Welcome to Case Closed.

You're listening to Dirt Creek by Haley Scrivener, narrated by Sophie Lockren.

Let's pick up where we left off last time.

We, Saturday the 1st of December, 2001.

Whenever one of our fathers heard something he thought wasn't right, he would say,

that doesn't quite fit through the fence.

Even as children, we started to understand there were great stretches of lifeless, marshy country

between what people said and what they thought and did.

The best liars were the people who could believe their own bullshit.

We became adept at thinking ourselves into particular points of view.

We would tell ourselves we hadn't understood what someone meant,

that they had been unclear, and we were blameless.

We would tell ourselves so hard we believed it.

Another of our fathers said,

If you're waiting for something not to have happened,

you'll be waiting a long time.

On Friday night, we'd seen Stephen escorted away from his home by the two police officers

from somewhere else. The town reacted as you might expect. So many lips flapped it was a wonder

the whole of dirt town didn't lift into the air,

drag and fly like, and float away.

Perhaps we would all be blown so far that we'd touch down near the sea,

and a new, infinitely more coastal existence could begin for us all.

...