on Jaxon's hand as he gently raised his hands and wiped the tears off of her face, "Don't you worry! Things will get better."
"Can I say something?" Jaxon asked as Melissa nodded,
"I think it's better for you to move on from this place, your brother tried to move on so should you," Jaxon said, "Move to a city, maybe get a job, and live surrounded by people who all, of course, aren't happy but everyone pretends to be, and at the end of all the pretending and facade, you'd realize one day, a couple of years from now that within all the pretending you've been doing you've managed to move on."
"That doesn't sound like a good plan..." Melissa shook her head letting out a small laugh,
"Hey, I never said it was a good plan, right?" Jaxon joked getting up, "Thank you for sharing your story with me, and I hope you live a happy life. I lost someone recently as well, someone very close to me, and I am trying every day to move on as well."
"Maybe one day, we will come across each other again, and at the same time we can both pretend to be happier than we are now."
"You're leaving?" Melissa asked,
"I must get going now, it's already getting dark," Jaxon said grabbing his note and pen, "I have other places to visit as well."
"I see..." Melissa looked a little sad but she still nodded happily, "Maybe drop by when you're done..."
"I can make no promises," Jaxon said, "But I'll try my best."
Leaving the house, he looked back as Melissa waved at him through the door, he nodded at her and walked back to his car. Getting in he cracked his knuckle as he took a deep breath.
"Now, I have two versions of the story, I am still not sure who to believe in..." Jaxon said to himself, "The news says that David died from an accidental drowning, his sister says he killed himself which I am sure she wasn't lying to me, especially the suicide note she talked about."
"I will never forget last summer." Jaxon wrote it down on his notepad, "It's indeed cryptic in a way, if I look at it just simply, the man couldn't literally forget the last summer he killed his wife."
"David, David, how did you die..."
Jaxon tapped the note with his pen trying to make sense of everything that was going on, suddenly he remembered what the old man used to say, "When investigating always trust your instincts, but never ignore the facts."
It was a mantra the old man had drilled into him during their late-night discussions about detective work. Jaxon took a moment to reflect on those words, feeling a surge of determination.
"My instinct, huh!" Jaxon chuckled to himself, "If I consider the fact that someone is hunting those girls and her friends, sending them threatening letters teasing them before he goes for the hunt and the cause of David's death together..."
Jaxon amber eyes's shined golden for a moment as he glanced back at the suicide letter that David had left, "I will never forget last summer..."
"What if he didn't write the note and someone gave it to him." Jaxon snapped his fingers, "That would indicate a pattern, which could only mean that the same person who's hunting those girls might be the same person who offed dear old David."
Jaxon started his car, turned it around, and headed back to the town in a hurry.
Dialing the number, he immediately began calling Julie.
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