Love Today (38 page)

When the cab dropped us off at
Jared’s Lake Stevens house, I noticed his Camaro in the driveway. I also noticed a set of skid
marks that tailed ten feet to
where the car had
eventually
stopped. I felt the hood as we walked by. It was warm.

I knocked before I used the key, but it was already unlocked. I heard sounds from a nearby room—the den maybe? —
and
before I could put toget
her that the room was being ransacked
, a figure came out of it and scared the daylights out of me.

It wasn’t Jared at all; it was his dad.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

He looked at me for several seconds, and then he glanced at Maggie, whom I had pushed behind me. “Can I help you?” he asked
haughtily
. He looked at us like we didn’t belong, which made me realize that he had no idea who I was.
He obviously didn’t remember my sister introducing us, or
from the
last
brunch that I’d photographed.

“Is Jared here?” I finally asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “Jared? No, he’s not. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Um, no,” I replied, slowly retreating for the door.

It was too late though because he moved quickly and stopped right in front of our exit.

“You’re
Rachel
’s sis
ter, aren’t you,” he stated. His eyes peered
down
at
Maggie and looked at her for a long time, but he didn’t say anything. Finally he looked at me and said, “I’ve just learned that my son is in a relationship with you. That’s interesting.”

“What’s interesting? The irony in it all?”

He slowly smiled. “I don’t have anything to say, really.
Rachel
was important to me, we had a thing, she made my life miserable, I made her life miserable, at the same time we got along great… It was a strange, uh,
friendship
.”

Friendship. I almost laughed in his face but I was too scared. I had no idea who this guy was or what he was capable of.

“Where’s Jared?” I asked.

John
smiled again and I didn’t like it. He also glanced down at Maggie one more time, and I moved so that he couldn’t see her head poking out.

“Jared’s busy right now,” he replied.

“Busy doing what?”

“
Who knows
.
”

“Excuse me?”

He didn’t expound, so I took my phone out
of
my pocket to call him.

“I wouldn’t
call him
,” John said.

He even
reached for my
phone but I was too quick and pulled it back in time. I also had to move a step away, almost falling over Maggie.
I was completely on the defensive by then, and I think Maggie was whimpering because I’d stepped on her foot.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” he said, holding his hands out to appear peaceful.

I scoffed. “That doesn’t even make any sense. You won’t let me make a phone call and there’s not something going on?
Just let us leave, okay? You have no business with us.”

He stepped aside and motioned that we could pass. I grabbed Maggie’s
hand
and pulled her along until we were outside, and then I made her
jog
with me until we
made it to
the street.

I didn’t know what to do after that. I tried to call Jared but it went straight to voicemail. I got the sickest feeling in my stomach, and when I really questioned why he hadn’t called me yet, I began to assume the worst. At first I thought he might still be with his dad, but that wasn’t so. And now his phone was going straight to voicemail.

“I don’t know what to do; something weird is going on,” I said to Michelle Bronson
over the phone
as we
stopped
on
the
side of the
street
. Maggie was still crying, so I picked her up to console her.

“What happened?” Michelle asked.

I explained to her what
we’d
just gone through and she told me I did the right thing by getting out of there. I was glad the police were going to take care of it—whatever it was I’d just walked away from—but there was still a matter of finding Jared.

“I’ll put someone on it,” she assured me. “Where are you right now?
Do you know any of the neighbors?
”

“Uh, I’m at—”

“
Taryn,
let me explain something!” John Miller’s voice said from the front porch.

It scared me to see him standing there at the front door, watching us. But he came down the steps like he was going to follow even further.
“Stay away from us,” I warned
him
as I
was about to rush
across the grass to the next house.

“Taryn, what’s going on?” Michelle asked over the phone.

“You’ve got t
his all wrong!” John hollered
. “Please listen to me! I didn’t hurt your sister, I swear I didn’t!”

I glanced over my shoulder before I stopped, just to m
ake sure he was far enough away from me
, and then I turned around to face him.

“Taryn, is he following you?” Michelle asked. “What’s going on? Talk to me!”

“He stopped in the driveway,” I told her.

“Keep moving,” she said. “Don’t talk t
o him; let the police handle it
.”

I decided to do what she said and I continued on in the grass to the next house, stepping between their landscaping.

“I wanted to marry her,” John said loudly.

It made me slow again
,
and I waited for more.

“I loved her,” he said. “But she didn’t want to marry me.”

I turned around to face him and angrily asked,
“So what happened to my sister
!”

He slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. I swear I don’t know.”

“Why were you in Jared’s house?”

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds
but he finally
answered
, “
I was looking for an address for his
house
in L.A.
He won’t give it to me and I just thought… I was just afraid that he’ll sell this place and I’ll never see him again. He’s my son. I know I’m not a great father, but I don’t want him to cut off all ties with me. I pr
etty much only see him when he allows
it.”

I had no idea that Jared took such measures to keep his dad out of
his
life. I knew that they had a strained relationship, but Jared did make an appearance every now and then. I guess he did once say something to the effect that he would
occasionally
see
his dad, but his dad didn’t come to him. I assumed that meant because of his father’s choice, but maybe I assumed wrong.

“He came to t
he office a couple of hours ago,” John continued.
“
We talked about some things…
Rachel
… Maggie… Jared mostly talked about you, though. He really loves you. He didn’t want anything to mess that up.”

I could hear sirens coming closer, so I felt more comfortable taking a few steps back onto the
driveway
so I could hear him better.

“I
got mad at him,” he
continued
. “When he asked me questions about the, uh, murder. He made me mad,” he said, shaking his head.
“I said some things…”

A patr
ol car pulled into the driveway
and two officers stepped out and drew their weapons. I told them I wanted to hear what John had to say, so after they patted him down, they allowed him to talk to me as another patrol car pulled up.
I sent Maggie to one of the female officers so she didn’t have to hear any more.

“I know I haven’t made the best choices in my life, but I didn’t hurt
Rachel
. I swear to you that I didn’t. She wasn’t interested in settling down, and I knew that she liked spending time with other m
en. B
ut I could have accepted
that. I knew all of her secrets,
but I loved her anyway. I loved every part of her.”

I did believe him for some reason. I didn’t know if
it was entirely
the tru
th, but I felt it could be.

“Where’s Jared?” I asked him again.

He took a deep breath and slowly
let it out. “I don’t know. He does that when he’s upset. Takes off and vents t
o himself, writes, I don’t know.
He doesn’t like to be bothered.
”

I thought about that for a moment, believing it was probably true.

“Why do you have his car?” I questioned.

He seemed confused for a second as he glanced at the Camaro in the driveway. “Uh, I’ve just been driving it this week,” he shrugged. “When he’s gone I borrow it, I guess. He came straight to my office from the airport; he took off in the same car that drove him.”

I considered tracking down the vehicle, or finding out who was driving him that day—it was my only option at the moment—but John had other things on his mind just as Detective Bronson pulled up with her partner.

“She was the one that broke thi
ngs off,”
John
continued
. “Rachel.
She didn’t say why at the time—just didn’t return my phone calls—but looking back I thin
k it was because of James. A few
years later, when she asked me fo
r a job, we did talk about it. I didn’t know some of the stuff she was going through; I didn’t know she was in an abusive relationship. I would have helped her had I known. She just shut me out instead.

“
When she came to me looking for a job I was still bitter about being hurt by her. I hadn’t seen her for two years, but I knew I still wanted her back. I knew she was playing games with me over the paternity of her kid, but I didn’t care. I gave her the job because I was in love with her. It was stupid and a major conflict of interest, but I didn’t regret it. I was happy to be working with her, to see her every day.
I kind of thought that we could pick up where we left off, but it didn’t happen until about six months ago.”

“What?” Detective Bronson
barked
. “You’re changing your story now?”

John seemed a little caught off guard, almost like he’d forgotten what he already told her. But he sighed and said, “We hooked up a few times, but not exclusively. We just kept it…casual.
That’s all that Rachel would allow it to be.
”

“But that’s still a relationship, Mr. Mi
ller. When I ask the question, ‘
Have you been in a relationship with Rachel Hartford recently,
’
your answer should be: ‘Yes, we were sleeping together.’ ”

He took a deep breath and nodded his head. “I know. I was just…worried how that would look.”

“You’ve been obstructing our investigation,” she pointed out.

He didn’t reply with words and barely nodded his acknowledgement.

Detective Bronson motioned for him to b
e detained for more questioning
even though I still wanted to drill him with my own questions. But I figured it was for the best since I needed to find Jared, and Maggie was looking a little overwhelmed with what was going on. It was even more interesting when another vehicle pulled up and parked on the road, and a nicely dressed woman stepped out holding a folder in her hands
with
a very concerned look on her face.

“Who are you?” Detective Bronson asked her brusquely.

She was
visibly
intimidated by the situation but cleared her throat and replied, “Um, I’m Janice
Nix
. I’m a, uh, realtor. I was asked to look over this
house
so it can be placed on the market. Is this, uh, the Miller residence?”

I was speechless because I realized for the first time that Jared was going to sell his house. I didn’t know what it meant and I barely had time to think about John’s mention of it earlier.

“Now isn’t a good time,” Michelle told her.

Janice agreed quickly with a nod but asked, “Was there a crime here?”

“No,” Michelle replied firmly, clearly getting agitated with her. “But we’ll find another agency to make the sale if you don’t make an exit.”

I kind of smiled to
myself
as the woman’s reaction was apparent through her eyes. Who could lose the opportunity to sell Jared Miller’s house?