1.17 – A night of revelations

Chapter tune: UFO – Love to love

Warning: Some profanity and mentions of death again (how original of me!) Also, most pictures were taken during nighttime, so they are a little dark. If you have any difficulty seeing them let me know! Thanks for reading! 🙂

–

Rose beamed as she realized that Christopher took her for a walk at the lake. In the brief time they hung out, this had become their special place.

“It’s so peaceful here” she said. “I haven’t seen the sky so clear in months.”

Christopher took her by the hand and invited her to see the stars with him.

“I always imagined I’d come here regularly with a special girl, like you” he told her.

Rose didn’t answer but just looked at him. He had a nice face, gentle eyes and a smile that was always sweet and sincere.

Damn. She knew that she’d probably never see him as anything more than a friend. Normally she would feel terribly guilty for not reciprocating to his emotions and leading him on, but she figured that as far as he was concerned, Jared was still in the picture. Christopher and her were just friends and it would be on him if he expected something more. The only people who knew for now were Connor and Emma. And they wouldn’t go about gossiping.

But despite her certainty, when they got up Christopher approached her with a flirty grin.

He leaned to her ear and whispered “You know, he doesn’t deserve someone like you. You should forget him.”

How did he know they were not together anymore? “What? Why are you saying this?” she asked surprised.

“Well, he was seen at the bar yesterday with Molly. They, err, left together. They didn’t seem too intent on hiding it, so I figured you had broken up. And knowing him, I bet it was his fault too.”

Rose felt a tight grip of distress through her heart. The last hope that there was something else going on with Jared which made him act like he did, had vanished. Of course, these things happen only in movies, she thought. He was just playing with her and after he was done, he returned to Molly. Maybe Molly was part of the game too. Was anything he ever told her even true? She felt like her head would explode.

“I’m not feeling very well. I have to go” she muttered.

“I’m sorry Rose, I thought… it doesn’t matter. Can I take you home at least?”

“Don’t be sorry, all this is not your fault. But I just want to walk alone now. Thank you for tonight” she said while leaving.

Before she went to sleep, she promised herself that this would be the last time Jared Frio made a fool out of her. From now on, to her he was dead.

–

Jared froze at the sound of his name spelled by the policeman – Are you Jared Frio? – As a result, the only thing he could do was blurt out “What if I am?”. No asshole, what are you doing, you gotta get out of here, he thought. But his legs were feeling numb, like they had been cut off from the rest of his body.

“Sir, I have to ask you to come with me”

Jared looked around. The cop seemed to have come alone. But he should be careful, maybe there were more nearby. “What if I don’t want to come with you?” he hissed, and immediately considered that he should stop making stupid questions and run. But once again, he couldn’t.

“Well” the cop said awkwardly “I have to admit that they never told me what to do in that case.”

“What did they tell you then? Why are they looking for me?”

“Gee I don’t know man” suddenly the cop started abandoning his initial ultra-professional way of talking “My boss told me that they wanted to speak to you and your brother. Well, just you now, as they found your bro today. Can you come to the station already so I can go home?”

What the fuck…why would they wanna talk to Connor too, Jared thought and felt a little more secure. But he had to ask: “Am I under arrest?”

“I don’t think so, they never told me to arrest you. So no, I guess you’re not.” the policeman looked confused.

“Ok fuck it, let’s get this over with.”

“Cool man. Look, they haven’t given me a car yet so we’ll have to go on foot. Are you chill with that?”

Jared didn’t answer. He gave the policeman a deadly glance and started walking. The whole town would see him with a cop, how embarrassing.

Soon they arrived at the police station. The policeman – his name was Hank as he told Jared on the way – took him to the door. “Well, I gotta run now. It was nice meeting you man, peace out!” Hank shouted in front of everyone as he left. For some inexplicable reason, he had really liked Jared.

In the station, they led him to the lieutenant’s office.

 

“Ah, good evening, Mr Frio, please have a seat. I’m lieutenant Gordon. Would you like some coffee? I’m very sorry for dragging you here at this hour but you see, I wanted to close this case as soon as possible”.

“What case? What the hell is going on? The cop that brought me here said I wasn’t under arrest, is that right?” Jared asked.

 

The lieutenant laughed. “Of course you’re not, Mr Frio, why would I arrest you for something that quite possibly happened when you hadn’t even started going to school yet?”

 Now it was Jared’s turn to get confused. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought your brother had filled you in with the details.”

“No, we haven’t talked since a couple of days ago. I’ve been, uh, busy.”

“Well, let me take it from the start then Mr Frio” Lt. Gordon said “Some of it you might have heard on the news, but I’ll go ahead and tell you all you need to know. About five days ago, the workers at a construction site a little outside from here found some bodies dumped underground, apparently with the intention of never being found. But they were found nonetheless” he said proudly.

Jared’s face went white. The lieutenant continued talking. “Are you ok? I’m sorry that I couldn’t put it more delicately than that. The bodies have been transferred to the coroner since, to be examined. Most of them were people connected or having affairs with several local crime gangs which have been eating this city for almost a decade now. Of course, that’s a major discovery and we hope that we will finally achieve a big blow against Sunset Valley’s underworld scene.” the lieutenant gloated and blabbered but he realized Jared’s patience was running thin. At least that’s the explanation he gave for Jared’s quick agonizing glances around the room. “But that’s not your concern really.”

“So what’s my concern?”

 

“One of the bodies was pretty old compared to the others, it must have been there at least 20-22 years ago. After some investigation, we came to the conclusion that it’s – I’m sorry again that I can’t say this in a less shocking way – your mother’s. For that reason, we’d like to conduct a DNA test to be certain. Your brother has already done it and the results will be ready in about a week or so. Your sample would forcify these results though. But, you should know that the chances that’s not, in fact, your mother’s body are pretty slim.”

“I see” Jared mumbled “any idea what happened to her?”

“I can’t say, at least not yet. But I wouldn’t hold my breath to find out if I were you. Whatever happened was quite a long time ago. We’ll do our best though, I promise you that.”

Jared left the police station more confused than when he entered. What could have happened? Maybe his father killed her and then the bitterness ate him up for the rest of his life. Maybe his mother did leave him but got into some bad company. It wouldn’t be easy to find out since that son of a bitch, his father, was dead. Whatever the story behind was though, little did it bother him really. He was free.

As he was entering his house, he finally felt relieved. So everything was a misunderstanding. He could see his brother again, he could hug Emily again, he could… his mind went to Rose. Shit… what have I done?