His Dark Obsession

Chapter 44: Phone Records

Tara entered Jake's apartment on shaking feet. Again, the same darkness engulfed her. She hesitated close to the door. A hand shot up from behind, capturing her at the waist.
Ian kissed her neck and said, "I am with you, Tara. There's no need to be fearful!"
Tara's nerves calmed a bit; she moved forward on dainty feet followed closely by Ian. Suddenly a dim light made the living area semi-visible. Ian had lit up the torch on his cellphone.
"It never occurred to me to do that on the day....", she remembered the day of Jake's demise and wondered how something so obvious escaped her. It had been the horror of the day.
"I remember turning mine on back then, but still, I was aware that things seemed horribly wrong and despite the faint gleam I still felt like I was going through a strange maze. A never ending maze. I didn't want to turn on the light in the living area because I could see the faint light coming from the bedroom and I just knew I had to be there without delay. It was as though Jake were calling out to me, Tara. Sometimes I think he was still fighting for his last breaths when I had entered his place. But when I went to his bedroom he was...dead. I didn't know what to think after that, Tara. I just froze; unable to think or comprehend, for several minutes. Till you arrived...and saved me from myself."
Tara looked up at his handsome face - sullied by agony, as she turned on the light switch, flooding the living area in bleak glow.
"You are my light, Tara." Ian said to her sincerely. He reached out and gave Tara a chaste kiss on the lips.
Tara stared into his eyes for what felt like eternity and then moved forward along with him, to the bedroom.
Tara went straight to the closet trying her best to avoid looking at the spot on the ground where Jake's body had laid. Ian followed not far behind.
When she entered the walk-in closet she went to the section where her clothes hung. She had a duffel bag that Ian had provided her, and she dumped all her clothes along with the hangers into the bag. She then opened a drawer which carried all her lingerie. She saw Ian's expression turn a little sour.
"Ian, I....", Tara was at a loss for words.
"You don't need to give me explanations, darling. You guys were together. I am sorry for feeling jealous."
"Ian, you don't need to be jealous. You see, when Jake and I started dating I genuinely believed that we were going to last but as our relationship progressed and especially when we moved in, I realized that Jake and I weren't right for each other. You were suddenly there for me a whole lot more than he was. He was slowly drifting away from me, and the fact of the matter is that I was becoming attracted...to yo..."
And before Tara could complete her sentence Ian captured her mouth in a ravenous kiss which robbed her of her breath and balance, Ian steadied Tara with his hands against her back and kissed her hard. When they finally broke off the kiss they were both panting for breath.
"Do you have everything you need?" Ian inquired of her.
Tara, gave a cursory glance to all the sections in the closet and nodded in silence. Seeing Jake's clothes hanging pristinely in his wardrobe, made her feel miserable. All of his belongings, were without an owner now. His mother had lost her son, his siblings, their brother. He was a good and kind man, who was cruelly brought to his end.
Ian reached out and grabbed her hand and pulled her close, "Don't, think about it, please, baby! Let's go home."
Tara let Ian take her along with him. A home with Ian Blaine, the idea gave her a strange sense of belonging. In a world that didn't make sense right now, Ian was her solid anchor. He was her place of safety in a violent storm.

When they reached Ian's place and got out of the car, Tara saw a vehicle standing close to the building with two suspicious figures sitting in the shadows. Tara yanked at Ian's arm to bring his attention to the car, "Yeah, I saw it, Tara. No need to worry. It's the police. They don't want to be noticed."
Tara relaxed a little and they proceeded inside and stepped into the elevator. Detective Kelly was an arrogant, vain man but he had remained true to his word and sent in police protection. Tara felt safer knowing that police were on the lookout for the killer and she was at Ian's home and not living alone in an apartment. As they entered Ian's place, Tara's thoughts went back to the hooded figure and she felt weirdly unsettled. There was something about the hooded figure, she couldn't pinpoint, something that triggered a faint memory.
"Tara, what are you thinking?" Ian asked her curiously.
Tara opened her mouth to tell Ian and then decided against it. Maybe she was just exhausted and too close to all this and it was playing tricks with her mind. "It's nothing, really! I think I'll get into the shower now. Water calms me down."
Ian looked at her and quipped, "Really, you don't say? We have that in common then. How about I get in there with you? Could be fun calming our nerves together...."
More like heating them up, Tara mused and headed to the bedroom while Ian followed suit. Upon reaching the bedroom Tara slowly began to undress.
"Let me." Said Ian and moved forward to help her remove her clothes.
When he had stripped her, he began to unbutton his shirt and pants.
They both stood naked before each other. Tara couldn't help but admire Ian without clothes. The man was tall - broad and sculpted, with hard muscle all over him. Looking at him, inspired desire. Tara knew that this man could have anyone he wanted; women fluttered around him - a moth to a flame, and he, wanted her. As strange and impossible as that sounded, she couldn't help but feel infinitely pleased. This hunk of a man was hers to touch, to kiss, to love...?!
Ian Blaine was gorgeously tanned; it made his striking blue eyes even more prominent to an onlooker. "Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, Ian?'
"Why do you ask?" Ian asked.
He appeared boyish to Tara in that moment, as if he were completely unaware of his effect on people.
"Your tan." Tara remarked playfully.
"Yes, I suppose I do. I go out on a run daily. I am at the beach on every weekend."
And then he moved a couple of inches closer to her and brought his arms to her waist and then moved them down to her buttocks. He rubbed them. "Now that we have discussed my tan and you have looked me over to your heart's content, could we take that shower you were talking about?!"
Tara lowered her eyes as streaks of pleasure ignited her insides, before she could think anything of it, Ian lifted her and all her nakedness in his arms and walked to the bathroom.

Tara wrapped herself in bathrobe and knotted it at the waist; she used a second towel to twirl her hair into a makeshift turban. She heard her phone ring then and went hurriedly to pick it up from the nightstand. When she reached it, the phone had stopped ringing. Tara grabbed it to see who had called her and saw several messages and missed calls from her mother. She must have heard about Jake, Tara worriedly concluded. She unplugged the charging cord from the phone and called her mother back.
"Tara, honey! Thank God. I have been calling you all evening. Where have you been?" Her mom's anxiousness was apparent in her tone.
Tara tried to sound nonchalant and she replied, "Mom, I am sorry I didn't call you earlier. I was a little busy during the day."
"Honey, I just saw the news about Jake's death on tv. I got so scared and then you weren't picking up, so I called Rachel and she told me you had talked to her and you were fine. Why wouldn't you call your own mother and let her know? I want to come see you. How come you are not staying with Rachel? Where are you right now?"
The bombardment of questions from her mother, warmed Tara's heart. She realized that she should have called her parents to let them know she was doing fine. "Mom, I am so sorry I didn't call you earlier and I love you for being concerned but believe me, everything's ok! I am staying with a...friend. You don't have to worry!"
Her mom still didn't seem convinced. "No baby, come home! Or I come and see you. How can you be ok? According to the tv reporter, you walked in on him, dead on the floor!"
Tara began to concede to her demand, "I will come see you tomorrow, mom. But trust me, everything is fine!"
"I'll only know that when I see you."
As Tara hung up, a towel clad Ian, hugged her from behind and candidly observed, "Your mom seemed really worried about you."
"Yes, I am going to have to go see her tomorrow."
"How about I come along?"
Ian's eagerness to go with her surprised and delighted her, "You want to go see my parents with me?!"
"Yes, I would really like that."
She smiled at him. "Of course, you can come along."
Tara went to the nightstand to plug her phone back into the charger when she saw a stack of papers on it. "What's all this?"
Ian came close to her, "I hired a PI, Tara."
"A PI? To do what?"
"To look into certain aspects of Jake's murder."
"Like what exactly?"
"Well, I hired him to get a hold of Jake's phone records." As he said this Ian grabbed the stack of papers and handed them to Tara.
Tara looked the papers over and asked, "Does anything stand out?"
"Yes, these are specifically of the day Jake died and also of two months before that. On the day of the murder, Jake received ten calls in the day. Out of those ten calls, six were of our office employees and four were unidentified numbers. Now, the work calls can be crossed out because the people calling were at the office at the time of murder. The four unidentified numbers need to be looked into. I have put the PI on the task."
"When might he have some answers for us?" Tara asked suddenly optimistic.
"Hopefully, sooner than later. Tara, I want you to be very careful when you go off to work. This person threatened you and you know they can make true on their intentions. Your safety is paramount to me!"
Tara gave Ian a hug and didn't let go, "Ian, I'll be careful, I promise! I want this nightmare to be over. I want this guy behind bars."
Ian soothingly rubbed her back and didn't let go for a while. When he finally lifted his head, he said, "I need to show you something else." Saying this Ian disappeared to the living room. Tara expectantly looked at the door for his return. When Ian came back to the bedroom he held something in his left hand. Tara stepped closer to Ian to have a look; her eyes widened as she discovered Ian was holding an empty bottle of bleach.