Page 64 of Dark Obsession
Chapter 22
Jenna
"Hey. You okay?" My father glanced over at me the next day in church. I rarely went, but my sister had texted the night before and let me know my dad wasn't doing well.
"Oh yeah. Just lost in thought." I slid my arm into his and leaned over, pressing my cheek to his strong shoulder like I used to when I was a little girl. "I love you."
"Me too, baby girl." He cupped my face and kissed the top of my head. "You're not doing anything dangerous, right?"
I turned my face up toward him and smirked. "Define dangerous."
"I lost Darek because he was looking into some stuff for me, Jenna. I can't lose you too. Come back to the house where I can protect you. Please." His eyes begged the request, but there was no way I could give up my freedom.
"What was he looking into?" I glanced toward the front as the pastor made his way back up to the front of the church.
"We'll talk in a minute." My father turned his attention back up front as my mind went wild.
I held my tongue and waited until the service was over to pull my father aside. "Let's talk now."
"All right. We'll ride to the restaurant together." He offered me his arm. "Your mother can ride with Kayla and her boyfriend."
"You like him?" I glanced back to see my sister and her boyfriend laughing. My mother looked like an unyielding statue, but that was customary. Wealthy people didn't smile. Not all the time like commoners.
"I do. He's a techie guy. Helped me fix up my computer in my office with a new firewall last week. You'd be surprised how often someone tries to hack into my system."
Guilt ran over me. "Did they get in?"
"No, but that doesn't mean much. I just need to keep a closer eye on things. Losing Darek put a bit of a damper on everything. For all of us." He opened the door on my side of the car and I got in and buckled up.
I waited for him to start the car and pull away from the church to pepper him with questions. "Dad, what was Darek working on for you?"
"There’s an old murder case from four years ago that always haunted me." He shrugged. "It's an old friend of mine that I grew estranged with after college. One of my early clients back when I was a lawyer."
"Was he murdered?"
"Yes. In cold blood." My father's hands tightened around the wheel, as was evident by the loud cry from the leather. "They never caught the guy, but I know there was more to it. Jack was his name."
"What more was there to it, and was this what Darek was looking into?"
"Yes, your brother was doing me a favor by digging it back up." My dad reached up and turned the air conditioner on even though it was starting to get chilly outside. "His entire inheritance, some forty billion dollars went to his wife. Hisnewwife. It was wrong. Just disgusting honestly. They'd been married two years, but the sorry bastard moved everything over to the girl."
"The girl?" My stomach soured. "A gold-digger?"
"More like a grave digger, but yes. Right after they got married, all the money moved from his former wife and his three kids to thiswoman. Two years later... he's dead. Strangled to death and then shot in the head."
"Why would someone do both? What about fingerprints?"
"Gloves. These guys knew what they were doing in some respects and not in others." He sighed and turned onto the freeway. "They got sloppy. Shooting Jack was the best bet, but strangling him first? Only someone in a fit of rage would do that, and people that angry aren't capable of reasoning. They're lost to their own adrenaline."
"What causes that? Why would someone kill him?"
"Love-crime? Hate-crime?" He glanced over at me. "I would assume it was for the money, but whoever killed him, it was violent."
"So you think the connection between Darek dying and him working on the case is something we should look into?"
"No, not at all. His wife was a lovely Hispanic girl. Disappeared off the face of the earth.” My father shrugged. "And your brother’s case is being ruled as a suicide. The case is closed."
"What? No. Darek wouldn't do that." I stiffened in my seat. Where the fuck was Erik with his proof? As soon as I had it in my hand, I could take it to Nate and get his help taking care of Denise. Would I really want Nate killing someone? What if he got caught? Maybe letting Erik do it was a better answer.
