His Dark Obsession

Chapter 40: A New Acquaintance

"Miss Jones, at what time did you discover Jake Cada's body?" Tara sat in a scantily furnished interrogation room of the 17th precinct police station, as a solemn looking detective cross-questioned her.
"It must have been somewhere around 6 30." Tara replied with feigned confidence. "I arrived at his apartment ten minutes before that and, just like Ian, I entered a pitch black living area but since I had been living with him for some time, I was able to find the light switch."
Detective Kelly, Tara ascertained, was a man of few expressions, his face was absolutely blank as he continued with his line of questioning, "What happened after that?"
"I went to Jake's bedroom and that was where...the body was." Tara met Kelly's gaze to discern what he had made of her answer -- she was none the wiser.
The folds appearing on the detective's forehead distressed Tara, she feared his next question, "Where was Ian Blaine?"
"He was standing close to the b...Jake, in absolute shock!" Tara was emphatic about the latter part of her explanation because she didn't want Detective Kelly to think that Ian standing close to Jake's body was a point of suspicion.
He still chose to think that anyway, "Why do you think he didn't immediately call the police?"
"He was deeply disturbed when I discovered him. He wasn't responding to anything I was saying...." Tara wished Ian's state of mind would make Kelly understand the reason for the delay in the call.
"Do you think it is a mental condition of some sort? To be lost and dazed like that?" Kelly inquried of Tara, perturbed.
Tara jumped to Ian's defense, "No, not at all! He is a perfectly sound man! I mean, he runs a billion dollar business. He is a prominent New Yorker!"
The detective shrugged, "None of that makes him incapable of killing someone!"
Tara didn't expect him to be downright blunt, "...I know Ian Blaine...I don't think he is capable of murder!"
Kelly's questioning suddenly became more focused and direct, "I have it on good authority that Ian and Jake argued right before he left the office." He let that statement hang in the air.
On the way to the police station, after they had made love, Ian revealed to Tara that Jake had found out about the two of them. He had no idea how it had happened though. He had also told Tara about the fight the two had had. Tara pondered over her answer a little, she knew Kelly was trying to deduce how much she knew, "They might have but I thought he wasn't at Jake's apartment at the time of murder. Ian said he was at the office and left late."
"Miss, we can only approximate the time of murder. Ian Blaine is not out of hot water yet!"
This statement of Detective Kelly proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the police were considering Ian as the main suspect. Tara rummaged her brain in order to come up with something that would clear Ian's name, Ian had explicitly told her not to say an untrue word to the police. He wanted their testimonies to be truth in its entirety. "I don't think you are focusing on the right suspect. Maybe you should try looking elsewhere. Couldn't this have been a robbery gone wrong?"
"Nothing of value has been stolen. Everything is accounted for." Kelly informed her smugly.
"What about evidence collected at the scene? What has been gathered from that?"
For the first time since Kelly had begun questioning her, Tara found him a little disoriented. He seemed to be fighting an inner battle as he moved his torso forward and spoke to her in a conciliatory tone, "The area around the body was bleached clean, Miss Jones."
Tara's eyes bulged out. It was bleach! -- The pungent scent that had stayed in the air. Somebody had used bleach to cover their tracks. Somebody had killed Jake and then had the patience to clean up after them. Her head spun just thinking of the evil that made a person this methodical.
She began to think...if the murderer had used bleach to clean up, they would surely have smelt of it themselves. They would have had to kneel down to clean up around the body and that would have definitely resulted in the chemical getting on them. Ian hadn't smelt of bleach; she knew it, she had been on top of him not an hour ago! "Ian Blaine wasn't smelling of bleach when I arrived. It was the air in the room!"
"Blaine, couldn't possibly have had time to clean up and change, if he had murdered Jake. The time window between the murder and you discovering him there doesn't allow for that. However, there are other questions Miss Jones. Where did the muder weapon go? And also the bleach container?"
Kelly was building an impossible web and Tara felt irrevocably entangled. He gave a hint of a smile as he told her some brand new information, "We are also looking for accomplices. If it is Blaine who murdered Jake, then he had help." As an after thought, he added, "How close did you get to him to know that he wasn't smelling of bleach?"
Tara responded without averting her eyes, "Not particularly close. We sat next to each other while all of you were carrying out your duties at the apartment."
He seemed satisfied with the explanation, "Ok. Tell me. Can you think of anyone else who would want to murder Jake Cada?"
Tara thought real hard but she really had no idea who could have done this. She wanted the police to remove the target off Ian's back but she sure as hell wasn't going to point them in anyone else's direction. Especially since, she was sure she didn't know anyone who could be a psychopathic murderer.
"I can see that you are struggling. It means he was more a friend to people than a foe."
"I had never seen him mixed up in anything suspicious. He was an honest, upright man. He didn't have any enemies that I knew of. I can't think of anyone who could be involved in such a heinous crime!"
"How was Mr. Cada's relationship with his family?"
"Family...? Yes, it was wonderful. He was very close with his mother and sister."
"What about his brother?"
"I had never met him. He doesn't live in New York."
"Yes but he has been here this past week. Didn't your boyfriend introduce him to you?!"
That little bit of information was news to Tara. She had only ever heard Jake mention his brother in passing. Jake had never told her that he was in New York. "He never told me, detective. Did they meet while he was here?"
"Several times."
"...Why wasn't he at the apartment just now?"
"Their mother didn't know that he was in town either."
"That sounds strange. Why wouldn't he want to introduce his brother to me? Why wouldn't even his own mother know that he was in town?"
"Yes. We have called him in. When we are done here I will introduce you to him."
Tara found herself in deep reverie. What would she say to Jake's brother, a guy she had never met before and was meeting for the first time in impossibly tragic circumstances? She kept wondering why Ian hadn't mentioned that Jake's brother was in town, maybe he didn't know either? Why was Estelle kept in the dark about his presence. She started thinking that maybe there were peculiarities in Jake's character that she was unaware of, and maybe, just maybe, there was something sinister going on. Something that will take its time to present itself.
When Kelly finished questioning Tara, her first thought was to slip out of the confines of the grey-walled, pseudo-cage. When she stepped out into the hallway of the police station, she exhaled a great deal of air. Tara looked around herself, searching for Ian; the crowd in the building was thin due to the late hour. There was a row of sturdy steel chairs in a corner where three criminals sat, distanced from one another; the prostitute who sat in the absolute corner, smoked in discretion and the man with the bald head and numerous face and body tatoos looked inebriated. The third one was a cowboy, or atleast he looked like one, with the cowboy hat resting atop his face and the dusty skin coloured khakis tightly hugging his long, sturdy legs. He lounged casually on the chair with his legs stretched out in front of him as if he were sitting on a road side bench, down south, where the occasional car flitted by him, splashing coarse and grainy sand over his long and sturdy brown leather boots. The man had a large tatoo that covered most of his muscled arm and he wore rusted rings on four of his fingers.
It was as though he knew Tara was staring, he lifted his cap and looked straight at her. Tara blushed and immediately looked elsewhere, but it was not before, he knew, she had been staring. For some reason, the man then chose to get up and walk straight to her, he came too close and then spoke softly,"Tara, is it?"
Stunned that this miscreant knew her name, she quickly scanned her surroundings again, looking for Ian, only to immediately realize that she was afterall in a police station and would come to no harm at the man's hands. "How do you know my name?", she hesitantly inquired of him.
"It's Calvin!" And saying this he stretched out his hand to her, "Calvin Cada."
It was Jake's brother. "Oh...I am sorry, I didn't recognize you! You were sitting on those chairs...I assumed..."
"....That they were about to book me for something!" He gave her a faint smile and then it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared and he spoke in a melancholic tone, "You are exactly how Jake described you! He also showed me a picture on his phone."
It was heart-wrenching to watch Calvin talk of his brother. Tara could see he was under great distress, "Calvin, I am really sorry about your brother's death."
Calvin didn't immediately say anything but when he spoke, it was the tone of a broken heart. "He was a great older brother to Brooke and I."
Tara wished for him to continue but he didn't say anything further on the matter. She then took the lead in switching to a less morose subject, "I heard you were in New York this past week."
"Yes, I am here for the coming week as well...given the circumstances."
"Yes, of course. Have you spoken to the police yet?"
"No. I am suppose to go in after Ian comes out."
Tara realized that Ian was already being questioned in another interrogation room. "Oh, ok. So you met Ian already."
"Yes, we exchanged pleasantries." Calvin said, with undue emphasis on the word 'pleasantries.'
"Why do you say it like that?!"
"Him and I. We didn't ever get along!"
"Oh?! Would it be overstepping if I asked the reason?"
"The reason is simple, Tara. I hate the guys's guts."
Tara was stunned to hear vile hate in Calvin's voice, she felt offended for Ian, "I think Ian is a wonderful man. I can't believe you have such contempt for him!"
"Tara, Ian Blaine is anything but wonderful! Now that Jake is no longer in your life, I'd advice you to cut off all ties with Blaine. It's for your own good!"
Tara's heart thudded wildly inside her chest. Why were people warning her against Ian all of a sudden? First Detective Kelly and now Calvin? What had happened between Calvin and Ian for Calvin to have a low opinion of him? Even with all these questions and doubts plaguing her mind, Tara didn't want people besmirching Ian's name, "Calvin, I don't think it is your place to talk ill of Ian to someone you have just met, besides, your brother held him in high regard and I think I should also regard him in the same light."
"You following my brother's footsteps would probably be your biggest mistake, Tara!"
It was at this moment that Ian came to stand next to Tara. From the expression on his face Tara gathered that he had heard most of what had been spoken between her and Calvin. His tone was ice-cold as he addressed Calvin, "Let's not rehash the past, standing in a police station, on the day of your brother's death!"
Ian's remark didn't sit well with Calvin, who became downright hostile, "Fuck you, Blaine! He was my brother! You hear me?Who the hell told you to come down here anyway! You have always tried to get in where you don't belong!"
Ian's eyes were ice blue, glacial pools in a sea storm. He grabbed Tara's arm in a firm yet painless grip and spoke in a tone that held no room for argument, "Tara, I think we are done here!" He began to move past Calvin, taking Tara along with him, "Let's go home!"