And she happily got to work. He had it all: bacon, eggs, hash browns. And she cooked it. As she cooked, she looked around too. Family pictures were everywhere: of Charles and his four sons. The two older sons looked just like Charles, with the wavy black hair, the vivid green eyes, and that attractiveness that was hard to deny. She remembered seeing them at his son’s reception, although she didn’t realize who they were at the time. The two younger boys, however, had a much lighter look: blonde hair, green eyes, fairer skin. One had been the groom at the reception. She remembered him. The other one she didn’t remember at all. But they were attractive too, even though their attractiveness was far softer around the edges than the older boys.
Not that the age differences seemed significant. None of them could have been more than a year or two apart. It was more their size that defined the difference in age, than their looks.
And just watching these gorgeous men on picture after picture, with no mother/wife in sight, made Jenay feel some kind of odd way. She was a stepmother before, and loved the role, but as soon as Quince wanted out, all of her contact with those beautiful kids ceased. He wouldn’t even let her say goodbye, which broke her heart.
Now she was in yet another relationship with yet another man with children. Grown children, but still they were his babies and they, she knew, would always come first. Not that there were all that many childless men in her age group out there to begin with, but there were certainly some.
But apparently that wasn’t Jenay’s fate. It did not appear that an unencumbered man was going to cross her path any time soon. Because with every passing day, with every time Charles held her in his arms, or took her by the hand, or just smiled at her with those lines of age on the side of his eyes, was a day that drew her closer and closer to him. It could get serious. The fact that she had come to Maine to begin her career at his hotel elevated it already. But spending time with him, and being with him was taking it to yet another level. Which was daunting. She wasn’t going to lie. This could get serious fast.
“I thought I smelled bacon,” Charles said as he entered the kitchen. He had on a bathrobe, and his wavy hair was tousled all around his round head, but he was smiling.
“Good morning!” Jenay said with a smile of her own. “I thought you were no early riser.”
“Only for bacon,” Charles said as he sat down at the center island, “will I rise.”
Jenay laughed and began turning her bacon in the pan. “It will be ready shortly,” she said.
Charles ran his hand through his already messy hair and looked at Jenay. He had woke up and found her gone and had actually panicked a little. Which disturbed him. He didn’t like reacting so emotional to anything. But he did question her absence. He did wonder if Paige’s little stunt scared her away. He did wonder if she was the strong woman he had her pegged as, or was she so weak that she would fold at the least provocation? He needed to know now, he felt, before he was in too deep and it would be too late for him to care. Because he was clearly heading toward the deep end. He had seen it on her graduation day, when she told him she was relocating to New Mexico. The idea of having her so far away made him feel as if he had been broadsided. And now, with her in Jericho, those feelings were only magnifying. This was getting real.
“How do you feel this morning?” he asked her.
“I feel good,” she said, glancing back at him. “You?”
“I’m good, thanks. That little episode with Paige Springer didn’t upset you too much I hope.”
“No,” Jenay said. “I can handle her.”
Charles smiled. That was what he wanted to hear. “Good,” he said.
“So what’s on tap for you today?” she asked. “I’m still going to spot-check rooms to make sure Edna gets it, and continue to go over the books. What about you?”
“I’ll be on conference calls with my various groups of partners most of the day, but since I was supposed to still be in New York, I don’t have any set schedule as of right now. But stay tuned. And next week I’ll be in Saginaw.”
“Michigan?”
“That’s the place.”
Jenay was a little let down that he was going to be on the road again, but that was apparently the nature of his business. “I see.” She began to remove the bacon from the pan.
“Just for a few days,” Charles felt a need to add. He was so unaccustomed to telling anyone, even his own sons, of his every move, but he wanted Jenay to know. For some reason he needed her to know.
“Well,” Jenay said as she looked back at him with a smile, “you know where I’ll be.”
That warmed Charles’s heart. That smile of hers. He looked down, at her bare legs beneath his shirt, and began to feel an erection coming on. But then he heard the front door of his home open and close, and then his youngest son, who could always smell good food a mile away, came waltzing in.
“Dad?” Donald yelled.
“Kitchen,” Charles replied.
“They said you were back in town,” Donald said as he entered the kitchen and walked toward his father.
“Who said I was back in town?” Charles asked.
“Those gossiping biddies at the club.” He placed his arm around his father’s shoulder. “They told Susan about it.”
Charles looked at his son. “How is Susan?”
“She’s okay. She’s . . .” Then Donald looked at Jenay, and a frown appeared on his face. “So who’s she?” he asked. “Another one of your whores?”
Charles grabbed his son by the catch of his shirt, and punched him hard across his chin. Donald fell back into the stools and landed on his rump. Jenay, astounded by the sudden outbreak of violence, didn’t realize her mouth was gaped open and her hand was on her heart. She looked from the son, to Charles. His wavy hair was now hanging over his forehead, and he was pointing at his downed son. “Don’t you ever, and I mean ever speak of her that way again.”
“I didn’t know,” Donald said as he began to stand back up. To Jenay’s amazement, he seemed accustomed to his father’s outburst. He didn’t seem angry about it at all. “I didn’t know she was different,” he added.
“Now you know,” Charles said. “So cut that shit out here and now.”
Donald nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“And apologize to Miss Franklin. That’s her name. Jenay Franklin. And don’t you forget it.”
Donald looked at Jenay. She could tell he didn’t want to apologize at all. “I didn’t mean any disrespect, Miss Franklin,” he said. “I thought. . .” He glanced at his father. Then he looked at her again. “I apologize,” he said.
Jenay didn’t know how to respond to that. It all unfolded so fast. But she certainly wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. If she made it that easy, that kind of disrespect would undoubtedly happen again. Especially with Charles out of town so often. So she didn’t say anything. She turned back around, and tended to her breakfast.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
One Week Later
A Land Rover SUV stopped at the seldom-used side entrance at Jericho Inn. Paige, the driver, got out, and Beatrice, the passenger, followed her. Beatrice knocked, and soon the door was opened by Edna, the housekeeping supervisor. She ushered them in and then escorted them, unseen, to her ground floor office.
“Where is she now?” Beatrice asked as they entered her tiny office.
“In your old office,” Edna said.
“What about Meg?” Paige asked.
“In the office too. She’s reviewing files.”
“How long has she been there?” Beatrice asked.
“She just started,” Edna said. “Don’t worry. I’ve been watching her.”
“So what’s the conclusion?” Paige wanted to know. “A good time, or no?”
“Perfect time,” Beatrice said. “It’s Meg’s job to check at the end of each day. Nobody else has any business in that room. If she just started reviewing files, it’ll be hours before she even thinks about doing anything else.”
“And I’ll keep an eye out if she gets on the move,” Edna assured the ladies. “If it appears she’s heading anywhere near there, I’ll distract her. There’s nothing to worry about. She won’t know a thing.”
Paige smiled. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Beatrice and Edna glanced at each other. This might have been fun time for Paige, who was a woman of means in this town and would easily get out of this unscathed, but it was risk time for them.
“What’s the matter?” Paige asked, when she saw their resistance.
“This is a big deal, Paige,” Beatrice reminded her.
“I know it’s a big deal,” Paige responded, insulted. “But it’s also a big deal that she forced Charles to fire you, Bea, and she’s building evidence to get Edna next.”
“That’s the truth,” Edna responded.
“If we force him to get rid of her, then Edna keeps her job, and you, Bea, will regain yours. But she has to go. There is no other way around this. It’s a risk both of you will have to take.”
Beatrice nodded. She knew Paige spoke the truth. “What are we waiting for?” she asked rhetorically, and then escorted Paige to the vault.
It was turning out to be a very hectic day, but Jenay was having a good day. The rooms she inspected last week were in excellent shape this week, and the books, thanks to Megan’s excellent stewardship, were all in order. Now she was focusing on a new marketing strategy and ultimate campaign for the Inn. She had already hired a web designer, and although Charles had rejected all of the name changes for the Inn she proposed to him, she wasn’t going to let that deter her. She would just have to work with that same old, boring-ass name. It was his B & B, after all.
But there were problems too. On any given day, nearly half of the Inn’s guestrooms were vacant. Given the size of the Inn, and the massive overhead in running such a resort style hotel, half of the rooms unoccupied was not financially sustainable. They needed far more traffic, far more exposure, far more travelers willing to stop on their way further north, or on their way headed south and elsewhere. Jenay was making it her responsibility to make Jericho Inn ultimately and finally profitable.
She looked at the clock on her office desk. It was only eleven in the morning, but she had already accomplished a lot for the day. She stood to stretch her muscles, and to take a break from so much paperwork. But just as she walked toward the window, and looked out across the beautiful lawns and gardens of the majestic Inn, she heard a scream, the loudest, the most unapologetic, bloodcurdling scream.
She ran. She knew where the scream was coming from. She knew who was screaming. But that didn’t make it any easier. She ran.
By the time she made it downstairs, around the walls and the rusty old six-feet lockers, and arrived at the door of the vault room, the room that housed the hotel safe, the two desk clerks and the maintenance supervisor were already there.
“What is it?” Jenay asked nervously as she hurried past the others and made her way up to the safe. Megan was standing at the front of the four-foot safe, and was looking ghostly. She had been the screamer.
“What’s wrong?” Jenay asked her.
“It’s gone, Miss Jenay,” Megan cried. “It’s all gone!”
“What’s gone?” Jenay asked.
“All of it.”
“All of what?”
The jewels,” Megan said. “The guest jewels!”
Jenay’s heart fell through her shoe as she flung open the safe and saw nothing inside. Not a ring. Not an earring. Nothing! Her heart began to hammer.
But she couldn’t go to pieces the way Megan had. She had to keep her wits about her. “Rita, call 911,” she ordered one of the desk clerks.
“Yes, ma’am,” Rita said, and hurried to do just that.
“I want this entire hotel on lockdown, Roy,” she said to her maintenance supervisor. “Nobody leaves until the police arrives. And I mean no-one.”
“Yes ma’am,” Roy said, and hurried to lock it down himself.
Jenay looked at Megan. “Has this ever happened before?” she asked.
“Never. Not in all the years I’ve been here, Miss Jenay. It’s never ever happened before.”
Jenay was stumped. In just the second week of her tenure as GM, the guest safe was robbed? The cost of those jewels had to be staggering! There were a lot of wealthy people who patronized this hotel on a weekly basis. They were the only ones who could afford the exuberant costs. Now their jewels were missing? Would Charles blame her? Would Charles fire her?
She leaned back against the wall, before she fell.
“Four!” Charles yelled as his ball sailed across the fairway toward what he hoped would be a clear path onto the green, but he overshot and ended up nearly twenty feet on the other side of the hole. He was a lousy golfer, and the negotiations weren’t going much better. He was looking to purchase a failing textile mill that was long past its prime, but the owners didn’t want to just give it away either. The talks were getting heated. When golf was suggested as a way to unwind and restart the talks, he agreed. He needed the relief.
He watched his golfing partner fare even worse, as his ball ended up in the rough. They walked and talked, not about the negotiations, but about the birds and the condition of the course and anything and everything other than the negotiations. That was how it was done in Charles’s world. Relax first, and then they would talk.
He grabbed the putter from his golf bag and then hit his ball much gentler, hoping to at least get a birdie out of this. But his ball sailed again and ended up a good feet on the other side. His golf partner, the current majority owner of the mill, allowed him to take his final tap-in to finish the round one-over-par. Another par for Charles.
It was now the owner’s time, who still had a chance to birdie, but his ball was in a precarious position. He studied the hole. As he studied it, Charles’s cell phone rang. When he saw it was from the Inn, he thought about Jenay and immediately answered.
“Sinatra,” he said.
“Mr. Sinatra?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“It’s Megan Townsend, sir. I hate to disturb you.”
Then why was she disturbing him? “Yes?” he asked.
“It’s Miss Jenay, sir.”
Charles stood erect. “What about Miss Jenay?”
“They took her away.”
Charles frowned. “What do you mean they took her away? Who took her away?”
His fellow golfer stopped and looked at him. Charles moved further away.
“Who took her away?” he asked again.
“The police.”
Charles could hardly believe what she had just said. “The police?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why?”
“They said she was the one. They said she stole the jewels.”
She sounded crazy to Charles. “What jewels, Meg? What the hell are you talking about?”
“The guest jewels in the house safe were stolen, sr. The police was called because Miss Jenay said to call 911. But when the police came they searched each and every room, including the VIP suite where Miss Jenay is staying. They found the jewels in her suite. They found them in one of her suit cases, sir.”
Charles was dumbstruck. He was so floored that he felt as if the world was tilting on him. “Where is she now?” he asked his bookkeeper.
“In jail, sir. They took her away.”
Jenay? In jail? His heart slammed against his chest. “I’m catching the next flight out. I’m on my way,” he said, and killed the call. Then he informed his golfing partner that he had an emergency and had to leave. And as he hurried to his golf cart to get out of there, he immediately phoned his oldest son, Brent.
Brent was surprised by the call. “Dad? What’s up? Still in Saginaw?”
“Where are you?” Charles asked as he drove toward the front of the course.
“I’m at my apartment. I just finished my last class.” He was in college, at the University of Maine in Orono.
“Wrongfully arrested? Who, Dad? Miss Abby?”
“Her name is Jenay Franklin,” Charles said. “You get to that station now. Let her know I’m on my way.”
“Sure, Dad. Yes, sir,” Brent said.
Charles knew his son was shocked. He’d never been this concerned for any other woman before. Even Charles was a little shocked himself. He hadn’t known Jenay long enough to be so certain of her innocence. But for some strange reason even he couldn’t fathom, he was certain. He was as certain of that lady as the flesh on his bones.
It had been hours. Brent had been waiting and waiting. He knew those assholes had already processed her, but because he was a Sinatra, and he was Big Daddy’s oldest kid, he knew they were determined to drag it out. When his father got there, things would change. They wouldn’t dare disrespect him this way. But he was a twenty-two year old senior in college. They didn’t give a damn.
He smiled when the doors to the Jericho police station opened, and his brother Tony, who was a couple years younger than he was, walked in.
“Dad called you too?” Brent asked him.
“Yeah,” Tony said as he took a seat beside his brother. “But I was still in class. You’ve seen her?”
“They claim she’s still being processed in. She can’t see any visitors until she’s been processed.”
“You know that’s a bunch of bull, right?” Tony asked.
“Hell yeah I know it,” Brent responded. “They don’t like Dad so they figure they’ll sock it to us.”
“And you still want to be one of them?”
“I still want to be a policeman after I graduate,” Brent responded. “Absolutely! What’s so wrong with that? Because some cops don’t know how to take their oath seriously doesn’t change anything for me. One day, after I’m working here, I’ll run this place. I’ll get rid of the bad apples then.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1) Page 15