Jenny’s eyes grew wide in horror when she looked at it. I realized that Jenny was telling me the truth, so I decided to take the diary with me and look through it with Bob.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jenny begged. I tossed the mail and the diary in the box holding my paperwork and nodded my head.
“I agree,” I said. “I have a few more places to go before we head back home.” I looked around to make sure I had everything, then put my key on the kitchen counter. I locked the door and left the condo, glad to have ended that part of my life.
From there, we went to my bank, where I closed out my account. Then it was on to Addy and Greg’s house. I had no desire to speak to them, but I was curious to know if they were still around. I pulled up to their house and saw Greg’s SUV in the driveway. The house looked dark, and I saw no movement.
I walked up to the SUV and saw two very small piles of ashes on the front seat, one pile in the driver’s seat and the other on the passenger side, where Addy would have sat. I didn’t need to go any further.
From there, we went to Marissa’s parents’ house. The house itself was little more than a pile of burned wood. I could see several men working around the ruins, cleaning things up. I pulled up to one of them and asked what happened.
“The place caught on fire Sunday afternoon,” the man said. “Don’t know exactly what happened, but the place burned down in a matter of minutes.”
“Was anyone hurt?” I asked. The man shook his head.
“They never found any bodies, and no one’s been able to locate the owners,” he said. “Their cars are all here, though. Did you know the people who lived here?”
“Yeah, I met them,” I said, “but I was in Kentucky on Sunday, and I haven’t heard anything from them.” The man handed me a card belonging to a fire inspector.
“Well, if you know anything or hear anything, you might want to give this guy a call,” he said.
“Sure,” I said. “Thanks.” We pulled out and headed back east. I wanted to put as many miles between me and this city as I could before sundown. We stopped at a motel in Needles, California and grabbed a room for the night.
I had a brainstorm and got John’s last name from Jenny. I hooked my laptop up to the motel’s wireless and did a Google search. Sure enough, the search revealed a small article about the disappearance of one John Argyle, who seemed to simply vanish without a trace. One witness claimed he had vanished in a puff of smoke, but no one was able to corroborate that.
Jenny and I laid in bed and held each other tight. We were both a bit frightened and overwhelmed by recent events. I began to feel a bit ashamed about my relationship with Marissa. Jenny sensed this and coaxed me into talking with her about it.
“I just feel so ashamed,” I said.
“Don’t,” she said. “We were both played like fiddles. But we’re together now and that’s the way it’s going to stay. But so help me, Jim Patterson, if you ever stick that cock in another woman, I’ll cut your balls off and feed them to the chickens.”
“Message received,” I said. She smiled and kissed me. I kissed her back and we finally fell asleep.
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