End Of The Line // Ralph Dibny

Chapter 3 - Still No Father

Some Time Ago

"May he rest in heaven... Heavenly peace" My mom finished tears soaking her face. She wiped her eyes walking back to our family. Like most sad days it was raining, we all held black umbra's standing in the cold of the graveyard. We were here to honour his life, honour all he did while he was alive, but, he was still alive.

At least that's what I thought, he was still out there. Just cause he's been missing for a year doesn't mean he's dead.

They lowered the empty coffin into the ground, everyone around me thought he was dead, though I refused to believe that. The air seemed to be frozen, slowly biting at our rose cheeks, tears freezing to our faces. I looked to the people around me, the ladies wore black dresses, some of them wore black leggings to match, I assumed they were the smart ones for they knew we would freeze. The gentlemen wore suits of navy, black and grey. Lucky souls.

I didn't understand, why bury an empty coffin? Why lose hope?

He wasn't dead, I knew he wasn't dead, I can feel him, my father is still alive, he's out there somewhere. I told myself.

I was going to find him.

I left ' his funeral' early, I'm sure my mother would yell at me later but when I found him, alive, it wouldn't matter. I looked online, how would I find him? I searched for hours and hours, the only thing I found was a list of missing or dead people from the particle accelerator explosion. My eyelashes were starting to become heavy, I was getting tired. Then a link caught my eye,

Private Investigator.

A private investigator, someone who can look for him for me. Why hadn't I thought of that? They'll also probably have more resources as well. I clicked on the link, hopefully, this will work.

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I walked down the dimly lit hall. The walls were a light brown and all the windows had a brown frame around them. I came to the door I was looking for, it was a brown door with a yellow-ly glass and had his name on it, under his name was the words private investigator, but that investigator part was crossed out and replaced with dick.

"Ralph Dibny, Private Dick." I laughed to myself and knocked on the door.

"Come In" he yelled, "Its open"  

"Here we go," I said to my self and turned the handle.

The room was pretty much the same as the halls, it was small and had stuff littered all around. Who I assumed was Ralph sat in the chair behind a wooden desk.

"I need you to investigate a case for me," I told him and sat down. He spun around in his chair to face me, very dramatically I might add.

"Ralph Dibny at your service, the best private investigator in central city" He mused, he had messy dirty blonde hair and wore a grey suit. His brown eyes widened slightly when he saw me.

"Who may I be at service to my lady?" He asked

"Willow Blake" I answered.

"Well miss Blake what seems to be your problem?"

"Can you look into my father's disappearance? This is all I could find on my own" I declared and gave him the list.

He gave it a brief look then replied, "Of course, don't worry Ralph is to your rescue!"  I had to admit that was pretty cheesy, but also kinda cute.

"can I ask you some questions?" He asked

"shoot"

"How long has he been missing?"

"about 1 year," I answered, had it already been a whole year? tears started to prick my eyes "everyone thinks he's dead" I sadly added.

"a whole year, this is going to be a difficult case." He said to himself though I still heard... was it too late? I sniffed and wiped my eyes and he looked over.

"Oh, no, no no. Don't get upset, I'm sure he's still alive" He came over and stood beside me. He put his hand on my back trying to comfort me. "but, we won't be able to find him unless you answer these questions."

He was right, why was I getting so mushy about this now? "Ok," I said and he sat back down.

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Ralph

"I'll see what I can do," I said while flipping through the notes I wrote down, I wasn't going to lie this would definitely be a hard case, there is very little evidence of it being a kidnapping or murder so I understand why the police went with a missing person.

"Thank you," she said standing up, "I mean really, thank you so much" she praised.

"Its really nothing" I lied.

"No," she stated, "You've already done more than CCPD did".

That put a smile on my face, CCPD kicked me out and now I'm doing better than they could, I bet they regret kicking me off the force. She walked over to me and gave me a hug then whispered another small thank you as she was about to leave.

She was the prettiest girl that has walked into my offices in ages, most women I meet are widowed and gloomy, for some odd reason she had so much hope in her eyes, her chocolate brown eyes. Maybe she could pass on a little hope to me if I could just be around her, if i could just be in her presence...  "Wait," I called and she turned around with a questioning look.

"If I find anything how am I supposed to contact you?" I smugly asked.

"Oh," she sighed, she came over and wrote her number down on a piece of paper. "I thought you were going to tell me some bad news. There" she said as she finished writing it down "just give me a call if you find anything" And she left.

"Maybe I'll call for other reasons too" I smiled to myself, maybe I will ask her on a date or something. I looked through my papers again then compared them to CCPD's, she was right, they barely had any information on her dad's case, I felt bad for her, all those people go missing that night and her family member was one of them.

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Here we go 3rd chapter! I added some Willow and Ralph dialogue because she isn't going to meet him again till the bus, but i might add in some more flashbacks. I'd like to thank y'all for choosing to read my book I have a feeling this will be one of my best!