Insinuations Page 5
“I still want to go with you. I’m glad you asked.” It might be a small step, but it was a step, the silver lining Ellie had been hoping for.
“Thank you.” Jordan gave her a rueful smile. “I think I will have that drink now. I’ll be right back.”
Ellie watched her walk to the bar, feeling happy and proud, of herself, of Jordan. She didn’t want to analyze the moment too much, simply hold on to that feeling.
Jordan brought a beer for herself and a glass of white wine for Ellie. As usual, she had paid attention.
Ellie thought back to the rocky start they’d had, when Jordan was still with Bethany and couldn’t seem to let go, and Ellie had decided she didn’t care, feeling justified in the aftermath of what happened to her. There were no more excuses, just two people taking responsibility and starting over. It felt right, just like it had in those moments when they had abandoned all responsibility.
“I heard you’re keeping the house,” she said. It wasn’t like they could avoid any given subject connected to Darby in the long run, and maybe Jordan was okay with that, she’d wanted to talk, after all. “I’m sorry I never called after…I thought you needed space. I didn’t mean to sulk or anything.”
“I know you didn’t—and you’re right,” Jordan ascertained. “I needed to sort out some things. Turns out you were right, and going to the therapist out of obligation was a bad idea. I think Bethany knows that too. The house is another thing, and with Hobbs on the run, it’s still pretty crazy. I want you to be sure about what you’re getting yourself into. I guess meeting the parents is part of that, but don’t worry, they are pretty nice people. Makes sense too, since we are not related by blood.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, and Jordan seemed to sense that.
“I’ll tell you sometime,” she promised, taking Ellie’s hand. The feeling was almost electric—time and traumatic events hadn’t changed that between them. “People seem to be talking about me a lot these days, but no one tells me any gossip about you. What’s going on in your life?”
If Ellie was honest, there hadn’t been much other than waiting and hoping. She’d done her shifts, quietly listening to any sort of information she could get, up until this moment.
“God, I missed you. I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s pretty much all that’s been going on in my life,” she said, and that was as honest as she could get. Maybe she could be brave too. “Would you like to stay over tonight?” She wanted to tread as carefully and respectfully as possible. At the same time, she couldn’t help longing for the intimacy they’d once had. Ellie knew that they had their respective, different ways of dealing, but Bethany being out of the picture would make everything easier.
“I can’t, not tonight. I have an early start tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow, would that be okay?” Jordan’s answer was swift and devoid of complicated emotions, or so it seemed. If there was anything else going on under the surface, Ellie couldn’t tell. There was still hope. That was all that mattered.
“Sure,” Ellie said. “That’s even better.”
“It’s a date.” Jordan gave her that warm, sexy smile that had attracted her from day one.
It was clear to Ellie that all the talking necessary wasn’t done yet, but they would get there.
Chapter Five
Jordan was lucky Ellie had bought the “early start” excuse—in fact, Ellie’s apartment was closer to both their workplace, so she might have just as well followed the invitation. Staying over came with hopes and expectations, and if she could stall one more day, that’s what she was going to do. Talking to Ellie felt good, even though they had barely touched the surface, let alone anything that was slithering underneath. Maybe it didn’t need to be right away. It looked like Ellie had made up her mind. She was an adult. Even if she didn’t know the whole story, it didn’t mean they couldn’t give it a try, did it?
Sitting up on the side of her bed as the day dawned, Jordan sighed. There were a few points she could make. She was notoriously bad at relationships. While she refused to believe in Bethany’s interpretation, her living circumstances during the first twelve years of her life might have made an impact. On the other hand, she was aware of it now. She could do better, right?
She might need space, and have nightmares, but that was something Ellie understood. There was no more explanation to unearth, no excuse. This time, it was all her responsibility, a realization that was frightening in itself. With Bethany she’d felt crowded even though they hardly saw each other, unless they were working on a case together. Jordan pulled away, cheated. The first time had been meaningless to all involved, but then she’d found someone she fell for, someone who genuinely cared for her. Failing her was not option.
Jordan got up. She’d been dressed for work for a while, waiting until it was time to go. The early start itself hadn’t been an evasion. She was determined to make good time so she could show up at her parents’ house early and not stay too long. It was better this way.
Once Ellie met Jack and Pauline, she’d have context for everything Jordan hadn’t told her yet. As she drove to the department, Jordan switched her thoughts to work, yesterday’s search.
TJ Pratt seemed to have told the truth, as much of an oxymoron as that was. He was put in protective custody. The CSU had found fingerprints to place Phil Hobbs in the trailer, and by any logic, still somewhere around.
Why take that risk? He knew his chances to get away would have been best in the first few hours. She didn’t really think Pratt’s theory was sound. A man like Hobbs would have nothing but contempt for the likes of Pratt or her birthparents—he would use them while he could, but in no way involve them in a more elaborate plot. Smart, scary psychopaths were loners and trusted no one—that’s why they could get away with what they did for so long.
If Hobbs had decided to stay in the area, he had a reason, and that worried her.
At the department, she caught Henderson heading for the interview rooms, wondering what she’d missed.
“Hey, Derek, wait. Did something happen at the safe house?”
He looked surprised. “Why do you think that? I just have this interview to do. I don’t really need you for it.”
If she’d been suspicious before, this confirmed Jordan’s worries that something was off. “What aren’t you telling me? Come on. This is my case too.”
He sighed and stopped walking, leaned against the wall in the hallway instead. “Let me do this, okay? We won’t be able to keep Pratt in this place forever. If Hobbs is up to something like Pratt says, maybe some of his old associates have an idea, especially when Hobbs threatened them in the past.”
She felt the blood drain from her face before he added, “I asked James and Kathryn Larson to come in this morning.”
“Come on, I told you he’s lying—or, at least, exaggerating.”
“You believed that Hobbs was threatening him.”
“Yeah, for that we have proof, sort of. They all used to hang out together and get high, fine, but Hobbs moved on to bigger things. Jim and Kathryn are just—” She broke off the sentence, not sure how to come up with anything that wouldn’t make her look bad. “I don’t buy it. We are wasting time with them.”
“I don’t think so, and neither does the lieutenant. Like I said, you don’t need to be in there.”
Jordan had no idea why this was hitting her this hard, other than the fact that she was off her game already. Her past was something she had kept as hidden as possible from her colleagues. As far as they were concerned, her parents were Jack and Pauline, the friendly unassuming elderly couple. She couldn’t deal with the sympathy—or worse, pity—she had gotten from classmates back then. Especially now.
“I want to watch,” she said.
Maybe it would be okay. It was unlikely they knew anything about Hobbs. They would walk out of this place, and everyone, including Jordan, would forget they’d ever been here.
Derek gave her a long considering look. She held his gaze.
“You know as well as I do that I can’t sit around at home as long as Hobbs is out there. I’m having dinner at my parents’ tonight, if that makes you feel better. My real parents.”
“That’s something,” he admitted. “All right. Let’s get this done.”
They walked the last few steps to the door in silence.
“Derek.”
His hand already on the handle, he let go and turned around, probably hoping she’d changed her mind.
“Just remember, that’s not me.” A victim of circumstances, that is, with Darby, and born to the wrong people. As cryptic as those words sounded, he seemed to understand what Jordan meant. He laid a hand on her arm, briefly, and opened the door. For the first time in twenty-something years, Jordan laid eyes on the people she’d spent the first twelve years of her life with.
Detective Maria Doss was already in the room, introducing Derek to the couple.
“Thank you both for coming in,” Derek said. “This won’t take long.”
“I still don’t know why you asked us to come. We did nothing wrong,” Kathryn Larson said defiantly, wringing her hands in her lap. “Shouldn’t there be a lawyer present?”
Her husband James nodded. “We know our rights.”
I bet you do by now. They were both in their mid-fifties, Jordan realized with a pang of an unwanted emotion. She had a case to solve, nothing more or less. There was no time to explore that tricky personal connection to these two people who looked significantly older than their age, years of drug and alcohol abuse taking their toll.
“We just need to ask you a few questions,” Derek assured them. Doss stood leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, looking pensive.
“Yeah, sure,” Kathryn mumbled. “That’s what they always say.”
“You know a TJ Pratt?” Derek asked.
The couple shared a surprised look, then James answered. “We sure do. He lives in the trailer park. We’ve seen him around. No one likes him very much though. There’s something off about him.”
Kathryn sat, staring at her hands in her lap silently.
Jordan shook her head. She had known this would get them nothing. Besides, it was hard to buy the righteous indignation from two people who didn’t have a care in the world except themselves. Thinking about those parties, the noise, the unbearably loud music and the smells gave her a headache. Her body remembered. In the cramped trailer, there hadn’t been much space to get away from it all. In the summer, she’d always found places to hide away. In the winter, it wasn’t so easy.
Malicious laughter.
Maybe that had happened in the basement of Jonathan Darby’s home instead.
“What do you mean?” Doss followed up.
“Well…he would hit on the women, if they said no, he didn’t take that too well. We were glad when he was gone. I don’t know who he paid off in prison, but everyone was surprised when he got out. Fooled everyone, and now he’s back. Doesn’t surprise me though that you’re looking at him.”
“He did serve his time, though, unlike Hobbs…Have you heard from him lately?” Derek asked. “According to Pratt, you were close at some point.”
“Hey, hey, hey,” James protested, “don’t go there, pal, okay?”
On the other side of the glass, Jordan cringed. She was aware of Derek’s concerned glance.
“You’re not saying we helped him? We didn’t. We live a fairly peaceful life. We don’t have much, but it’s okay. We stay away from people like them. Seriously bad mojo. Can we go now?”
“Don’t worry, we’re not accusing you of anything,” Doss spoke up. She sat down across from the couple. “Pratt specifically mentioned your name. He thought that Hobbs might seek revenge for when you refused to be his accomplices in a bank robbery.”
Kathryn shook her head. “Hobbs?” she said with high-pitched laughter. “He couldn’t get his head out of his ass, what makes you think he could rob a bank without getting caught right away? Frankly, we’re stunned he’s still out there. He wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for Pratt, that much is for sure. Pratt always meant trouble. Killed one of the neighbors’ goats once. He ratted us out to child services, so you can believe us, we have no reason to cover for him.”
Jordan tensed at the first hint of the connection she had with the two people in the interrogation room, unwanted, unwelcome. She wished Pratt could have turned on them sooner. Twelve was old enough to have a lot of memories, and confusion. Jordan had no intention whatsoever of catching up, but the sight of them, all self-righteous and indignant—because it was always about them, right?—troubled her.
Her own blood. What did that make her? Could you escape your biological fate, or would she end up being that kind of irresponsible, selfish person who didn’t give a damn about how anyone else felt? Bethany might say she was already there. Maybe she shouldn’t have left couples’ therapy, tried harder. In her heart, Jordan knew the outcome would have been the same eventually—because of her own selfishness or the fact that she and Bethany had never been a good match to begin with, it was hard to say.
“Do you have any idea where Hobbs might go, anyone he could contact, friend in common with Pratt?” Derek continued.
James Larson shrugged. “I could give you a couple of names, guys they used to hang with, but we have no idea where they are now. That was all a long time ago.”
“We’ll start with that,” Doss said. “Your help is much appreciated.”
She wrote down the names while Jordan watched the woman who had given birth to her, fidget in her chair. Although she had grown up less than thirty miles from the much hated surroundings of her childhood, they had never tried to find her. Pratt’s “betrayal” couldn’t weigh so hard on them—what a sad irony that he had a hand in Jordan getting out.
There was a question on her mind, something she would have already asked if those people were any other witnesses. Jordan made a step forward. Her hand on the door handle, she hesitated. They didn’t care. There was still a small risk. Jordan took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Detective Henderson? A minute?” The Larsons didn’t even look at her.
“Excuse me for a moment,” he said and joined Jordan in the observation area.
“Get her alone. Remember what he said about Pratt hitting on the women in the trailer park? I bet she was one of them. Look at her. She might be scared, or maybe she had an affair with him, either way he might have contacted her. Don’t tell me you don’t see it too,” she added, not wanting to risk Derek thinking her theory sprang solely from the personal connection. “She’s hiding something.”
“It’s possible. Okay, let’s find out.”
Derek asked Detective Doss outside and laid out Jordan’s theory for her. Jordan breathed a sigh of relief when her colleagues didn’t seem to think she was overreacting. They decided that Doss would do the follow-up questions, and they both went back into the room.
Alone again, Jordan leaned against the cool glass, trying to get a handle on the vicious headache. She didn’t need a shrink to tell her what it meant.
“Mr. and Mrs. Larson, thank you for your time,” Derek said. “Mr. Larson, would you please come with me? Mrs. Larson…Could you stay another moment with Detective Doss? I’ll get you a coffee.”
“Is there anything wrong?”
“Pratt alleged that you might be in danger from Phil Hobbs,” Doss told her. “We are taking this very seriously. Please, Mrs. Larson.”
Kathryn’s demeanor changed when the two men left the room from nervous to defiant and angry. “What do you want? We already told you everything, and I’m not sure you even listened to us. It’s TJ you should be looking at. It’s always the same with you guys.”
“Hobbs killed a guard during his escape and held a woman hostage. We don’t want to take any chances.”
Her headache was intensifying. Jordan wasn’t sure what she had expected, but the way James walked right p
ast her, with no sign of recognition, was beyond sobering. Hell, this was what she wanted, distance, have the two of them out of her life. She couldn’t have it both ways.
“Has either Pratt or Hobbs contacted you recently?” Doss asked softly. “It’s okay. Your husband can’t hear you.”
Kathryn Larson clutched the paper cup so tightly coffee sloshed over the rim. She didn’t seem to notice. With dread, Jordan recognized a familiar gesture.
“About Hobbs, I have no idea. I read that he escaped, but I have no idea how he could have pulled that off. TJ…” She swallowed hard. “He stopped by…just for a cigarette, he said,” Kathryn finally said. “I know, you think it’s strange I would even talk to him, after all, we nearly went to prison because of him—I thought he wanted to make amends. Sure, he did some bad things, but hasn’t everyone? That was before all the crap with Hobbs went down, I swear I didn’t know.”
“You had a cigarette together, talked…about what?”
“About our daughter. TJ didn’t find out until she was a teenager, and he got so pissed he told on us. A few weeks ago, he said he would try to find her.”
“…and what?”
“Kill her,” Kathryn Larson said matter-of-factly.
“He said that to you and you didn’t think it would be something we should know?” Doss took a deep breath, casting a glance towards the two-way window.
She didn’t need to worry about Jordan—this day felt completely surreal already, and Jordan had gone back to whatever strange state would help her not to crumble. At this point, she was experienced. Our daughter—and she’d thought she’d had bad luck with her birthparents before. Leery, creepy TJ Pratt. This was why he’d come back, to taunt her. He wasn’t going to kill her, but he sure wasn’t above playing those games. When they’d first visited him in the trailer, he knew.
No.
Apparently, Kathryn had adopted some of the same coping mechanism: Denial.
“Oh, come on, the guy said a lot of things for two reasons—either he wanted to scare you, or get into your pants. You said it yourself, he lied about Hobbs, why should I have taken him seriously? I don’t know where she is, I thought he was bullshitting me. Again.”