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

“Yes,” she responded without hesitation.

Warren nodded again. It was all he needed to hear. “Do you know who it might be?”

“I think so. I’m determined to find out once this case is over.”

Again, he nodded, his eyes moving between Tara and the road. “Good for you, Mills,” he finally said. “That takes a lot of guts.”

Tara smiled. She wasn’t sure how Warren would react, but it was exactly how she hoped. He didn’t even need to know the details. He trusted her judgment. He didn’t think she was crazy, acting out from some psychological issue.

As he turned onto another road, he shook his head in amusement as he let out a slight chuckle. It was strange, after telling him something so personal and dark. Tara couldn’t understand where it was coming from.

“What?” she asked.

He shook his head again. “Nothing, you’re just impressive, that’s all.”

Tara felt a tinge of pride, but she wasn’t sure why Warren was complimenting her. In fact, she didn’t feel impressive at all. She felt like her psychological baggage was everything that kept her from being impressive.

“Impressive? Why would you say that?”

Warren took a deep breath. “Do you ever wonder why I always want to drive? Why I always insist?”

Tara had never really thought that in-depth about it. She had always found it a bit irritating, but she just assumed it was Warren’s strange way of exerting superiority. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Something to do with your ego?” She looked at him and smiled. He laughed.

“Very funny,” he replied, still smiling, but then it faded and he sighed. “Ever since my wife and daughter passed away, I can’t stand sitting in the passenger’s seat. And you know what a therapist told me once?” He looked at Tara and back at the road, but he wasn’t seeking an answer. “That it’s my way of trying to gain control, since I lost them in a car accident.” A silence fell around them. She had no idea that Warren’s incessant need to drive was deep-rooted in something psychological. It made perfect sense, and she suddenly felt sorry for him. But as she watched him staring intently at the road, she wondered why he was telling her all of this.

“My point being,” he continued, “is I stopped seeing the therapist after that. I’d rather be stuck in this psychological war with the road instead of fully letting go. But you…” He looked over at Tara once more with a proud smile. “You get to the root of the problem. You don’t let fear hold you back. It takes guts to realize things about yourself and to dig into something that deeply troubles you.”

Tara had never thought of it that way, being brave. To her it just seemed like a necessity to dig into her past. Not only was it making her life unbearable with nightmares and panic attacks, but she knew it would be a disservice to her mother. She would want Tara to seek freedom from it all, to live her life to the fullest. But she also knew her mother deserved justice, and that was Tara’s biggest driving force.

Warren was now pulling into the parking lot of the camera store. It sat in a shopping center amongst a row of other stores.

“I wouldn’t call it brave,” Tara finally admitted. “It’s a necessity for myself and to honor my mother. She’d want me to be happy, and she’d want me to know the truth.”

Warren had just put the car in park, but his hands still held the steering wheel as he looked out into the parking lot. There was a sadness in his eyes, and Tara suddenly felt bad, but she wasn’t sure why. It was as if she had said something she shouldn’t have.

He sensed Tara’s eyes on him, and he slid his hands from the wheel, still staring in front of him. “Good for you, Mills,” he replied with a nod. His words were sincere, more than they had ever felt. But then he switched gears. “Let’s go see about this memory card,” he added as he finally stepped out of the car. Tara did the same. She knew her words had hit Warren hard for some reason, but she wasn’t going to ask. This case needed them now, and so Tara switched her focus as well.

They walked across the parking lot, which was mostly empty. A woman in the store next to the camera shop flipped a sign on the door, making it known they were open. She studied them as they walked past. It was still early, and many of the stores were just opening up. Tara held the evidence bag containing the memory card tightly. They were now so close to finding out what was on it, and it sat like a heavy weight in her hand.

Tara opened the door, and they stepped into an air-conditioned room with display cameras and other gear lining the walls. There were no customers yet, but a man at the counter looked up as they entered. He was tall and lanky, with gray hair on the sides of his head. He peered over his reading glasses, which sat on the tip of his nose.

“Can I help you?” He was unscrewing something on a camera. He placed a small screwdriver down as Tara and Warren approached the counter. He stared skeptically at them until Tara flashed her badge and he cocked his head back in surprise.

“We have a memory card, and we need the adapter for it,” Tara said as she slid the evidence bag across the counter.

The man looked down at it. He reached forward, about to pick it up, but stopped himself. “May I?”

Tara nodded, and he scooped up the bag. He turned it in different directions, reading the writing on it before placing it back down. “A C-Fast card reader should work.” He walked around the counter to one of the walls. He scanned