He Follows ✔

Chapter 3

"This is the evidence we found on your father."

"I told you, that man is not my father."

"A lot of people go through denial after someone in their family dies. All the evidence says that he is your father. We took his finger prints and checked all of his ID's in the system."

"Haven't you seen the movies. People can do all sorts of crazy things to themselves."

Detective Bradley was running out of patience. "Please just look at the evidence and allow me to ask you a couple of questions."

Michelle crossed her arms.

"Fine."

"So the first thing we found was his wallet. Can you take a look at it and tell us if anything is off about it?"

Michelle grasped the brown leather wallet. She slowly opened it up and pulled out all of the cards.

There were the normal things inside: money, cash, and some change. She then pulled out a library card, a business card to a local chiropractor, and a picture of her from last year.

"This isn't right."

"What isn't right?"

"This picture. This was a picture from last year when I went out with my friends. My dad wasn't with us then."

"Maybe you gave it to him at some point or he found it lying around the house?"

"No, if my dad would have had a picture of me, it would have been my senior picture. He always loved that picture. I never printed out a picture of this or sent it to anybody."

Detective Bradley took the picture in his hand.

"Ok, we will look further into this. People's memory is not so good during tragedy, so you may have just forgotten some minor detail."

"This is the next thing we found. A phone number. Do you recognize it?"

"Yes, that is my dad's phone number. Why would he have his own phone number in his pocket? If I know one thing about my dad, I know he never forgets anything to do with numbers."

"Maybe he was planning on giving it to someone."

"He could have just recited it to them, why write it on paper?" She questioned.

Running short on time, Detective Bradley needed to ask just a few more questions.

"This is the last thing I found unusual."

He slid the picture of Tom's neck and tattoo across the table.

"Did your father ever get any facial reconstruction done or any surgery at all in this region?"

"Not that I know of. Although I can explain the tattoo. That was what his best friend called him in the military because he would always wake up at 6:15. No later, no earlier. After his best friend died in combat, he got that tattooed on his neck."

Michelle sounded defeated to find the tattoo.

"One last question before you leave for the day. What did you mean when you said if you are calling about my father being drunk and beat up again, don't bother?"

"My father was always out late after work. He would sometimes come home pretty beat up. He claimed he got in a bar fight every time, but I always thought there was something he wasn't telling me. One time he called me to come and get him, so I walked into the Ink N Ivy bar downtown to take him home. He was talking to some tall man in a black shirt. Before I could get a closer look, the man had walked away. I just kind of brushed it off, but I noticed the man gave him a note."