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

by Debra Burroughs

  “You’re right. I acted like a jackass.”

  “Hee-haw,” she joked, twisting to face him.

  “What?”

  “That’s the sound of a jackass.”

  He chuckled, then winced. His hand flew up to his split lip.

  “I’ll forgive you on one condition, Logan.”

  “What condition is that?”

  “You let me ask you some questions, and only if you’re totally honest with me.”

  “What kind of questions?” Apprehension colored his words.

  “I’m working on a story about the remains that were found up by the lake. There are some questions I need answered. So, if you’ll help me out, I’ll forgive you for last night.”

  “You drive a hard bargain, Jenessa Jones.” Logan grinned as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the table, his eyes never leaving hers. “Shoot.”

  “The body has been identified as Lucy St. John.” She watched his face for a reaction, but there was none, at least not one that gave anything away.

  “I hadn’t heard that,” he said. “St. John. Was she Ramey’s mother?”

  Jenessa couldn’t decide if he was telling the truth or if his innocent demeanor was an act. “Yes, she was.” Jenessa nodded slightly, continuing to study his expression. “Did you know your father had an affair with her?”

  “Boy, you don’t pull any punches, do you?”

  “Did you know?” she repeated.

  “I remember hearing something about that, a long time ago. Why are you asking?”

  “Did you also know that Ramey was the product of that affair? That she’s your half sister?”

  There it was—the reaction she had been expecting. His eyes flashed wide as he sat up straight and his gaze floated out over the park while he considered the question.

  “Why are you bringing that up?” His eyes narrowed as he glared at her. “What does that have to do with your story?”

  Chapter 31

  Jenessa twisted on the bench of the picnic table to face Logan straight on. Was his spark of anger more than embarrassment?

  “So, you did know.” She worked to keep her voice cool and even.

  “Yes, I knew.” He looked away for a moment. “My father told me when I was nineteen. He saw us on a date and was afraid I might get involved with her. I still don’t see—”

  “Did Ramey know?” Jenessa interrupted him before he could change the subject.

  “Not that I know of.” He leaned his elbows back on the table and seemed to relax a little. “My father told me later that he had been paying her mother for years to keep it quiet, especially from Ramey. When Lucy left town, Dad was happy not to have to continue paying her. My stepmother too.”

  “Is that what he said?”

  “Not to me, but I overheard them arguing about it—that the woman wanted more money, thousands more in a lump sum, to keep quiet. Oh, Lauren was absolutely livid.”

  “Did he pay it?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I never heard any more about it after that, so I assumed he must have paid and she went on her way. Especially since the atmosphere at our house was icy cold between Dad and Lauren for a while after that. I think that’s what made me think he must have paid.”

  “My guess is your father probably assumed it would be better than paying her sixty thousand a year, year after year.”

  “Could be, but Lauren was adamant he was not to give her one more cent.”

  “But he had to have paid up if Lucy went on her way, don’t you think?” Jenessa asked. Or perhaps they never heard from her again because someone killed her.

  “Maybe.” He gave a slight nod. “From what I overheard, it was your dad who had handled the payments.”

  “My dad?”

  “He was my father’s attorney, even back then, remember?”

  That’s right. Grey was her dad’s biggest client. But what part did her father play in all of this?

  Stay focused, Jenessa.

  “What about you, Logan? Didn’t it bother you, knowing that if Ramey found out your father was her father that she could be entitled to half of your inheritance?”

  He sat up straight. “What are you trying to infer? That I killed Lucy St. John to keep her from talking? To keep Ramey from finding out?”

  “I wasn’t going to ask that, but since you brought it up…yes, did you kill Lucy St. John to protect your multi-million-dollar inheritance?”

  He bolted off the bench and spun around to face her, wearing a scowl she’d never seen on him before. “I may not be a choir boy, but do you really think I’m capable of murder?”

  “Anybody is, Logan.”

  His scowl softened to a frown. Her words obviously stung him, pain was pooling his eyes. “Have you asked enough questions yet?”

  “Enough questions?”

  “Yes, for me to have earned your forgiveness?”

  ~*~

  After Jenessa’s meeting with Logan, she stopped by The Sweet Spot for a cappuccino, feeling the need for a pick-me-up. The place was busier than normal, especially since it was almost closing time.

  “Hey, Ramey,” Jenessa greeted her friend behind the counter.

  Ramey waved at her and continued taking a customer’s order.

  Someone pulled on the bottom edge of Jenessa’s blouse and she looked down. Two twinkling brown eyes were staring up at her, below them was a smiling mouth outlined in chocolate frosting.

  “Hello, Jake.” Jenessa smiled back at him, kneeling down to the boy’s level. She glanced around for his father.

  Michael quickly stepped from his seat at a table, a wad of napkins in one hand. “Oh, Jake,” he grumbled. The frosting from his son’s hand had transferred to the hem of Jenessa’s blouse.

  Appearing a bit embarrassed, Michael proceeded to clean Jake’s fingers. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s wash and wear.” She stood up and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Looks like it was delicious, Jake.”

  He nodded his head up and down with agreement. “Chocolate’s my bestest favorite.”

  “Hey, there’s my star reporter,” Charles McAllister said as he joined them.

  “Hey, boss. Calling it a day already?”

  “No, I just needed to get Charlie a sandwich before I take him to football practice. After I drop him off, I’ll be back at the office.”

  Jenessa glanced over at Ramey, who was grinning at her, apparently pleased Charles had stopped by. His son Charlie was at the bakery display, showing Ramey what cookies he wanted.

  Charles was looking at Ramey too. It seemed that maybe Ramey’s grin was for him instead of Jenessa.

  A smile slowly spread across Jenessa’s face as her gaze turned to Michael and an unexpected feeling washed over her, but what was it? Contentment? Happiness? A good-to-be-back-home feeling? Whatever it was, she relished it.

  “Well, I’d better get the boy to practice. Talk to you later,” Charles said as he went to pay for his son’s food.

  “I’m surprised you’re off work so early, Michael, your first day as a detective and all,” Jenessa said.

  “I think Provenza got tired of my questions and having to explain things to me. He said my shift was done, so I went and picked up my son and we’re celebrating my first day.”

  “My dad is a detective now,” Jake said with pride, puffing out his little chest. “That’s still a cop, right, Daddy?”

  “Yes, big guy, that’s still a cop.” Michael took his son’s hand. “We were just on our way out. You and me are still on for Friday night, right?”

  “Absolutely. But with this story I’m working on, I’m sure I’ll be talking to you and Detective Provenza before then.”

  “Jake, why don’t you go and see if there’s something in the cookie case we can take home to Grandma and Grandpa,” Michael said, moving the boy out of earshot.

  “Okay.” The boy happily wandered over to the bakery case.

  Michael leaned closer and l
owered his voice. “You know Provenza is not supposed to be leaking information about the case to you. He could get in a lot of trouble.”

  “He’s helping me, I’m helping him,” she replied, keeping her voice down. “No one will know if you don’t tell them.”

  “You know I won’t, but I worry about him. He’s retiring soon and I wouldn’t want him doing anything that would screw up his pension.”

  “Everything is on the QT, Michael,” she said in little more than a whisper, “and I never reveal where I get my information. I like George, he’s a good guy. I’d never do anything to jeopardize his job either, or his pension. Trust me.”

  “You know he hates it when you call him George,” Michael said with a smirk.

  Jenessa grinned at him. “I know.”

  ~*~

  Michael and Jake left The Sweet Spot, but Jenessa decided to stick around. It was almost closing time and she had better not wait another minute to tell Ramey about who her father was. She finally had confirmation from Detective Provenza that the remains were definitely Lucy St. John. If Jenessa continued to put off telling her, someone else might, which could be disastrous for Ramey.

  Once the place was empty and Ramey locked the front door and turned off most of the lights, Jenessa asked her to sit down and have a chat.

  “What’s going on?” Ramey asked, taking a seat. “You look so serious.”

  “There’s something you should know.”

  Ramey’s brows wrinkled into an odd look of puzzlement and suspicion.

  “I received confirmation today that the body found up by Jonas Lake is your mother. I’m so sorry.”

  “You suspected as much, from the photo.” Ramey’s bottom lip began to quiver as her eyes grew wet. “I just hoped you were wrong.”

  “There’s more.”

  Ramey grabbed a napkin and dabbed her eyes. “More?”

  Jenessa took a breath and forged ahead. “Ramey, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I believe your father is—” She hesitated for a second, the name sticking in her throat.

  “Is who?”

  “Grey Alexander.”

  Ramey’s eyes popped wide open and her hands flew to her face. She sat dumbfounded for a extended moment with a dazed expression on her face.

  “Are you okay?” Jenessa asked.

  “Grey Alexander?” Ramey gasped.

  “Now, I can’t say that for sure, but I have very good reason to believe it’s true. You’ll need a paternity test to confirm it.”

  Ramey lowered her hands, still appearing quite shaken by the revelation. “Oh, my gosh. Grey I’m-king-of-the-universe Alexander?”

  Chapter 32

  After sitting with Ramey for a while, making sure she was okay from the news she’d just received, Jenessa drove home in her jazzy blue sports car. She kept a sharp eye on the speedometer, trying to avoid a speeding ticket. The thing would get away from her if her mind drifted and she didn’t pay close attention.

  Once inside the house, she dropped her purse and keys on the kitchen table and went to her computer, which was sitting in the middle of her father’s old desk. Seated before it, she ran her fingers over the carved detail in the wood, thinking about her father and how he had thought to purposely leave the piece to her. Maybe there had been moments when he cared about her, moments when she wasn’t around to stir things up.

  She listened to the recording she had made of the ribbon-cutting ceremony and got busy writing the story. Charles would be expecting it by six thirty so it would make the morning paper.

  Charles. Visions of him and Ramey walking hand in hand down the streets of this quaint little town brought a swirl of warmth to her heart. Ramey deserved a good man. Maybe their first date would turn into a life-long love affair. Jenessa wished that for her friend, especially now.

  Why not wish it for herself as well?

  There was a time she was so in love with Logan Alexander that she thought she couldn’t live without him. Then the unplanned pregnancy ripped their lives apart—well, hers anyway—and that dream was snuffed out.

  Now Michael was in the picture. They weren’t in love—not yet—but the possibility of it was definitely there.

  Why did Logan have to make that outlandish declaration of love to her at The Brass Razoo last night? And in front of Sara, no less. Her head began to throb.

  What was he thinking? Certainly he wasn’t still in love with her, not after all the hurt and years that had passed since that pivotal night at the lake house.

  Maybe her indifference to him seemed like a challenge—as if now he wanted what he couldn’t have. Wasn’t that just like him? Logan Alexander always got what he wanted—didn’t he?

  Like father, like son.

  As Jenessa pushed her chair back and stood up, a pen fell off the desk and rolled under it. Getting down on all fours, she climbed beneath the desk to retrieve it. That’s when she saw it—a key taped to the bottom of the lap drawer.

  “Oh, my gosh.” Could it be the key?

  Picking at the tape with her fingernails, she worked the key loose. She slid it into the lock on the front of the drawer and voila!—it worked.

  Her heart began to thump with anticipation. What was so important her father had locked it away and hidden the key?

  Excited, she pulled the lap drawer open and found a manila envelope laying atop numerous office supplies. She dragged it out and set it on the desk. Her fingers nimbly worked the brad open and slid the contents out—legal documents.

  Jenessa went page by page, reading through the documents—Ramey’s birth certificate, an agreement between Grey Alexander and Lucy St. John, copies of cancelled checks, and more. She studied the agreement, which stated Grey would pay Lucy a sum of five thousand dollars a month, every month, as long as she kept the name of Ramey’s biological father confidential. If Lucy went public with the information, even telling Ramey about her own father’s identity, the disbursements would stop.

  So what happened? Why did Lucy take off and leave Ramey once she graduated from high school? Had she let it slip to Ramey who her father was? If so, Grey would have had to find out somehow to cause him to stop making payments to her.

  Has Ramey actually known all this time? Did she only pretend to be shocked when Jenessa told her?

  Jenessa’s imagination was running wild with possibilities.

  No, Ramey couldn’t have known. She would never have agreed to go on a date with Logan back then if she had. Unless…could she have found out shortly after the night Grey took Logan aside and told him? Had Logan been the one to break it to her?

  Or had Lucy come back to see Ramey one night and it all came spilling out? Had Ramey fought with her mother and accidentally killed her? Perhaps she took Lucy’s body up to the lake and buried it in the woods behind her father’s lake house, the beautiful lake house that she was never invited to, as some kind of thumbing her nose at him.

  Jenessa shook her head hard, as if she could shake the horrible suspicions out of her mind.

  But Logan had said he overheard his father and stepmother arguing over a large sum of money that woman was asking for to keep quiet. Logan had assumed they were talking about Lucy. What if they were talking about Ramey?

  No, that’s just plain crazy. Ramey would never do such a thing—would she?

  ~*~

  Jenessa tossed and turned all night, playing over and over in her mind various scenarios of what might have happened to Lucy. Finally, exhausted from wrestling with her thoughts, she dragged herself out of bed and into the shower.

  Standing before her bathroom mirror, she blow-dried her long, dark hair, thinking about what she had to do that day. She had three obituaries to write this morning and an interview scheduled with the high school principal regarding the students’ fund-raising efforts for remodeling the auditorium. The auction Elizabeth Alexander was heading up was expected to bring in quite a haul, but the principal thought it would be good for the students to be involved as well.

 
; Ah, small town life.

  The ringing of her phone on the vanity disrupted her train of thought.

  “Good morning, Charles.”

  “Jenessa, get down to the jail. We have a breaking story. Logan Alexander has been arrested for the murder of Lucy St. John.”

  “Oh, my god.” The disturbing news tensed her chest and she shuddered at a zing of pain that ran down both arms. “But why?”

  “That’s what you need to find out. Call me when you’ve got something.”

  “I have three obits due and an appointment with the high school principal this morning that I’ll need to reschedule.”

  “I’ll do the obits and have Alice phone the principal. You get yourself over to the jail, pronto.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  Her next call was to Detective Provenza.

  “I can’t talk right now, Miss Jones,” the detective said.

  “Just give me a second.” She should have waited for his agreement, but she plowed on, not allowing him the chance to shut her off. “I’ve been told you arrested Logan Alexander for Lucy’s murder. Is that right?”

  “Yes, but I have to—”

  “What prompted you to do that? New evidence?”

  George lowered his voice and it sounded as if he had cupped his hand over the phone. “Got the DNA results early this morning. The blood you brought in was a match to the DNA on the comb, at least close enough to link it to him.”

  Logan certainly had motive, likely had opportunity, and now, with his DNA being found with the dead body, the District Attorney would surely try to crucify him. There had never been any love lost between the DA and Grey Alexander.

  “Thanks, George.” Jenessa stuck the phone in her pocket as she ran down the stairs to grab her purse and a granola before she flew out the door.

  She fired up the Roadster and raced over to the police station, hoping she could get in to see Logan before he was taken to court for arraignment.

  Once inside the station, she marched up to the reception desk and asked for Detective Provenza. The middle-aged receptionist phoned him and told him he had a visitor up front. “What’s your name, hon?” she asked, peering up at Jenessa.

  “Jenessa Jones.”