Secrets and Lies (3 page)

It would have worked too. She would be dead if it weren’t for Reese Jenkins. Had he left when the other workers left he wouldn’t have been there to push her out of the way. Thank God for small favors, as they say, because she was so thankful she had recently hired Reese Jenkins. The other men had no problem walking off the site and leaving her behind to clean things up or work out some plans, take some measurements, whatever she needed to do. She, until last night, didn’t have a problem with it either. She was one of the guys—well, technically she was the boss, but they treated her like one of the guys for the most part and as such they didn’t hand hold her or bother to do things like walk her to her car.

Reese was like some knight in shining armor throw back to when people had manners. He had assured her his mother would never forgive him if he left a lady alone instead of waiting to make sure she got to her car safely. She had laughed at the time. Reese was in his forties and he still worried about what his mother thought. She had clearly raised him well.

He didn’t look forty-three. She remembered when he showed up asking for a job. He stated his credentials, told her he hadn’t been able to find employment and he gathered it was because of his age. But he was, lock stock and barrel, in good shape for a forty-three year old. He looked not a day over thirty-eight. And he was strong. He lifted and moved bags of mortar mix easier than some of her twenty-something year old employees.

Mostly, she was impressed that he had not only saved her life, but he had waited around for the police to show, and then he followed her home to make sure she made it there safely. Not many men would do that—especially for somebody they know only as their employer.

She was in trouble, and she knew it. She was very close to the same age her mother was when she died, and her grandmother too. The thought of things happening in threes scared her. She didn’t want to die, and certainly not now. But why would anybody try to kill her? As far as she knew she hadn’t ended up on anybody’s bad side—not recently anyway. The bigger question was why now? Why that night? Was it because they found the body? Had whoever killed her mother and put her there inside those walls been watching the house, waiting for the day to come when it would no longer keep the secrets of the walls safe?

They were knocking down another wall during the remodeling process. She hoped they wouldn’t find another body buried there. What were the odds they’d even find the one? In all her years in construction she had never had that experience, and she hadn’t heard any other construction workers talk about finding dead bodies on site either. She guessed the bigger question was what were the odds she would buy a house, renovate and find the dead body of her mother? After all of these years of wondering and waiting for answers, waiting for somebody to say we’ve found her, and she was the one to do it.

Once the police released the body she would burry her in the plot next to her father. He had bought two plots long before her mother went missing. Her father was, if nothing else, a planner. He knew death was inevitable and so he prepared for it. Morbid, she knew that’s what people had called it, but she also understood it. He was trying, in his own way, to make the process of letting go easier for her. She didn’t have to pick out a casket, pick out a funeral plot or a tombstone. She didn’t have to fight with lawyers and courts over his assets because he had done the will far in advance. She didn’t have to think about the financial aspects, and she was able to grieve. That didn’t mean there weren’t things she had to take care of; she had to take over his business, pay his employees, keep them working and prove herself to every client that walked through the door. But, in a way, he had prepared her for that too.

She wanted to cry, thinking about her father. For all of his faults he was one of the most amazing men she knew. He had survived, pushed on, even after the love of his life was gone. He had loved her mother so much she thought he might die when she disappeared, but instead he held on for her. He became more protective, almost insanely so. He rarely let her go anywhere by herself, not even to the corner store where he used to allow her to walk to as a way of giving her a measure of independence.

She didn’t complain. She didn’t try to assure him that he was suffocating her. She knew why he held on so tight. He was afraid he would lose her too.

She wished he were alive now. Perhaps that wish was purely selfish because she wanted somebody to cling to now. She was alone, no family left to call and cry with, to have support from. Finding her mother was like suffering the loss all over again. Knowing the cops didn’t seem to give a rat’s behind about the case made it that much more difficult. Why? That was the question ever present in her mind since they found her mother. Why, after all this time, was she the one to find the body? She could still see it vividly in her mind. They looked so much alike. The same button nose, the same high cheekbones…God, it was like looking at herself. Only her mother had that perfect dip in her lips, something she didn’t possess. She had almost forgotten the shape of her mother’s lips. She remembered some things, most of which came from the times she had studied the pictures her father kept around the house, like a shrine to Neenah Davis, the “love of his life,” the only love he had ever had in his life.

She had never, ever seen anything like it. Her mother was perfectly preserved as if she had died yesterday instead of nearly twenty years ago.

Thena pulled her car into the garage and let the automatic door down. She managed, with blurry eyes, to make it from car to kitchen before her legs refused to carry her farther. She sunk to the floor and she cried. For the first time since she saw the body, she broke down. The pain hit her hard. Emotions threatened to swallow her whole. Her father had always said no matter what life throws your way it’s important to press on. “Never let it break you, Button,” he would say right before pinching her nose between his thumb and index finger. Until now she had managed to follow his advice. But now, with everything that was happening, she wasn’t sure she could press on. She wasn’t sure she could stop life from breaking her down.

She didn’t want to be alone right now. She needed somebody to talk to; somebody to assure her things would be okay. She didn’t have family. She had very few friends. She was always so busy tending to everybody else that she had spent very little time tending to herself.

She picked up the phone and punched in the speed dial. “Kyle,” she heard the tremble in her voice when she spoke, but she couldn’t stop it. “I could really use a friend right now.”

“What’s wrong?”

She started crying harder. “I found her,” she managed to say. “I found my mother.”

“I’ll be right there.”

The phone clicked and she knew he had hung up on her. Kyle was one of those guys who would drop everything for a friend if that friend needed him. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t called him sooner, but she hadn’t. She had invested her energy into trying to keep the men working so they could put food on their tables, trying to meet with the police to see if they planned to investigate, and then trying to find alternative options when it became clear that they weren’t in a hurry to work on her mother’s case. She hadn’t had time to breakdown and grieve. Whether she had time now wasn’t the issue. Her emotions didn’t care about timing, they needed to be dealt with and they demanded she listen to them. She was listening, but that didn’t mean she wanted to listen to them alone. She needed a friend.

Kyle made record time getting to her place. She would swear he broke every traffic law in the book because there is no way he should have made it in under a half hour.

When he came inside she locked the door behind him before going into his outstretched arms. “Thank you for coming. You’re the best friend a girl could have.”

He tightened his hold. “Tell me what happened?”

She explained in detail about the events of that day, crying through most of her words. He held her, comforted her. Then she told him about the person who had almost run her down.

“Thena, get the cops to get their butts in gear. This is serious,” he snapped.

“I’ve tried, Kyle. I’m getting stonewalled everywhere. That’s why I’ve decided to hire a PI to help me.”

“You can’t afford that; can you?”

“I’ll make it work.” She would have to.

“Look, you come stay with me until this is over. I’ll protect you. You know that.”

She laughed. “You always do. But no, I’m going to be okay here. I don’t want to run scared. Plus, the cops really think it was just some drunk driver—they might be right.” Although she wasn’t sure that she believed those words herself.

“All right. But if you need a place to stay you come to me. Anytime, it doesn’t matter, you just call and I’ll keep the light on for you.”

She smiled. “Were you really busy? I feel as if I might have pulled you away from something.”

“Nah. I was just going over some blueprints.”

“You’re starting another house this soon? I thought you liked to take a month off in between jobs.” She was sure he had just finished working a remodel job just a couple weeks ago.

“It’s a personal project I’m planning. Nothing major…and trust me, your call gave me the break I needed. I’d rather be here with you.”

“Well, since you’re here. At least let me feed you.” She could at least cook him dinner.

“I ate earlier.” He brushed a hand through her hair. “Do you want me to stay over tonight?”

She shook her head no. “I have a long and very early day tomorrow. I won’t be good company. Thanks for the offer.” She noticed the twinge of disappointment in his eyes. Kyle was the kind of man who loved being needed, especially when it came to his friends. She had long ago lost count of how many times he had dropped everything to come to her aid with a construction job.

She yawned, big and long. “I’m sorry,” she said once the yawn released her from its hold. Her eyes were now watery again.

“No problem. You need some sleep.” He stood and pulled her up with him. “Call me, anytime—I mean that.”

“I know,” she hugged him tight. “Thanks, Kyle. You’re a lifesaver.”

Chapter Two

F
irst thing Thomas needed to do was get some information on that supposed accident that almost got Thena killed. He had been thinking about her case all morning, but he had a case to deliver the final documents on this morning and it didn’t leave time for the leg work he needed to do for Thena.

He knew she wanted answers about her mother’s death, but right now the more pressing issue was getting answers about who had tried to kill her. He was sure it was related. He needed to know if the report had any information on the make, model and plate of the vehicle. Her mother was dead. He couldn’t change that. While he wanted to give her the closure she sought, keeping her alive took priority for him. He wasn’t a bodyguard. He knew people far more willing to assume that role, but for some reason he was determined to make himself her bodyguard. And what a body it was to be guarding. He still couldn’t get past those sexy lean legs of hers. She kept in shape—delicious shape—and he figured she did that with the work she did everyday. He doubted running the contracting company along with keeping her architectural dreams alive, combined with flipping houses and giving Twist of Fate a steady supply of houses to rent out, would leave time for a vigorous workout routine.

She had told him, in no uncertain terms, that she just wanted answers about her mother. That was her way of telling him to drop the questions about the near hit and run from the previous night. As if he had any plans of ever doing that.

Any other private detective would probably be content with just digging for information on her mother’s case, but he wasn’t any other detective. Protecting people was in his blood. She needed his help for more than just closure and he aimed to see that she got it—whether she wanted the full service package or not. He was also planning a way to cut her bill in half, if not more. He reckoned it was a good thing women like her didn’t walk into his office everyday otherwise he might go bankrupt trying to save them money.

It wasn’t just because of her beauty. He had seen many beautiful women walk through his door, professionally and personally. It was her innocence, that blatant sense of goodness in her that he hadn’t seen in a long time. She was vulnerable, yet strong, innocent yet not naive, and she intrigued him.

He needed to put those thoughts out of his mind. He couldn’t pursue her. It wasn’t her status as his client that kept him from going for more. At some point she wouldn’t be his client and with any other woman he might think of pursuing at will, but not her. She deserved more than what he could offer her—not financially, he was fine financially, maybe not rich, but not poor either. He was a solid middle class single man, with strong investments and a good economic ethic. He could be a good provider, a good husband—if he weren’t determined to get closure for his own case. Until he did that he wouldn’t be any good to anybody like her. She deserved a husband who would come home to her without eight years of baggage dragging behind him. She deserved more, more than what he could give her right now.

“Focus,” he mumbled. “Focus on the case at hand.” He would drop off his findings to Natalie Kaufman, an eccentric older woman who was determined to protect her family and her family’s money by making sure her son didn’t marry a “gold digging floozy.” He had laughed, inwardly of course, at her verbiage. He wasn’t the type to usually think the worst of people, but in his line of work the worst is what he usually saw. Natalie had been right; her future daughter-in-law was indeed a “gold digging floozy.”  She had taken three previous men to the bank, and the cleaners, within a year of marriage. She divorced and then quickly moved on to the next not-so-poor, unsuspecting sucker. Of course he was sure Jeremiah Kaufman didn’t know that because Jeremiah thought his new fiancé had never been touched, let alone married.