Page 48 of Guarded Secrets
“What kind of work does he do?” Sawyer asked.
“He’s a CPA. He’d worked for a firm, but wanted to make more money so now he does freelance work. I’m not sure what that means if you’re a CPA. I do know he didn’t have his own office. He worked from home, or sometimes he’d go to the location of the business he was working for.”
“You said he was bothering you for a couple weeks after the breakup?”
“Yeah. He kept calling, then he wanted to meet up one last time. He said he wanted to reclaim our courtship. His words.
“He sounded so pathetic, plus I wanted to make it clear we were done, so I agreed.” She grimaced. “We met at a coffee shop and it was plain weird. He was agitated. His head went up every time someone came in, and he kept looking out the window and checking his phone. He led off with the idea we should get away so we could focus on us. He proposed a vacation to Mexico.”
“You’re shitting me,” Owen muttered.
“I’m not, and it gets better. He said he had a short-term rental in Acapulco picked out but wanted to put it in my name and for me to pay for it. He’d pay me back as soon as he could, and by the way, we’d need todriveto Mexico and would have to take my car.”
She laughed. “He seemed stunned when I turned him down. I think he understood I wasn’t budging on that, so he pivoted and asked if he could borrow five thousand dollars.”
She caught the men giving each other a knowing look. “I know what you’re thinking. Jaxon is nuts. He said he needed the money to help him get through a rough patch, but that things would be looking up for him soon, and he’d pay me back with two percent interest.”
“Fucking incredible.” Owen’s frown grew deeper.
“It’s so crazy it’s funny. I told him no, and left. After that, he stopped bothering me. I took for granted that he understood we were done.”
“The next time you saw him was when you’re working for me and he came in?” Owen asked. “How’d he know where you were working?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “That was my second day at Easy Money, and I hadn’t told more than a few people where I was working.”
“What’d he want, Keels?” Sawyer asked.
“To get back together.” She sighed. “I was so irritated with him. I turned him down, but he kept pushing so I ended up telling him Owen and I are together to get him to back off.”
“Oh yeah?”
“We’re not.” Keeley glanced at Owen. His expression gave nothing away. “Together, I mean. Owen said he was okay with Jaxon thinking we are.”
“You said he’d started texting again and you had to block him,” Owen pointed out. “And Demaris texted wanting to meet up for lunch.”
“I didn’t respond to Pam’s invitation.”
Sawyer leaned forward in his seat. “Two people contacting you out of the blue at about the same time, and then one of them turns up dead? Add in that they knew each other. And a third person used to be Demaris’s student. The whole thing strikes me as suspicious.”
“I don’t like it,” Owen muttered. “You need to bring this asshole in for questioning.”
“Agreed. What’s Jaxon’s last name?”
“Romero.”
He tapped on his phone. “Okay, send me Jaxon Romero’s contact information.” Once he had it, he said, “I’ve got to take off so I can get the ball rolling.” Sawyer rose, directing his next comment at Owen. “You’ll keep doing what you’re doing.”
It wasn’t a question. “Damn straight,” Owen replied.
Keeley narrowed her eyes, but before she could ask what he meant, Abby stepped out of her house to make her way across the courtyard. Sawyer greeted her with a wave as he headed to his sheriff’s vehicle.
Abby looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep. She bent over her daughter, brushing Keeley’s hair off her forehead.
“Oh, my baby. That looks painful. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’m ready for some painkillers.” She glanced at Owen. “There’s more, Mom.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. Tell me.”
