Jan Coffey Suspense Box Set: Three Complete Novel Box Set: Trust Me Once, Twice Burned, Fourth Victim

by Jan Coffey

  His eyes went from Kelly to Jade. Seeing the smile tugging at his lips, Kelly looked down. Her daughter was mimicking her stance—everything down to crossing the arms and rubbing one foot on top of the other.

  “Only a fool would turn down an offer of toast from two beautiful women,” he said, looking back up to Kelly. “Give me ten minutes. I’d still like to clean up.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to offer him the use of their bathroom, but Kelly stopped herself in time. She had to use it herself. And then there were all their personal things cluttering every shelf.

  “Come over when you’re ready,” she said.

  The two of them waited until he disappeared inside his room, then turned and rushed into the apartment.

  “I like him Mommy. I like him a lot,” Jade said excitedly, skipping after her mother as Kelly picked up clothing from the chairs and toys off the floor. “Maybe he’ll take me out in one of the boats. You can come, too. And I saw these pretty flowers. Maybe…maybe he’ll take me for a walk, and we can bring some back for you.”

  “We can’t plan Mr. Campbell’s weekend for him, sweetheart,” Kelly said, trying not to let her own emotions overwhelm her. She’d always known Jade missed not having a father, but she never realized how quickly she could get attached to someone like Ian. “He’s coming back for some toast. Let’s take one step at the time.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means…” She touched Jade’s upturned and wrinkled nose. “That you should get in the bathroom and wash your face and brush your teeth and change out of your pajamas and let me finish making these beds.”

  “That’s not what that means.”

  The little girl was just too smart. “Okay, it means that we should only plan on Ian having toast with us this morning. That’s it.”

  “But he likes me,” Jade said with a little tremble of the chin.

  “I know he does, my love.” Kelly knelt before her daughter, and held on to her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “And I love you. But sometimes grown-ups have things to do—jobs and places to go and other friends to see. So I think that we shouldn’t push Mr. Campbell to give up other things he might have planned for this weekend. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes. You’re saying Ian is not my playmate,” Jade said somewhat dejectedly.

  Kelly nodded. “But he still could be our friend. And he’s getting all cleaned up and coming over expecting toast, and you and I still look like this.”

  The skip was gone from Jade’s steps when she finally headed to the bathroom. She hadn’t asked for a Band-Aid, though, so Kelly thought the little girl would be able to handle the disappointment.

  They were both lacking in company and friends. In some ways, they lived like social outcasts. Kelly knew exactly how Jade felt. Their life in the boondocks of New Hampshire, as much as it had been ideal at the beginning, was not really working out too well, anymore. Ian’s comment last night, when he’d asked why she hadn’t opted for a more suburban existence, made so much sense. Kelly knew it. She’d been thinking about it for a while, now. It had started as a germ of an idea this past winter. There was nothing that tied Kelly and Jade to this place or to the inn. And frankly, swimming classes and taking over some accounting books were not enough to excite either daughter or mother. As the summer began to unfold, the thought of moving—of selling the inn for whatever she could get and giving Jade and herself a new start, somewhere with people and other children and jobs—was growing more and more appealing.

  Standing in the middle of the apartment and watching her daughter trudge into the bathroom, Kelly knew that now was the time. She didn’t know how she would break this news to Janice and Bill. Tranquility Inn was their home, and there would be no guarantee that another owner would want the same live-in staff to stay on.

  Well, she decided, that was a problem they’d all face when the time came. Jade was Kelly’s first priority, after all, not the Maitlands. And something had to be done.

  Chapter 9

  Not a hundred yards from the state road, Dan waved Bill’s old truck to a stop.

  “Want a lift?” Janice’s husband asked.

  Dan pulled open the creaky door. He dropped his backpack on the floor before climbing up onto the cracked and faded vinyl seat of the old pickup. He looked over at the driver. Bill was in his late seventies, balding, and wearing the same paint-speckled khaki pants he always wore when he was working. His blue shirt was frayed at the collar but clean. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. Glasses Bill should have been wearing were folded in his shirt pocket. He was a quiet, hardworking old guy, and Dan liked him.

  He settled in and looked around for the seatbelt. There wasn’t one.

  “It’s a little early for you to be out and about, I’d say.” Bill nodded at him. “Or is it a little late to be getting in?”

  “You are a nosy old bastard.”

  “Hey, this nose has gotten this old bastard into a lot of interesting trouble over the years.”

  “Yeah? And what trouble have you been into this morning?”

  “Well, I had to take the last of the stuff over,” Bill replied. “We had a few boxes in the carriage house that didn’t get picked up last night.”

  “Did they complain about you being so early?”

  “They know I’m an early riser. Also, this way is better. Fewer eyes watching what’s coming. Gives them no reason to get too excited.”

  Dan nodded, looking out his window. As they came over the top of a hill, he could see the mist rising from the lake. He hadn’t seen any cars by the road leading in to the camp. But it was still way too early.

  “Anything new and unexpected over there?” The pickup hit a pothole in the gravel, and Dan felt his back teeth loosen.

  “Sorry about that. Should’ve gotten out this spring and filled some of these holes.” His grizzled face creased into a frown. “Not that it matters now, I guess.”

  “No, I guess not,” Dan murmured.

  After a moment, Bill continued. “Anyway, it’s quiet over there this morning. They had a lot of folks come in yesterday, and had an inner circle meeting late last night. They’ve got more people arriving today. Should be a full house before the weekend’s out.”

  “Monday is still the day?”

  “As far as I know. But things could change any minute, I suppose.”

  “Do you have a number?”

  “I heard a hundred fifty.”

  Dan gave the old man a sidelong look. “That’s a lot.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  The young man pushed himself to focus on the road and the trees and the lake now visible. “You wouldn’t know there were that many around from this end of the lake.”

  “That fog is like a curtain across the water, ain’t it?”

  “Sure is,” Dan said, clearing an unexpected tightness he felt in his throat.

  Around another bend and the inn came into sight. Bill maneuvered the pickup into the parking lot. Blade’s car was already there. Dan stared at the other cars in the lot. The Desposito truck was the only one already gone.

  “So, you going back over there later?” he asked the older man.

  “Think so. I’ll have to see what Janice has on the to-do list.”

  “Right.” Dan nodded, grabbing his bag and reaching for the door handle.

  “You’re welcome to come on over, young fella.”

  He looked over at Bill, who was watching him closely. “Let me know if you think I should,” he said, getting out.

  ~~~~

  The crunching sound of tires on gravel drew Ian to the window. He recognized Maitland’s truck. He had not yet been officially introduced to the older man, and this morning—before the other guests came downstairs—was probably the best time for that. Bill Maitland was not the reason why he was here. Ian slid his locked suitcase under the bed, hung his wet towel on a hook behind the door, and headed for the apartment across the landing.

  Jade must have been w
aiting at the door, because she opened it the moment Ian’s knuckles made contact with the wood.

  “Mommy is in the shower. Sometimes that takes a while. But she made coffee. And she said I can’t touch it cuz it’s really hot. But you’re a grown-up, so it’s okay for you to.” Jade held the door wide open. “I’ll get you a cup.”

  As she scampered away, Ian looked down at this little person with the big words, and couldn’t help but again be amused. She must have taken a bath or shower, as her hair was wet and combed down her back. She was also changed into a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. She stopped and ran back to him.

  “Oh, you can come in now,” she said, taking his hand and leading him in.

  He stepped into the apartment and looked around at the open-space combination of bedroom and living room with great interest. The dormers and the skylights were a nice addition, and the white walls and cathedral ceiling made the place look practically spacious. The one thing that caught Ian’s immediate interest was the pair of oversized portraits of Jade. They were clearly works of art. They were some of the most stunning natural scenes he’d ever seen captured in a photograph. And they were simply of Jade walking and playing in the woods.

  “That’s me,” she announced to him, still holding his hand.

  “I can see that. Did your mom take those pictures?”

  “Uh huh! And this is the bathroom,” Jade said, changing the subject as if there was nothing special about those pictures. She pointed to the door to their right. Ian could hear the shower running.

  “And here’s where we make our toast,” she said, pulling him to the high counter that served as a divider and a table between the kitchenette and the rest of the apartment. At one end, a toaster was plugged into the wall.

  “Mommy already put out your cup. See?”

  The drip percolator had finished filling the coffee pot.

  Ian nodded. “Thanks.”

  Beside the toaster, Kelly had put out a dish of butter, and three jars of jam. Jade climbed up on one of the high counter chairs and reached for the toaster, pressing the button down.

  “Shouldn’t we wait until your mom gets out?” he asked, anxious that Jade might slip off the chair, or stick her finger in something, or hurt herself in any way.

  “She said I could start my toast when you came in.”

  Ian settled down on the chair next to her, where he could reach her, just in case. He noticed an intercom/monitor on the wall. He reached over and turned the switch to intercom only.

  The water stopped running in the shower, and he had a pretty good idea Kelly would be out of there in just a few minutes. Jade told him about the three jams, which were all her favorite. The toast popped up and he took the pieces out before she burned herself. Depositing them on a plate in front of her, he went around the counter and poured out two cups of coffee.

  Then he sat back and stared in amazement as Jade went to work. A little bit of butter went on the toast, thick layers of all three kinds of jam, which went not only on the bread, but on her fingers and face and shirt, as well. It didn’t seem that she was done with it yet. So she was a kid after all.

  Kelly sailed out of the bathroom, bringing with her the clean smell of soap and shampoo. “Oh! You’re already here.”

  For a few seconds, Ian could only stare. Barefoot and dressed, like her daughter, in a pair of old jeans and a white T-shirt, she looked like a million bucks. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and she hadn’t bothered with any make-up and her wet hair hung loose around her shoulders. To him, she looked fresh and beautiful as a desert dawn. Ian’s gaze wandered over her, lingering a little on the shape of that T-shirt. On second thought, he decided she looked sexy as hell.

  “I’m sorry that we’re not much at entertaining, up here,” she said, sitting next to Jade at the counter. “We ask you to come over without ever thinking that you might want milk or sugar for your coffee. I usually take mine black, but I can run down—”

  “Black’s good for me.” He pushed Kelly’s cup toward hers and took a sip of his own. “Good coffee.”

  Ian’s eyes fixed on Jade’s pièce de résistance. The toast was a gooey mass of dripping jam, squeezed between tiny fingers. The little girl held her culinary masterpiece out to him.

  “Want a bite?”

  “Very tempting, but no thanks. It’s all yours, babe.” Ian looked at Kelly. “Somebody’s got a sweet tooth?”

  “These are fruit purées. They don’t have a lot of sugar in them.” She got up, wet half a dozen paper towels and put them near Jade. “But my girl is definitely a sugarholic.”

  “And you called me a pushover.”

  “That’s her only flaw,” she whispered to Ian in a voice that Jade could hear. The little girl, though, was in a world of her own. Diving into the toast, she seemed to savor every bite, even as she got most of it on her face.

  “Can I put in a couple of slices for you?” Kelly asked.

  “No way. Not with this jelly monster next to me. Too dangerous!” Ian made a scared face when Jade showed her teeth and bit into the toast again. “I was hoping you’d give me a fifty-cent tour of your work. You have some amazing things here.” He motioned with his head toward Jade’s photos.

  A soft reddish hue crept up into her cheeks. Just as he’d expected, she wasn’t used to receiving compliments. Cup in hand, she came around the counter.

  “Those two shots were just a spur-of-the-moment thing. It’s so much fun watching her do things. She’s so interested in everything.”

  The pictures were hung side by side. The white matting and silver frames set off the black-and-white photos perfectly. “When did you take them?”

  “Last fall.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I was so mad at myself for having only black-and-white film in the camera. The leaves were a thousand different shades of color. And Jade’s red sweater made her the centerpiece of a bouquet of flowers. I took the shots, anyway.”

  “What makes these so arresting,” he commented, “is that they’re such perfect representations of a child at play. She’s a part of nature. She doesn’t even know you’re there.”

  “I have a similar picture of Jade in the woods from two summers ago. She was just a toddler. I’d like to have that one framed like these and hang it next to them. And maybe I could add one each year as she gets older.”

  She was planning for the future. Ian liked that.

  “And these pictures?” He walked toward the wall containing dozens of framed photos.

  “Family photos.”

  “Is that Jade’s father?” He pointed to a picture of Kelly with a good-looking young man who had his arm around her shoulder. The couple looked carefree, happy. No clouds darkening the background sky or the green mountains.

  She nodded. “That’s Greg.”

  “How did you two meet?”

  “He was a reporter. I was a newspaper photographer. We had an assignment together, and the sparks just flew. We were married that same year.”

  “And how long were you married before he was…well, before he…”

  “Died?” she asked quietly, glancing toward Jade. She was busily working on another piece of toast. Kelly sipped the coffee, obviously getting her thoughts together.

  “A little over two years,” she said finally. “He never got the chance to see Jade. I was about six months pregnant when he died.”

  Kelly’s face disappeared again behind the protective cup of coffee. Without thinking, Ian reached over and brushed the back of his hand against hers.

  “You two seemed to travel a lot,” he commented, turning his attention back to the pictures. There were at least half a dozen of Greg Stone in different places around the world.

  “We did travel some for fun. But most of these are of Greg on different assignments. Every picture I have of him is framed and out here. I think it’s important for Jade to know who her father was.”

  “Are you in contact at all with his family?”

  “He was Australian, born and ra
ised there. We were planning to move permanently to Sydney right after Jade was born. He already had a great job lined up. We’d even started downsizing our belongings. Meeting his family and being close to them were all reasons for the move.”

  “And everyone here knew about it?” Ian asked.

  “My parents were old hands at moving. The two of them were retired academics. Neither had ever applied for tenure in their thirty and forty years of teaching. Didn’t believe in it. They thought a change of scenery every five or six years was a healthy thing. My father Frank was all for it. He said this would give them a place to visit every year. He knew, despite her initial hesitation, that my mother Rose would eventually warm up to it, too.”

  Kelly took a sip of coffee, obviously working to keep her emotions in check.

  “When my father died a few months into the planning process, something changed in my mother. She became a different woman. Even about the move, her attitude changed completely. She became…I don’t know, almost adamant for us to move. In fact, she even hinted that she might follow us and live there herself. But then she died, too.”

  They were silent for a moment, and then Ian spoke up again. “So you moved a few times growing up?” he asked glancing at the photograph of an older couple that he knew were Frank and Rose Wilton.

  “Only a couple of times, before I went away to college.” Both hands wrapped around the coffee mug. “I was adopted.”

  “Really? How old were you?”

  “I was twelve.”

  “Twelve? That’s pretty old for an adoption. You were lucky.”

  “They were very special people.”

  “I’m sure they were,” he said quietly. “Any communication with your old family?”

  She shook her head. “They’re all gone.” She turned to Jade who seemed to be done eating and was busily drawing patterns with a blueberry-dipped finger on the counter top. “I guess we’re ready for the clean-up crew in there.”

  Ian watched Kelly walk to the kitchen, and then he turned his attention back to the photos. There had been bits and pieces of her life that had been happy. Proof of that was evident in this display. But everybody she’d had was dead. The only family connection remaining for Kelly was her daughter.