Authors: Delia Delaney
“It’s here!” Maggie announced cheerfully.
I pulled myself together and grabbed my carryon. Thankfully Maggie didn’t notice how badly I was shaking. As I climbed into the town car, I debate
d
what I should do. I wanted to call my parents, but would it be better
to
call the police? I considered calling Michelle Bronson, and I even had her name ready to select when I decided not to.
We were on the right path at some point
? There were a myriad of options! Of course there were all of the suspects in the case, and all of the people that had been qu
estioned. The “company” was most likely Miller and Harris, right?
I felt a little sick on the way to the airport. I had to open the window for fresh air and Maggie complained of being cold. I mechanically shrugged out of my sweater and let her use it as a blanket.
I thought of Jared’s offer to hire a private investigator
months ago
. He’d recommended it more than once, and now I was beginning to regret turning him down. I wanted to call him at that moment, even just for support and to hear his voice, but I didn’t want Maggie to question the phone call. I wanted her to remember the good things about her mom,
not deal with however long the case would go unsolved
.
I sent
my dad
a text instead. It seemed a little impersonal, but I didn’t have a choice. I only said that someone contacted me about Rachel’s murder
and it
creeped
me out. I asked if
he
could find someone to look into the
call;
I would pay for a private investigator.
He replied right away and said that he would. Then he asked me what the caller said. We had a
texting
conversation clear up until I boarded the plane with Maggie, and even though it would have been much easier to talk instead of text, it was the better option in public as well.
Then I began to feel ill again. My phone conversation with
Jared’s
mom came back to me and I started to wonder if I really was going to cause some sort of disarray to
his
life, to his career. As a family we’d been ready to accept Rachel’s death turning into a cold case.
Now it didn’t seem that way. Again.
I worried the entire flight to LAX, even though I tried to keep myself occupied by coloring with Maggie. She got commanding with the coloring pages
though
, telling me which pages I should color and how, and instead of letting my wandering mind just go along with it, I let my irritation get the better of me.
I told her she could color by herself if she was going to be
so
bossy.
She only scowled at me at the time, but when Jared
later
suggested which restaurant we should grab some food from, Maggie told him, “She doesn’t wanna be bossed around.”
It made him smile, but I guess he was already on to the fact that I was feeling a bit grumpy. I felt horrible about it because I was so happy to be with him again. I flipped the attitude, or at least was more aware of how I was coming off. He didn’t bring it up until Maggie was in bed that night
and we were alone in our bedroom
.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m tired, I guess. I promise I won’t be a horrible pregnant wife.”
With a chuckle he shrugged and said, “Well I was kind of expecting it.”
I playfully slugged him in the arm, but he gathered me into a hug and kissed the top of my head.
“I can tell something’s bothering you though,” he said quietly. “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but you’ll definitely hurt my feelings if you don’t.”
It was my turn to chuckle, and nine times out of ten that ploy worked with me. But I just knew I wasn’t ready to bring up my sister’s murder again. I wasn’t even ready to face it myself let alone drag Jared back into it.
“I felt a little nauseous on our flight,” I told him honestly. “I guess it just made me feel cranky because I wasn’t expecting it.”
He leaned back to brush away my hair with his hand. “Apparently morning sickness isn’t always in the morning. At least that
’s
what J
illian mentioned when she asked how you’ve been feeling.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m aware of that. And thankfully I don’t really get
sick
sick
, you know? Like puking sick. Just a bit of nausea once in a while.”
“Knock on wood?”
“I know,” I smiled.
He was quiet for a few
seconds
as he seemed to study my features. I wasn’t surprised when he kissed me and said, “And how are you feeling now?” He kissed my neck and added, “Because I’ve been dying to be with my wife again.”
“Dying, huh?” I teased.
“Uh-
huh. Counting down the minutes.”
“You don’t have anything better to do, like plan for your Grammy performance in February?”
He pulled back with a surprised smile. “And how did you hear about that?”
“Jack.”
He smirked. “He’s got such a big mouth. It isn’t official, you know.”
“It will be. And I promise I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“About that you will. For now it’s gonna keep
my
mouth humored.”
He kissed me again and I forgot all about my worries.
Chapter Forty-
Six
New York was fascinating. It wasn’t a huge surprise to me since I’d seen so much of it through television and movies. It was my first time visiting the city in person though, and just the fact that I was in
New York City
was cool to me.
We had three days there before we caught our
flight to Germany, but each day
the band
was scheduled
for various
appearances
—radio shows, meals with music executives or other friends in the industry, and a private acoustic performance
.
The third day was their
appearance on
t
he
Today Show
. It was another busy morning but a lot of fun.
Jared
stuck around
with his band for a little bit doing various things
in the area, but Maggie and I returned to the hotel. She took a nap while I packed up our things and then I sat at the window for a bit and talked to my dad on
the
phone.
The private investigator that he’d found—Sam Desmond—
was still catching himself
up
on
everything we already knew. At the moment, he was looking into
the most recent
accou
nt
s
that Rachel was working on
.
Despite the fact that I freaked out over the mysterious caller’s first call, I truly wished she would call back. I wondered
what it meant that she hadn’t. W
as she watching our every move to make sure we were looking in the right direction? And if not, when would she know to call again?
Because my time with Jared was precious to me, I’d asked Sam Desmond not to call me, but to send a text and I would call him when I could. A text from him arrived just as my husband returned to the hotel, so while he was in the shower, I called Sam back.
“What’s the deal with your mother-in-law?” he asked.
I had no idea what he meant and it made me freeze. “What do you mean?” I asked at last.
“Well I thought that she and John Miller were totally on the outs.”
“Uh, they are. As far as I know. I mean they’
ve been divorced for a dozen
years and they’re hardly ever in the same room together. Why? What did you find?”
“Just trying to figure out why she’s called his office twenty-nine times in the past six months.”
I raised my eyebrows. I had no idea.
“She calls at t
he same time, every time: f
ive
-fifteen
in the afternoon
, a
fter work hours. Now only four of those calls are actually from her regular cell phone. The rest of them I tracked to a cell phone that she’s got under another name.”
“Is she for sure talking to John?”
“I
du
nno
, but I’m assuming so.
It goes directly to his personal office, not the receptionist. And I checked the phone records even further back; to two years ago, even. She was calling him
regularly
, and then the calls stopped for a while.”
“For a while? You mean during the time that John was seeing Rachel again?”
“Yep, exactly during that time. The calls didn’t start again until January—three months after Rachel’s death. Maybe she was letting the smoke clear for a while.”
“How long are the calls? I mean if it was a secret, why would she call his office? Why not call him at home or on his cell phone? I’m sure she’s got numbers for him. They share a son.”
“I
dunno
, but the calls were only a minute or two long.
Maybe it’s nothing, b
ut does any of that strike you a certain way?”
“Uh, not really. I mean
his parents
are pretty civil to one another, and Jared hasn’t said anything about it. I’m not sure if he’d even know something like that.”
“Know what?” Jared asked.
I jumped because he’d startled me. He’d apparently just come out of the bathroom and I was too involved in my phone conversation to notice. He came across the room as Sam began to
respond
and I had to tell the investigator that I’d have to call him back.
Jared had on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans,
and
he
briefly
toweled his hair as h
e
sat next to me on the couch, waiting
for me to answer him.
I took a deep breat
h and said, “I was talking to a private
investigator that’s looking into my sister’s case.”
He barely nodded, unsurprised. “Yeah, I saw a text from your dad the other night, giving you his name and contact info. You were asleep though.”
I looked at him with surprise but didn’t respond.
“I was waiting for you to tell me yourself, Taryn. I didn’t want to pry.”
With a sigh I said, “I wasn’t sure if it was necessary yet. I don’t know what to think of it.”
“Think of what? Re-investigating the case? I think it’s a good idea.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I told you before that we should have hired someone private.”
“I know but…”
“But what?” He took my hand and scooted closer to me. “Taryn, please be open with me. I can’t stand it when you shut me out. It makes me feel like I’m not good enough to talk to or that you don’t trust me.”
“That’s not it at all.”
“Then please. What’s new? What’s going on? Why re-open this when you and your family decided to put it behind you?”
I reluctantly told him about the phone call I’d received the week before.
He was stunned.
And I told him that Sam had spent the past week catching up on the case and all the players
, so he could hopefully dig deeper and find something new
.
“So was that him on the phone? What did he ask about me? Did I know about what?
I’ll help with anything, Taryn. Just ask.
”
I took my time answering. He allowed it because he was patient that way. Finally I said, “He wondered if I knew why your mom had been placing calls to Miller and Harris for the past couple of years. As far as he was informed, he thought your parents never spoke.”
Jared hardly had a reaction when he said, “Yeah they speak.
They’re divorced but I know they still hook up once in a while. It bothers me, so I try not to think about it
.”
I didn’t have a response to that.
“Taryn, you know how my dad is with women. It’s
half of what
broke them up in the first place and it was going to ruin them again.
My mom has actually tried to get back to
gether with him a few
times. But i
t was never going to work.
He wasn’t going to be faithful to
her
the second time around. I actually told her to forget it, but that’s the only say I ever offered. My dad wasn’t interested in giving her
a
second go-around.”
“Probably because he started seeing Rachel again.”
He shrugged indifferently. “Yeah, probably.”