i love yr new fic and i cant stop thinking about the aftermath. i imagine joe would naturally be distraught at first but then confused; he didn't know pete and patrick were neighbors? pete said it was nice to meet him at that korean place? or maybe they didn't know they were neighbors either. he'd tell the police about patrick's stalker, figuring that patricks crazy ex must have poisoned then, only for the police to say actually we have no evidence of a murder or even a stalker. there's no signs of forced entry or a struggle. the poisoned food they ate was cooked by them at the apartment and there were no fingerprints found on the pots/bowls that did not belong to either of them. they've talked to patricks ex and he wasn't even in the state. they did find a bunch of notes like joe mentioned but they were in a box packed with his things that patrick was planning on taking. not only that, patrick was writing songs with them.
it's eventually ruled that the two died by their own hands in a suicide pact. the notes match pete's handwriting and the last note must be their suicide note. the two died side by side, facing each other like the lovers of valdaro. pete had a well documented history of mental illness and though patrick never received medical attention, by all accounts, he was acting incredibly withdrawn, paranoid, and seemingly irrational - they need only to look at what he did to his own bathroom to find evidence of that. they were in a consensual relationship that ended terribly due to their respective mental disorders.
and as much as joe refuses to believe it, the two's family do and their moms get in contact with each other, trying to support each other through the sudden and unexpected losses of their sons. patrick's mom thanks joe at his funeral for being a good friend to her son because she thinks joe was the only one patrick trusted enough to tell him about his 'stalker'. joe only feels worse. pete's mom lets him look through pete's things and help pack them up, thinking it will help them all move on. it's weird because neither patrick nor pete have any pictures of themselves together.
he doesn't know why, but joe secretly pockets the hard drive and USB stick he comes across in a drawer. at home, he connects them to his laptop, and for a moment believes he's going to finally find closure. but despite clear physical signs of wear, the USB stick is wiped clean. the hard drive, however, is encrypted and requires a password. joe is left with a sick feeling in his stomach. he wonders how well he really knew pete and patrick
