Jared Gaines (thatbigguy) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-11-29 23:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, jared, jared x neilan |
Who: Jared and Neilan
When: Monday 20th November, early evening
Where:Point pleasant police department.
Status: Complete
He’d meant to do some of his own research the day prior but his new boyfriend had spent the day with him and he hadn’t felt the want to spend his day trying to locate his brother. So he promised himself today that he would actually make an effort to do something. As Neilan entered the station he was asked to take a seat while he waited for a policeman to speak to him. At this point he’d spent a lot of time already speaking to the police and had grown tired of being shut down every single time. Sure they had plenty of missing persons in this town but it seemed like they hadn’t done a hell of a lot to locate any of them. He waited for a while and as he waited his anger began to grow. It wasn’t until a man finally came out to greet him that he realized just how angry he’d gotten. “I’ve been waiting forever just to speak to someone. It’s no wonder you people haven’t found anybody yet with how slowly you move.” He blurted with his thick Scottish brogue. Normally he might be more of a pleasant person to deal with but when it came to finding his brother, Neilan was incredibly impatient.
It was Jared who had the pleasure of dealing with the angry man and he was not in the mood today. Yesterday had been weird in so many ways and he was wondering if there had been another... drug related incident. He'd been making grand plans to propose to Ty in front of his whole damn family and that was so out of character for him that he still felt staggered. Add to that that his behavior with his boss had been entirely too demanding and Jared just felt like an ass today. It was near the end of his shift and having to deal with an angry relative of one of the countless missing people was the last thing he wanted to do.
He drew a deep breath through his nose, a calming method that wasn't quite working today, then exhaled as he looked at Neilan tiredly. "We are understaffed and overworked," he muttered, bristling at the accusation that they weren't actually pulling their weight. "But you have my attention, mister-?"
Listening to the obviously tired police officer Neilan suddenly snapped back to reality. The other man seemed tired and was obviously overworked. Neilan himself had only just begun to realize what it was like to work with angry parents so he could somewhat relate. He took a deep breathe to calm himself down and finally responded. “McLellan, names Neilan. My brother Torsten went missing from this town a year ago.” Which probably wasn’t the best thing to start off with considering the fact that most missing persons cases weren’t solvable after the first two days. Neilan hadn’t spoken to this particular officer yet but it seemed like he had to have wracked up a rather large file for his brother with the amount of times he’d bothered the local police department.
“I have many questions and I do hope I can sit with you and discuss this further.” He offered, trying to get his temper to calm a bit.
Aw shit. Jared remembered the name now, it was one of the far too many missing persons cases he had worked on and now he felt a touch shitty for not recognizing the brother. He hadn't dealt with Neilan himself but he still felt like he should have known. He almost told him that there was nothing new; no leads, not even a hunch, but if Neilan had questions he'd do his best to answer them. "Of course," he replied, relieved the man seemed a little calmer. "Follow me." He didn't have an office they could go to for privacy but the station wasn't too busy so his desk would do for now. If Neilan asked for privacy, he'd take him to one of the interrogation rooms but the desk was easier, he had his files and computer there.
Thankfully even though they had gotten off on the wrong foot, Neilan had managed to turn his own anger around. He forgot sometimes that police officers had jobs too and were often hated without any real reason. As he followed the officer he looked around the room. Men and women at work behind piles and piles of paperwork, all with the same tired expression. When they arrived at his desk Neilan sat down and took another deep breath. “According to your files, Torsten was last seen heading toward the woods. I was just wondering if there was any testimony I might have not been privy to.” He explains, knowing full well that the officer probably had to search through the files to get any information regarding the case.
Jared just nodded, not wanting to give much away until he'd refreshed his memory by looking at the notes he had on the case. "You teach as well, don't you?" he asked as he worked the computer, beginning to recall what little contact he'd had with Neilan. It was all coming back to him, the search, the testimonies, but it was better to be sure before he started telling Neilan what he wanted to know. There had been so many searches since, it was all starting to blur together and what the hell did that say about their quaint little town?
Neilan nodded as he waited for Jared to look through his sea of files. “Yes, I am the band and orchestra teacher at Chamberlain.” He replied, hoping this time he might get somewhere with finding what happened to his brother. “He taught there as well, a science teacher.” He added, even though he knew these details were not really relevant as they probably had them on file. All he wanted was closure at this point, Neilan had found himself losing so much sleep to it that he was feeling almost perpetually tired. If it wasn’t for a new person in his life he would have probably holed up in his apartment and not spoken to anyone these last few weeks.
"Okay," Jared said softly and readjusted in his seat, resting one arm on the desk as he turned to face Neilan better. "He was last seen near Seaview where he talked briefly to a parent of one of his students. People saw them talking, then going their separate ways so we don't suspect foul play. We interviewed him, we searched the woods thoroughly... I wish I could give you more information, I really do. If we had more to go on, not just in this case but in all the recent cases. There have been so many people who wandered into the woods or left home and never returned." At least Sadie had died and not vanished. Jared couldn't imagine how it felt to never know what really happened. It was hard enough to not know what happened to Danny. "If you know any more of his friends, acquaintances who live outside of town - someone we were never told about... That's about the only hope that's left - that he just up and went away and is staying with someone." It was dick move but still better than being dead.
The absolute truth was Neilan didn’t know any of Torstens friends. He’d spent so many of their video chats talking about himself that he’d never heard Torsten talk to him about anyone. “I don’t.” He admitted. He had spoken to a few people who had remembered Torsten but more often than not it was usually consoling or they’d been mere acquaintances. If anybody had been truthful to him they’d have probably told Neilan that his brother was a wanker and probably would have had enemies all over the place but they didn’t because he was grieving. “What did the parent say?” He wondered because chances were this parent still had a child at the school and if he could somehow talk to that person, he might be able to shed a little bit more light on the whole situation. As of right now, it seemed as if he’d just simply popped out of existence.
Jared sighed. Neilan was pushing for more information where there were none and he understood, he really did, but prodding didn't yield any new answers. "Nothing noteworthy," he replied. "They ran into each other by happenstance, briefly talked about a science project and then parted ways. The man came forward when we started looking for him so we focused our search on the woods around Seaview but came up short. There's a chance he went through the tunnel or that he retraced his steps after this conversation and went somewhere else. That's just the last piece of information we have on him." He hated this part of the job. Hell, there were plenty of things he hated about his job but dealing with this, with grief and especially the uncertain kind? That was the worst part. He kind of wished he'd sent Neilan to speak to Grady instead. "Have you... Spoken to someone? A grief counselor?"
Neilans eyebrows knit together as he listened to the copper tell him he needed grief counseling. “I don’t need any sodding grief counselor. I need someone to tell me where the fuck my brother is.” He practically yelled, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. He stood and began to pace around the side of the desk, fist at his mouth as he tried to control the anger he was feeling. It was obvious this officer didn’t have anything else to give Neilan and so he was trying to keep himself in check so he didn’t completely piss off someone who didn’t deserve it. “Suppose I have to go other routes to find him. When I do, I will bring him straight to you and you’ll see that it’s possible.” He was done here, done in general with having to deal with people who weren’t doing hardly enough to find his brother.
That right there was why Neilan definitely needed a grief counselor, the outburst, the denial. Jared wasn't going to point that out to him, he just let the rage roll over him, detaching himself from it because he knew it didn't belong to him. "I really hope you find him," he said honestly though he wasn't sure he liked the sound of 'other routes'. It almost sounded like a threat and he was glad he hadn't caved in and given Neilan any names from Torsten's file. The last thing they needed was an unhinged man yelling at innocent bystanders. "But until you do, talking to someone might help you." He opened his desk drawer and quickly rummaged around until he found the card of a local therapist who was getting a little too good at dealing with people who had lost someone to mysterious circumstances. This fucking town. "Think about it at least," he added as he held the card out to Neilan.
His eyes narrowed at the card as he took it into his hand, looking at the dark print lettering on the rectangular piece of card stock. He sighed as he pulled out his wallet to neatly place the card inside. There was a distinct chance that he’d never find Torsten, and while he’d only been here in Point Pleasant searching for a few months it might take years to get over the loss of his brother and that just wasn’t something he was ready for yet. He nodded his head as he put the wallet back into his pocket. Leaning over to write his mobile number onto a blank piece of paper, he spoke in a more calm tone. “If you hear anything I want a call immediately. I am his emergency contact and I should be the first to know.” He explained, putting the pen down as he slid the paper over to the officer. With a beat and maybe a little bit of a bruised ego he said “thank you.”
"Of course," Jared replied. "I'll put it in his file right away if it's not already there." He suspected it was already in there but it certainly didn't hurt to check. It was unlikely they would receive any news at this point but he didn't need to tell Neilan that. There just wasn't much the police could do when an adult went missing. There had been no signs of foul play and Torsten wasn't wanted for a crime so their efforts had pretty much ended after the initial search. "Best of luck to you, Mr. McLellan," he muttered as he picked up the piece of paper. There was so much other shit to deal with and he felt exhausted already so he was pretty pleased with himself for managing to stay this calm.