Criminal Company: A Plain Jane Mystery (The Plain Jane Mysteries Book 8)

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  Jane contemplated her. Shelly looked and sounded vapid, and yet she had taught herself Norwegian, and was a skilled enough assistant to have gotten the job with Brenton. Jane gave her a quick once over. She was pretty, in an obvious way. Not to be rude, but she didn’t have anything particularly special about her prettiness. Just pleasant, symmetrical features, a nice tan, bleached blonde hair, those terrible fake eyelashes, and red lipstick. A look most anyone on TV might go for if they wanted to play the exact part Shelly was playing. But, it didn’t seem like “enough” for a man to ditch his wife.

  You never could tell, though. That was one thing Jane was learning in life. If something about Judy had bothered Brenton long enough, or if something about Shelly reminded Brenton of his favorite childhood whatever, or if she was just generally more agreeable…

  But, no matter which way she sliced it, her intuition told her that Shelly wasn’t the root of the problem.

  Perhaps it hadn’t been a picture of Shelly in the box.

  Jane wished she could lean over and whisper in Jake’s ear, but he was across the table, teasing Shelly. She couldn’t tell what he was saying, but she giggled, and he laughed, and it seemed perfectly innocent, but Shelly had that vibe that made other women wonder.

  So then, it could have been that Judy printed off a picture from her phone, maybe a picture she had snapped of Brenton and Shelly sneaking a kiss, and had folded it up, slipped it into the box, given it to Brenton for Valentine’s Day, and then waited for him to unlock it. A time bomb of sorts.

  Jane’s mind wandered around the potential scenarios while Emily fielded her phone call in the corner. It wasn’t sitting right with her developing intuition. According to the file Jake kept of the Lucius family, Brenton had been going to Norway for five years, and according to Shelly, they had been in Fiji together while Judy was shopping.

  “Judy? Judy, listen to me. You don’t want to do this.” Emily’s voice rose, catching everyone’s attention.

  Brenton gripped Shelly’s shoulder.

  Charles rubbed his brow with his thumb.

  Jake took a relaxed sip from his water but had gone quiet. Jane suspected he was not actually relaxed.

  To her left, the glass door swung open. A willowy woman in a severe suit with a streak of shiny silver snaking through her chestnut hair stood in the doorway, phone to her ear. “Oh, I’ve already done it.”

  “Judy!” Shelly sat up with surprise. She smiled, slightly confused. “I’m sure Jake is thrilled you could make it.” Shelly’s voice was different, had gone taut. It was still high, and younger than her face, but it had a professional sound like you hear when you call a business. “Let me get you a chair.” She stood, none of the stumbling and slipping from earlier, though she wobbled on her heels as she moved to pull a chair from the wall. “Join us, please.” Shelly’s eyes were wide, and definitely still confused, but she was smooth.

  This was the secretary in action. She had gone into work mode, put aside her social self.

  She was all hands on deck to protect Brenton. It was a fascinating performance and highly effective. While she welcomed the woman to the table, Emily slipped quietly back to her seat.

  “As a matter of fact,” Shelly smiled, her red lips hinting at fear, “We were just talking about you.”

  You could have heard the butter melt, the room was so silent.

  Shelly rested her hand on Brenton’s back.

  “Thanks, Shell.” He turned to his wife. “Emily was playing a little guessing game for us. She wants to see if the detective can deduce what you put in the puzzle box.”

  “Oh God, not that.” Judy sat in the chair with a heavy motion. “Please, anything but that.”

  “It’s been real fun.” Brenton’s jaw worked back and forth. “What do you think, Jane, are you ready to guess?”

  Jane considered the body language. Shelly, protecting Brenton from Judy. Judy, looking worn, weary even. Brenton tightening in each muscle slowly, as though facing an enemy.

  Emily and Jane had had it backward. It rested on the hint that had come through earlier…Topeka versus Paris

  “You say the job in Topeka was an important one?” Jane asked Brenton.

  “Yes. I had worked on developing that relationship for seven years. Seven years. And we finally landed it.” He glued his eyes to Judy’s face. “The contract was for ten million dollars. Our children will never have to work a day in their lives.”

  “I can’t apologize again for Paris.” Judy dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “You make me apologize for Paris every time I see you.”

  “Jane…” Shelly lifted her brows, pleading. “Have you guessed it yet?”

  Emily covered a yawn with her hand, but her eyes were dismayed. “I have never been so tired in all of my life. Next time I plan a vacation let’s make sure we plan a vacation to follow it.”

  Charles didn’t say anything. He was slumped in his chair, looking ten years older. Jet lag was a beast, and so was this dinner.

  “Judy, I’m glad to see you again.” Jake offered his hand. “You really didn’t have to come all the way out here.”

  “I was invited, wasn’t I?”

  “Always, and I appreciate you making the effort.”

  She pulled out a folded piece of paper, the size of a check. “Here. Have this. We can afford it.” She attempted a smile but her eyes were sad. “Our children never have to work a day in their lives, after all.”

  Jake took the check, always the fundraising and development officer. “With gratitude.”

  “Well, Jane. It’s good to see you again. Have you guessed what was in the box?” Judy watched Shelly as she said it.

  Jane watched Judy. Sad. Weary. But shining like a star. Every inch of her complete from her manicure to her eyebrows to shoes without a single scuff on them. Her earrings, the same stone as her necklace but a different shape. A right-hand ring that looked like an antique. Her ring finger on her left hand, bare.

  “Yes, I think I have.”

  Judy smirked. “I pulled off a surprise anyway.”

  “I just wish I had figured out how to open the box sooner,” Brenton said through clenched teeth.

  “Who did you take with you to Paris?” Jane asked softly. The situation felt like pulling off a bandage; she needed to do it all at once, quick.

  Judy glared at her husband. “Jason. And we had a lovely time, while you were off in Kansas with her.”

  “But he didn’t look twice at me until after he opened the box.” Shelly looked truly confused now and she had lost that professional polish.

  “You went to Paris with Jason from my office?” Brenton’s face went red, he stood up quickly, his chair falling behind him with a crash. “I’ll kill him.”

  “Oh God, you didn’t know. I thought you knew.” Judy fanned herself. “How did you not know?”

  “Why would I think you were anywhere with my business manager?”

  “Oh, Brenton, you are so sweet.” Shelly stroked his arm. “Everyone knew they were seeing each other. We just thought…we just thought you knew. Some men don’t care about things like that.”

  “What men don’t care about that?” His forehead broke out in sweat and his eyes glistened. He clamped his hands in big fists. “But Jason? That pencil pushing little wiener. How long? Why?”

  “Far less time than you were with her.” She curled her lip up at the word.

  “I’m not ‘with’ her.” Brenton’s voice was low, a slow, deep growl. “God bless Shelly, it would take a blind man not to know she was interested. But this is only our second dinner out. ‘With’ her? Are you crazy?”

  “I just said he didn’t even look twice at me until after he opened the box.” Shelly’s voice registered hurt.

  “You’ve been traveling the globe with her for years.”

  “Yes. With her, Steve, and Nancy—the whole team, or the important part of the team. Is this what you’ve thought all this time? Did you never trust me?”

  Judy si
ghed and closed her eyes, “Who, on meeting your secretary, would ever trust you?”

  “Judy!” Shelly’s voice broke. “I would never! I’m not that kind of girl.”

  “Just a flirt then?” Judy was unbending in her disdain, despite the way Shelly’s face had turned crimson and she had sunk into herself.

  “I am a terrible flirt, God help me, I am, but it does open doors. Sometimes I hate it, too, but I am who I am, you know? You can’t change a leopard’s stripes.” She turned to Jake, looking for some kind of approval.

  “Maybe tonight we should just skip dessert.” Jake offered.

  “Brenton, I…” Emily was pale, shaking, and looked like she was going to be ill.

  “Never mind. You didn’t know.” He looked Emily square in the face. “I meant it earlier. She was patient, never pushing, never asking for what wasn’t available. When I lost the love of my life, I couldn’t help but turn to someone who actually loved me.”

  “Jason was nothing. I was lonely. How long has it been since you took me to Paris?” Judy’s voice cracked.

  “I travel three weeks out of four, and every day I am away, all I think about is coming home and being with my family. Why would I want to leave the most beautiful place on earth the few days I get to be here?” Brenton stood and moved toward the rack his coat was hung on, but picked up a soft white dress coat and helped Shelly into it. “I have the world’s best secretary for what I do, so I am not going to risk this relationship by allowing you to harass her.”

  Judy stood. “I came all the way out here.”

  “And you can stay, feel free. Poor kids would love a chance to tell you about their work.” He had Shelly’s elbow in his hand, so graciously.

  “Oh Brenton, don’t go—” Emily began to plead.

  Charles stopped her with a slight movement of his hand. “I’ll call tomorrow, Brent.”

  “When you have time.” Brenton left, the slight figure of his blonde assistant tripping away beside him.

  Jane swallowed, and stared at Jake, wide-eyed, unsure of how to respond to the scene laid out before her.

  “So,” Jake said, faintly, “What do you think, Jane? What was in the box?”

  Jane took a deep breath. “Her wedding ring. And…the number for a divorce lawyer.”

  Judy laughed one of those low, angry laughs. “You are a good detective.”

  * * *

  Jane and Jake drove home in silence, his hand resting on her knee.

  She turned the radio on just a mile or two before they were home, and let the soft music of All Classic Portland fill the air.

  Jake parked in their garage, turned off the car, and turned to Jane. “Do I travel too much?” His face was scared, his words shaky.

  “Yes.” It hurt to say because she didn’t want to complain, not this soon in their marriage.

  “Will you travel with me?”

  Jane looked out the front window instead of at Jake. It always came back to this. Would she give up her work for “his.” Whether it was Jake asking, or her old boyfriend Isaac. It felt impossible for two people to live in harmony with two all-absorbing jobs. In telling him that he traveled too much, did she now owe him something? A sacrifice of her time and job?

  The silence was painful, and Jane wished she could turn the music back on.

  “Not every time.” Jake amended. “Just when you aren’t working a case. It might mean missing a new assignment though…” his words trailed off and he looked out the window also.

  “When I am working a case, will you stay home? Even if it means…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She was about to ask him to not take money for a mission that saved children from slavery.

  “Maybe this is something a professional could help us with.” Jake offered.

  Jane nodded. “My core values are in conflict with each other and I can’t see what I am supposed to do.”

  “Then don’t try and figure it out right now.” He grabbed her hand. “Tonight, we love each other, and agree to make the best decisions we can, and tomorrow we make an appointment with a marriage counselor who can help us figure out how to make the best decisions we can.”

  “Jacob Terwilliger Crawford…” Jane murmured his hand to her lips. “That is something I can agree wholeheartedly to.”

  Man About Town

  Uncle Irving Couch looked fragile, sitting at the head of the twelve-foot dining table. The table was set for four—Uncle Irving at the head, Aunt Luddy to his right, Jake Crawford to his left, and Jane Adler—who hadn’t gotten around to officially changing her name yet—next to Jake. It was an uneven seating, but comfortable.

  The dining room with its fifteen-foot ceilings, gleaming walnut half walls, and sparkling crystal chandelier felt like the set of a movie. It was the second time this month Jane had found a reason to wear her one formal dress—a little red number that seemed to her stylish but modest enough to wear to dinner with a ninety-year-old uncle or at a fundraising event. While Jake promised they had enough money for her to buy another dress, she hadn’t managed to find time. Since her last outing in the red dress, a small, but consuming case had come up at the Senior Corp of Retired Investigators.

  Aunt Luddy also wore red and looked charming—her vintage dress was designer, most likely, and old enough to have come back in style. The nonagenarian’s pale skin and frosty, fluffy, white hair lent the red dress just a hint of “Mrs. Santa Claus on date night with the Mr.”

  They were already to their dessert course—chocolate pudding cake served with homemade cinnamon ice cream and caramel wafer cookies—but no one had mentioned the brooch pinned to Jane’s shoulder. The antique memorial pin with the thin silver braided lock of Clementine Couch Lewis’s hair framed in gold was not a surprise to Uncle Irving, who had passed it quietly to Jane at The Dinner two months ago. And Aunt Luddy, bless her soul, was blind, so she had no idea it was glittering in the light of the antique crystal chandelier.

  “Oh Irving, I just love ice cream.” Aunt Luddy sighed over a spoonful. “My Angela never lets me have it. Says it’s bad for my heart.”

  “She sounds like my son Howard. If he knew what we had for dinner tonight.” Uncle Irving winked at Jake. “Someday you’ll have children to boss you around as well.”

  “We’d better.” Jake grinned. He was good at taking a ribbing, but Jane wondered what his opinion on kids really was. They were young still, and she wasn’t in a hurry. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t hoping to be a mother someday. With a handful of kids, if possible. There was time still; she was barely over twenty-five.

  Having dinner with Uncle Irving, and wearing the brooch to dinner, had been her idea. She had arranged it and had been looking forward to teasing the answer of how he got hold of the heirloom from him. But Aunt Luddy had been a surprise that threw Jane for a loop. She didn’t want to compromise Uncle Irving with his cousin. Didn’t want to cause any drama in her new family. Especially for this kind gentleman who had gone out of his way to make sure both she and the other new bride Flavia had been made to feel welcome at the big family event.

  “It’s good you keep a cook still.” Aunt Luddy said. “The old ways are dying out. I don’t have a cook anymore. Angie comes by and cooks for me once a week and fills up the freezer, but I don’t eat it.” She had a proud, stubborn look on her face. “I order pizza delivery. And I have Safeway deliver food. She gets mad when she comes over and the freezer is still full, but I told her I don’t like the stuff she cooks.” She spooned some chocolate pudding and ice cream and savored it. “Angie has always been a terrible cook.”

  “Jake, you never told me a full-time cook was a family tradition.” Jane tossed her husband a laughing look.

  “Do you think my mother would have had a cook?” Jake asked in mock horror.

  “Your mother Barbara had a cook for years and years. Little Almira, one of my Rossi nieces.”

  “Almira? Now she could cook.” Jake almost swooned. “Her pepper steak and tetrazzini were to die for.”
>
  “Angie never makes pepper steak and tetrazzini for my freezer.” Aunt Luddy sighed. “And her grandmother Oliva taught her and Almira at the same time.”

  “Jane, I just realized what I am getting you for our anniversary…Aunty, do you have Almira’s number?”

  Aunt Luddy fumbled with her napkin. “Almira has been gone a long time.”

  Jake blushed. “I didn’t now, I’m sorry.”

  “We all were. So sad. She just went and moved to Florida some twenty years ago with that man…what was his name? The one who was in the movie about the bank heist, back in the 80s.”

  “My mother’s cook ran off with an actor?” Jake asked. “That’s almost as bad as being dead. “Twenty years ago, you say? So around the time, mother began to expect Phoebe and me to work in the restaurants and feed ourselves. It all makes sense now.”

  “Twenty years ago you were only seven.” Jane laughed. “Your mother didn’t let child labor laws boss her around?”

  “I might be exaggerating, just a little,” Jake admitted.

  “Twenty years ago, though…” Jane brushed the edge of the brooch with a fingertip. “A lot of things changed twenty years ago.”

  Uncle Irving smiled.

  “Weren’t you seeing that nice lady back then…” Aunt Luddy’s head was tilted to the light, a look of pleasure as she sifted old memories. “The one who had the red paint splashed all over her lovely mink.”

  Uncle Irving patted his mouth with a linen napkin. “Indeed.”

  “Whatever happened to that sweet girl? She didn’t run off to Florida with a movie actor, too, did she?”

  “No, no movie actors.”

  “Do you not see her anymore?” The soft, sweet tone in Aunt Luddy’s voice made it sound as though no time had passed, that Uncle Irving was still a golf playing, seventy-year-old businessman, rather than a frail, elderly nonagenarian.

  “I believe she married that Schnitzer gentleman. The one from out of town.”

  “What a disappointment. You both seemed so in love.”

  “We enjoyed each other’s company.” Uncle Irving nodded, “But finding love a second time in life isn’t always to be hoped for.”