Each raindrop hitting the aluminum roof was like rolling thunder in the ears of Chief Detective George Flynn on his last day. Detective Flynn had lived an interesting life during his time in the service to the police department of Gillette, Wyoming. He had seen a hodgepodge of all sorts of crimes: fake insurance frauds from the big oil companies, a few homicides (usually involving booze, money, or broken hearts), two kidnappings, and even a case of mass pet killings done by the local loon to “stop the government from listening in”. All wicked acts, all of them brought to justice. The only one Flynn had failed to solve was the apparent suicide of Samantha Garran. 

Although officially ruled as a suicide, Flynn had always felt like the Garran case was his white whale. Samantha had been just accepted into the college of her choice and had won a STEM contest that would cover half her tuition. The other half would be covered by her above-average sports record. It was shocking that she would have killed herself. All that would have to be in the past now, as the only living kin to Samantha had just been put in the ground with the death of Mrs. Kate Garran. 

It was why Flynn was still dripping wet as he opened the case file once again. He scanned the information in the old police records, ringed with old coffee stains. Kate Garran had a rough past couple of years following her daughter’s death. Her husband, who had been the lead suspect for the longest time, had died on the first anniversary of his only child’s death. The EMTs pronounced him dead upon arrival with the autopsy showing most likely a poisoning though ultimately called a stroke to keep the coroner from doing any more paperwork. After that, the only living parent of Mrs. Garran suffered a sudden trauma in her own home, which resulted in a painful, drawn-out death in Maplewood. The senior care faculty was there to aid her with dementia – which was the explanation for her irrational fear of her daughter’s visits. 

Though through it all, Kate Garran continued to write encouraging letters to Detective Flynn and even left him a final letter at the funeral. One last act of gratitude for never giving up in his search for the truth. Her letters were neat with handwriting almost like a schoolgirl’s, including a long tail of the “y” looping in on herself in the words “thank you.” In Flynn’s last chance to uncover anything new, he rediscovered the photo of Samantha Garran’s suicide note. The note itself was the only piece of evidence to go missing and Flynn was thankful he asked for a picture of it to be taken. As he read over Samantha’s last words, his heart dropped. In the last line, “goodbye to a world that I couldn’t live up to,” the “y” had the same long tail and neat schoolgirl handwriting.