Duskwood: Love's Beginning

26 - Jayna

I was so glad that Jake was safe. It made me giggle a bit for him to get jealous about Phil. I knew Phil's type, and there was no way I'd become another notch on his bedpost. Nonetheless, it was fun to tease Jake a bit. Then to reassure him that he had nothing to worry about. I know Jake didn't know me well, but I hoped that with time he would realize that he was the only one for me, and I wasn't someone whose head would turn so easily with antics from someone like Phil.

We were all still reeling from Dan's accident when Phil got arrested, and Jessy dropped the bombshell that someone in our group gave testimony against him. Which idiot was that? I tried to figure out which one of them had the most motivation to do so. Richy had mentioned feeling threatened by Phil, and thought maybe he had even painted the mark on his garage. He also had mentioned the matchbox from the Aurora found on with Amy's body, which was just silly. Any number of customers could have matches from Phil's bar. However, Richy also seemed to quickly agree with me that Phil was harmless and just fed up with the group's behavior.

Then there was Cleo, who was insistent on pursuing Phil as a lead. However, she struck me as a rational, level-headed person who would follow leads to their conclusion, and not jump the gun and contact the police. Furthermore, she knew Phil could in turn give testimony against her about the break-in. I also wouldn't put it past her to freely admit that she had accused Phil if she had done it.

Thomas...he would be a likely suspect when it came to a vendetta against Phil. To discover all those horrible things Phil blurted out about Hannah, to already suspect she was having an affair, and to go so far as to try to break into the Aurora. But, Thomas didn't trust the police and thought they didn't trust him either. He had at least as much risk as Cleo by going to them and accusing Phil of anything.

The fact that Phil hadn't turned the tables in his defense and used that opportunity to give up Thomas and Cleo said a lot about his character. I really doubted that he was responsible for Hannah's disappearance, let alone the murder of Amy. I had to wonder what this person said and what other evidence they had to get an arrest warrant. They couldn't just go with the words of one person, especially when Jessy had said they already knew we were investigating into who might have taken her Hannah.

Unless the one who accused Phil was not taking part in any investigations, and would therefore be left blameless by the police for any type of obstruction. That left Lilly and Dan. Lilly seemed to want to involve the police whenever possible. However, she was pretty open about her feelings, if her actions toward Jake and me were any indications. I could see her announcing to the world that Phil was guilty and then telling all of us in the group chat that the police were coming for him. Since she had not done so, I thought of her as an unlikely suspect.

That left Dan. But why? And when? He was in a hospital bed and had been fighting for his life not long ago. Yes, he thought someone had tampered with his car. This did not seem like the kidnapper's style. So did Dan have some problem with Phil I didn't know about?

With the exception of him drunk-texting me and spilling his heart out about Jessy, we weren't exactly having open communication. So it isn't like he would tell me if I confronted him.

Oh, and there was Jake. Jake clearly was jealous of Phil, but I knew he would never, ever throw someone to the wolves based on his feelings. Let alone contact the police, whom he had to avoid at all costs due to his legal troubles. Plus, he had been quite preoccupied as of late with his own safety. No time for filing police reports and all that.

So, that left Dan. Bringing this up would be divisive to the group, but I needed to keep an eye on him.

I didn't blame Jessy for wanting to leave town. It would hamper the investigation, and of course, Jake wouldn't want me to go be with them. So I kept working while they all got ready.

Then Richy called me, and the bottom dropped out of my world as I watched someone else I cared about being attacked.