Chapter 27

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I was a beautiful, sunny, early summer day as we walked to the beach from our hotel. Not too hot, and a comfortable breeze coming from the ocean. There was nobody on the beach, however, as the sidewalk ended and where the sand began were lines and lines of police barricades. Several boats were out on the shore, and a couple of helicopters flying above. All of them were looking for me, or at least my former self. However, only Meredith and I knew that they would never find me. Lines and lines of news vehicles were parked up along the edge of the barricades. Meredith leaned in and whispered into my ear, “Put your sunglasses on right now. Also, no matter what anyone says, do not speak to the media.” “Understood, Mom,” I replied. As we walked to the edge of the barricade, we were approached by a police officer. “Ma’am, I’m afraid that’s as far as you’ll go. This is an active investigation here.” Meredith flashed her driver’s license. “You must be the wife. And daughter, I presume?” he continued, opening the barricade for us. “See that man over there?” He pointed to a man in uniform waving his arm at us. “That’s Jesse, he’s leading the search. Meet with him and he’ll fill you in on the details. “Thank you, officer,” Meredith both said in unison. As soon as we crossed the barricade, we were bombarded with flashbulbs and hammered with numerous questions from reporters. “Mrs. Parker, where was your husband last on the night he disappeared?” “Did you notice any suspicious behavior before he disappeared?” “Is there any foul play suspected?” “Was your husband suicidal?” “Did Mr. Parker have a drinking problem? Was he drunk on the night of the disappearance?” The reporters followed along the edge of the barricades as we walked down the beach. One reporter broke the barricade and started running toward us, “Mrs. Parker, Dawn Raley with Daytona Beach 7 Eyewitness News. Was your husband—” “Ma’am this is a restricted area, please stay behind the barricades,” another officer said, holding her back. We walked to the uniformed man on the shoreline, overseeing operations. He introduced himself. “I’m Jesse Rollins, U.S. Coast Guard. We’re doing everything we can to find your husband, ma’am.” He pointed out to the boats moored evenly off the coast. “We have dive teams out there scouring the ocean floor. It’s unlikely that he’s out any further, so we’re searching along the coast here, section by section. We felt the most likely location would have been near where we found the wallet and the phone, which we perceived to be Chris’s, over there,” as he pointed at the shoreline near the end of the boardwalk, where I tossed them into the ocean days ago. “Unfortunately, we combed that entire area and we found nothing, other than the phone and the wallet.” “Have you found anything new this morning?” Meredith said, trying to play along. “No ma’am, we haven’t. If we find anything, we will let you know right away,” the man replied. “I don’t take any pleasure informing you of this ma’am, we will continue our search about 600 feet west along the shoreline, which should take the remainder of the day, but if we don’t find any signs of your husband, I’m afraid we are going to have to call off the search.” Meredith looked discouraged. As I watched all the crew working to find Chris’s body, I felt terrible. These guys were working their tails off seemingly endlessly, for something Meredith and I both knew didn’t exist. All these resources were being wasted on us, yet we really couldn't tell them that they were wasting their time, energy, and resources. Meredith and I started to walk back to the hotel. “He said that if they don’t find the body by the end of the day, they are calling off the search. Then what?” I said. Meredith replied, “When that happens, we hop on a plane and head home.” She then paused. “…and then we start planning the funeral, I guess.” I gulped. The thought of having to attend my own funeral sounded terrifying. All of my friends. My family. My……mother. Within a couple of weeks, this nightmare would be over, and I would be able to move on with my life. Unfortunately, I would have to endure the hell that my next couple weeks would be.

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