All He Has Left(9)
FIVE
Jake sat on a curb next to a police car, where he was being steadily monitored by the same young officer who had drawn his gun on him earlier. He was trying to somehow hold it together but was having difficulty processing all this and felt his panic growing. There had been no further updates from anyone about the pursuit of a black tow truck and Piper’s potential whereabouts. Because Jake had just given Piper her new phone with a new account this morning, he hadn’t taken any time to set up the phone’s monitoring systems yet. He had no way of tracking her location through her phone’s GPS. Each passing minute without her recovery felt like a weighted blanket being pressed down more heavily on him.
An ambulance had arrived on the scene along with several other emergency vehicles. It was like a scene from a movie, but this was crazy real. For the first time, Jake tried to process what Caitlin had said to him while he was inside the house. What happened wasn’t an accident. Piper knows the truth. What did she mean? What truth? Could Piper have known the man who did this? Jake had explained all this to a detective, who took down his entire story in detail just a few minutes ago. But the conversation made him feel uneasy. Jake felt suspiciously eyeballed by the man the entire time. Was it possible the detective didn’t believe him?
Within fifteen minutes, Jake’s shocked in-laws began arriving at the chaotic scene. Jake watched at a distance as Caitlin’s parents, Carl and Lisa, received the devastating news about their daughter. Jake thought Lisa might pass out. Carl just stood there with a stoic look on his face. More of Sarah’s family showed up. Jake’s brother-in-law Nicholas and his wife, Wendy, followed quickly by Jake’s other brother-in-law, Steve. All of them lived in luxury homes close by. The family huddled together in the driveway with looks of absolute horror all over their faces. Finally, Lars and Janice arrived. Jake stood, wanting to speak to Lars, hoping his father-in-law could get the police to respond more aggressively to Piper’s situation. For once, Jake wanted to be able to use the man’s power and influence in his favor. They had to do something to find Piper.
“Where’re you going?” the young officer asked.
“To speak with my father-in-law.”
“You need to stay put,” the officer instructed.
“Why? What the hell is going on?”
“Just stay where you are for now, sir.”
Jake watched as the detective he’d spoken with a few minutes ago stood in the middle of the family huddle. An animated discussion was going on among all of them. Jake received several looks, but no one bothered to head over to him. Had they been instructed by the detective not to speak to him? He could see Lars looking in his direction with eyes like slits and his jaw set hard.
Finally, the detective—a fiftysomething man with a thick mustache wearing a tattered brown sport coat—came back over to the officer who had been watching Jake. “Put Mr. Slater in the car for now.”
“What?” Jake exclaimed. “Am I being arrested?”
“Not yet. Just detained. Still gathering information.”
“This is ridiculous. I’d like to speak to my wife’s family.”
“That’s not going to happen right now.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Let’s just say they’re not all convinced of your innocence.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Look, I haven’t been able to corroborate your story about a man in a tow truck. And according to your father-in-law, you’ve had lots of issues lately. He claims you were angry at the woman inside because of some family custody battle.”
“This has nothing to do with that!”
“Then we’ll get it sorted out, Mr. Slater. For now, just sit tight.”
“But what about my daughter?”
“We’re already doing everything we can with that.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
The detective motioned at the officer, who opened the back door to the police car and asked Jake to get inside. Jake was shocked. How could anyone from Sarah’s family believe he might have had something to do with any of this? He wanted a chance to walk over and explain himself to his in-laws and beg them to help with Piper’s pursuit. But he reluctantly complied, realizing that fighting with the officer was not going to get him anywhere except put in handcuffs. The officer shut the car door behind him and then drifted up the sidewalk about ten feet to speak with another officer.
Jake looked down and noticed there were no door handles in the back of the police car. He ran his fingers through his hair and then tugged on it out of frustration. He rubbed at his jaw, which was throbbing in pain from his fall. But thankfully, it didn’t feel like anything was actually broken. Peering out the window, Jake felt completely helpless. He could see a group of neighbors standing on the opposite sidewalk, taking in all the drama, and thought about what the detective had just said. No one had seen the black tow truck? None of them had heard the truck tearing through the neighborhood? That seemed unlikely. Someone had to have seen something.
Jake was startled by his phone suddenly vibrating in his front left blue jean pocket. The police had taken his wallet—and still had it—but they had not asked for his phone. Pulling it out, he squinted at it and felt his heart jolt. Piper! A cute profile picture of her in her green-and-black acro-tumbling uniform filled his screen.