Calamity

Chapter 19

FRIDAY AFTERNOON - 4:29 PM

Camila stood outside of the diner for what felt like an eternity before finally gathering up enough courage to go inside. In the corner booth, just like where Keana said he would be, was an older man sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Are you going to stand at the door all day?"

Camila looked around the empty restaurant when the old man flagged down the waitress once more to place his order of steak and eggs.

"I'm sorry if I kept you waiting," Camila said, sliding into the tattered leather booth. "I didn't realize how long of a walk it was,"

"No worries at all," he pointed to the cup of coffee in front of the younger woman. "Do you want any creamer?"

"Isn't it a little too late in the day to be having coffee?"

He shrugged and swapped their cups, pushing the empty one in front of Camila. "More for me. The name's Big Rob,"

"Big Rob," Camila repeatedly slowly. "Your name is Big Rob?"

"Rob is short for Robert and the big comes from..." He patted his beer belly. "Well, you can see that yourself. Keana tells me you're in a bit of a pickle."

"I'd say it's a little bit more complicated than a pickle,"

"My buddy who works for the police department down here tells me they're grasping at anything they can find. Yet they can't seem to find anything at all. So, do you want to tell me why you think you're in something 'a bit more complicated than a pickle'?"

Camila bounced her leg underneath the table nervously. "Do you ever get a gut feeling telling you that something isn't right? That feeling where you can't convince yourself to let it go no matter how hard you try?"

"Respectfully, kid," Big Rob shook his head. "I'm a private investigator. Not a therapist."

"I need to figure out who killed Simon Cowell,"

"Your little girlfriend," Big Rob slid across a manila envelope full of documents and pictures. "What can you tell me?"

Camila picked up the photographs of Lauren outside of their school's library. "What do you want to know?"

"I want to know how she got that pretty little ring that's on your finger back,"

"You'd think I'd be sitting in front of you right now if I knew?"

Big Rob cracked a small smile. "Are you going to tell me?"

"I feel like you already know,"

"It's not easy to get away with stealing a piece of evidence, but when you're filthy rich like the Jauregui's are, I suppose many things are possible. They turned the station upside down the other night looking for it. Might be better off hiding that for a while."

Instinctively, she slid off the ring and put it into her pocket. "I'm guessing your buddy is the same one who told you about the ring,"

"When you take everything a person has away, what's the only thing they have left? Their word. And I have a lot of people who care about my word. Now, let's hear some more about your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend,"

"Fine," Big Rob rolled his eyes. "Your fuckbuddy,"

"When my ring went missing, she was the one who came up with a plan to try to catch who we thought was behind it. My friend, Shawn, was acting weird and distant toward me for the past few weeks. We threw a party to keep an eye on him only to find out he wasn't our guy. But... I don't know. It was weird. He was the only person who had been in my apartment."

"Besides her,"

"Besides her," Camila repeated in confirmation. "But instead of connecting him to the murder, we just found out he's hooking up with one of her best friends."

"Now that you've crossed off the only suspect on your list, you're pointing fingers at your fuck buddy," Big Rob thanked the waitress as she set down his plate of food. "Who would've known Little Jauregui was capable of getting her hands dirty?"

The muscles in her jaw twitched. "I don't want to think about that,"

"Sweetheart, the fact that you're seeing across from me right now means you've already thought about it. But," he speared a piece of steak and shoved it into his mouth. "You'd be surprised to know it runs in the family. The whole hunting people down until their last breath. Throw in all the money they have to cover it up? They could be serial killers for all we know."

"Her father," Big Rob slid across another envelope. "Is living it up in prison. He rules the whole place like an emperor jacked up on steroids. The public mainly thinks he's in there for tax evasion and embezzlement but I think he's in there for more."

"You think he killed Cowell?"

"I think he killed one of his daughters and he's just now getting caught for it,"

"And one of your buddies told you this?"

Big Rob let out a hearty laugh. "About five years ago, Clara Jauregui signed off on an autopsy report to be sealed until 2060. The body was listed under Jane Doe instead of an actual name. So, I did a little digging and there was another Jauregui kid listed under Miami Dade's hospital records. Her name was Caitlin Jauregui. Only a few years older than your girl toy."

Camila had never felt so numb before in her entire life. She refused to look away from Big Rob, fearing that if she did, he would disappear as if he was some kind of hallucination. Simply a figment of her imagination.

She spent the majority of her childhood living with the Jauregui's and yet didn't have a single clue as to who Big Rob was talking about. Had she been that blind her entire life?

Sure, her mother always chastised her to stay out of the Jauregui's business, but she always thought they didn't have much going on in the first place to even be able to meddle.

The delicate seed Big Rob planted into her head in regards to the Jauregui family had blossomed into a much bigger, deadly tree that sowed its roots into her.

The raven-haired woman successfully acquiring her ring back, how she blatantly refused to bring up anything in regards to her father, her insatiable desire to figure out who the killer was—it was all starting to make sense.

Was Lauren even capable of killing somebody?

Camila wanted to throw up at the thought of it, but she needed to keep her composure in front of Big Rob. The crying could come later.

"Is this some sick joke? Is a bunch of cameras going to pop out of nowhere and Ashton Kutcher is going to scream Prank'd soon?"

"I wish I got paid to lie," Big Rob poured some more A1 sauce onto his plate. "That'd be a hell of a lot easier job than the one I do now. Of course, things may change and we won't know the other charges until trial rolls around, but there's not much we can do but use context clues at this point. Didn't you live with them for some time?"

"Yeah, I did. With my mother."

"You never once saw an extra kid running around? Maybe you are more clueless than I thought."

Camila sat there in complete silence, fiddling with the watch Lauren recently gifted her.

"Look, kid, it's really not the end of the world. The police station has nothing on you and you go to one of the best law schools in our nation. You'll be fine, don't ya think? The future looks a little too bright if you ask me. My advice is simple; stay away from that devil clan of a family."

"Yeah," Camila said throatily. "You don't have to tell me twice,"