Chapter Three

The waiting area was dark and plain with only a picture of its founder, Earl White, on the white wall. The room where I sat alone wasn't very large; it had no windows, a couch and a love seat on the wall opposite the office door. I heard people crying in other waiting rooms down the main hallway, the sound of whispers from inside the office made me skeptical of everything right about now. I heard loud footsteps come down the hall and hoped it would be Tyler since he had left me to take a phone call just about fifteen minutes ago. But the sound faded away as it walked down another hallway to the right of this one probably, I am too tired to be completely sure about anything. Suddenly the door to my left opened and a woman walked quickly out holding a tissue in her hand, I watched the lady as the sound of her heels disappeared out the doorway and down ten meters before turning to face the man.

"You must be Luna Marks." I didn't say anything and just stared blankly at the man's worn face and brown eyes.

"Please come in, we have much to discuss." He stood inside behind the door while I hesitated, looking for Tyler to come back. But he didn't so I followed the man inside. I sat in front of the polished cherry oak desk with a gold plated name tag showing off the name: JOHN MEYERS. I stared at him as he opened a manila folder with the photo of my father.

"A friend of his?" I asked quietly surveying Mr. Meyers' appearance. He wore a black button up shirt with a grey bow-tie around his neck and a black dress jacket. His wrist was clad with an expensive gold and diamond watch.

"A very close one, he probably didn't tell you much about me, huh?" Mr. Meyers asked looking at me. I hugged my sides tight wishing for Tyler to help me talk to the man, he was always good at talking especially if he knew the person.

"He never mentioned you, Sir. He never talked about any of his friends when him and Andrea split." I said with a little more confidence than before, though I was still sketched out by this man.

"I expected as much," Mr. Meyer's energy seemed to drop until he straightened up suddenly," I do not believe you are aware of your father's cause of death."

"You are correct, although I'm not sure I really want to know." I said looking at him dead in his brown eyes. The door opened quickly to reveal Tyler who looked out of breath and a bit out of it.

"Sorry Lu, that call took longer than it was supposed to." Tyler said sitting on the chair beside me and then acknowledged Mr. Meyers.

"Hello John, have you been well?" Tyler asked, his voice suddenly changing from casual to business-y and it threw me off a lot.

"Apart from what has happened recently, yes. The wife is well and Abbey is starting high school in the fall so she is surely excited. It has been months since we've last spoken, too bad we had to meet this way." Mr. Meyers said solemnly and sincerely.

"I know." Tyler's voice changed again throwing me off yet again.

"Back to your father, Luna," Tyler and I nod simultaneously, "Would you like to know how he died or do you still not want to?" I thought for a minute before nodding my head and watched him slowly pull out a piece of paper- a police report. It read:

Male, 40. Cause of death- unknown. Found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Cuts all over his body. Murder? Head officer on scene: Officer Harvey-Daniels.

I stared blankly at the piece of paper with typed words on it.

"So there is no answer." I said annoyed and angry, I guess I really did want to know what happened to dad.

"You see, that's where the police work stops and the detective work begins. The autopsy shows cuts on his exposed skin and a drug was found in his blood stream. Overall they wanted to say this was a suicide but the detective believes otherwise." It was dead silent in the grey room, the curtains over the heater moved gently. I felt my breathing get faster and everything around me started to blur but I fought to stay in reality.

"So he was murdered, that's what you're saying?" I said looking Mr. Meyers dead in the eye with a cold stare and watched him nod his head. Suddenly Tyler stood up and leaned onto the desk, his hand and jaw clenched.

"You can't be serious about this, John, who would-" Mr. Meyers held his hand up, stopping Tyler's thought.

"You knew his job, Tyler. How he made his money and how he kept his business, he made a lot of enemies." Tyler opened up his hand and sat back down.

"Tyler, I don't know a lot about my dad's work but I want to find the truth to all of this." I looked at him with all seriousness and he nodded reluctantly.

"There's one more thing, Ms Marks," Mr. Meyers said interrupting our stare to hand me a long letter, "this is your father's will." It read:

This will be short; if I die I'm giving my business and everything I own to my oldest and only child Luna Rose Marks. And Lu Lu if you're reading this honey, I love you and no matter what anyone did or how I died, always know that.
Love your daddy, Jason Marks.

"Jason." I said with a smile before standing up.

"What's the name of the detective on my father's case?" I asked looking at Mr. Meyers as he wrote the name and number down on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

"Luna?" Tyler asked standing up

"Thank you for speaking with me, Mr. Meyers." I said shaking his hand and followed Tyler out. He threw his arm around my shoulder as we walked out into the snow.

"What are you thinking?" Tyler asked as we drove back to the city.

"I'm thinking I need to meet this detective." I fiddled with the folded lined paper in my fingers.

"Give it a day, Luna, you need to rest." Tyler said with a caring, parenting tone. I looked at him and smiled and turned away before he could see me.

"I want to find out what happened to him." I said staring out the window watching as he turned into an outlet mall. I turned quickly to Tyler and saw him smiling brightly.

"You need clothes and I need to spend money on someone I care about, so don't you dare fight with me about this." Tyler smiled at me with nothing less than love written all over his face. I couldn't say anything because I was so taken back by his maturity.

"You want to stay with me, Lu?" Tyler asked as he parked. I heard his voice change from goofing to super serious and it threw me off but I loved it.

"Of course I do." I smiled and kissed his cheek. Surprising him and making him smile giddily.

We walked for hours, hand in hand or arm in arm laughing and ignoring the world around us. For the first time I forgot about everything that was hurting and focused on the healing. I forgot how much I missed Tyler but now I realized how much I was actually in love with him.

"Of course." My head sang with the thought of us as teenagers, young and in love, happening now. We ate at a fancy restaurant down the street from Tyler's apartment where he told me stories from work and new people who moved into the neighborhood after I had left.

"Hey Tyler?" I asked after a few minutes of silence passed since he spoke last. He looked up from his plate that was half full with crepes.

"Yes, Lu?" Tyler responded, his blueish grey eyes stared softly into my sea green eyes. I couldn't think of anything to say, after all those years I've wanted to ask him if he still felt the same way and now my mouth is dry. I wanted to tell him I missed everythinf about him while in Seattle and that things have changed about the both of us since then, my feelings never have.

"Can we go to dad's house tomorrow?" I couldn't say it, not yet at least. He smiled sweetly, not looking away from my eyes.

"Of course." Tyler finished his crepes sharing the last bit with me.

I didn't break down at all tonight, Tyler distracted me from reality. That's what I admired most about him, his ability to make anyone feel better by practically erasing reality when you spend time with him. I loved it. I loved him.

I missed him.