فصل بیست و نه

THE GIRLS

S1E5

Jesus Christ.

Wow.

Darren Marshall’s room looks like it … exploded, for lack of a better term. The air is thick, stuffy, attesting to the fact that he hasn’t been here for a long time. But whenever he was here last, he apparently tore the place apart. There are clothes all over the bed, the floor, every available surface. The bed has been stripped of its sheets and the furniture has been upended and pulled away from the walls. Every drawer in the place is open, except for the fridge. Joe wanders over to it first. When he opens it, the stench of spoiled food fills the room.

Oh, goddammit …

What happened here, Joe?

It looks like a fuckin’ crime scene … Jesus … Oh, Christ, don’t step in here! The bathroom window’s fuckin’ broken.

You didn’t notice that until now?

You seen this place? How’m I supposed to notice one more broken window? Jesus.

So this isn’t how Darren usually left the place?

I hope not … but I honestly don’t know. He didn’t want cleaning in here, and I trusted that he’d look after it and I didn’t have a reason to doubt that, you know? But this … looks wrong. It looks like there was a fight or something … is that blood?

There are a few suspect stains on the floor, but it’s hard to tell what exactly they might be. I move carefully around the room, taking photographs of it with my phone. The first thing that catches my attention is the matchbook. It’s sitting neatly on the nightstand. I pick it up because it’s familiar to me, but at that moment, I’m not sure why. It says Cooper’s on the front. Before I can think too hard about it, there’s something else: A photograph on floor, half-hidden under the bed.

I know the place it was taken. And I know the people in it. There are four of them, and the first one I recognize is Claire. She’s younger, sicker. She’s standing next to a man who is holding a small child against him. Mattie. To the right of the photo, at its very edges, is Sadie.

She’s about eleven years old.

Hey, Joe, is this Darren?

What’s that?… Well, I’ll be damned. That’s him. And that’s— That’s not the girl you’re looking for, is it?

Yeah, it is.

What the hell is going on here?

Excuse me a minute, Joe … I’ll be right back.

I step outside and send the photograph to May Beth over text. She calls me back immediately.

Oh my Lord, that’s the picture. Where did you find it?

What?

That’s the photo that was missing from my album … when I was showing you those pictures of the girls, remember, I got to the page with nothing on it? A photo was missing. That was the photo that was on it. The girls, and their mother and—

Darren.

What?

That’s Darren.

No, it’s not. It’s Keith.