by Barb Han
Jennifer had always wanted more out of life than the meager childhood they’d had in Shreveport. Both of their parents had worked low-wage jobs to support the family. Their mother had owned a cleaning service, her father had made a living doing seasonal yard work, and all three kids had had to pitch in to help summers. Jennifer had always imagined herself living in one of the grand Southern colonials they’d cleaned while Jessica had always been the more practical sister. She’d been able to see right through the men who dated Jennifer for superficial reasons and then dumped her when it was time to find a proper wife.
Tyler steered onto the highway. All makes and models of trucks blazed past them.
“I was remembering my last conversation with my sister. She said that she was involved in something and she needed to figure a way out, to clear things up. Or at least, I think that’s what she said.” Jessica gingerly fingered the wrap on her forehead.
“Which could mean that she is guilty of taking the necklace,” Tyler said, and she couldn’t argue with his reasoning. That’s exactly what this would look like to an outsider. Except that she knew her sister better than that. Jennifer could be flighty and she definitely liked a good party and hanging out with the highbrow crowd, but she was honest.
Convincing the handsome cowboy of that was a whole different story. She couldn’t prove that her sister wasn’t involved. All she had to go on was how well she knew Jenn. Twins for life! had been their mantra since they were little girls and most of the time it felt like they could read each other’s thoughts. Jessica had no such magic now and the silence was terrifying because she feared her sister was in grave danger.
“Jennifer might come off as insincere, and sometimes she is, but she’s also good underneath all the layers. Freshman year she went to Houston for college. I helped her move into her dorm and we went shopping to pick up a few extra supplies. We get in the car and Jenn realizes that the clerk had forgotten to charge her for a twelve-dollar pillow. It was late August in one of the hottest summers on record in Texas. Jenn’s car had no air-conditioning. But Jenn was worried that the clerk would get in trouble for the mistake. Drenched in sweat, she marched back inside to let him know.”
She stared out the front window. “I consider myself an honest person, but I would’ve returned to pay for the pillow another day or waited until the sun went down. Not Jennifer. No amount of begging could change her mind. By the time she got back I was dripping so I made her stop off at the nearest gas station so I could buy a cup of ice to rub on my sizzling skin.” And that was just one of many examples that came to mind.
Jessica could tell Tyler all day that her sister would never take something that didn’t belong to her, but she had nothing concrete to prove it and he had no reason to believe her. “I can see how this looks and if I was you I’d probably assume the worst and that she was a bad person—”
“Hold on there. No one said anything about jumping to the worst-case scenario. We need to think through every possibility and I’m going to have to ask hard questions along the way. If you say your sister couldn’t have stolen something then I believe you,” he said. “Let’s work with the assumption that she had no idea what was really going on but got herself tangled in this mess. That makes more sense anyway, because you two are close and based on my intimate knowledge of twins she wouldn’t knowingly put you in danger. Someone could’ve used her. Even made it look like she was the one who took the necklace to cover for themselves.”
“That necklace is worth a fortune. I’m betting Milton isn’t the only one trying to find it, aside from my sister,” she said. “With millions on the line, a lot of bad people would come out of the woodwork.”
“Which could explain the man at the motel and if that’s true, then I doubt Tommy will be able to identify him. He could be a treasure hunter or working for organized crime.”
“One of how many?” She touched a sensitive spot on her head and winced.
“There will be a lot. Some of them will be official. Insurance companies hire interesting people to help investigate and recover merchandise like that, and a necklace worth millions would be insured to the nines,” Tyler said. “And then there’s the black market.”
Just the thought made her head hurt even more. “And my sister is tied up right in the middle of this, of all these vultures.”
“It would seem that way. Tommy is going to be following the same paths and I’m going to have to bring him in at some point,” Tyler said, and she thought about it for a long moment.
“Okay. But not without discussing it with me first.” She figured she could hold Tyler off long enough to get her bearings and for them to make enough progress for her to walk away and make sure he wasn’t in danger. Eventually she’d have to break out on her own. “I need to speak to my sister. It’s the only way to be certain of what we’re dealing with. I talk to her and everything will be cleared up.”
“You couldn’t reach her earlier.”
“True.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I need my cell. She may have left a message or a clue. I bet she’s been trying to reach me and I haven’t been able to answer. I hid my phone because Milton was creeping me out. That’s why I didn’t bring it with me when we went out on ATVs. I was afraid he’d take it and then he’d know.” Jessica sat straight up in her chair, remembering a little more. “I find my cell and we get answers.”
* * *
THREE-INCH-WIDE crime scene tape, Big Bird yellow with bold black lettering, stretched across the door of room 121 of the Bluff Motel. The sun was out and it was finally warming up a little.
A sickening feeling sank low in the pit of Jessica’s stomach as she walked across the black asphalt toward the room she’d been forced to share with Milton. It was bad enough that a man had been killed only fifteen feet away, even a man who was after her sister or James Milton didn’t deserve to be stabbed to death, but she could feel the sense of despair hanging in the air. Knowing what had happened and seeing the evidence right in front of her made everything that much more surreal. A man was dead. Her sister was missing.
Jessica’s stomach clenched and she tried to stave off nausea. The sheriff ducked under the tape and moved toward them. He was holding a paper bag—evidence?—which he handed to a deputy.
“I couldn’t be sorrier about what happened here,” the sheriff said with a genuine look of compassion. “Has your fiancé been in touch with you?”
In the moment, she’d almost forgotten about keeping up that charade.
“No, he hasn’t. But thank you very much, sheriff. This is all such a shock.” That much was true. Everything about the past thirty-six hours had turned everything she knew upside down and twisted up her insides. “I’m afraid I lost my cell so I don’t know if he’s been trying to contact me.”
Tommy nodded, which she took to mean neither he nor his deputy had found it.
“See anything in there that might help you figure out what happened?” Tyler asked, diverting the sheriff’s attention, and she was grateful for that.
Jessica didn’t have that same ability to fudge the truth with people that came so easily to her sister. In her heart, her sister was a good person incapable of hurting a soul. Of course, Jennifer never would have called it lying. She’d prefer to say something like bending the truth.
Tears leaked from Jessica’s eyes. Her sister had to be all right. If she’d gotten herself involved with men worse than Milton, Jessica was even more worried.
“I ran James Milton through the system,” Tommy said to her. “How well do you know your fiancé?”
“I learned a great deal more about him recently. Why?” Jessica wasn’t sure where this was going and she didn’t like lying to someone in law enforcement.
“What did you find?” Tyler asked, drawing the attention to him again.
Jessica shot him a grateful look.
�
��He has a record,” Tommy said matter-of-factly.
“For what?” Tyler asked as Jessica gasped.
Tommy looked from Tyler to her. “I’m guessing by your reaction you had no idea.”
“No. I would never have even guessed.” Jessica didn’t have to fake her reaction. She was genuinely shocked and even more worried for her sister. If the sheriff confused her reaction for feelings for Milton so be it. “You think you know someone.”
“I made a call to Baton Rouge PD and he’s pretty well known for having gambling issues.”
“Meaning the issue is that he loses,” Tyler added.
“They don’t call it a problem when they’re winning,” the sheriff said wryly. “He’s wanted for questioning in several cases the PD is trying to clear up, everything from small cons to extortion. They booked him on a small-time charge.”
“I had no idea,” Jessica said honestly as she tried to digest this news. She’d discovered that her so-called fiancé was a con man who’d set her up. More questions for Jenn were mounting. Jessica wondered if Milton had heard about the necklace and decided to steal it and cash in. Maybe he had debts to pay with the wrong people and one of those could’ve been the man that had been killed.
“Ever hear of Randall Beauchamp?” the sheriff asked.
“He’s the head of one of Louisiana’s wealthiest families,” Jessica said. “And I’ve heard that he doesn’t make all his money from legitimate sources.”
Had Jennifer gotten herself mixed up with one of the biggest crime families in Louisiana?
“The Baton Rouge police chief seems to think that Randall Beauchamp is on the hunt for a stolen necklace worth millions of dollars on the black—”
Before Tommy could finish his sentence, Jessica sank to her knees. Nausea threatened to overwhelm her. Her world tilted on its axis as the reality of her sister’s situation set in. Jennifer was as good as dead.
Was Milton working for the Beauchamps? Maybe he was greedy and wanted to sell the necklace in order to settle a gambling debt. Or maybe he needed the money to disappear.
Bile burned the back of Jessica’s throat as she felt herself being lifted up by strong arms.
“You don’t have to do this right now” came Tyler’s masculine tone, and it sent a warm current running through her. “We can deal with all of this later.”
“It’s okay,” she said as he led her to the passenger seat of the SUV. She turned to face him. “I need to do this.”
The sheriff stayed put. A deputy had brought over something he must’ve wanted to show his boss and the two were engaged in conversation.
She and Tyler were just out of earshot. “I need to find my phone.”
“Tommy or one of his deputy’s might already have it.”
Jessica shot him a look.
“No. There’s no way Tommy will release evidence in a murder investigation. He can’t.”
Jessica looked him dead in the eyes. “I hid it in between the mattresses.”
“Hold on” was all he said and then he walked away.
* * *
THE DEPUTY WHO had been talking to Tommy put an evidence bag in his cruiser as Tommy disappeared inside the cordoned-off room.
“Hey,” Tyler said to Deputy Garcia. “Mind talking her off the ledge?”
Tyler motioned toward Jessica, hating that he was about to lie to his friends again. He’d known Garcia since middle school.
“What’s going on?” Garcia asked.
“She’s still in shock about all this. First, she decides to leave an abusive relationship and now a man turns up dead in her fiancé’s motel room. I think she’s blaming herself in some weird way, like if she’d stayed with him then everything would be okay,” Tyler said, praying his friend bought into the lie. “And now finding out that not only was he abusive but he was a criminal seems to have put her over the edge.”
“Not sure what I can say to help but I’ll try.” Garcia shook Tyler’s outstretched hand before walking over to Jessica.
There were only two law enforcement officials on the scene that Tyler had noticed so far. Hopefully Jessica could keep Garcia occupied while Tyler worked on Tommy.
Tyler glanced at Garcia, who had his back turned to him, and then ducked under the crime scene tape.
The room had worn dark blue carpeting and two full-size beds with heavy bedspreads that looked exactly like the curtains in his Gran’s old house. Beds, perfectly made, were to the right and there was a plywood desk and a dresser made of the same quality against the wall to the left. This was the sort of place that most likely bolted the furniture to the floor and nailed pictures to the walls.
Noise came from the bathroom beyond and Tyler figured Tommy was there collecting evidence and looking for clues.
He ran his hand along the box spring of the second bed, figuring that Milton wouldn’t want Jessica sleeping closest to the door in case she decided to bolt.
Bingo.
He tucked the phone in his front pocket and then turned to sneak out.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” Tommy said, standing in front of the closet leading to the bathroom. His arms were folded and his feet braced.
“I was just looking for you.” Damn. Tyler was a bad liar.
“I’ll give you a hint. I’m not in one of the drawers of the nightstand.” Tommy hadn’t bought the line.
“This?” Tyler turned to the nightstand with the phone and alarm clock on it, stalling for a few seconds while he tried to think up an excuse. He saw a pen and notepad with the hotel logo on it. Snatching them up, he then turned toward Tommy. “I was looking for these.”
Tommy’s cocked eyebrow said it all. “Don’t touch anything else. I don’t need your fingerprints all over my crime scene.”
At least he didn’t seem to realize that Tyler had shoved something inside his pocket.
“What did you want with me?” Tommy asked.
“Glad you asked. I wanted to talk to you without Red in the room. Do you think there’s any chance she knew what was going on?”
That seemed to ease Tommy’s concerns. “Her reactions seem genuine to me. This is catching her off guard. Why? You think there’s a chance she knew?”
“Not really. I just wanted to make sure I was on the same page as you after she reached out to me,” he said.
“She thinking of leaving town anytime soon?” Tommy asked.
“Good question. She hasn’t mentioned having family to take care of her. We already know she’s from Baton Rouge. I don’t think she’s in a big hurry to go home, considering Milton could be there now.”
“Men who abuse women like to cut them off from the rest of their family. So, even if there is someone she might not’ve spoken with them in months or years,” Tommy said.
Tyler clenched his back teeth. “She may have had a dust-up with her family about him.”
“She’ll need counseling and a lot of support. Even though Milton can’t hurt her anymore she needs help dealing with her emotions.” Tommy’s hands had relaxed and he’d slipped them inside his pockets.
“Milton’s a first-class jerk.”
“My guess is that the lawyer got himself in trouble with some gambling debt and that could be responsible for the timing of their trip. He might’ve hoped things would cool down back home,” Tommy said.
“We didn’t trust him from the beginning,” Tyler added.
“Nope. He’s a scumbag. I’m planning to dig deeper into whether or not he had a life insurance policy on Miss Davidson. She may not have known he’d taken one out and her accident seems even more suspect now. An insurance payoff could clear up any debt Milton had and set him up nicely.”
“Good point. I didn’t like him from the get-go and I like him even less now that I know about his background. She said he w
as an attorney and an upstanding citizen. Guess he put on a good act,” Tyler said.
“Love is blind,” Tommy quipped. “I see it all the time in my line of work.” He paused. “She seems like a nice person.”
Tyler nodded.
“I see that you’re helping her out and she needs a friend. How far do you plan to go?” Tommy asked, accusation in his tone.
“Why wouldn’t I lend a hand? She needs a place to catch her breath. It’s been a crazy couple of days for her. I figure I’ll help her get straight, maybe get Doc McConnell in to speak to her, and then send her back to Louisiana where she belongs.”
“Be careful,” Tommy warned.
“Of what? Her?” Tyler blew off the comments.
“Yes. I know you, Tyler O’Brien. You’re not going to be able to turn your back on someone who needs a hand up. This woman’s been through a lot and I’m warning you as your friend not to get too involved.”
A throat-clearing noise came from the doorway. Jessica stood there. “Are you ready to go now?”
Tyler nodded and shot Tommy a warning look. Although he wasn’t thrilled that Jessica overheard the conversation, he was relieved that she’d given him an out. He used it to walk out the door and past the tape.
Once they were safely inside the SUV and he was sure no one could hear, he said, “I found it.”
“My phone?” There was a mix of apprehension and excitement in her tone. And fear.
He nodded. “We’ll check it out as soon as the motel is safely in the rearview.”
“Thank you,” she said, adding, “and he’s right, you know. A man is dead. This is dangerous—”
“That’s not your fault,” Tyler interjected.
“No, it’s not. But I’m heading toward the people who killed him and that isn’t safe for you.” She didn’t miss a beat.
“It’s not for you, either. Will knowing that stop you?” he asked.
“No. My sister’s in danger and I can’t walk away. I have to find her. I don’t have a choice,” she said impatiently.