“A kid? Like how old?”
“I wish I knew. A teenager would be my guess.”
“You have a name?”
“Nope.”
“Parents name?”
“Um…I’m not sure.”
I told him what I’d discovered at the house, and I also told him about the “confidential” part of my father’s will. When I finished he said, “You think he had another kid?”
“I have no idea, but if I have a brother out there somewhere, I’d like to know about it. The thing is when my mom was sick, he was drinking twice as much as usual and disappearing for days. He could have made a kid during that time. I’m just not sure why everyone I know would be so secretive about it.”
“School is where I’d start,” he said. “I mean, we can fingerprint at your dad’s place, but who knows who has been in and out of there since the last time you were?”
“So how would you approach the school?”
“Tell you what, I’ll send over the list and some notes and you start the interviews if you can. Meanwhile text me your dad’s name, address, phone number, and anything else that might be important and I’ll start on the school angle. I can do most of that from the office.”
“Thanks man, I appreciate it.”
“Thank you. Another trip to Lafayette was going to set me way back this week.”
“Hey, there’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You were being followed yesterday…but you know that already, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You okay?”
“I’m okay. I’m just waiting for her to get tired of the game and get in touch.”
“Her?”
“Yeah, long story.”
“Alright, as long as you’re good.”
After I hung up with him, I went back to the house. I searched around a little more but still couldn’t find anything personal that didn’t belong to my dad, my mom, or me. Finally giving that up for the day, I checked my email. Blake had sent the list over, and since this was my first attempt at interviewing witnesses, a comprehensive list of questions to ask. He also scanned over the file, and before I started calling to set up meetings with the witnesses, I skimmed through it.
The missing guy’s name was Elliot Rubalcava. He’s twenty-five, and he works at a bar in New Orleans. He left work one night at ten and stopped into the bar where I met Blake this week. He was seen there by several people, but once he walked out of there, he never made it home. He hasn’t been seen in two weeks. Blake’s notes say that he hasn’t used his ATM or credit cards, and there’s been no activity on his cell phone. I’m not sure why the police don’t see that as suspicious. I’m not a cop and I do.
The first person I called was a woman named Rebecca. Rebecca works as a hairstylist, and she was the woman that Elliot had a drink with the night he went missing. She answered on the first ring. “Hello, Rebecca. My name is Tyler Petit. I’m working with Blake Investigations. We’re looking into the disappearance of Elliot Rubalcava.”
“Yes, poor Elliot!”
“Poor Elliot?”
“Well, something bad must have happened, right?”
“I guess that’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Blake put a note in the case file telling me that it was better to interview people in person so that you could observe their behavior while their answering questions. “Rebecca would you have time for lunch? I’d like to talk to you about that night if you don’t mind.”
“I have my break between two and three. Do you want to meet me at Crimson Lights? I work next door at The Hungry Hair.” My stomach clenched at the sound of the bar and grill that Ariana’s family owned. I didn’t have any idea if they still owned it or not, but I told myself it was ridiculous to avoid it just in case.
“Absolutely, I’ll see you at two.” After I hung up with her, I set up appointments with two other people and left messages for the fourth and fifth on the list. I realized, as I was on my way to Crimson Lights that I’d just gone a whole two hours without giving my own problems a single thought. Maybe this job was going to be a good thing.
********
Rebecca was a big girl. She was not fat. As a matter of fact, what I could see of her body looked hard and firm. But she was over six feet tall. I’m six four and the top of her head was level with my eyes. She was wearing a pair of flat tennis shoes with cut-off jeans and a white tank top. Her long red hair was curly, and even though it seemed to be all over the place, it was quite attractive.
She met me outside the bar—and we went in together. The bar was a lot busier than it had been the night I met Blake there. We found an empty booth near the back, and the waitress took our drink orders as soon as we sat down. We both ordered an iced tea, and I realized as I was looking at the menu that I hadn’t eaten since that few bites of dinner last night and I was starving. The waitress came back with our drinks and I ordered a po-boy. Rebecca ordered some kind of chicken salad, and once the waitress was gone I said, “Rebecca, can you tell me about that night at the bar with Elliot?”
“Yeah, he called me on my lunch break that day. I always work on Saturdays and I usually see the same clients, so I remember it well. I was eating outside the salon on the picnic table when he called and asked if I wanted to meet him for a drink. He said he’d be off by ten, so we arranged to meet at eleven at Lafayette Nights.”
“Do you go there a lot?”
“Not a lot, but yeah, it’s me and Elliot’s place.”
“Are you and Elliot dating or…?”
“No, we’re just friends. Mr.…”
“Tyler.”
“Tyler, Elliot is gay.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t seen that in the file.
“He’s in the closet. He doesn’t think his folks will understand.”
“So what is the possibility that he’s just tired of living a lie and he left on his own?”
“Slim to none,” she said. “He doesn’t want to tell his mama that he’s gay, but he’s crazy about her. He’d never go off and leave without at least saying good-bye to her. That night we each had a drink, and he talked to me about this guy at work that he liked. I’m the only one that knew about him, so I was the one he called when he wanted to talk about his love life.”
The waitress came with our food then, and we both ate in silence for a few minutes. After I killed half of my sandwich, I looked at the notes Blake sent me. I didn’t see the name of any male co-workers on it, and the only two men on the list were a bartender at Lafayette Nights and his older brother. “What was this guy’s name? Do you know?”
“Oh…I’m sorry…Paul…or something like that.”
I wrote down Paul and said, “Was he working with Elliot that night?”
She nodded, and suddenly her face brightened up. “He was because Elliot was talking about how he wore this tight pair of jeans and all of the girls were looking at him, but he’d winked at Elliot twice.”
“Was this guy gay, too?”
She shrugged. “Elliot said he didn’t date men, but he got a “vibe” from him. Elliot didn’t date men either, you know? Sometimes coming out is hard.”
I nodded. I didn’t know much about it, but I thought I could imagine. “So did Elliot tell you where he was going when he left here?”
“No. I just assumed he was going home. It was late.”
“Did he talk to anyone else while you two were here?”
“No, but as we were walking out, he got a phone call. He had just walked me to my car, so when I drove off he was on the phone. He was smiling. That’s all I remember. I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry. That’s good. It’s really good.” I asked her a few more questions as we ate, and as soon as we were done, I walked her outside and watched her walk next door to the salon. Then I took out my phone and called Blake.
“Hey Tyler how’s it going?”
“Hey, good, I think. Did you pull phone records on Elliot from that nig
ht?”
“Yeah, hang on.” He was gone for several seconds, and when he came back he said, “He got a call from work just after one in the morning. There were two employees there at the time, both female. They both denied calling him, but the phone sits on the bar so it’s possible someone else made the call.”
“What about a male bartender?”
“There was a Paulo Mendez working that night, but he was off at midnight.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No, I haven’t gotten that far yet. Why?” I told him what Rebecca told me. He listened until I was finished and then said, “So you think this Paulo guy called and set up a rendezvous with Elliot?”
“I think it’s a possibility. Since the phone is on the bar—if he had anything to do with Elliot going missing—I doubt that he’ll admit to making the phone call.”
“True...” Blake was quiet for a few minutes before saying, “Oh, the kid’s name is Conner Douglas.” It took my brain a minute to regroup.
“The kid? The one living with my dad?”
“He didn’t live with him. Your dad was listed on his emergency card at school though as a grandparent. There was also a Max Douglas and a mother, Ariana Douglas.” Son of a bitch! It can’t be. Why wouldn’t she tell me? Why wouldn’t someone tell me? “Hey, are you okay?” I guess I was silently in shock longer than I thought.
“Yeah, I’m alright.”
“You know who this kid is?”
“Yeah…apparently he’s not my brother, he’s my son.”
“Oh Jesus.”
“Yeah, oh Jesus about sums it up.” I wasn’t sure how I was feeling at that moment. I had a son, which was exciting and terrifying. Ariana was hiding that fact from me. She knew how to get into the house. It had to be her who took the photos and emptied out the personal things in his room. I wondered if Sam knew too, and Michael. Shit. I took a deep breath and said, “What do you want to do about this Paulo?”
“What are you doing tonight?”
Asking Ariana why the hell she didn’t tell me I had a son. “No plans,” I said.
“Can you meet my guy Leif in Nawlins at The Red Light?”
I looked at the time now. It was just after three. I had plenty of time to talk to Ariana before driving to New Orleans. “Yeah, I can do that. Just let me know what time.”
“Let me find out what shift Paulo is working. If he’s not working tonight, I’ll let you know that—otherwise, I’ll text you a time. I’ll give Leif your number, and I’ll text you his. I’ll have him text you when he gets there so you know who he is. He’ll have the rest of the details.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks Tyler—and I’m sorry you had to find out about your son like this.”
“Yeah, me too, but grateful you found out for me or I might have never known.” I ended the call and headed out to the Douglas house. For the first time ever, I felt a new emotion toward Ariana…anger.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ARIANA
I did my best to calm down before I got there, but as soon as Max pulled open the door, I got angry again. “Is this my punishment?”
He looked shocked and confused. “What?”
“I take your son from you, so you keep mine from me?”
The shocked, confused look changed to something akin to paranoia. He looked around behind me and said, “Come in, Tyler, please.”
I followed him into the house. It looked almost identical to what I remembered from when I was a kid. I followed him into the living room, and just before we got there, I heard her voice. “Who was it Dad?” He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. She looked up then and saw me and her hazel eyes went wide. “Tyler…hi.”
“Where is my son?”
She looked at her dad and back to me. I was wearing a t-shirt with short sleeves and I saw her eyes wander down my heavily tattooed arms before they came back up and landed on my face. I expected her to lie, so I was surprised when she said, “He’s out riding his dirt bike. Dad, can you give us a minute?” Max looked at me as if he didn’t trust me enough to leave me alone with his daughter. Ariana saw it and said, “It’s fine, Daddy, please. Just let me know when Conner is home.” Max nodded and left the room. “Tyler sit down, please.”
I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to pace. I wanted to put my fist into the mirror above the mantle where the photos of my son that should have been in my house now sat. But I forced myself to take a seat. “Why Ariana? I’ve lost everyone that ever meant anything to me. Why would you keep him from me?”
“You walked away,” she said. “You left without saying good-bye, and none of us even knew where you were. We assumed after years of not seeing you that you were dead. I didn’t keep him from you, you weren’t here.”
“Did anyone bother to look for me? What if I wasn’t okay? I was just a kid, why didn’t anyone come after me?”
“My family was still grieving over Brandon. Your dad was grieving over your mother. You know how devastated he was. When you first left, we thought you would be back after you cooled off. When you didn’t come back, I went to your dad and asked for help to find you, but he was drinking too much at that time to do anything. It took a long time for me to convince him to get sober, and by that time, you’d been gone so long that the detective he hired found no traces of you. Maybe you were already in the military. I’m just guessing here, but those records would have to be harder to access than others.”
“Was my son already born when you were looking for me? If you had found me, did you intend to let me be a part of his life?”
She nodded. “After Conner was born, your dad changed.” I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want to hear her sing his praises just then. I was pissed at the world, even my dead father. She didn’t let it go, however. “He wanted to do right by him. I think he wanted to make up for all of the years he’d done wrong by you. He loved that boy with everything he had inside of him.”
I knew the feelings of jealousy over my father not trying with me but being willing to try with Conner were stupid and immature. I tried to tamp them down, as I said, “You thought that after everything that happened to us, and all of the years I missed out on, that when I came back to town, the best thing to do would be to try and hide his existence from me, and mine from him? Do you think that I’m such a bad person that I don’t deserve to know my own son?”
She stood up and wrung her hands. When she looked back at me, she had tears in her eyes. I resolved not to let it affect me. “I don’t know you any longer, Tyler. I don’t know what kind of person you are. It’s been seventeen years. People change, and above all else I have to protect my son.” I didn’t say anything, and she asked, “Do you have kids, Tyler?”
“Just the one,” I told her sarcastically. The only emotions I was feeling at that moment had to do with feeling cheated out of one more thing in my life—and that made me angry. I wasn’t willing to let her off the hook so easily for taking my son’s entire life away from me.
“He asked a lot of questions when he was a kid. There was no way we were going to tell him that you just walked out of our lives and never came back…so we made up a story. He thinks you’re dead, Tyler. I was shocked to see you at your dad’s funeral. I was shocked and scared to death. I had no idea how I was going to suddenly tell him that you were alive and you were here. I thought maybe if I kept you from knowing about him, you would leave again.”
“You wanted me to leave again?”
“Like I said, Tyler, the only thing on my mind at that point was protecting my child. Conner has seen lots of photos of you, but you look completely different now, so I didn’t believe he’d recognized you at the funeral.”
“So you had Max whisk him away, and you weren’t going to tell him or me? I’ll just bet Max was happy to do it, too. Nice, you’re lying to us both.”
The tears in her eyes were suddenly replaced by anger. “How dare you come in here acting all holier than thou? You left me! I was an eighteen-year-old mo
ther. My mother resented me even more after that. Some days I cried all day long because I missed you so badly. Other days I looked for ways to get into trouble because I was just so hurt and angry. If it wasn’t for my dad and yours, I wouldn’t have made it. They were patient with me, and they helped me get through the rapidly changing moods that the pregnancy and hormones brought about. The more time that went by without getting a phone call or a letter or an email, the more convinced I was that you were dead. Or maybe that was what I believed simply because it hurt less than thinking you just didn’t want me enough to stay. Everything hurt back then, Tyler. Adjusting to my brother being gone and then you…it was overwhelming at times. I’m not complaining about raising Conner, mind you. He’s filled a void in my life that I didn’t even know existed.”
“You didn’t want me,” I said softly. I knew it shouldn’t hurt as much as it did seventeen years later, but even saying it out loud now made my chest ache.
“Are you kidding?” she said. “If that’s what you think, then you have no idea what you’re talking about. I wanted you more than I ever wanted anything in my life. I didn’t just want you Tyler, I needed you. I thought you needed me, too. We had so much loss all at once, and your idea of being there for me was walking away and disappearing.”
“You looked at me that day at the cemetery like you hated me. I could hardly bear to see that look in your eyes. You said you wanted to know what happened that day with Brandon and me, but you never gave me a chance to explain.”
“You never tried,” she said. “You left.”
“My father threw me out of the house and my mother was dead. I was in the hospital for three days and you never came to see me one time, not once. You never came to offer your condolences for my loss. You never even took the time to yell at me for what happened to Brandon. I felt like I wasn’t even worth that much effort.”
“You wanted effort from me? My brother was dead! My best friend for life was gone. I was having nightmares about how he must have suffered and I was watching my mother and father suffer. My mother never recovered from losing him. I’m sorry if you think it was selfish of me to not leave them when they needed me the most to go chasing after you. I called the hospital to check on you. I called Sam. You were going to be fine they both told me. At that point I just assumed I’d see you when you got out of the hospital and we would go from there.” The tears started to roll down her cheeks and she wiped them away angrily. “My whole life changed that day. I lost my boyfriend, my brother and my best friend. I lost life as I knew it. After Brandon died, every time I left the house my mother would freak out and think I wasn’t coming back. I didn’t like seeing her so scared and upset, so I just stayed at home and I kept telling myself that you’d come back for me…someday.”
TYLER (Blake Security Book 2) Page 10