Page 14 of Till Death Do Us Part

But John was unmoved. "It's too late," he said, his voice hard. "It's already done. You won't see the children again."

Mrs. Johnson hid her face in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Please," she sobbed.

But John was resolute. "It's too late," he repeated. "You made your bed; now, you have to lie in it."

Mrs. Johnson buried her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. John watched her for a moment, then turned and walked away, slamming the door shut behind him.

Mrs. Johnson saw this, then ran to it, hammering her fists onto it, yelling: "If you have hurt the children, I’ll make sure you pay for it. Do you hear me? You will not get away with this. You will not!"

But John didn't hear her. He had locked the door, leaving her alone on the porch with her fit of rage.

Chapter9

Matt and I sat in the quiet police station, the only sound coming from the occasional tapping of keys or slurping of coffee. We were both poring over the mound of documents and reports that we had piled up on the desk. Every lead we followed seemed to be a dead end, and as I sat at my desk at the police station, I couldn't help but feel a nagging sense of frustration. We just couldn't seem to catch a break. We had interviewed family, friends, and co-workers at the hospital; we had talked to witnesses driving by on the road seeing the abandoned car, but none of them had seen her actually stop and get out. We had looked into John's background, but nothing about him seemed to stick out as out of the ordinary—a couple of speeding tickets when he was younger and a bar fight. I couldn't help thinking we were looking in the wrong direction. Every time I thought of Rachel, I kept thinking about her father. Her mom hadn't seemed to want to talk about him much, which intrigued me. Why wasn't he in the picture? Why had he left the children when they were younger? No one seemed to want to answer that question. I needed to know if he had somehow been in contact with Rachel. But then, something caught my eye as I sipped my freshly brewed coffee.

Matt was sitting at his desk, scrolling through his computer, a look of intense focus etched on his face. I sauntered over to him, peering over his shoulder to see what he was working on.

"Find something interesting?" I asked, taking another sip of my coffee.

Matt looked up, his eyes alight with excitement. "I found Rachel's father," he said, a hint of triumph in his voice.

My heart leaped at his words. We'd been struggling to find any leads, and if her father had anything to do with it, we might have finally caught a break.

"Where is he?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Matt turned his computer screen toward me, revealing a picture of a middle-aged man with an unkempt beard and piercing blue eyes.

"His name is David Parker," he said. "He's been living in Jacksonville for some years, but look where he is now."

"Prison."

I gasped, my heart beating faster with anticipation. "For what? What did he do?"

Matt leaned in closer to the computer screen, pointing at a list of charges. "Looks like first-degree murder."

I frowned, trying to connect the dots.

"Murder?"

I breathed the word out, feeling a sense of dread settle in my stomach. If Rachel's father was in prison, then what did that say about her? Was she in danger? Was he involved in her disappearance?

"Yes, murder… one of his own children, Rachel’s older sister. And guess what? I just saw on the phone records that Rachel phoned a number in Jacksonville several times before she disappeared. Let me just check… Yup, it’s the number to the prison he’s in. She was in contact with him. How about that?"

"We need to talk to him," I said, my mind already racing with questions. "When can we go see him?"

Matt nodded, reaching for his phone. "I'll call the prison and see if we can schedule a visit." He paused, his eyes flicking back up to mine. "But we need to be careful. If he's involved in this, we don't want to give him any idea that we suspect him."

I nodded, knowing that he was right. If Rachel's father was involved, we didn't want to tip him off before we had all the evidence we needed. But at the same time, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were finally on the right track. My mind raced, trying to process the information. Could it be a coincidence, or was something more sinister at play? There was only one way to find out.

"We can see him today," Matt said, hanging up. I looked at my watch.

"We should get going. It's a two-and-a-half-hour drive to get there, so it will be late before we’re back."

Matt made a face. "Can your mom pick up Angel and stay with the kids when they come home from school, do you think?"

"I'll ask."

Chapter10

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