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was as he walked up to Devin’s desk.
“Can I help you officer?” Devin asked standing.
Officer Riley scanned the classroom, he laid eyes on Jack then me and for a fraction of a second I had another concern. I was doing a lot of worrying lately which wasn’t like me. It wasn’t something I liked doing but there were enough reasons to lately.
“Yes.” He turned his head towards Devin. “Actually I hope you can. I just need to ask you a few questions.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Devin looked towards his students, specifically not locking eyes with me. “Keep your eyes on your own paper, if I catch anyone cheating you will not receive credit for this quiz. And I will know if you cheat. There are eyes in the walls people, I will know.”
He brought his attention back to the cop and nodded for him to follow him out the room.
And again, I worried. I didn’t know what Jack’s dad wanted with Devin but I didn’t think it was good. I remembered Marina telling me the cops were asking questions but did they really have to ask questions at the school. It kind of freaked me out. What if Devin said the wrong thing and got caught in a lie? What if the cops didn’t believe him? Or worse. What if Devin had been the reason for Miller’s disappearance?
I finished my quiz to the best of my ability and took it to the back of the room where we normally placed our quizzes. While back there I tried my best to look out the doors small window both without getting caught or seeming too suspicious.
Devin was just talking with Jack’s dad. I wasn’t a lip reader so I couldn’t figure out what they were saying but it didn’t look too serious. They were both smiling while they spoke but when Devin shook his head and caught my staring his smile faltered for a second. Before Jack’s father could look my way, I headed back to my seat.
Jack looked at me a bit curiously but I didn’t say anything.
Soon Devin came back into the room, but the fact Jack’s dad wasn’t with him really eased my knotted stomach. If things had gone smoothly, Devin wouldn’t be a suspect in their cases, right? Jack’s father wouldn’t have to question him anymore and he certainly wouldn’t have to question me. Not that I’d know what to say even if he did. Devin wouldn’t let me get involved, though that didn’t mean I didn’t worry and get a headache from it. Even though Devin promised me he had nothing to do with Miller’s disappearance he still didn’t want me talking with the police. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust me not to run off at the mouth it was just…okay, it was the fact that I was a nervous wreck and would run off at the mouth. I did that when I was nervous, it was something that couldn’t be stopped.
After class Devin shook his head slightly, telling me to just go home. I didn’t think he thought it was very wise for us to talk after class with the Baxter Springs Police department roaming around every corner. It made sense but it didn’t mean I had to like it.

Chapter Forty-One
It was just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Two more weeks had passed and still nothing from Miller, but at least know I had accepted it. That sounded bad. When I say accepted, I meant accepted the fact that there was nothing I could do about it. The police were beginning to put the case on the backburner since there were more pressing crimes going on.
Not much went on in our little town, there weren’t many murders or shooting, which was a good thing. But that also meant this thing with Miller, while it was cooling down a bit, was still the most pressing matter. Saving cats from trees or arresting punk kids for shoplifting seemed irrelevant to the fact that there was a man missing.
And though Devin kept telling me he didn’t do it, I just felt…I just felt like he was keeping something from me. I didn’t like when he kept things from me, though he did seem a bit happier lately. Again, I wasn’t sure why but I kind of liked it. He wasn’t pressuring me into breaking it off with Jack or talking my father out of moving.
Which was something else I was beginning to stress out about. My father had already made plans for the house we would be moving into in about a month. He’d told me it was a big estate and I’d basically be living in my very own pool house. But it wasn’t a pool houses because there wasn’t really a pool, yet. It was more of a small house in the backyard. It was fine by me so long as I didn’t have to see Rebecca’s solemn face all day. What wasn’t fine was the fact that I’d be away from Devin.
I understood that my father needed to take this job because it was a big deal for him. He was becoming a cooperate man, a CEO of the company in Malaysia. I just couldn’t understand why they needed to make this company overseas. It couldn’t possibly be stationed in the States? I don’t know somewhere close but not too close to Devin. Even when I did manage to move out I didn’t want my father knowing I was seeing Devin. Not right away anyway. He wouldn’t be able to handle it and I wouldn’t be able to handle if he had a heart attack on the spot.
“Bud?” My father asked nudging me.
I looked up from my plate and mumbled a yeah.
“You don’t like it.” He stated, confusing me a bit. “The food? I probably should have ordered from that other Chinese place, huh?”
“Oh, no, papa.” I looked at my half eaten food. Most of it was just pushed together on my plate. It didn’t really look like I had been eating much of it. “It’s fine. Just…got a lot on my mind is all.”
“Well, you want to tell me what’s up? I might be able to help.”
He turned down the television so he could hear me better and positioned himself on the couch so he could see my face. His eyes were sincere and his small smile comforting, making me hesitate before I said anything.
For a moment I thought I could tell him about what was going on between Devin and me. But I knew he wouldn’t understand. Not right now anyway. So instead I brought up a topic I knew he had already put his foot down about.
“Do we have to move so soon? And why there? Why not somewhere in the country, papa? I have so many friends here.”
“Oh really?” He asked. “Who? Because all I ever hear you talking about is Marina. And you two can talk over the phone or online. That was the main reason I got you the computer for your birthday. You two can do video chat. It’s how I communicate with my associates.”
“I just…”
“I know, Layla. You don’t understand right now why we have to move but we just do. It’s a good career move and it just seems like the right time for it, especially with everything going on.”
He looked at the new watch on his arm. “Speaking of, I wonder what’s keeping ‘Becca.”
I sighed and shrugged. “Not sure. She’s been late for the past couple of nights. Getting in real late, but you can’t really say anything because you haven’t really been here either.”
I didn’t mean for it to sound snarky but it did and I knew he could tell. “Sorry, papa. I’ve just been on edge lately.”
“I know,” he mumbled. “Rebecca’s told me.”
“You can’t believe anything that b-that she says. Just because I’ve been moody lately doesn’t mean she can use it as an excuse to get you on her side.”
“Bud, I’m not taking-”
I stood up abruptly. “Don’t say that. You took her side when you married her. You took her side when you chose her over my own freaking birthday. When you choose to make her home remedies instead of moms when I’m sick. So…don’t say that you haven’t taken sides. You two may be at odds with this whole moving thing but other than that, you’ve always taken her side, papa.”
I left him to go to my room, suddenly losing my appetite. Not that I really had one in the first place. I hadn’t been eating much lately. Not because of the diet I kept promising myself I was going to stick to, but the fact that I just wasn’t hungry. I actually hadn’t had much of an appetite since…well, for a while. I wasn’t sure how long but it had been longer than I or Devin would have liked. He’d noticed my lost of appetite and didn’t too much care for it. He said I was beginning to look thin in the face. I didn’t see it.
Though I didn’t want to get as thin as the stick figures I sat with at lunch, the added weight I was gaining was in fact bothering me a bit. I wasn’t fat, nor was there anything wrong with plus sized women, hell, I knew a few sexy ones myself, I just…I just didn’t like how I couldn’t fit my clothes anymore. And I certainly wouldn’t be going out and buying new ones. I just didn’t have the money for it at the moment and I didn’t want to ask for a raise on my allowance. I hadn’t really been keeping up with most of my chores anyway.
After channel surfing and noticing there was nothing really on, I decided I’d go for a run to clear my head. I was tired of thinking about things lately and having nothing to do was not helping with that. But running, even when I did it in gym, really proved to both help me think and clear my thoughts. So that’s what I did.
I changed my jeans to sweats, put a warm jacket over my purple top, laced up my boots and headed for the door after putting my cell and iPod in my pockets.
“Where are you going?” My father asked as I descended the stairs.
“Out,” I said shrugging. “Out for a run.”
“At this time of night/?”
“It’s only seven, papa. The sun just set not ten minutes ago. I can’t get into that much trouble.”
He debated letting me leave for a moment. Then, probably after running different scenarios in his mind, decided it was alright. “Be back before nine. You know I worry.”
“What could possibly happen to me here?”
His head shot up from the magazine he was flipping through. “A lot. Have you not heard of the…of course you have he used to be one of your teachers. He’s missing for Christ sake. Missing, okay? The streets aren’t safe in my eyes until he’s found, Layla.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “Okay. I understand. Back by nine.”
“No later, got it?”
“Got it.”
When he returned his attention back to his magazine I left, stopping just outside the door to put my ear buds in and choose my running music. I picked something upbeat so I wouldn’t get discouraged and wimp out along the way. I did some stretches just as Coach Murphy instructed before every activity. She said it was to loosen us up and prevent us from having muscle spasms. It worked most of the time. It just depended on what activity she had us doing. If it was something hardcore then we were all definitely sore