One Last Breath by Sarah Sutton (speld decodable readers txt) 📗

clearly remembered. She asked him again, trying to read his emotion, but once again, his response seemed sincere. Or was he a skilled liar? He was an ex-cop, after all. He knew how to play this game.

Warren took a seat beside her, opening the envelope containing all the pictures found in his apartment. He placed them on the table one by one. Brennan looked down at them, and for the first time a hint of fear surfaced in his eyes, but then it quickly vanished, as if remembering where he was. He had clearly been too drunk to remember Warren showing them to him before. He looked as if he were seeing them for the first time.

“Can you tell me why these were in your apartment?” Tara asked.

He remained quiet as he looked down at them. “I don’t need to tell you,” he finally blurted.

Tara stared at him. “Your daughter knows that you’ve been watching her. Her and your ex-wife’s lawyer are going to know pretty soon too,” she shot back at him. His face fell. “It seems kind of suspect that you’ve been watching her and her friends, and then suddenly two of her friends go missing. And I’m sure you don’t like her hanging out with this crowd, isn’t that right?” Tara’s head tilted slightly as she stared deep into his eyes. A sudden look of concern swept across his face.

“No,” he said, panicking. “She can’t know. Wait, what does she think?” He stared down at the pictures again.

Tara pointed angrily at the picture of Sofia. “Where is she?”

He looked up, confused. It was a look Tara wasn’t expecting to see. “How the hell would I know?” He then looked from Tara to Warren. “What is this really about?”

Tara couldn’t tell if it was all an act or if he truly didn’t know that he was being accused of murder. “Where were you last night?”

“I was home,” he barked. “Now tell me what the hell this is about!” His frustration caused a vein to pulsate on his forehead.

Tara leaned in closer. She could still smell the alcohol on his breath. She looked him straight in the eye. “Reese and Sofia went missing not long after you took these photos. You know what this looks like? It looks like stalking to me.”

Tara looked at Warren, who nodded. “Looks the same to me too, Mills.”

Brennan chuckled under his breath. “That’s ridiculous,” he shot back. “So, what, you think I murdered them? Is that what you put in my daughter’s head?”

Tara stood up out of her chair. “I’m going to ask you again. Where is she?” She pointed at Sofia, now leaning over him.

“I said I don’t know!” He sighed. “I was just keeping tabs on my daughter, all right?” He leaned back in his chair in defeat. “Since I can’t see her and know what she’s up to, I try to keep tabs on her somehow.” Tara was about to speak, but he stopped her. “I know,” he started as if aware of what she was going to say. “The restraining order. But I’m still not physically going near her. I didn’t take these pictures.” The words fell out of his mouth. It was clearly something he didn’t want to admit, but he had been backed into a corner. But was it the truth? Tara shared a look with Warren. It was an admission that neither of them foresaw.

“Then who took them?” Tara asked.

He sighed. “I hired a private investigator. I wanted to see what she was up to, but I didn’t want her to see me watching her.” He looked back down at the pictures. She could see he knew how bad this looked. But his story did sound plausible. It would make sense why Julie never noticed him taking her picture, and he was smart enough to know that if she did, it would immediately be relayed to the lawyers. But now, it would be, regardless. Tara knew, and so did he as an ex-cop that hiring a private investigator would still be considered violating a restraining order.

Suddenly he looked up, as if a thought had struck him. “He was at my house last night, ask him.”

***

Tara and Warren stood in a small office down the hall from the interrogation room. Brennan had already given them the name and phone number of the private investigator, and they had just tried calling. But after trying a couple of times, and no answer, disappointment swelled in Tara’s belly. Warren placed his phone back into his pocket.

He sighed. “We’ll get one of the cops to keep trying or send someone over there.”

They had looked up the name of the private investigation agency. It was a legit place, and Tara was beginning to believe that the story would check out, and so would Brennan’s alibi. There was also once piece of the puzzle that she still couldn’t fit: Alyssa White.

She mentioned it to Warren. “I just feel like we’re missing something.” He understood without question what she meant, and he expressed it with a nod. It was clearly on his mind as well; it had been from the very start, and they still could not piece it together.

“You think he was telling the truth? That he’d never seen her before?” Warren asked.

Tara crossed her arms and sighed. “I suppose he could be lying, but I didn’t see him flinch or anything when I showed it to him.”

“Well, he is a cop,” Warren reminded her. It was the same reasoning that had crossed Tara’s mind. She nodded, but she still had a heavy doubt that wouldn’t ease. She could see in Warren’s eyes that he felt it too, but suddenly, Warren’s phone rang. He reached for it and quickly picked it up. Tara waited. At first, she wasn’t sure who it would be, but then it occurred to her that it could be the Evidence Response Team, that they could’ve finished searching Brennan’s car. She watched Warren’s face intently, trying to