The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) Page 3

“Tell us more,” Sara chimed in, sounding more surprised than interested. “When did you see Logan?”

  “It was nothing, really.” Jenessa didn’t want to discuss Logan with them, or with anyone for that matter. “He stopped by The Sweet Spot as Ramey was closing up and then he left.”

  “Just like that?” Sara sounded like she didn’t believe her sister.

  Ramey leaned forward. “It was more like Jenessa ran him off.”

  “Oh, dear girl,” Aunt Renee sighed. “You can’t stay in this town and not run into Logan Alexander. You’d better make peace with him or you’ll surely make yourself miserable.”

  Her aunt was right, but she didn’t want to talk about it. Her initial reaction to running into Logan was so visceral that it knocked her off balance, emotionally. She hadn’t meant to bite his head off. That wasn’t how their first meeting was supposed to go, at least not in the hundred times she had replayed it in her mind during the first few years following their break up.

  After a while she had managed to think of him less and less, until the last couple of years she hadn’t thought of him at all—until today. She’d have to figure out a way to be in that man’s presence without going ballistic.

  “Can we pu-leeze change the subject?” Jenessa begged, popping the last of the bagel into her mouth.

  ~*~

  As the afternoon flowed into the early evening, Aunt Renee ordered take-out from a local restaurant that specialized in fresh and organic food, requesting that they deliver the meals, which was not their usual custom. But Renee Giraldy could be convincing, and after promising a sizeable tip, her doorbell soon rang with her delivery.

  Sara and Ramey unpacked the food and set plates and glasses out on the casual dining table between the kitchen and the great room. As Aunt Renee filled a crystal pitcher with water and ice, Jenessa grabbed the napkins and utensils and set the table. Each did their part and dinner came together like clockwork.

  Jenessa enjoyed the meal with her family, something she had not done in a very long time. Even though it was not under the best of circumstances, it felt warm and comfortable—a far cry from the years of eating frozen meals out of the microwave, alone in her apartment, sometimes consuming them over the kitchen sink or grabbing bites while working on a story on her laptop.

  She had concentrated on her education, and then on her work. She hadn’t taken the time to make many friends in Sacramento, even among her co-workers at the newspaper, focusing more on her job as an investigative reporter. Working her way up from covering weddings and social events, she had proven her ability to write and to dig for the truth while producing compelling human-interest stories.

  And as pretty as she was, Jenessa had shied away from getting too deeply involved in romantic relationships—not in college and not after. She had dated a number of men over the years, but as soon as she noticed they were getting serious, she found some way to demolish the relationship.

  She had given her heart to one man, Logan Alexander, and it had turned into a disaster. For her own emotional protection, whether purposely or subconsciously, she protected herself from going through anything like that again.

  When she was seventeen, Jenessa had loved Logan so completely, so intensely, she’d thought she might burn up and disappear in a cloud of smoke. And he had loved her, or at least he’d said he did. But he broke her heart and ruined her life, and she didn’t ever want to feel that way again.

  Coming home to Hidden Valley, would she finally be ready to open her heart to another man?

  Chapter 4

  Dinner was almost over. Aunt Renee brought another pitcher of ice water to the table and offered to pour.

  “No more for me,” Jenessa said. She finished her Caesar salad with grilled chicken and sourdough rolls and couldn’t remember when anything had tasted so good. “I should get going pretty soon. I want to go through Dad’s desk and his filing cabinet before I go to bed. Maybe I can find his funeral and burial instructions.”

  Sara and Ramey decided they would stay over at Aunt Renee’s so none of them would have to be alone that night.

  Ramey was single, having not married yet. Actually, she had hardly dated, but she remained hopeful and optimistic. Jenessa always thought what Ramey lacked in beauty she made up for in sweetness and charm.

  At the moment, Sara was single too. She was usually kind, always beautiful and carefree, blessed with dark honey-colored hair and familial soft green eyes, looking more like Aunt Renee than she did her own mother. She was a little shorter than Jenessa, with a slim, petite build.

  Sara had married at twenty-one and, much to her parents’ dismay, she was divorced by twenty-three. In the last couple of years, she’d had a string of boyfriends, but as far as Jenessa knew, none of them were serious.

  Jenessa stood. “I think I should be going.” She was looking forward to staying the night, alone, at her parents’ home. She didn’t mind the solitude—she was used to it. In fact, she was a little excited to get busy digging through her Dad’s office, hoping to find more than just his final wishes.

  After saying her good-byes to the girls and giving hugs all around, she left her aunt’s home and drove her bucket of bolts to her parents’ house. It was located a couple of blocks from the high school, in a neighborhood of well-kept, upscale, older homes. Although it didn’t rival the grandeur of Aunt Renee’s neighborhood, it was beautiful nonetheless.

  As Jenessa drove past her old school, she swore she saw a vision of herself with Logan, sitting on the front steps, holding hands. He was wearing his letterman jacket as the football team’s star quarterback. The big fish in a small pond.

  The school had stood in that spot since the nineteen forties. It was two stories of faded red brick with ornate detailing and beige stonework arching over the main entrance, and it sat perched atop several rows of stone steps. There were broad lawns out front, with tall evergreen trees, and in the center of the main walkway to the heavy wooden front doors there was a circular fountain, with thick masonry for seating.

  Her family had moved to Hidden Valley at the beginning of her sophomore year, which felt like a lifetime ago now. Although she had noticed Logan not long after changing to her new school—he was hard to miss—they hadn’t begun dating until the fall of her junior year. He was a grade ahead of her in school and would be graduating, then heading off to college on a football scholarship.

  She had been busy working on the school newspaper, realizing early on how much she enjoyed writing and pursuing a story. It was that year that she decided to major in journalism when she went to college.

  In the spring, he asked her to the prom. It was like a fairytale. Her mother had taken her to the city a few weeks before the dance and they had shopped for just the right gown, a strapless number, pale pink and flowing. Mom had paid for Jenessa to have her hair done, swept up with curls cascading down the back and a few wispy tendrils falling loosely around her face. Logan showed up to her house, handsomely dressed in a black tuxedo and bow tie with a gorgeous corsage of deep pink roses for her wrist.

  Her mother had the camera out and was all smiles as she excitedly insisted on several photos of the couple before she would let them leave. Jenessa remembered her father had stood in the background, watching quietly.

  The memory dissolved as she reached her old home and pulled into the driveway. The house was English Tudor style and had been built not long after the high school. Before her parents acquired it, the previous owners had done a total updating of the kitchen and bathrooms, even going as far as having all of the hardwood floors beautifully refinished.

  She recalled the day they’d moved in, her father smugly commenting that it was a fitting home for a successful attorney. That phrase always stuck with her—a fitting home.

  After turning her key in the lock, she pushed the quaint arched-top door open. It was midsummer, so the sun would not be setting for another hour or so and she was glad for the light that streamed in the windows, not to mention thankful the
air conditioning was on.

  Jenessa dragged her suitcase and carry-on bag up the stairs to her old bedroom. It was just the way she had left it the last time she was there, except for the layer of dust. When her mother was alive, she dusted and vacuumed and put fresh sheets on the bed when her daughter was coming home for a visit. It was clear no one had set foot in this room since her death.

  After retrieving a clean set of sheets from the hall linen closet, Jenessa set about making up the bed. As for the dusting and vacuuming, she decided she’d leave them for the morning. She was anxious to get to her father’s office downstairs and start going through his papers. The thought of it brought a surprising rush of tears.

  She slunk down onto her bed and wiped them away with her fingers. Her dad was gone. The finality of it saddened her. There would be no more confrontations, no more cold shoulders, and no more chances to make amends.

  The sun had almost set by the time she came downstairs. She flicked on a few lights as she meandered through the house, coming to rest at her father’s large antique desk. An eerie sensation rippled over her, like she was sitting there without his permission and somehow he would know.

  Jenessa shuddered and shook off the feeling. She pulled out one of the deep side drawers and rummaged through it, peering into the folders and hanging files. Then she searched the second drawer. Nothing of value there.

  She tugged on the center lap drawer, but it was locked. She glanced around. Where was the key?

  It hadn’t occurred to her before, but she wondered now where his personal effects were—his clothes, his wallet, his keys. Was his car still parked in the lot next to his law office?

  She made a notation on a yellow sticky note to find out about these things first thing in the morning. Perhaps Aunt Renee had recovered them when she went down to the coroner’s office.

  There were several small, framed photos set on the corner of his desk. One had the entire family, before they’d relocated to Hidden Valley. The other two were individual school pictures of her and her sister after their move. She was a little surprised to see her picture there among the others. Had he really wanted to see her face every day?

  She half-expected to see Ramey’s photo on his desk as well, but no.

  Next, she turned her attention to the four-drawer file cabinet that sat in the corner, to the right of the large window that held a view of the manicured backyard. She painstakingly went through the top two drawers, file by file, page by page, but no luck.

  It was getting late and she was ready to turn in for the night. Exhausted, Jenessa dropped down into her father’s executive chair again and her gaze floated around the room. She leaned back against the black leather and picked up the faint scent of his aftershave. Then, she ran her hands over his leather desk blotter. He had spent so many hours in this room and she sensed his presence.

  Tears moistened her eyes once more, then trickled down her cheeks. She would never see his face again, or have the opportunity to make right what had gone so terribly wrong. With her head in her hands she sat in his office and sobbed.

  When no more tears came, she flicked the desk lamp off and walked out. After turning off all the lights in the house, except in the central hallway, she slowly climbed the stairs to her room. Tomorrow she would tackle the other two drawers in the office, but first she had to apply for the reporter job and check on her father’s personal effects.

  After stripping out of her clothes and tugging a short nightgown over her head, she pulled off her watch and gold hoop earrings, opening the top drawer of her dresser to store them. Something scraped along the drawer as she opened it.

  That’s odd. Sticking her hand into the far back and upper part of the drawer, her fingers touched what felt like a stiff piece of paper. She worked it loose, trying not to rip it, and pulled it out.

  A knot grew in her throat as she turned it over and saw what it was. She could hardly swallow. The hidden paper was a picture of her and Logan on prom night, one of the photos her mother had taken. She thought she had destroyed those photos, along with anything else that reminded her of him.

  How long had that picture been wedged at the back of that drawer? She threw the photo back in the drawer and slammed it shut. She should have thrown it in the trash, but it had survived this many years, one more day wouldn’t matter.

  She pulled the covers back, clicked off the lamp, and climbed in bed. Exhaling a long breath, she laid back against her pillow. Closing her eyes, she hoped for sleep.

  Why did she have to find that photo of Logan right before she went to bed? All it did was get her blood boiling. She pulled the blankets over her head and let out a long, loud sigh.

  She had tried for the last twelve years to forget that pompous, self-centered, sorry-excuse-for-a-man. Now, she would probably dream about him.

  Chapter 5

  The bright morning sun streaming in through the bedroom window woke Jenessa with a start as she opened her eyes and got her bearings. She rolled over and looked at the clock, deciding she’d better get up. She could hear her father’s voice in her head, telling her there was too much to do to laze around after seven o’clock.

  She had been right last night. Seeing the old prom photo of her and Logan had caused her to toss and turn for hours, replaying in her mind the good times, and the bad. True to life, her dreams of Logan had always ended with the bad.

  Sliding her legs over the side of the bed, she stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen. Still groggy and bleary-eyed, Jenessa managed to make herself a pot of coffee. She would need it to look alert when she approached the managing editor of the town’s newspaper.

  Rather than call him, because it would be too easy for him to brush her off, she decided she’d show up in person, a friendly smile on her face and her resume in her hand. She would sell him on her virtues and why they needed to hire her.

  Once she got her first cup of the day, she wandered into her father’s office. She paused again at the photos. Had he really wanted her picture on his desk, or had her mother framed all the photos and stuck them in an orderly fashion, facing him from the corner of his desk, trying to remind him he had two daughters? She guessed it was more likely the latter.

  There were two file drawers still to go through in the hopes of discovering his burial wishes. They needed to find out soon because the coroner’s office would want to know where to send the body, and then there were arrangements to be made. It wasn’t like when her mother died. Her mother had made it clear to her husband and her daughters what she wanted when she died—to be buried in the town cemetery under a big elm tree that would give shade to her family when they came to visit her.

  Midway through her task, at quarter to eight, Jenessa received a call from her aunt.

  “Any luck?” Aunt Renee asked.

  “Not yet. I’ve still got one more drawer to go through. Then there’s the lap drawer. It’s locked and I don’t know where the key is. Do you?”

  “No, haven’t a clue, hon.”

  “Sorry, Aunt Renee, but I may have to bust into it.”

  “Oh, sweet girl, no! That desk is an antique. Why don’t we check with your dad’s attorney? I’m certain he had someone draw up his Will.”

  “I haven’t found anything yet, but knowing my father, I’m sure he would have too. Probably one of the lawyers in his firm.”

  “Do you want me to call and talk to his secretary?” Aunt Renee offered. “She probably knows.”

  “I’m headed down to the newspaper later this morning to apply for that job. Why don’t I drop by the office and see what I can dig up in person.”

  “All right, hon. Come by after you’re done. Sara and I will be here. We’ll want to hear all about your interview.”

  “Where’s Ramey?”

  “She’s gone, down to The Sweet Spot. She’s always there before five, baking and opening up the shop. Sara’s not going in today, though. She’s staying here with me.”

  Stopping at The Sweet Spot to see R
amey sounded good, not to mention a delicious cup of coffee and a fresh cinnamon roll. “I’ve got to go and get ready. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

  ~*~

  After slipping into a black pencil skirt and white silk top, Jenessa headed down to The Sweet Spot. Her mouth watered just thinking about Ramey’s decadent cinnamon rolls.

  She found a place to park near the café and breezed through the door. An older woman, with her dark hair pulled back into a bun, stood behind the counter with Ramey, waiting on several customers.

  When Ramey caught sight of Jenessa, she smiled broadly and her eyes lit up. “Hey, you!” Her face reflected the joy at seeing her old friend again. “Be with you in a sec.”

  Jenessa took her place in line and waited her turn, watching as the two women expertly served their customers.

  “I’m glad you stopped in. What can I get for you?” Ramey asked when Jenessa got to the front of the line.

  “Busy place.” Jenessa glanced around the small shop.

  “Yes, it is—thankfully.”

  “Can I get a mocha-cappuccino and a cinnamon roll?”

  “Absolutely.” Ramey leaned forward and lowered her voice. “If you can wait for a bit, the crowd’ll die down and we can talk.”

  “Sure, I’ll grab a table if there’s one free.”

  Ramey gestured to the right. “Over in the corner. Grab it and I’ll bring your order out.” Then her gaze went to the next person in line. “Good morning, Officer.”

  Officer? Jenessa whirled around with a smile, wondering if Ramey was greeting their old friend, Michael. Hope dissolved when she saw it was a middle-aged uniformed patrolman she didn’t recognize. He met her gaze and her cheeks warmed. “I’ll just go sit down now.”

  As she stepped away, Michael walked through the door. “Jenessa?”

  “Michael.” Before she could help it, a grin spread across her face. “Nice to see you again. I was just about to grab a table. Would you like to join me?”

  “Can’t. My partner and I are only here to pick up some coffee and—”