Love Today (19 page)

She told me that they found some new evidence in the case, but they weren’t sure how it fit. She wanted to meet with me to see what I thought of it.

“Well, I’m out of town right now…”

“It’s important, Taryn. I have some letters, and some pictures…”

“Letters from who?”

“A guy named
Spencer
. Does that ring a bell?”

“Uh, no, not right off the bat. I think she dated a guy named
Spencer
in college
maybe
, but I’m not sure.”

“What was his last name?”

“I have no idea. Really, I don’t.”

“Okay, but is there any possibility that this guy could be Maggie’s father?”

“
What
?” I exclaimed. “Her dad is—”

“I know it’s listed as James Graham, and he died in prison, but really Taryn… Is there a possibility?”

“What exactly do the letters say? What makes you think this?”

“He states over and over that she took something away from him, and that he never knew, and that she had no right to keep some
thing like that from him. I
t says nothing
directly
,
which is why this is so frustrating. I can only
speculate
. I’m hoping you can look this stuff over and see what you think.”

“Where did you find it?”

“Well, that’s the strange part. It was with her things at
the office
.”

“At
work
? At
Miller and Harris
?”

“Yeah. It was a manila envelope that was
in with another file
.
We’ve been going through her work and found it
stuffed into one of her accounts. It seems to be unrelated to that particular account, b
ut Taryn, I think you should look through this stuff.”

“Uh, okay. I’m in Utah right now but my flight leaves in a few hours. I’ll call you when I get there.”

“What time does your flight arrive?”

“Um, two-ten.”

“I’ll pick you up. See you then.”

Chapter Sixteen

I was a little overwhelmed, and as I explained everything to Zack, he
kept reminding me to take a deep breath, to relax, or to not jump to any conclusions.

“James Graham is Maggie’s father,” I repeated for the third time. “He is, he really is…”

I knew I was trying to convince myself that there wasn’t any other threat to my life with Maggie.
I didn’t know what I would do if something changed that.

“
Rachel
had an awful relationship with him—he was a pretty bad guy. He even roughed her up a few times, went to jail for it, and then ended up in prison right after Maggie was born. He died a year later—som
e sort of complications with
diabetes
or something
.
Rachel
was relieved—I mean I know that’s awful to feel happy about, but she was so worried about Maggie’s future because of him. And his family was actually pretty supportive of
Rachel
. They’d kind of cut their ties with James because he got in tro
uble with the law so much.
His parents didn’t want a relationship with
Rachel
or Maggie because they felt it was better not to, and
Rachel
was pretty lucky she didn’t have to deal with all of that.”

“But the police looked into the Graham family, right? There wasn’t anything there except one little suspicion about a br
other, but that didn’t go anywhere
.”

“Right. And as of now that family isn’t linked to
Rachel
in any way. But this
Spencer
guy…”

“W
ell, y
ou just need to read the letters
. Maybe something will come to you. Remember Taryn… One day at a time, okay?”

I nodded, but I felt like it was easier for hi
m to say. He wasn’t the one who
s
e sister was murdered and who
s
e
life was being turned inside out
,
piece-by-piece
.

I had an even harder time leaving after that. Zack even offered to skip out on his commitment that day and come home with me, but I
very strongly objected
. I really didn’t need him to be careless with his career;
he needed to prioritize and
I could wait.

Maggie was also sad to be leaving, but she really was excited for Abigail’s party. She chatted almost nonstop on the plane about her costume and exactly how she wanted me to do her hair. I was grateful for the distraction, even realizing that she had another costume idea for trick-or-treating.

I was surprised when she mentioned Jared. Besides a couple of texts to ask how I was doing, I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since the last time he was at my house. He knew we were out of town until Halloween, and that Maggie had her party at Abigail’s at four
, but other than that, we didn’t have much contact with one another
.

“What
about
Jared?” I asked, not quite sure I heard what she said.

“When’s he coming over?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“He’s going trick-or-treating with
me
.”

“He is?”
This
was news to me. I know Maggie talked about Jared when she was plotting her costumes, but I didn’t know anything about plans with him.

“He said he’s coming.”

“Uh, did you invite him?”

“Yes. He wanted to see my costume. I wonder what he’s going to dress up like,” she smiled.

“Uh, grown ups don’t always
dress up for trick-or-treating,
” I
tried
to warn her, just because I didn't want her to be disappointed.

“He said he was
gonna
,” she said pointedly.

“Oh. Well…I’m not even sure he can make it, Maggie. I didn’t know anything about Jared going trick-or-treating with us.”

“I invited him,” she said, like it was
obvious that it was going to happen because she said so.

I didn’t respond after that. I was a little annoyed because I already had to worry about this thing with the investigation, and now I had to deal with upsetting Maggie when her trick-or-treat buddy doesn’t follow through for her.

Detective Bronson really did pick us up from the airport when we arrived. Originally I was going to take Zack’s Jeep that was parked there, and then I was just going to pick him
up when he arrived that night. B
ut this was better I guess, and Zack could have his Jeep when he got in.

Our first stop was home, and even though I wanted to talk about the case right away, I refrained for Maggie’s sake. I got
her
ready for the party and then we headed for Abigail’s house. When I arrived with Maggie I told Harriet that I needed to take care of something important but I would be right in. She realized it had to do with
Rachel
’s case and told me to take all the time I needed.

Once in Michelle’s
car again, I took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I’m ready. I think.”

She pulled out a manila envelope from her visor and handed it over. “They aren’t dated at all, so I tried to put them in order the best I could…”

I started reading right away, and I read for about
five
minutes. There were three letters, about
half of
a page long, and I read them twice.

“He mentioned La Note,” I said.

“The Note? Yeah, I don’t know what that means.”

“Well he calls it
the
Note, but it’s a restaurant called
La
Note.”

“Really? Where is it?”

“In Berkeley. It’s a French restaurant.”

“In California? So he’s someone she knew in college?”

“Maybe. She graduated from Berkeley when Maggie was
almost
two. I never saw my sister back then, even though she only lived twenty minutes away. She kind of just segregated herself from us when she was dating James. My parents hated him, and I think she knew he was bad news too, but because it really did end up so bad with him, I think she was…I don’t know, embarrassed maybe? Like she knew she’d made mistakes but was too proud to admit it. That’s why she was so hell bent on getting her business degree and becoming successful. I know she had people watching Maggie while she finished school—she wouldn’t ask any of us to do it—so I’m not sure how she pulled it off financially, or if she made other arrangements somehow… I really don’t know.”

Detective Bronson thought for a few seconds. Finally she asked, “What about La Note? What’s the significance?”

“I don’t know, really. I just know what it is and that Rachel really liked eating there even though she couldn’t afford it. She was fluent in French and wanted to go to France one day. Maybe it was just her favorite restaurant, and I’m sure she probably went there on occasion with a date.”

“What about this Spencer character. You have no idea who he is? Could this be him?”

She handed me a few pictures and I looked them over.

“It doesn’t ring a bell—Hey wait…” I studied one of the photos a little closer.

“You recognize someone?”

“Yeah, this guy here… He’s a waiter at La Note.”

“Is it Spencer?”

“No, his name was… Oh, let me think… It was French, actually…”

“Pierre?” she tried with a smile.

I smiled too, but shook my head. “It might come to me. Just give me a minute. But I think that Rachel may have gone out with him a few times. I know she dated a guy that worked there.”

“Looks like I’ll be making another visit to Berkeley,” she said.

“This is actually taken
at
La Note,” I noticed, recognizing the background.

“What about those two pictures?”

They were of different people, but I didn’t recognize anyone. But I could tell they weren’t taken at the same place.

“Different setting. I don’t know where that’s at or who those people are.”

I went back to reading the letters again. And yes, the most upsetting part was that it sounded like this guy really could be talking about a baby he didn’t know about. And the way he said
what we had was good
did sound like they were in a relationship.

I was no help to Detective Bronson, even though she told me I was because of the restaurant.
She was going to make a trip
south
to ask
more
questions and
I had mixed feelings about her returning to my hometown
again
. I guess I wanted answers, but I was afraid of them at the same time.

Zack had texted me to call him as soon as I could. I did before I went into the Johnson’s home, and while I finished up the party with Maggie, Detective Bronson waited for us in the car
while she
made arrangements to head to California.

I fed Maggie a sandwich when we got home around six. She’d had cereal that morning with Zack, but all she’d had since then was junk food. I helped her change costumes—now she was sporting
a
princess
gown
.

“Is he here yet?” she asked, looking out the window.

I groaned to myself but decided not to answer. Instead I sent a text to Jared that said:
Why does Maggie
insist that you’re taking her trick-or-treating???

He replied almost instantly with:
Because I am
.

My heart kind of thumped heav
il
y when I read that, but I groaned out loud that time.

“Is he on his way?” Maggie asked, taking my phone out of my hand to see
who
I’d been texting.

“Gimme that,” I said, taking it back.

“What time is it?” she asked, walking over to the clock to stare at it.

“Uh, it’s almost seven. You ready to go?”

“No, Jared’s comin’ at seven,” she told me matter-of-factly.

“So let me get this straight… You somehow arranged a trick-or-treating date with Jared? How did you manage that? I don’t remember arranging anything with him.”

“A date?” she giggled.

“It’s a—
N
ever mind. When did you guys talk about this?”