BILLIONAIRE ANGEL (Point St. Claire, where true love finds a way) (3 page)

“Even something small that, looking back, didn’t quite fit.”

“I wasn’t functioning too well at the time. It hadn’t been long since…”

Her gaze drifted to the end of the counter and another photo, a family shot this time—a woman and two teenage girls. He remembered: Belinda’s mom had passed away not long before that theft
.
Which begged the question…

Was it a coincidence that her mother’s death occurred so close to the break-in? Or was the connection something more sinister?

“Have you spoken to your sister about seeing that ring on the Net?”

“Ann’s the oldest. Back then, she felt responsible. But she’s put it all behind her now. She’s married. Has a great life. She doesn’t want to dwell on the past. You know, drag up painful memories.”

Jax’s jaw tightened.

Oh, yeah. He knew about them.

“You two have a good relationship?” he asked.

“Sure. But we’re different. She likes jazz and Tolstoy. I’m into rap and vampires.
True
not
Diaries
. When I was a kid, she seemed to have all the right answers to all the hard questions. Do you have sisters? Brothers?”

He was looking around the room for anything that might help. “No siblings. A couple of cousins. Taylor and Leo.” When she laughed softly, he frowned across at her. “What’s funny?”

“A light came to your eyes when you said their names. I could see you looking back and smiling at all the stuff you’d done together.”

He wasn’t that transparent. Although he did have a stack of good memories growing up with that pair. Taylor had wanted to be a fireman, Leo a baseball star. And Jax? He’d been sharpening his detective skills even back then. There’d been
The Case of the Missing Momma Cat.  The Case of the Stolen Apple Pie.

“I feel like that, too, sometimes when I look back,” she went on. “Remembering simple stuff like ice skating or carving my name on a tree.” Her gaze sharpened. “I bet you’re the oldest, too. The bossy,
I know best
, one.”

“I’m not so bossy.” More...instructional.

“Do you still see each other?”

“We hang out when we can.”

“For a beer,” she surmised. “At the hockey.”

Running a hand through his hair, Jax coughed out a laugh. “Did you pay someone to sneak a look at my file?”

“Show me a guy who doesn’t drink beer. And, seriously, who’s not a Bears fan?”

“You like hockey?”

“Sure. Can’t remember the last game I went to though. College, I guess.”

“
Wait
. You went to college?”

“Don’t look so shocked.” She buffed her nails on her shirt. “Honors in Accounting right here.”

Accounting, huh? Maybe she could give him a few tips with The M Lodge’s books. Then again, it was hard enough to concentrate on those numbers as it was.

He set his cup down on the counter, got his thoughts back on track. “Did you have any male friends at the time of the robbery?”

“I was seeing a boy. Dean McPherson. Nothing serious.”

“How serious can you get at fourteen?”

“Ever hear of Romeo and Juliet?”

He cocked a brow. “I’m familiar with it, yes.”

“Teenage love can be as strong as any.” She nudged her chin at him. “You must have had a girl hanging off your every word in high school. Kicking her heels and shaking her pom-poms every time your puck slammed into a net.”

Shaking pom-poms? Pucks in nets? Was it his dirty mind or―

Jax squared his shoulders.

“Belinda, we need to focus.”

“Billy,” she said. “Friends call me Billy.”

Studying those green eyes so full of innocence and anticipation, telltale warmth coursed through his veins. Curious. Pleasant. And for so many reasons,
not happening
.

But friends?

Sure. He could do that.

“So,
Billy
, you were seeing a boy,” he went on.

“A couple of boys.”

Two
boys? “Did they ever come over to the house?”

“Sure.”

“Either of them know about the ring?”

“None of my friends knew.” She hesitated. “Except Fay.”

His detective antennae quivered. “Did you show Fay the ring? Was she ever in any kind of trouble at home? With the police?”

“I mentioned the ring to her once. I explained its past, how it had been handed down. I don’t think she believed me. And no. Fay was a good girl, like me.”

“There are different shades of good. Everyone takes at least one trip to the principal’s office.”

“Not me. I was one of those sickening A grade students. How were your grades at school? Bet you were a dux.”

“
Focus.
” He could really get upset if she wasn’t so darn cute. “Your friend—Fay,” he went on. “Did the police question her?”

“Maybe. Not sure.”

“Does she still live around here?”

“Next town up. We’ve lost touch.”

“And the boys you were seeing?”

“One joined the army. The other—no idea.”

“Neighbors?”

“All nice people.” She flinched. “Except one. He was kinda weird. Very quiet. Kept to himself. Mr. Alder. Reed Alder. Shouldn’t you write all this down?”

Jax tapped his temple.
All up here
. “I’ll need Fay’s full name.”

Billy found a yearbook in a drawer, pointed out some names and headshots.

“I appreciate this,” she said. “Really, really.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I never had a big brother to look out for me. No father, either. He left when I was five. Mom said he was loner. Went off to fell trees in Alaska.” She exhaled, shrugged. “I can’t think of anything worse. It’d be so lonely. So...hopeless.”

A feeling swelled up inside of him, hot and fierce and tender all at the same kind. What kind of fink father abandons his young family like that?  How does a kid grow up thinking they aren’t important enough for a parent to hang around?

“Yep. Definitely Ryan Gosling,” she was saying, studying him with an approving grin.

Jax cleared his throat. He wasn’t a star by any stretch of the imagination. And this wasn’t a movie. But, like he’d said, he could dig a little deeper.

Maybe give Billy Slade a little hope.

“Am I under some kind of investigation?”

“I’m making enquiries for Belinda Slade.”

“And who the hell are you?”

When Jax flipped open his still current P.I. license, Dean McPherson narrowed his eyes then pressed back into his high-backed office chair.

“Is Billy in trouble?”

“Would it be a surprise if she were?”

Earlier, Jax had tracked down McPherson’s place of work, a well known Portland gymnasium. Inside he’d found people of all builds and ages working out hard, or taking a well-earned timeout by the water cooler. Way more earthy than the gym at the Lodge. Jax had told the receptionist he was enquiring after a membership and had been given McPherson’s name.

McPherson had charged out, arms swinging, white smile beaming.

He wasn’t smiling now.

Jax wondered. Just how far had the younger McPherson and Billy’s relationship gone? Dates to the movies? Some necking? Not unexpected at fourteen, right?

But that was ten years ago. Was Billy seeing anyone now? He’d ask next time they met. Basic profiling is all.

“From what I remember,” McPherson said, “Billy was a lot of fun, but her nose was always to the grindstone. Schoolwork. Dance classes. She had dreams of being an actress some day. I had a massive crush on her, but we were more friends than anything. She wasn’t interested in fooling around, losing her way.”

Jax cocked a brow. So, Billy
had
been a good girl.

“What’s this about?” McPherson asked.

“Ten years ago, Billy and her sister were victims of a crime. A robbery at their home in Point St. Claire. A piece of jewelry was taken.”

Jax asked basic questions while taking in the awards and champion photographs hanging on the walls. This guy obviously worked hard, competed and found reward in effort as well as achievement. Jax’s gut said: not a former burglar. Certainly not a man who had progressed to more nefarious crimes.

“You had a buddy back in high school,” Jax went on. “Murray Elson.” Boyfriend number two.

“We kept in touch after he joined the services.” McPherson’s jaw flexed. “He was killed during a tour.”

Jax’s stomach muscles clenched and he filled his lungs before he asked a final question—of personal as well as routine importance.

“The original report,” Jax said, “lists David Green as a person who might be of interest.”

“Don’t think I knew a David Green.”

“He was in the drama club with Billy.”

“I saw a few of her performances. Billy’s a natural. But, like I said, I don’t know any David Green.” McPherson shifted in his chair. “Can I ask? Why investigate this now, a decade later?”

“Billy believes she might’ve tracked the piece down. I suggested we do a little background work and fit some pieces together before going forward.”

McPherson said he was sorry he couldn’t help.

They shook hands and, a moment later, about to slip into his vehicle in the parking lot, Jax heard McPherson call out. The fitness instructor was jogging over in shoes fitted with NASA quality springs; he was bouncing on air.

“Just remembered something that might help,” McPherson said, pulling up. “I met Billy’s sister a few times. Nice lady. A bit of an overachiever, but I get that.”

“Ann Slade was acting strangely?”

“She and Billy had just lost their mom. Neither of them were their normal selves. It was Ann’s boyfriend. That dude made my scalp crawl. A person’s eyes reveal a lot. That guy’s eyes were…”

“
Shifty?
”

“Guarded. Like he wasn’t sure if you knew what he was thinking. And something else.”

What McPherson had to say next took a few seconds to relay. It took Jax a while longer to digest.

Turning the coupe into her street, Billy caught sight of Jax sitting on her porch steps, head down, concentrating on his smartphone, looking too sexy for words. Was he working on something connected to their case? Or taking care of other business, which couldn’t have been nearly as much fun.

Stuffy gentleman’s club
versus
hunting down clues to solve a decade old crime
. No contest.

She and Jax had exchanged numbers. Now, as she pulled up in the driveway, her cell phone sounded. A text
.

About time,
Jax messaged.

Biting the lower lip of a cheeky grin, she texted back
.
Got something for me?

Next message
:
Something you won’t like.

Billy jumped out of the car and hurried over to the porch as Jax got to his feet. He looked as delicious in his jeans and well-loved gym shoes as he had that morning when he’d set off to ask some questions. But his expression was even more serious than the day he’d ousted her in that locker room.

She lifted her chin. “I can take it. Just give it to me straight.”

Jax’s mouth hooked up at one side. “That’s gotta be a line from a movie.”

The suspense was killing her. “What’d you find out, Jax?”

“How about we grab a bite to eat and something to wash it down with while we talk?”

Billy’s appetite was suddenly non-existent. But Jax had been out all day, chasing down info. And guys were always hungry. So, they climbed in his car and she showed him the way to the best blueberry pie around.

When they were seated inside Miller’s Bakery, Billy noticed Judd Everett at a table nearby, concentrating on an opened hand-sized notepad. Neat silver gray hair, scarred Bean boots, Judd was a retired lobster man turned local handyman. In his seventies, Judd made a business of knowing everything there was to know about these parts, going back as far as you’d like. He was friendly and helpful and never missed a trick. Someone Jax might want to talk to.

After a waitress took their orders, Jax passed on details of his meeting with her old school chum, Dean. No additional information about the theft itself. Billy wasn’t prepared for his other news though.

“McPherson kept in touch with Murray Elson,” Jax said. “I’m sorry. Your friend didn’t make it home from his last tour.”

Billy couldn’t speak. She was flooded with memories of Murray as a teen, waving his inflated “number one” hand at hockey games...helping her and Faye with brain-numbing bio homework. She could imagine him as a soldier, protective, loyal...

“You okay?” Jax reached across to hold her hand fisted on the tabletop. 

She willed away the sting of tears. “Just hard to believe is all. I wish I’d known. I would’ve liked to have paid my respects.”

Jax squeezed her hand and when her gaze met his, for the briefest moment, she saw into his soul and she knew. Jax Angel understood grief. Understood it in a way that made her want to squeeze his hand right back.

But then his fingers slipped away and he resumed a less affected face.

“McPherson also mentioned your sister’s boyfriend,” he went on. “Ann’s now husband, Rick Hallows. McPherson felt that his behavior was suspicious around that time.”

Billy frowned.
Wait
. “You think my brother-in-law is behind all this?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Truth is I’ve never liked Rick. I never knew what Ann saw in him. But he isn’t a criminal.”

“First we need to sift through whatever evidence we have, whatever additional information we can find, and go from there. We want to approach this the right way. That’s softly, softly.”

As the waitress set down coffee and pie, Billy thought back to a week ago...to how Jax had said there could be a dangerous element involved in any criminal act. She remembered him asking,
Do you own a firearm?

Rick owned a rifle or two.

While Jax tasted the pie and hummed his satisfaction, Billy said, “Private investigating...you said it’s risky sometimes.”

Jax’s loaded fork stopped midway to his mouth. “Having second thoughts?”

“Just wondering whether you’d ever been hurt on the job.” Chewing, he concentrated on his plate and loaded up his fork again. “I mean, do you have a bullet wound or anything?”

“I was never hurt, Billy. Not that way.” Jax went on. “Why don’t you organize a time to visit with your sister and her husband?”

“How do I explain you?”

“We don’t want to spook her. Or Rick. I’ll give you some questions. We’ll go from there, depending on her answers.”

Judd ambled over, tipping his battered cap. Billy wondered what had taken him so long.

“Judd, this is a friend of mine. Jax Angel.”

“Enjoying the pie, Mr. Angel?” Judd asked. “Best on the coast. Has been since my wife helped out here years back.” His proud, misty expression said it all:
Sure do miss that woman.

Billy explained, “Judd’s lived here all his life.”

Jax straightened. “Really.”

“Everetts go back here generations,” Judd said. “Anything you want to know about the Point, could be I can help.”

“Just so happens I’m after some information.” Jax put down his fork. “Do you remember a burglary here ten years ago?”

“You mean when Billy’s ruby ring went missinng?” Judd nodded deeply. “Sure do. Had us all stumped good’n’propah.”

“Remember anything that might help us find out who’s responsible?”

Judd looked around like he was making sure no one was listening in. Like he’d already given it lots of thought.

“One thing,” he said. “Might be nothing, but I spoke to a boy not long after. Your sister’s boyfriend. Richard Hallows.”

Billy’s stomach dropped. Even Judd thought her brother-in-law was behind this? “Rick and Ann are married now. They moved away years ago.”

Judd rubbed his jaw. “That boy’s eyes, his pupils...big as dimes. Sure sign.”

“Sure sign of what?” Jax asked.

“Lyin’.  I didn’t mention it to the authorities. Don’t have a scrap of proof. But I’d wager my best fishin’ pole, if that boy didn’t commit that crime, he sure as pickles knows who did.”