Tear Tracks Forever

I hesitantly stepped toward the door and pressed the doorbell. After a few seconds, the door flung open and Alex stood there. He glanced at me for a second, and then his face spread into a smile and he pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back, and then stepped away.
He began firing me with questions. “How did you get back? What happened? Are you free to go?”

I answered all his questions patiently, and he seemed pretty disappointed and sad that I still wasn’t free to go, but was happy that I was no longer the main suspect.

We talked for a while, sitting on the green couch, until he finally asked, “Do you think that Mr. Meyer will do anything else to try and incriminate Daniel?”

“I don’t know…but Alex, it’s not up to us to find proof that Daniel did it. It’s up to the police and Mr. Meyer,” I told him.

I could feel the tension growing in the air and Alex’s frustration. “But Rhee, I seriously doubt that they’re going to search him or anything. He’s a police, and they stick together. Plus, that other lady Lynn, and him are together. She wouldn’t incriminate him.”

“But still, Alex, it’s not up to us—” I tried to protest, but he cut me off.

“Rhee, it’s only up to us if not anybody else! I already told you, the police won’t do anything! And however nice Mr. Meyer is, he won’t risk his job and position to figure it out. Seriously, it’s going to be you who ends up in jail if we don’t take this into our own hands,” Alex shouted at me.

I glared at him. “Stop yelling at me! And seriously, it makes me feel so much better when you tell me that I’m going to end up in jail? Really, Alex?”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. But really, I’m not trying to scare you, just convince you that we have to do something. You know where Daniel’s headquarters are, right? Let’s go there tonight. I bet we can guilt him into confessing.”

I felt dubious. “I don’t know…it’s kind of dangerous…”

“Rhee, you’re already going to end up in jail if we don’t do anything. Why not at least try?” he asked me.

I paused, considering the idea. Alex was right. I really had nothing left to lose. But he did.

“Alex, I’m all for it. I understand I have nothing to lose. But you…you shouldn’t come along. Something bad might happen,” I told him.

“Rhee, you can’t do this by yourself. I need to be there. Please,” he looked into my eyes, pleading.

I shook my head. “Nope, Alex, I can’t.”

“I can’t let you go alone. I love you too much,” he said softly, taking one of my hands and gently rubbing circles with his thumb on my hand.

“Only if you really want to,” I mumbled.

“I do! I would’ve gone anyway, even if you had said no. I can’t let you end up in jail for something you didn’t do,” he told me.

“Alright. Let’s get ready,” I said, standing up.

“Okay. Wear dark clothes or something,” he told me and then we went upstairs. I changed into a pair of black jeans and a black Under-Armour shirt. I pulled my hair back into a braid, and emerged from the room.

Alex was wearing a pair of black Under-Armour pants and a baggy black T-shirt, standing against the wall, waiting for me. When he saw me, he grabbed my arms, pulling me towards him and kissed me. I was surprised at first, but then kissed him back. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him, and kept kissing me. After a few minutes, he pulled away and gave me a guilty smile. “I just had to,” he grinned at me.

I laughed and leaned in, surprising him with a quick kiss, and then walked down the stairs. I pulled on a pair of black Converse and we left.

I had to admit, we looked pretty suspicious in all black compared to the people in bright-colored bathing suits.

As we were walking toward the Taxi station, I heard a voice from behind me. “Hey! Rhee!”
I whirled around, seeing Pepper.

“Where are you going? What are you doing?” he asked.

I explained as fast as I could and he said, “I want to come too!”

I tried to tell him no, but he wouldn’t listen. We went back to his house so he could change and were back on our way.

We rented a cab and went to the mall across from the police station so we wouldn’t be suspected. The cabbie dropped us off; we paid him, and ran across the street and a few blocks and then looked around.

We told the police officer on duty that we were there to see Daniel, and he knew who I was and believed me. He led us to Daniel’s huge office and then left us, not suspecting anything.

Daniel wasn’t there, and Alex and I began looking around as Pepper stood on guard to warn us to get ready to explain if Daniel was coming. We looked through papers and a few files on the computer but didn’t find anything.

Suddenly I heard a voice from outside. “Who are you? What are you doing?”

I froze. It was Daniel.

“I-I-” Pepper danced frantically in front of Daniel, trying to block the door. it didn’t work. Finally Daniel got annoyed and pushed Pepper to the side.

Daniel ran in and froze, his face spreading into an evil grin.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the murderer. What do you want?” he growled.

“I want you to confess to my father’s murder. Face it, Daniel. I have all the proof I need. All I need is a confession,” I said boldly, Alex standing behind me.

“I’m not going to confess to anything! I didn’t do it,” Daniel yelled at me.

“Oh, yes you did. I found fingerprints on the bottle and I knew my dad owed you money and you were an enemy—” He cut me off, grabbing me by the front of my shirt, his face two inches from mine.

“Put her down!” Alex leaped into the middle and repeatedly hit Daniel, until Daniel pushed him up against the wall, choking him until he fell unconscious, and pulled out a gun.

“No!” I screamed and took a running leap at him. I jumped on top of Daniel and ripped fistfuls of his hair out, pulling him backwards so he staggered into a wall. He whirled around, pointing the trigger at me. Now, what I told Ashlee was true. I was a black belt. I had been taking karate for seven years. I pushed my hand up and tried to grab the gun but failing, giving him a few uppercuts and roundhouse punches with my other hand. I flipped him over and heard the horrible crunch of his ankle breaking.

He whirled around, sitting on the round, pointing the trigger at Alex’s unconscious slumped over body. His finger tightened on the trigger, and I did a shoulder roll, grabbing the gun as it shot. The bullet landed about two inches from Alex, and I screamed.

Daniel cursed and groaned, getting to his feet. I panicked and shook the gun, realizing that he had used the last bullet. I fumbled and it dropped to the floor, clattering. Daniel looked evil, his eyes red and bloodshot, a few bruises on his face and arms.
He staggered onto his feet, keeping most weight off his broken ankle.

"I know you did it," I said calmly.

"Yeah, so what?" Daniel asked.

"I'm going to tell the police. About my dad's murder and you almost shooting Alex," I answered coolly.

"If you ever tell anyone about the two things--that I murdered your father and tried to shoot Alex, you and him will be buried alive, rotting in a grave no farther from here," Daniel growled, and then slapped me across the face onto the ground. I tried to punch him, but I was too weak from all that fighting I had already done. And for some reason, Daniel’s injuries gave him power. He was on top of me, and more than twice my weight was on me. He drove his fists into my face repeatedly, and then that’s when Pepper ran in. I have no idea how he did it, maybe because he was the only one not injured, but he pulled Daniel onto his feet, his weak spot where he couldn’t stand, and began choking him.

Daniel gave Pepper a few hard blows to his face, but then his face became paler and paler. He made a little sound in the back of his throat, and then his hands went slack. Pepper let go and we grabbed Alex by his hands and feet, dragging him toward the door.
My swelling face and random cuts began making my vision blurry, and I could barely see straight. I could make out Pepper bending to the floor to pick up his iPhone, and then touching the screen a few times.

“Why the hell are you texting right now? We need to leave,” I croaked.

“I got this all on video. Daniel’s confession. And I just emailed it to you, me, and Alex. We’ll show them in court,” he said, shoving his iPhone in his pocket.
He could see my weakness and injuries, the fact that I was about to fall and couldn’t even support myself, barely Alex.

“I’ll call a cab,” he mumbled, standing in the doorway. He let Alex drop to the ground, and while he was making the call, Alex came back to consciousness. His throat was bruised and his face still looked pale, but other than that he was fine. I had a few cuts on my arms from Daniel’s scratching and a bruise on my cheekbone. My face was swelling, and other than that I was oaky. Pepper’s face was the most bruised, black and blue. I bet Daniel had the worst injuries of us all, broken ankle, bruised face, bloody, bruised neck.

We snuck out of the station into the back court where we waited for our cab.

As we got in, the cabbie looked totally shocked and the cigarette fell out of his mouth as he stared at our injuries.

“I’ll give you $50 if you keep quiet,” Pepper said wearily. The cabbie, who looked poor, nodded.

“It’s a deal,” he said quickly. Pepper handed him two twenties and a ten, and the cabbie swore not to tell.

As we sat in the back, Pepper showed us the video he had taken. It started from Alex screaming “Put her down” and showed the rest in perfect vision clarity and sound quality until Daniel was on top of me and punching me. Then Pepper had dropped the phone and it had recorded the ceiling after that, but you could definitely hear the muffled blows in the background. It was perfect, hard evidence.

Alex grinned at me, wrapping his arms around me. “It’s perfect.”

I grinned proudly. “I know.” I leaned in and gave Pepper a quick kiss on the cheek, grinning at him. He was like a brother to me now.

“Thanks,” I told him. He blushed.

“You’rewelcome,” he mumbled, casting his eyes down. I smiled, and the cab neared around the boardwalk.

"Don’t tell,” Pepper reminded the cabbie, pressing some money into his hands and glaring at him with hard black eyes.

“I swear, um, sir,” the cabbie said.

“Good.” Pepper helped me out of the cab and then it sped away. We parted our ways, thanking each other, and walked home. On the way, Alex checked my email to make sure I got the video because, for some reason, my eyes were still blurry.

I almost tripped over a sand dune, and he grabbed my arm to steady me. We walked home and as soon as we stepped into the house, Mrs. Markin freaked out.

Alex lied and said a gang attacked me while we were at the boardwalk and he fought them. At first, Mrs. Markin freaked out and wanted to report it to the police, but we convinced her not to, as long as it didn’t happen again.

We went to bed early, exhausted yet excited to show Mr. Meyer the next day and present it in court.

*~*

The next day, I showed the evidence to Mr. Meyer and at first, he was shocked by what I had done. Then he was proud and laughed happily, saying that we were going to win this court case. I knew he was right. I couldn’t wait until Thursday, which was two days from now. More than enough time to get our case ready, since we had all the pieces. We just had to put it together as a whole and make it presentable. The video being one of the main parts, of course.