Page 109 of Shameless

“If there’s a protein bar,” I say, rummaging through a bunch of old clothes. “It must be buried at the bottom of the bag or inside a pocket. These look like someone’s old clothes. They really smell weird too, not exactly sweaty but… is that blood?”

I pull out a dark gray hoodie that’s also stained, but what attracted my attention is a camouflage green t-shirt that has a dark brown stain all over the collar.

There’s also another green hoodie with brown stains that look like they have been sprayed or splattered onto the fabric.

“What kind of sport did the owner practice?” Stefan muses. “These clothes are all bloody. Who could they belong to? Hold on, I know that hat.”

Stefan pulls out a black baseball cap with the logo “SC Military Academy” stitched on the front in white letters.

There are brown stains on the white letters too.

“Is that yours, Stef?” Jules asks. “Wasn’t that the military Academy they sent you to after you ran away to go to New York?”

Stefan nods. “That was my school, yeah. But this isn’t my cap. Mine is somewhere in my room. I gave one to Mom when I came back after graduation. She was so proud of me for being valedictorian, she even has a ‘SC Military Academy Mom’ sticker on her bumper. But this can’t be hers, right? What would it do in an old gym bag and why would it be stained with blood?”

Crew looks inside the bag too. “It looks like all these clothes are bloody.”

We sift through the bag to find two pairs of black leather gloves.

“What the fuck?” Jules grimaces. “Is this a serial killer’s bag?”

Crew’s eyes darken as he keeps looking inside the bag. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

I don’t get it. “But what is it doing here?”

Stefan looks like he’s about to be sick. “What do you think, Jumps? We just witnessed a multiple murder a couple of weeks ago. And most of the people present on the islands after the press was turned away were either employed by Mr. Andrews, or they lived in or near Star Cove.”

Jules agrees. “True, with the exception of a few people from Texas and from New York. But aren’t we jumping to conclusions? There’s no way to tell if these belonged to whoever killed Eddie, aside from…”

“The hat I gave Mom.” Stefan finishes for him.

They both shake their heads. “No, it’s impossible. There must be another explanation.” Jules is adamant.

Stefan however voices the thought I just had. “Is it though? Look, I don’t want to believe it either, but after what Eddie put Mom through, she would have a motive for wanting him dead. The sheriff thinks it was a drug deal gone wrong, but what if Eddie was the real target?”

Jules insists. “Stef, we’re talking about Mom here. The same woman who put BandAids on our cuts and who would cry if we stomped on a spider and taught us to catch and release any bug outside.”

“Maybe this can give us some more information.” Crew says, extracting an old cell phone from the bottom of the bag.

“The fuck?” Stefan snorts. “Is that a museum piece? I haven’t seen an old flip phone since my bike had training wheels. You need to press on the same key multiple times to even type certain letters or symbols. Remember? Texting someone took forever.”

Crew flips the phone open. “Maybe you did. Eddie had a cell phone because he traveled, but we couldn’t afford stuff like that. I didn’t get a cellphone until we came to Star Cove and Mom opened the bakery.”

“Regardless,” Jules observes. “We might need to charge it before we can look inside. If it’s been in that bag for a couple of weeks…”

The screen lights up immediately when Crew presses on the ‘on button.’

“You were saying?” he chuckles. “I used to sneak Eddie’s phone when he was home to play ‘Snake’ and that sucker’s battery lasted for days. If this has been turned off the entire time, it’s no surprise it still has juice. I think the best way to tell who this belongs to, is to look at the texts.”

It’s immediately obvious that the phone must belong to Eddie.

The names of the recipients of his texts are mostly Trevor, Tory, Chanelle—Eddie’s last girlfriend—and a non-specified M. contact that sent him stuff that doesn’t make any sense.

“What are those numbers in those texts?” Jules wonders.

“Those look like coordinates. I think that is some kind of burner phone that Eddie must have used to communicate with his contact in the Morelli family.” Stefan elaborates.

I cross my arms over my chest, suddenly feeling cold. “I thought that was mostly Trevor’s job, but after what we learned about Star Thunders being involved in money laundering and smuggling, it makes sense that Eddie was just as involved.”

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