C.J. Urban - Julie Townsend 01 - Hidden Intent (9 page)

“I understand. Private investigation, huh? So that’s why you’re so interested in Tara’s case?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely a big part of it. She’s also my family, and I really want to find the truth for my uncle.”

A sound coming from the front of the house suddenly made Skye freeze and strain his ears. “Did you hear that?”

“No. What is it?” Julie asked.

“It sounded like someone smacked one of the front windows. You really didn’t hear it?”

“I honestly didn’t. You said the front windows?”

Skye didn’t answer but got up from his chair and walked into the entryway to inspect the large bay window in the living room. He couldn’t see anything from the inside of the house, but was sure he had heard something hit the window, so he stepped outside to see if perhaps a ball or something had hit it.

“Did you find anything?” Julie asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

“I don’t see anything.” Skye was bewildered. He felt sure something substantial had hit the window, and hoped Julie didn’t think he was paranoid. Just as he was turning to go back inside, something on the window sill caught his eye. He walked closer and bent down to find a pair of muddy fingerprints on the sill. He looked down instinctively and found a pair of fresh footprints in the dirt directly below the fingerprints. Whoever had made that sound had been watching through the window.

Chapter
15

Julie sat next to Skye on the couch, both of them sipping coffee. She could tell Skye was still concerned about the noise he’d heard earlier.

As if reading her mind, Skye said, “Julie, I didn’t want to scare Sam, but there’s something I should show you. Come with me,” he said, taking her hand.

He led her outside to the window and showed her the finger and footprints.

“Oh my God,” Julie gasped.

“I know. There was someone watching us, Julie. And that’s not good at all.”

“Should we call the police, do you think?” Julie asked, still stunned.

Skye shrugged. “I don’t know what they could prove,” he answered. “Both the finger prints and footprints are pretty smudged. And, I can’t be sure, absolutely, that they weren’t there before.”

Quiet, they both entered the house again. Julie was more positive than ever that this case was open once again, and she knew she had to find the real killer, because he might be the one spying on her. Julie shivered as she imagined the person who had murdered Tara staring at her through the window. Now, on the couch, Skye sat a little closer to her, and put an arm around her. She leaned into him a little, her heart beating faster.

But Julie still needed to talk about the case. “Tara spent a summer with us when I was young,” she told him, “and for that entire summer I felt like she was an older sister I could confide in. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I did during that time, but I seldom saw her again after that, and I’ve always wished I could have seen her just one more time.”

“I can imagine,” Skye said. “And I understand how you would feel an obligation to her.”

“Yeah, I do. Jacob has got to be innocent, Skye.”

“Even if you’re right, he’s already been convicted.”

“That doesn’t matter. If he’s not the real killer we’ll figure out a way to get him released,” Julie said. “And we can find the real killer on our own, Skye.”

“We?”

“Sorry, me,” Julie said.

“No, I don’t mind helping. I’m just surprised you want me to help you with something so personal.”

“I’ve pulled you in this far,” she said, drawing him a little closer.

Skye couldn’t help it. He reached over and kissed Julie tenderly. Just a small one, but she surprised him by kissing him back. She put her hand on his hair, stroking it. They were both lost in each other, and nothing else existed except that kiss.

Julie pulled back, though, glancing toward the stairs. Sam was up there, and he could come down at any moment.

“Sorry,” Skye said, but his eyes burned into hers and he looked anything but sorry.

“Don’t be,” Julie whispered. “I’ve been dying to know what your lips feel like against mine.”

He kissed her again, briefly. But he respected the fact that she didn’t want Sam to see them making out.

“Well, you have pulled me in, as you put it,” Skye said, smiling. “So, where should we start?”

Julie made herself look away. She took a sip of coffee. “I want to go to the library tomorrow, and look at any old newspaper articles having to do with the murders. It’s our best shot at gathering more information.”

“Unfortunately, I have work tomorrow morning. So you’re going to have to fill me in later.”

“If you come by after work, I’ll tell you what I found.”

“Wouldn’t miss an opportunity like that for the world,” Skye said with a grin. “I’m off at five. Are you going to be here?”

“Yeah, I’ll be here after five.”

“Look, Julie,” Skye blurted out, “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. But I don’t think you should be alone here. Not after…” he didn’t want to say
after you’ve already had a Peeping Tom.
“I could stay here on the couch. I promise I’ll be a gentleman. For as long as you want me to be.”

Julie tried to think clearly. This was all becoming too much for her. So much had happened; the move, the diaries, Jacob Leigh, and now this. She did want him to stay. She trusted him, but she didn’t quite trust herself. It had been so long…
Well, you’re going to have to be strong,
she told herself.
It’s the smart thing to do.

“Really? You’d do that for me?”

“Baby, I’d do anything for you. I’m worried now, and I want you to be safe.”

Julie took his hand in hers. She almost kissed him again, but forced herself to get up. “Thank you, Skye. I’ll get you some blankets.”

Before he could say anything, she turned and went up the creaky stairs, and came back down with a couple of blankets and a pillow. He took them from her and tossed them onto the couch.

Skye kissed her again, and he could feel his body temperature rise. Apparently Julie could too, because she pushed him away playfully, and without another word, hurried upstairs to tuck Sam into bed.

Skye sighed and began arranging the blankets on the couch. He picked up the pillow and sniffed it, closing his eyes. It was hers, it gave off the same scent as her beautiful hair.

As Julie climbed into bed, she did feel safer knowing that Skye was just downstairs. She pulled her covers up over her, re-living his kiss. She smiled, remembering the sweet taste of coffee on his tongue.

But as she fell asleep, Julie couldn’t help but feel watched, as if a pair of eyes was trained on her.

Chapter 16

Julie awoke to a stream of sunlight shining into her room. Little particles of dust danced in and out, through the rays, and she lay there a moment, thinking about the past few days’ events.

Her thoughts kept coming back to Skye. She’d slept well the night before, thanks to him. She’d had bad dreams; dreams of Tara and the boy named D, but whenever she woke, she remembered that he was downstairs. She knew he was probably gone now, as he had to work early.

Julie got dressed, taking a little extra care to look nice. She hummed as she brushed her hair, and put a little mascara on. It felt good to want to look pretty.

She poked her head into Sam’s room to see Lincoln Logs scattered everywhere. “We’re going to the library in a half hour, all right? So, make sure all this is cleaned up by then.”

“Why are we going to the library? That sounds boring.”

“Because we don’t have Internet here yet, and I need to research something.”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Well, I have to go, and that means you have to come with me.”

“Mom wouldn’t have made me go!” Tears welled in his eyes as he yelled and slammed the door in her face.

Julie stood still, momentarily stunned. She made herself walk calmly downstairs into the kitchen. She nuked a cup of instant coffee, sipping it slowly.
I will not argue with him,
she told herself firmly, working on keeping her temper under control. She wasn’t their mother, it was true. But she couldn’t argue or fight with him like brother and sister now. Those days were gone. But neither would she allow Sam to treat her this way, especially not when she was making so many sacrifices to give him a decent shot at a good life without their parents.

She heard Sam make his way down the stairs, and she met him in the hall holding a water bottle and two pieces of sourdough toast.

“For the road,” she said, handing them to him.

“I’m sorry for yelling,” he said, looking down at the floor.

“It’s okay. But you have to understand that I do what I do to make our lives better, okay?”

“I know.” Sam reached his arms out, and Julie knelt to hug him. “I’m trying to be good,” he said, tears rolling down his cheeks again.

“I know you are, buddy. I am, too. We’ll make it, you and me. Okay? We’re gonna be fine.”

Sam didn’t answer, but kept hugging her. When he finally let go he said, “Let’s check out the library.”

Julie smiled, wiping his tears away. “Good idea. Come on.”

They got into the truck and followed the GPS’s instructions to the Dupont Library.

“This should only take a little while,” Julie said as they headed toward the entrance.

The library building was small and rectangular and looked newly painted. Julie pushed open the heavy glass doors and made her way to the main area where the books were shelved. As she looked around, she began to lose hope, seeing no area with newspapers. Then it occurred to her that the older newspapers would have been transferred to a database somewhere. She walked up to the front desk and waited behind a tall elderly man until it was her turn.

“Hi there,” Julie said to the clerk as the tall man left. “I need to look through the town’s old newspaper articles.”

“Sure thing. Let me show you where they are,” the woman said.

“Hey, Sammy,” Julie said, after being escorted to the media center, “Do you want to go to the children’s section until I’m finished? I think they’re having story time right now, so you won’t be as bored.”

“Yeah, I guess. But don’t take too long, okay?”

“I’ll do my best, bud.”

She watched as Sam stalked off and sat down on a brightly colored rug before heading to the media center to find an open computer.

Julie rubbed her hands together and set them on the keyboard. “For you, Tara,” she whispered, and started her search.

It only took Julie a few seconds to figure out how to use the newspaper database; a simple program with drop-down menus for the year, month, and day of the paper sought. There was even a keyword search box, so she could narrow the amount of articles she had to look through.

She typed in the date of the month and year to start and found that she didn’t need to go much further. Dupont apparently hardly ever had a juicy news story like Tara’s murder, because it was on the front page of nearly every paper she looked at for the month of October. The title and subject would change slightly, but each article was the same: Jacob Leigh had been arrested and was waiting to stand trial. Julie was frustrated to discover no new information at all. All of it was the same, and all of it was probably lies, she thought to herself.

Finally she came to the end of her search and found one last glimmer of hope. There was a paper with a title different than the others: “Second Person Sighted at McGuire Home.” Julie clicked on the link to the article, but was frustrated once again at the lack of information.

There had definitely been another person at the house that night, but they were never charged with anything. The name hadn’t been released, but Julie felt sure it was the boy Tara called D. She felt as though she had hit a road block in her search, but decided she would try one more avenue to get information and visit the city clerk’s office.

She exited out of her search and cleared the browser history, a little paranoid that others might see what information she was looking for.

She found Sam in the children’s section, and much to her surprise, he had become part of a little puppet show being performed. Julie sat down to watch for a while, relieved that Sam was no longer upset or sulking. Once the puppet show was over, she motioned to him and they left the library, stepping out into the warming sunlight.

Chapter 17

“The next place we have to go is the city clerk’s office,” Julie told Sam.

“Is it far?” he asked.

“Nah, we’ll be there before you know it,” she said, trying to be upbeat.

The library was only a few blocks from City Hall, and Julie hoped the visit would be a quick one. In reality, the murder-hunting should be a side job, one that she did when she wasn’t out looking for a real job. Julie found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on even starting to look for a job though, especially after how strange settling in had been.