Witness
*
Chris Keller does not spend ALL his time chasing underage booty. Sure, cheerleaders are a higher calling, a call he will always answer. And if he happens to stumble across a hot high school girl, in a cheerleading uniform or not, while he's out somewhere random like say, the high school, then of course he's going to make a move. But Chris Keller has other interests and hobbies too, and for the record, the reason he was at the high school that day had nothing to do with high school girls or perving on them.
The reason he was at the high school that day isn't important, but if you must know, he was in town for a gig. And he figured he'd take this excellent opportunity to return 50 bucks to Nathan. Even though Nathan didn't know he was the one that borrowed the money to begin with, so it wasn't like he had to give it back. But if he borrows 50 bucks, he's gonna return it. Eventually. Because that's the kind of classy guy he is.
They were having one of those career day events or something. The whole school was crawling with police and SWAT guys and reporters. Totally insane how bad those people want to recruit unpaid labor for their internship programs. He had to sneak in through the gym just to avoid the crowds.
The school seemed weird inside too. The complete opposite of the chaos outside – empty. No kids around, but backpacks and papers all over the floor. He was a little bit creeped out, but not really. He just kind of figured maybe it was a fire drill instead of a career fair. Or maybe the kids were in class, and the papers and books were because they were all total slobs. So he kept heading for the tutoring center, figuring Haley would be the easiest way to find Nathan.
He was just turning a corner, thinking about how when he was in school people used to put their shit in their lockers like civilized people, when he noticed some people at the end of the hall. One of them was some fat kid lying on the ground. One of them was Nathan's dad, and he had a gun. And there was some other guy that Nathan's dad was pointing the gun at.
They didn't see him. They just stood there for a second with the gun between them, and Chris Keller stood there too until there was this loud fucking bang. The other guy spun a little bit, and fell backward. He wasn't getting up, and Chris Keller went from no thoughts at all to "Nathan's dad fucking shot that guy!" over and over and over on high volume repeat.
If Chris Keller were Bruce Willis he'd have run over and dodged some bullets and taken the gun and punched Nathan's dad in the head and knocked him out so when the police came everything'd be tied up with a big red bow and he would be all…"No need to put down your donuts, boys. I've got this under control."
But he wasn't Bruce Willis and maybe it made him a coward but he didn't want to get shot. Especially while he was wearing his favorite jacket. And he had this one song he'd been working on that he really wanted to finish before he died because he thought it might be his best work ever if he could just get the second verse right. And he still hadn't been in a threesome yet.
So he ran.
He figured the police could straighten the whole thing out. He'd seen CSI. They always figured that stuff out eventually. So he hadn't said anything, and he'd done his gig, and he'd checked the papers for the big "Nathan's Dad is a Killer" story. But the police hadn't figured it out. They thought that fat kid did it, and Chris started to realize it was up to him to hand them the case tied up in a red bow after all. So he'd gone to the police station to deliver them their murderer. It hadn't gone well. In terms of their believing him. In fact, it had gone a little something like this.
"Dan Scott killed a guy!"
"The mayor killed a guy."
"That's what I just said."
"And who exactly are you?"
"I'm Chris Keller."
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"It'd mean something to your daughter."
"My daughter is twelve, you pervert!"
"I just meant I'm a musician. I'm like a famous guy."
"Riiiight. And why didn't you come forward sooner, famous guy?"
"I guess I thought you guys could do your job. I guess I was sadly mistaken."
"Punk!"
"Incompetent!"
Rinse, lather, repeat a couple times, and then they kicked him out for criminal negligence. No criminal nuisance. Something like that.
The gist of it being, the police were not planning to take their heads out of their asses any time soon, and Nathan's dad had pretty much just gotten away with killing a guy. Well, not just a guy, his brother. Chris Keller is an only child, but he always thought it'd be cool to have a brother. A little brother, who'd look up to him, and carry his guitars, and do his laundry. And even though he never had one of his own, he still knows you don't go around killing your brother. It's like killing family for God's sake.
He couldn't stop thinking about it. Of course, it wasn't his fault nobody had caught Nathan's dad. He'd done his duty as a citizen, and tried his best to be a good crimefighter and all. It wasn't his fault the guy got shot. He couldn't have stopped Nathan's dad anyway, even if he'd thought to yell or run for the gun or anything else. He had no reason to feel guilty. But he couldn't stop reading the papers, and hanging around watching Nathan's dad go to lunch or to work. Watching him go about his life like nothing had happened. It didn't seem right, him walking around, people still calling him Mr. Mayor and taking his order when he went to a restaurant, and giving him haircuts when he went to the barber, and letting him buy groceries like he was a normal person. A not murderer.
He thought about telling Nathan or Lucas. But he figured they'd either not believe him, in which case, pointless. Or they would believe him, and Nathan's dad would still be getting away with murder. Only they'd know about it. He wasn't gonna do that to them. Even though it would have been nice to dump the whole thing in somebody's lap, somebody else's. He wasn't gonna put it in theirs.
His manager started to get antsy. This was supposed to have been a weekend, and it was dragging out into two weeks. Three. The scene, what little there was, had pretty much dried up. He'd played everywhere in Tree Hill twice. Except for Tric. Tric was closed until further notice. He'd done a little recording, but he couldn't keep his mind on it. Couldn't write. His manager was talking about a few gigs in Charleston. And obviously it was time to move on. He couldn't just hang out here forever, being a peeping tom. It was such a waste of peeping to spend all his time spying on a guy, a middle-aged murderer guy, when there were so many hot women he could have been following around like a stalker. But he felt like he needed to stay. To keep watch or something.
He was the only one who knew. Besides Nathan's dad. So he needed to stay. Because Nathan's dad was just rolling along like always, like nothing had happened. And if Chris left, it'd be almost like nothing HAD happened. It seemed like there should be someone there to remember. To remind…
That's when he had a brainwave. He couldn't really tell anyone else, anyone new about it. But there was one person who already knew the truth. Dan. And there was one way to make sure he couldn't just go on with his life all skipping through the daisies or whatever kind of flowers they skipped through at the mayor's office. Chris Keller could make sure Nathan's dad didn't forget. That he couldn't pretend. Chris Keller could make sure he realized someone knew. That the truth was out there just like the X-files had always promised.
Nathan was getting married again. To Haley again. Which seemed redundant, but whatever. Nathan's dad was at the wedding, and it wasn't hard to find an unlocked window at the beach house. Well, not unlocked so much as broken. With this excellent rock he found in the driveway. It didn't take long to paint the word "murderer" on the wall. Chris Keller counted painting as one of his many untapped talents. The one tense moment had come when he'd almost spelled it "murderrer." Which would have been embarrassing.
He didn't stick around to watch Nathan's dad find the sign. He just headed back to his motel and called his manager. Told him he was ready for Charleston. It was okay now. He could leave for a while, take a break from the unpaid stalker gig, make a little money, get a little life of his own going. He was sure, totally 100 that Dan wasn't going to forget while he was gone. Not now. And when he made a point to drop back into Tree Hill a few weeks from now, he'd remind Dan again. Go off like an alarm clock again and again. Make sure Dan was awake. Make sure he wasn't going to forget. Not now. Not ever.
end