The Post

What'd they do to you, Pard?

I'm gonna go get you some help, pal.

Does mom actually know about this?

Yep.

And she's cool with it?

Of course she is.

And you actually want to go see Metallica?

Hell yeah, I do!

Metallica.

You're a freaking dork, dad.

True, but I'm one of the coolest dork dads in the world.

Is it just the two of us?

No, I thought we would cruise on down

and get some hookers and blow along the way.

Oh my god dad, you're such a moron.

No, no, no just gonna be you and me buddy.

Your mom and Penny are going to a movie.

You and I will drive down into Houston, see the show,

maybe even stay the night.

Heh?

This is gonna be epic.

Yeah.

Thanks dad.

Penny, Penny.

Penny.

Come in.

Oh honey, please don't tell me y'all are in here

filming one of those ridiculous tic tac toe videos.

It's TikTok mom, it's fun.

Come on.

Oh Lord Jesus.

Help this child.

Well, would you at least cover up your tummies a little bit?

I mean, you don't need to be giving the goods away

for free like that.

You might as well be wearing a sign

that says open for business.

Okay.

Well darling, please also clean up this room a little bit.

It is not proper for a young lady to have a room this messy.

Okay.

Okay.

Y'all have fun.

Just turn the music down for me a little bit.

Okay?

- Thank you. - Mom,

did you need something?

I mean, you came back here, so did you need something?

Oh yes.

Have you heard from your brother at all?

He's usually home by now,

or at least told me what he is up to.

No, but Jake usually doesn't text me anyways.

It's weird.

Jake is weird mom.

Okay, well shoot him a text and find out where he's at.

Do that for me.

Sure no problem.

And you'll seriously try to maintain a little bit

of the mystery for goodness sake.

Okay.

Babe he's just being a teenage boy.

He always tells us where he's going Jett,

I can't get a hold of him.

Penny can't get a hold of him.

It is not like him.

Did you try calling Brandy?

Of course I tried calling Brandy

and she's not answering either.

And you can't tear those two apart.

I'm telling you, babe there's something not right.

Look, this is what teenage boys do.

Is he being inconsiderate?

Absolutely.

Is he gonna get a talking to when he gets home?

You betcha.

But he's just out doing stupid things with these friends.

He'll be home before you know it,

Okay.

Come back to bed.

We are looking for the father of Jake Sanders.

Dad, what's going on?

What's the matter?

Penny honey.

What is it?

It's your brother, he's dead.

What?

They found him this morning in the park.

No, you're lying.

No, I know you're lying.

That's bullshit.

I'll show you.

I bet you he's posted something.

Brandy's posted something.

Honey.

Oh my god.

Oh my god dad.

No.

Come on

get the fuck out the way.

Whoo!

Penny, Penny who posted that video?

I dunno.

You need to call the police.

No, no, no, no.

Please.

You don't need to see this.

Just trust me.

Penny who posted the video?

I don't know dad.

I'm calling the police.

Okay did the police leave a card or anything.

Hello, detective Anderson.

This is Jett Sanders.

I'm Jake's father.

Can I meet you at Rayford High School in a half an hour?

Main entrance.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Let's find these fuckers.

- Mr. Sanders? - Yes.

I'm Chief Dayvon Berry of the Rayford Police Department.

I'm truly sorry to meet you this way.

Is Detective Anderson here?

No, he's not.

I told him I would handle this myself.

See, we don't see this kind of thing in Rayford, so I want

to ensure that it was handled with the utmost urgency.

Now come with me.

They're waiting for us upstairs.

Mr. Sanders this here is Jerry Buckner,

the principal here at Rayford High.

This here is Superintendent Don Alley.

Both of these gentlemen are taking this situation

extremely seriously.

And we all here to do what we can to help.

Thank you.

So what you got for us?

Well, as soon as we heard about what happened to Jake,

my daughter went online just to see if he posted anything

or if there was anything posted about him.

And she came across this video

of Jake in a fight with some boys.

And it was here.

I'm just trying to find it.

So it was a video of him in a fight with these boys.

- So a video. - Oh, oh, oh.

I'm just trying to find it.

It's here.

I just...

So a video was posted of your son in a fight

with some other boys, Mr. Sanders?

Yeah.

She saw it this morning.

It was here just a minute ago.

Mr. Sanders, I can't imagine

how difficult this is for you.

I'm truly sorry.

And I promise we're gonna do everything here at the school

that we can, but I'm sure if there was a video,

it's probably gone by now.

What do you mean?

I see this all the time with these students.

They normally have a main social media account

and then they have a fake one

that they post the stuff they don't want mom and dad to see.

And so it's easy to do.

And I'm sure if there was a video

and even if it was of Jake, then by now,

whoever posted probably did so from a fake account,

it's probably been deleted.

Both the account and the video.

So it's gone?

More than likely yes.

I'm sorry.

Well, isn't there any way we can find it

if it's posted somewhere else or?

No I mean, once it's gone, it's gone.

You have my word that we'll do everything in our power

to help find out what happened to your boy.

Anything's outside our scope.

Chief Berry assures us he'll handle himself.

We can't have this kind of thing happening in Rayford.

No, we can't.

Okay.

Sorry for wasting all your time.

No, not at all Mr. Sanders.

And again, we're gonna do everything that we can.

Jake was a good boy.

He's a good young man.

Oh, Brandy honey.

Oh, we are so worried about you.

I called you all day and you didn't answer any of them.

I couldn't, I didn't wanna talk to anyone.

Did you talk to the cops?

Yeah this morning.

What'd you say?

What'd you say to them?

I just told them that me and Patch were...

I heard you call Patch a lot.