The Californian Misery

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

HUNTER'S POV

I knocked on Noah’s door for the fifth time, before I heard him yell that he was coming. I lowered my gaze as I heard his footsteps approaching the door,and opening it.

“Listen Noah, I’m really sorry about yesterday, but to be honest, you didn’t help either. I'm not letting Alexandra off if she is the one who killed him, right now she is my friend. I took your advice, and tried to understand my suspects and now we are friends. There’s nothing wrong in that and I promise, it won’t affect the investigation alright?”

“I wish I could have friends like that” he spoke sarcastically,yet bitterly. I looked up at him,and caught attention to his bruised face,we didn’t fight that much.

“What happened to your face? I didn’t punch you that much.”

“You didn’t,her brother did.”

".........." 

“You don’t need to worry about this case anymore,Hunter. I asked for you off the case,I can do it alone.”

“Are you serious right now?”
“ As a heart attack,I don't need you if you're going to keep siding with this girl”
“I'm not siding with her Noah! Can't you understand?unless no evidence is telling us that she is the killer,you can't keep on saying I'm letting her off,because I'm not,and you know it.”

“……….”

“C'mon man I said I'm sorry,unless we have anything against her,she's my friend.”
“What if we do?”

“What? Find evidence against her?”
“I will”

“Alright,but until you do,are we cool?”

“……….”

“Noah”

“…………”

“Mate,you can't be upset for long time”I knew this would get him.

We once had a case and one of the witnesses was british and always kept calling Noah mate,and slightly punch his arm.One time,Noah got so mad that he punched him and broke his nose,we had to get him to the hospital and when the witnesses' mother came,she kept hitting Noah with her walking stick,asking him to apologize while I kept laughing.That was one fun of a day.

“You got me there man.” We fist bumped and he grinned widely as I engulfed him into a bro hug.

“Did anything come back from the autopsy?”
“We're heading there right now,Robert was sick, it took them a while to find a replacement,I got a call this morning that they have something.” He said as he kept his hand on the steering wheel,while driving.
“Alright then let's go there”
“I can't ,I have a thing…I want to visit Nori”

“Oh umm are you sure?”
“Yeah,I figured sooner or later,I should go”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I hope so”he spoke in  a low voice. 

“Well you can drop me at the office,I'll get the autopsy results,and if you need me,you can text me”

“Yeah sure”
_________________________

I walked into the lab and saw a man examining the victim's cut hand,I focused on the purple color that was visible all over his skin.

“You are Robert’s replacement right?”
“Yes I am”he kept his focus on the hand as I walked even closer,standing right behind him.

“What's your name?”

“Jonathon”he still hasn't looked at me

“Alright Jonathon,why aren’t you looking at me?”
“I don’t see a need to”
“You need to in order to tell me the results”this time,I held his elbow and  tried to forcefully turn him, he pushed my hand away. 

“Can you please not touch me?”he still hasn't looked at me,what's wrong with him?

“The results showed that he killed himself,but the knife had other fingerprints,that we couldn’t identify,since he held it after the other person, they were erased”
“Do you know anything about the other person?”

“Nothing yet,I'm still examining to see if I missed anything.” He fixed his eyes on the hand,something seemed familiar about him..

“MAN!why don’t you look at me??! ” this time I yelled at him.

“Would you be happy to see me?”he finally turned,oh indeed I'm not happy.

“Jonathon,why are you here? If Noah sees you here,he will not keep you alive”
“What a wonderful discovery Sherlock,you think I don’t know that?”he spit sarcastically.
“Then why don’t you leave?”it's really simple.
“Oh yeah what a wonderful  idea I'm such a stupid person for not thinking it”

“Seriously, leave! Who even asked you to come here?”
“I heard your medical examiner was sick,I took the chance to come here”

“We don’t have room for your problems with Noah, fix them alone, no need to interfere in our jobs”
“It's my job as well if you think about it.”
“Plus he's my brother,I need to talk to him Hunter”

“Your brother doesn’t want to see you,and he made that clear years ago.”
“He's still my brother Hunter”
“I don’t think he still considers you his brother after you let your sister get killed just because you were chickening.”I spoke bitterly.

He looked at me with hurt eyes,maybe I shouldn’t have said it that harsh,but it’s the truth

“How many times do I have to say I'm sorry Hunter?”his voice was soft and hurt.

“Probably not enough”

_________________________

I picked up my phone after it kept ringing for about four minutes

“Noah,are you good?”
“Can you come?”I heard his choking voice,he seemed like he was crying since forever ,why wouldn’t he?

“Yeah sure,I'll get there,are you fine?”

“I don’t think so Hunter,I miss her”
“Try to breath, I'll be there as soon as I can.”
_________________________

I saw noah leaning into her grave,his face was red,he cried for long and his hands were shaking  he kept panting trying to catch his breath,I rushed towards him.

“Hey!! Hey!Noah are you alright?”I helped him up and he kept breathing hardly

“She..she…I..Hunter I can't ” he said between sobs.

“Noah,we can't do anything “
“I should have been there.”

“But you weren’t Noah,and you can't blame yourself for that”
“It just hurts”
“I know it does Noah,but sometimes pain is just a way to help us live”
“I don’t want to live and keep on missing her”he choked and hit his head into the grave.
“I can't tell you not to miss her Noah ,but you can't live your life imagining what could have happened if you were there”

“It's all because of him”

“It's not entirely his fault noah”
“What kind of brother runs away while his sister is being attacked?”
“….”
“Let me answer that for you, a Jonathon Newman."

“What kind of brother doesn’t forgive his brother for a mistake he made?”
“Breaking my heart and letting her die isn’t a mistake Hunter,it’s a sin, a one I will never forgive him for”

“Can you at least cool down?”

“I'm cool, no one is cooler than me”

“Sure the polar bears have another saying on that”

“Well let them face me.”we both laughed and everything was back to normal.

“C’mon let's get back”I helped him up  and started walking to the car,until I saw him there, again.

So Jonathon(Noah's brother) is a very friendly and antihostile character. People might mistaken him to be weak but the power we can contain is the one inside. You will get to know the mistake he did in the next chapter.