Careful, Chapter 3
Notes: Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback, and to Maple Street for being the most incredible forum ever.
The board seemed to be mocking her, Samantha decided, mocking her with its supreme whiteness and lack of sufficient black contrast.
'Not enough..it's not enough,' she thought in frustration, not realizing she had mumbled the words out loud until Jack looked up at her from his own seat, giving her a questioning, concerned glance.
"Sorry." Samantha leaned back in her chair, glaring at the board in front of them. "But we've got nothing so far." A glance down at her notes. "Darien left the gym at eight. The walk home should've taken her, what, fifteen, maybe twenty minutes?"
"She's an athlete. Probably less time," Jack offered.
"Normally, yes. But she's just played two solid hours of basketball. You don't think she'd be a little worn out?"
Jack could see that postulating was helping Samantha, relieving her frustration at the case's temporary standstill. Tossing around ideas with her always aided him as well, and he continued.
"Point taken. A little worn out, a little sluggish? Off her guard, I would think, if she even has a guard in that town."
Samantha bit her lip, eyes slightly narrowed, a sure sign of her deep concentration. "She was a city kid, though, for most of her life. You think she relaxed that fast?"
Jack shrugged. "It's possible. Jayne Blessing told us she adjusted almost immediately. Besides, didn't Grace tell you that the two of them walked to and from their high school all the time?"
Samantha nodded in agreement as she recognized and picked up Jack's train of thought. "Familiarity breeds comfort, I guess. If Darien was comfortable with the route she was walking, she probably wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings."
"Which made her an easy target, especially since she was alone."
On that note, Danny and Martin arrived at the unit, taking their places at the table.
"Hey, guys. What'd you find out?"
"Not all that much. We need Vivian to confirm it, but we're pretty sure the coach has a solid alibi..two of the girls say he stayed to work later with them."
"How much later?" Jack glanced at the white board.
"Eight forty-five later," Martin responded.
"Okay. Anything else?"
"No one noticed anything strange about Darien's behavior," Danny reported. "They all said basically the same thing..she was nice and quiet, the same as always."
"One of the girls, Sleater Christie, said that Mrs. Blessing called her around nine to confirm that the open gym had ended on time."
Jack nodded after Martin spoke. "Mrs. Blessing told me the same thing."
"Oh yeah, did you talk to a Grace McNamara? She was at the open gym but not in school, and the girls told us they saw Grace and Darien leave the gym together."
Samantha nodded in response. "She was at the Blessing's house. Apparently, she and Darien are extremely close. They usually walk home together, but last night Grace had to go to a party for her cousin, so Darien walked home alone."
Danny pulled a map out of his pocket, bought at the last minute from a gas station on the return trip from Brennamen High. He spread the map over the table, smoothing out it's wrinkles. As he did, Vivian appeared at the front of the table.
"Hey, Viv. What'd you think of Robert Duncan?"
A shrug from Vivian. "I think he's clean. He claims he was at the gym until eight forty-five, working with two of the seniors." Her last comment was directed at Danny and Martin, who nodded in unison.
"He seemed genuinely surprised," she continued. "He also said he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about Darien."
"Story of the case, so far," Samantha observed, a twinge of frustration returning to her voice.
"I did get the number of the man in charge of working on the auxiliary gym." Vivian pulled out the slip of paper Robert Duncan had given her, and handed it to Jack.
"Good work. Let's check out this map first, then we'll give this Daniel Banneker a call."
All five agents turned their attention to the map spread out in front of them.
"Okay, the school is here," Danny pointed to a brown square in the relative center of town.
"The Blessing's live on this street," Jack observed, scanning the map and tracing a faint blue line that was slightly less than three quarters of an inch from the square representing the school.
"There's really only one route she could have taken," Samantha pointed out, running a finger over the map.
After a moment, the others nodded in agreement.
"I think we need to check out this route," Danny looked at Jack for confirmation, and received it.
"Right. You and Martin, start back at the school. Take the map, and walk this route..look for any overgrowths, alleyways, any place where it would have been easy for someone to take Darien by surprise, or drag her into."
"Okay." Martin folded up the map, slipping it into his pocket, before nodding to Danny. "Vamos."
As the two men left, Jack handed Vivian the paper she had given him earlier.
"Feel like giving Daniel Banneker a call?"
Vivian smiled as she took the slip back. "Why not?"
"Find out if he saw anything, and get a list of the names and numbers of the men who were there last night. We'll split the rest of them up between us."
A firm nod, and Vivian disappeared into her cubicle.
"Sam, we've got to--" Jack had been about to say 'do some research on David Blessing', but at that moment, Samantha's gaze left his and fixed on a point behind him. Turning, Jack saw Mara Jennings standing uneasily in the middle of the room, eyes just as red and puffy as before, hands nervously twisting dark blonde hair into a low ponytail.
"Mrs. Jennings?" Samantha's gentle voice seemed to break the other woman out of her nervous state, though she remained distressed as she asked if there was somewhere they could go to talk.
Samantha and Jack settled her into a chair in a private conference room, taking their own seats on the other side of the table.
Discreetly, Jack slipped a pad of paper onto the table, as words began pouring freely from Mara Jennings.
"I should have told you this sooner. I'm so sorry. I just couldn't, not in front of Jayne." The woman took a deep breath before continuing. "About two weeks ago, Jayne was working, but I had the day off. Darien came to my house after school. I live a mile or so away from the Blessing's," she supplied, and Samantha idly noted how important distances had become in this particular case. "She seemed extremely agitated, really wound up, and it took about twenty minutes before she could tell me why she had come." Mara had avoided looking directly at the agents up until this point, and Samantha was struck by the pain she saw in the woman's steel blue eyes. "She told me that her father had called her at home, twice over the past two days, both times after school when Jayne was working. That was the first time she had spoken to him in almost eight years. I should have told Jayne. I wanted to, but Darien begged me not to say anything."
Samantha's mind was reeling with this new information, and a glance at Jack told her he felt the same.
"Mrs. Jennings, what was the nature of these phone calls? Did Darien tell you what was said?"
Mara Jennings seemed to have composed herself, and her voice was steady as she answered.
"The first time, Darien hung up on him. She said she didn't believe it was him, or she didn't want to believe it. The second day, though, he convinced her to stay on the phone. He told her he just wanted to talk to her, that he missed her, that he was so sorry he hadn't called or seen her since the divorce. Darien told me she didn't know what to think. I know she misses having a father around, but she hasn't forgiven him for leaving, especially because of how close she and Jayne are."
"Was that the last time she spoke to Mr. Blessing, after the second phone call?" Samantha had a feeling there was more to Mara's story.
For an answer, Mara Jennings dropped her head into her hands, before shaking her head no.
"That day, Darien asked me...she asked me if I'd let her use my phone, once a week, to call her dad. She didn't want to do it from her own house, in case Jayne found out. She felt guilty, and confused, for wanting to talk to him. I said she could." Mara's hands were clenched tightly, nails digging into her palms. "She promised me she would tell Jayne, at the right time."
"Mrs. Jennings, when is the last time Darien talked to her father?" Jack's voice was low, urgent.
"Last Thursday, after school, for about twenty minutes."
"Did Darien tell you anything about the conversation?"
"I always stayed in the room with Darien when she talked to David. Her idea, not mine, but it did make me feel a little better. Anyway, it was small talk for awhile, from what I heard on Darien's end. School, weather, sports. Eventually, though, Darien got very upset..I remember she kept saying 'no', 'not now', things of that nature. The conversation ended pretty abruptly, and after she hung up, Darien told me that he had asked to see her. She said she wasn't ready, that she didn't even know if she wanted to see him. He was pretty insistent, I guess, but Darien wouldn't give in."
"And you're sure she hadn't talked to him since last Thursday?"
Mara shrugged. "Pretty sure, yes. After that, I think she wanted to wait awhile before speaking to him again."
School, weather, sports.
With a growing sense of dread, Samantha spoke. "You said Darien told her father about sports? Did he know about their open gyms?"
"Yes..I remember she mentioned them." Mara closed her eyes for a long moment.
"Mrs. Jennings, what do you know about David Blessing?" To Jack, it was suddenly very warm in the conference room, and the air was heavy with tension.
Another helpless shrug from Mara Jennings. "Not much. I only met him once, at the wedding, and that was so long ago. I remember he was kind of quiet, withdrawn..when I first met Darien, she reminded me a bit of him. I know he owns a small business in Chicago, and I know he almost destroyed Jayne and Darien when he left." A short laugh, devoid of mirth. "I'm sure you're wondering why I agreed to let Darien talk to him, especially without Jayne's knowledge. I'm wondering the same thing."
"Actually, I was wondering how Jayne Blessing is going to find out about this. She needs to know." Jack's words were cold, but his voice was laced with a gentle understanding.
"I need to tell her. I'm going back there now." Mara nodded to herself. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier. I don't know if David had any part in Darien's disappearance, but I don't know that he didn't." Reaching into her purse, Mara pulled out a phone number and handed it to the agents. "The Blessing's home number. Darien kept it at my house."
Samantha took the number from the other woman, smiling softly. "Thank you, Mrs. Jennings."
A nod to both of the agents, and Mara was gone.
Neither spoke for a moment after she left, and finally Jack turned to Samantha.
"What do you think?"
Samantha didn't hesitate. "Two weeks before she disappears, the father with whom she's had absolutely no contact for eight years suddenly wants to talk to her. Wants to see her. Insists, it sounds like to me, upon seeing her. I don't know. If he has nothing to do with her disappearance, that'd be one hell of a coincidence. What about you?"
"I think.." Jack trailed off for a second, before making up his mind. "I think we're going to Chicago."