Since She Went Away(70)

“That’s fine,” Jenna said. “Are you here to talk to me?”

“I am. If you don’t mind.”

“No.” Jenna slipped out of her coat and set her purse down. “I’m going to run to the bathroom first, okay?”

“Sure. Jared can finish what he’s telling me.”

Jared gestured toward Jenna. “She never wants to play these games.”

Jenna went into the bathroom and scrubbed her face and hands. She felt as if the smell of the bar—the collection of spilled drinks and fried food—clung to her body like a second skin. She gargled with mouthwash twice, making sure to mask the odor of alcohol from the detective. Why? She wasn’t sure. She just didn’t want Detective Poole to see her coming in the door to greet her son with beer on her breath.

But she’d smell the mouthwash and know.

Jenna caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. A little tired, a little angry from the conversation with Sally. Couldn’t she do anything in this town without someone knowing about it? And once again a cop waited in her living room.

She came back out and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from Jared. He smiled at her when she sat, apparently pleased that he knew something the detective wanted to know.

“Syd left?” Jenna asked.

“He did. Right before the detective got here.”

“I haven’t been here long,” Naomi said. “I’ve been running all day.”

“Do you want a drink or something?” Jenna asked.

“Jared already offered. You’ve trained him well.”

“I did, Mom. I remembered to offer. But she turned me down.”

“My work here is done,” Jenna said, but she felt uneasy. The conversation with Sally lingered, the complicated feelings for Ian plaguing her like a committed sin. “What’s on your mind, Detective? I hope it’s not bad news.”

“That depends on how you look at it.”

“How am I going to look at it?” Jenna asked.

Detective Poole cut her eyes over to Jared. Jenna read the look, and so did Jared. The detective wanted to know whether it was okay to talk in front of him. Jenna had long ago stopped covering his eyes or sending him out of the room when scary things came on the TV. She’d seen the movies he watched and the games he played. Blood sprayed and splattered everywhere. People screamed. Monsters roared.

But they were living in real life. With real monsters.

Jared had handled the stuff with Natalie well so far, as she’d told Sally. He’d fallen for the girl hard. He’d been burned like an adult. Welcome to the world, she wanted to say.

“It’s up to him,” Jenna said. “Do you want to hear this?”

“Is it about Natalie?” he asked, hope rising in his voice. Like Jenna, he couldn’t hide his feelings either. He put it all out there. He sounded desperate for any information about the girl, and Jenna felt a mixture of pride and fear for him. Pride that he didn’t hide what he felt. Fear that the transparency and vulnerability would be used against him. And hurt him.

But she couldn’t protect him from all that.

“Indirectly,” Naomi said. “We haven’t found her. In fact, we really don’t have many leads about her whereabouts, although we’re continuing to look.”

“Is this about her dad?” Jenna asked.

“Yes.”

“Go ahead,” Jenna said. “We can handle it.”

Naomi accepted her verdict and started talking. “We got some results back concerning the death of Holly Crenshaw. Ordinarily it can take a while to get these types of DNA results back. The state lab is backed up, and they don’t just wave a magic wand like they do on TV. But the case has been getting a lot of attention, and apparently Ian’s family has some pull in Frankfort.”

“His grandfather was a state senator for years and years,” Jenna said.

“That might do it. They’ve tested DNA on Holly Crenshaw’s body and entered it in the national database. They got a hit. William Rose.”

“What does that mean?” Jenna asked, the words coming out slowly.

“It means he’s a sex offender, right?” Jared said. “You had his DNA in the system from another crime he committed. And it means he killed Holly Crenshaw.”

“That’s it,” Naomi said. “He’s now wanted for the murders of both Holly Crenshaw and Henry Allen. And he’s wanted for the kidnapping of his daughter. And he’s suspected of killing his former wife.”

The news hollowed Jenna out. It felt like too much to bear, too much to absorb in one moment.

“And Celia?” Jenna asked. “Does this have anything to do with her?”

“We can’t say anything conclusively. There’s no evidence tying William Rose to Celia, but we’d be fools to think it isn’t a real possibility. We certainly want to talk to him about it.”

The detective seemed to have left something unspoken. Her words hovered in the space between them like dark clouds.

“So you do suspect something?” Jenna said.

“I can’t go beyond what I’ve already said. And needless to say, this is top secret and off the record. I just wanted the two of you to be in the loop before the public hears about all of it. I know how invested you both are in this.”