The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) Read online

  From the Amazon Bestseller Debra Burroughs, topping the charts in Romantic Suspense and Women Sleuths, comes another exciting and entertaining story, The Lake House Secret.

  Praise for Debra Burroughs’ romantic suspense novels…

  “Love it, love it, love it! Can’t get enough of Debra Burroughs. I have always loved mysteries and Debra delivers.”

  ~ Ann Cross

  Amazon Reviewer

  “Ms. Burroughs writes her mysteries with so many twists and turns, she keeps you on the edge of your seat. Just when you think you have it figured out, you discover you don’t have a clue! Ms. Burroughs has a gift — each of her books gets even better than the last — and they are all excellent!”

  ~ Cathy-J’s Gram

  Amazon Reviewer

  “Once again, this author hits upon the perfect combination of great writing, well-paced plot, interesting, endearing, compelling and sometimes quirky characters, a touch of romance and the suspense of a good mystery to solve.”

  ~ K.C. Quinn

  Amazon Reviewer

  Main Menu

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  Dedication

  Afterword

  Other Works by Debra Burroughs

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  THE LAKE HOUSE SECRET

  A Jenessa Jones Mystery: Book 1

  Debra Burroughs

  Chapter 1

  “That stupid woman!” Jenessa Jones sputtered as she slid behind the wheel of her compact car and slammed the door shut. “I can see I’m not getting that job.”

  She jammed her key into the ignition and turned it. The engine of her twelve-year-old Toyota moaned a few times, trying to turn over.

  “No, no, no!” she screamed, banging the palm of her hand against the steering wheel. “I don’t need this today.”

  The blistering July sun of Central California made the inside of her car feel like an oven. Her long, dark hair began sticking to the perspiration that trickled down her neck and onto her white silk blouse. She rolled her windows down to release the suffocating heat.

  She had gone to the job interview dressed in her navy blue business suit, hoping to make her best impression, but she could tell by the interviewer’s questions, and apparent lack of interest, that the woman was simply going through the motions, like she had already made up her mind who she would hire.

  Whispering a prayer and crossing her fingers, she tried the engine a couple more times. Success! The engine finally roared to life and eventually settled into a steady purr. Flicking on the air conditioner, switching the fan to the highest speed, she pulled out of the parking lot to head for home.

  Jenessa had been a reporter for a newspaper in Sacramento for the past five years, that is, until almost nine weeks ago when her boss gave her the news that the paper was forced to downsize and he was going to have to let her go.

  “Sorry, but more people are finding their news online these days and it’s killing us,” he had said.

  Since getting the axe, she had sent out almost a hundred resumes and gone on countless interviews but, to her dismay, there had been no job offers yet. Reaching the point of desperation, she couldn’t afford to be picky.

  Although nabbing another job as a writer would be her first choice, at this point she’d take a job as a secretary, a bank teller, or a store clerk if she had to. Her bachelor’s degree in journalism and her seven years of experience working for newspapers were getting her nowhere. At this point, even waiting tables or cleaning hotel rooms was not beneath her.

  She’d already burned through the little bit of savings she’d had and was running out of cash fast. The current month’s rent was already a few days past due, plus she was late on last month’s—actually, she hadn’t paid last month’s rent at all.

  To add to her misery, now her car was giving her trouble and there was no money to repair it. It would be near impossible to go on any more interviews without transportation.

  She parked the car in the lot of her complex and climbed the outdoor stairs to her third-floor apartment. As she approached, her portly apartment manager was standing in front of her door in his t-shirt and shorts, taping a piece of paper to it.

  “Mr. Morelli?”

  He whipped around to face her, obviously startled by her unexpected presence. “Hi there,” he said, offering her a weak, rueful smile. “I’m really sorry, Miss Jones, I have no choice but to give you a three-day notice of eviction.” He glanced back at the note he had attached to her front door and motioned toward it.

  “No, please…just a little more time,” she pleaded. “I’m sure I’ll have another job soon.”

  “Sorry, but I have to do this, Jenessa—company policy. If it was up to me, I’d keep carrying you a little longer, but I have to answer to the owners, you know.” He tapped a chubby finger on the notice a couple of times before walking away. “You have three days—bring your rent current or you’ve got to move out.”

  Jenessa pushed through the door and rushed inside, fighting back angry tears. She was doing the best she could. Things just weren’t going her way. In fact, they seemed to be going from bad to worse. She wished she could talk to her mother.

  She peeled off her hot jacket and flung it over a chair. After kicking off her shoes, she untucked her silk blouse that had stuck to her sweaty back and plopped down on her old sofa, stretching her legs out and crossing them on the coffee table. She sunk back, closed her eyes, and rested her head against the cushion, hoping for some relief.

  What was she going to do now? Perhaps her sister Sara could loan her some money, or maybe Aunt Renee, although, she cringed at the thought of asking either one of them.

  After leaving home at seventeen, Jenessa had always been self-sufficient, never asked anyone for anything. Her mother had insisted on paying her college tuition and her father went along, but beyond that, she took care of herself. Now, her life was in a downward spiral and she didn’t know what to do to stop the momentum.

  She wished she could call her mom and cry on her shoulder, ask her what to do, but her mother had passed away a couple of years earlier. Her father’s face, stern and aloof, popped into her mind, but there was no way on earth she’d ever ask him for help of any kind.

  Her cell phone began to ring and she dug around in her purse until she found it. “Hello.”

  “Jenessa, this is Aunt Renee.”

  Taken aback by the perfect timing, Jenessa took a moment to respond. Maybe it was more than a coincidence that her aunt was calling. Maybe things were finally going to turn around. “I was just thinking about you, Aunt Renee. How are you?”

  “Honey, I have some bad news.”

  Great! Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse. She squeezed her eyes tight and steeled herself. “What is it?”

  “It’s your father, dear. He had a heart attack this morning and,” she paused and cleared her throat, but there was still a tightness in her voice as she continued, “I’m afraid he’s passed away.”

  Jenessa’s mouth fell open. She wanted to say something, but no words would come. She was frozen. She loved her father, the way all good daughters should love the man they call Dad, but the two had become increasingly distant. For the past twelve years they had been almost like strangers, even on the rare occasion when she had gone home for a visit.

  The last time she saw her father was at her mother’s funeral, and even then, he walled himself off from her. Tears blurred her vision now as she peered down at the small framed photo of her
parents that sat on her end table.

  “Jenessa, did you hear me?”

  Renee Giraldy was her father’s younger sister. She lived in Hidden Valley, where Jenessa’s parents and younger sister, Sara, also lived, and where Jenessa had gone to high school. Aunt Renee had been married three times, each time to a man more wealthy than the one before.

  Her last husband had died of a massive stroke while on a business trip in Europe. She had once shared with Jenessa how much she regretted not having been with him when he’d passed away. She rarely cared to go traipsing all over Europe while he met with clients and suppliers—she had gone twice, and that was enough.

  “Yes, I heard you.” Jenessa shook her head, trying to clear the daze. “Sorry, I don’t know what to say. It’s such a shock.”

  “For me too, hon.”

  “What happened?”

  “From what I’ve been able to gather, he was at his office working, dictating to his secretary I believe, when he began to have chest pains and slumped over on his desk. She phoned nine-one-one, but it was too late.”

  Too late.

  The words pressed down on Jenessa like an elephant sitting on her chest. She struggled to suck in a deep breath. Reconciliation of any kind with her father would be impossible now. Guilt rippled through her. Why hadn’t she tried harder?

  Her father, David Jones, had been an attorney in Hidden Valley. He had moved the family there from San Francisco to start up a new practice when Jenessa was fifteen. She had been heartbroken, inconsolable, leaving her friends and the home she had grown up in.

  He had tried to comfort her, her sister too, telling them that he was doing it to give his family a safer, better life in that small town, nestled in the central valley of California. They would make new friends, he had promised, and they would have a larger, nicer home than before. His sister Renee had lived there for years and had often encouraged him to take a leap and move his family there.

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Jenessa said. “He was always one to keep things bottled up.” Unfortunately, in that way, she took after him. “Perhaps the stress got to be too much for him.”

  “You’re probably right.” Aunt Renee sniffled. “I know you and he didn’t get along all that well these last few years, Jen, but I know he loved you very much.”

  “He sure had a funny way of showing it.” Jenessa pinched her lips shut. She hadn’t meant to sound so cold and had blurted it out before her brain could filter her response.

  Aunt Renee’s words had yanked up painful, buried feelings and the comment had unexpectedly slipped out from a dark and wounded place. Jenessa was instantly thrown back to the years her father had been cool and distant, ever since she screwed up and made that one mistake—that one very big mistake—when she was seventeen.

  No matter how much she wished it, Jenessa couldn’t pull her icy remark back in. “I shouldn’t have said that,” was all she could offer.

  “I understand, you’re upset. We all are, hon. When can you come home?” Aunt Renee asked.

  Jenessa hadn’t told anyone in her family that she had lost her job at the paper. She’d hoped to get another before she ran out of money, before she disappointed her father one more time.

  She hadn’t even told her best friend, Ramey St. John, who still lived in Hidden Valley. She and Ramey had met in Spanish class after her family moved there. They were in the same grade and became best friends.

  “I can leave as soon as I get a bag packed.” It was a two-hour drive down Highway 99, assuming her old Toyota was up for the journey. “I’ll call you when I get close.”

  “Sara and Ramey will be glad to see you, hon, and so will I. Drive safely.”

  Ramey would be glad, but Jenessa doubted Sara would.

  Jenessa hadn’t visited her hometown very often after she’d left at seventeen, but she did stay in contact with Ramey, and her sister too, somewhat. She and Sara had been close until Jenessa left, but her sister had blamed her for the rift between her and her father. She also blamed Jenessa for their mother’s death.

  But sweet Ramey was always there for her. Ramey had become more like another sister than a friend to Jenessa. She had been raised by a single mother who had become an alcoholic and a recreational drug user over the years, making Ramey’s home life miserable and sometimes dangerous. Jenessa often invited Ramey to come and hang out at her house, to spend the night most weekends, and the girl became like a third daughter in the family.

  The thought of seeing Ramey again was a bright spot in an otherwise sad situation. Sara? Well, she’d have to see how that went.

  After changing out of her suit, and into a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt, Jenessa began packing. With no job and no way to make up the back rent, she crammed all her clothes into suitcases and every other thing she wanted to take with her into boxes.

  She loaded her trunk and back seat with all the belongings she could fit, carefully setting a framed picture of her mother on the front seat beside her purse. The manager could have her old sofa, dining set, and well-worn bed—Jenessa wasn’t coming back.

  She filled the car’s tank with gas and made sure the radiator was topped up with water before she hit the road. Relieved that her car started when she turned the key, she looked over at the picture of her mother and brushed her fingers gently over it. Her mother was of Mexican descent, and the photo drew attention to her short dark hair and warm brown eyes.

  Jenessa shot a glance to her own image in the rearview mirror and smiled—she loved that she had her mother’s espresso-colored hair. “I’m coming home, Momma.”

  Chapter 2

  Over the next couple of hours, as she drove on the busy highway, Jenessa thought about her father. As a child, she remembered thinking how tall and strong he looked. He was six three, slender build, with dark blond hair and pale green eyes. Aunt Renee had the same golden hair and green eyes, which had been passed down to Sara, as well.

  Though Jenessa had inherited her mother’s beautiful dark hair, she had her father’s light eyes. When she was a little girl, her dad used to tell her they were the color of her August birthstone, the peridot.

  Flying down the highway, Jenessa’s thoughts wrapped around memories of their family trips to fun places in San Francisco—the aquarium in Golden Gate Park, boating and fishing in the bay, and eating crab out of cups from the street vendors at Fisherman’s Wharf. David Jones had been a good father, and they were a happy family—at least back in those days.

  “Oh, Dad,” she sighed, “why did we ever have to move to Hidden Valley?”

  As she passed the second exit into Stockton, a chill rippled over her and she fought back the tears that were beginning to blur her vision. It was at this spot on the highway that her mother had died. The week after Christmas, her mom had come to Sacramento to visit her and to bring her Christmas gifts. Jenessa had gone to Hidden Valley for Thanksgiving that year, and it had not gone well with her father, so she’d refused to come down for Christmas.

  After staying a couple of days with her daughter, Lydia Jones had headed back home. A thick fog had settled into the valley that afternoon and Jenessa’s mother ended up in the middle of a twenty-car pileup. The police report had said she’d died immediately upon impact, her small SUV crushed between two semi-trucks.

  The news had devastated Jenessa. She was to blame. If she hadn’t been so stiff-necked, if she had given in to her mother’s request to spend Christmas in Hidden Valley, she would still be alive. If only she could turn the clock back and undo it. But if she could do that, she would turn the clock back more than twelve years and undo it all.

  As soon as she’d received word of her mother’s death, Jenessa had left work and raced to Hidden Valley. She went to her parents’ house first, expecting to stay there, hoping to make amends with her father, but he didn’t want her there. He asked her to stay at Aunt Renee’s house, which she did. Tonight, though, she would stay at her family home, and he wouldn’t be there to turn her away.


  Why did he have to shun her and treat her like the bad girl? Sara did things equally as bad—or worse—she just never got caught.

  Her father’s disappointment built a wall between them, bricks laid in place with each harsh word, each disapproving glare. His behavior seemed warm and caring toward Sara, and he treated Ramey like she was part of the family, but not Jenessa, never her, not since she was seventeen.

  For heaven’s sake, it was just one mistake—why couldn’t he have forgiven me?

  No longer able to contain the tears, they stormed down her cheeks.

  ~*~

  Jenessa breathed deeply and dried her tears, but her mind continued to race over the events of the past, including the few years she’d spent in Hidden Valley. As she passed the city-limits sign coming into town, a siren blared behind her. She glanced up into her rearview mirror and noticed a police car following her closely with its blue-and-red lights flashing.

  She pulled her car over to the side of the road. Had she been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed the drop in speed limit or how fast she was going?

  Pushing the button in the door, she rolled the two front windows down, feeling the summer heat pour in from outside. She turned the engine off and rummaged through the glove compartment for her insurance and registration, fished her license out of her wallet, and waited for the officer.

  “License, registration, and insurance, ma’am,” a deep male voice said.

  She handed them all over to him, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

  “Your license says Jenessa Jones.”

  “That’s right,” she replied, looking up at him, shading her eyes with her hand. The bright sun was just over his shoulder, making it hard to make out his face.

  The tall officer crouched down beside the car so his head was at window level. “I used to know a Jenessa Jones in high school. Could that be you?”

  Jenessa looked over at the man as he pulled his sunglasses off. He did look vaguely familiar, but she hadn’t been in high school for a long time, and teenagers have a tendency to change as they grow up. Surely she would have remembered someone as handsome as this guy if they had gone to school together.