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

“What did you mean exactly when you said something wasn’t right about your father’s case?”

Tara didn’t understand the motivation for his question. Why was he calling her—to ask her a question? “Why?” she asked. “Why did you call?”

“I need to know before I tell you anything more.” His voice was stern.

Tara wasn’t sure if she should answer. It seemed too personal, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to detail that information to him. After all, they weren’t close friends. But she also reminded herself of Owen’s character—that he always tried his best to help others. He wasn’t the type to use personal information against someone or to judge them. Her curiosity pushed her skepticism aside. If he had something important to tell her, she would be a fool to let him go without revealing it.

“I think someone else was involved with my mother’s murder,” she admitted. “I think my father’s hiding something.” She forced the words from her mouth, but as she finished, she felt instantly vulnerable. Her face grew hot as she wondered if she had just admitted something she shouldn’t have.

“That’s what I thought you might say.” He sighed. “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this, but if I was in your situation, I’d hope someone would help me out, and I’m going to trust your judgment as an FBI agent, as a friend.” Tara eagerly waited for him to continue. “There has been someone visiting your dad.” Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her pulse pounded in her ears. “I think she knows you visited him too. She came the other day, and she went off about how your father was acting odd. She kind of went ballistic, actually. She was demanding to know who visited him. It seems like he was trying to protect you or something and didn’t tell her it was you. But she definitely had a feeling, because she said your name.” He fell silent as several questions swirled through Tara’s head. Why would he need to protect me? And why would this woman care that I had been visiting him? And how did she know my name?

“Do you know their relationship?” Tara asked. This woman clearly knew her father well. But how? She couldn’t think of one person who would visit him, especially a woman.

“She always writes her relationship as a friend,” he replied. “But she must be a good friend, because she comes once a week, like clockwork, around noon.”

Tara’s suspicion was now even more heightened. They were even closer than she imagined. She remembered what John had suggested—maybe he was having an affair—and now Tara was beginning to believe it herself. It sat uneasy in her belly.

“How old is this woman?” Tara asked.

“Forty-two, that’s what her license says.”

“And what does she look like?” Tara wanted to flesh out as much information as she could get.

“Pretty average-looking, I’d say. But she has curly red hair.”

Tara thought for a moment as she remained silent. She did not know anyone that fit that description. Her father was sixty-two. She would be young for him, but it was possible that she was a love interest. In fact, her mother was ten years younger than her father. Could he have been seeing her all along? Could that be where he went on his work trips? The ideas spun in her head, and then one other question came forward. “Why are you telling me this?” It seemed odd that he would call her to tell her this, that he would risk his job. For what?

He sighed. “I keep asking myself that too,” he said with an awkward chuckle at the end, but then his voice hardened into a serious tone. “I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character. That woman…” He paused. “I can’t explain it, I just get really weird vibes off of her, and it wasn’t just that one time. It’s every time she comes in. She’s jumpy and angry, and then you asking about your dad’s visitation records just made me think of her instantly. And then of course she came in and got all riled up about you and then just topped off my suspicion.” He grew quiet again, as if thinking of how to solidify why he was telling her all this. “I just couldn’t sit by and not say something. It just didn’t feel right,” he finished.

Tara didn’t know how to respond. “Thank you,” was all she could say. But she still had yet to wrap her mind around this information or what to do with it. Before she got off the phone with him, she had one last question. “What’s her name?”

Owen hesitated. “Mackenzie James.” Tara mouthed the name silently before thanking him again and saying her goodbyes.

She sat still at the foot of the bed, staring at the blank wall in front of her. Mackenzie James, she mouthed again. She had never heard the name before.

Tara finally stood up. She knew John was eagerly waiting in the next room, still confused. She walked out of the bedroom and down the hall, to see John sitting on the barstool, looking at his phone. He abruptly turned toward her with a look of concerned curiosity.

“Who was it?”

She took a seat next to him, still focused on the strange call. She then turned toward him, shaking her head, still trying to make sense of it all.

“I just received the strangest call,” she finally said.

John knitted his eyebrows, the way he always did when he was confused and worried. Tara explained who it was on the phone, what she had just heard, what she suspected. At each revelation, John’s eyes opened wider with surprise and disbelief. He just sat quietly and listened. After she finally finished, he looked at her with sorrow in his eyes.

“So what next?” he finally asked.

It was a question Tara hadn’t yet answered herself, but it had been on her mind all along. She didn’t yet know what her next steps