The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) (13 page)

“You think he’s involved?”

“I’m trying to think of anyone who may have had motive or opportunity to kill your mom, and her boyfriend was the first one that came to mind.”

“It was Tony something or other. All I remember is I used to call him Phony Tony Bologna.”

“To his face?”

“Not if I knew what was good for me, but that’s what he used to say when he wanted me to stop doing something. ‘I swear, girl, if you know what’s good for you.’
I can hear him screaming it in my head like it was yesterday.”

“So, Tony Bologna had a temper. Did he ever hit you?”

“A few times.” Ramey paused for a moment, her expression falling, as if she was remembering one of those instances. “You know, I may know where I can find his name—my mom’s old boxes.”

“Old boxes?”

“Yeah, she was a packrat. When she left, I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. Let me poke around in them when I get home. I’m pretty sure there are photos in one of them, and there just might be a picture of the two of them. If we’re lucky, mom wrote his name on the back. She used to do that—to keep her boyfriends straight, I’m guessing.”

Jenessa recalled there had been quite a string of men in Lucy St. John’s life. Poor Ramey.

“Do you remember anyone that your mom had trouble with? Anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?”

“Boy…that was a long time ago. I’d have to give that some thought. Let me go find that box and look through it. If I come up with anything, I can drop it by tonight.”

“I probably won’t be home, so just call me and leave a message.”

“Where are you going?” Ramey inquired.

“I’m having dinner with a friend.”

“Anyone I know? Like a certain tall and hunky police officer perhaps?”

“No, I’m having dinner with Logan. Now, don’t judge.”

“Logan? What on earth for?” Ramey obviously missed Jenessa’s last words about judging her.

“It’s no big deal, nothing fancy. He just wanted to talk, make things not so uncomfortable every time we bump into each other.”

“Oh, brother. And you bought that line?”

“Well, he does have a point, Ramey. This is a small town and I work for his family now.” What could it hurt to give him an hour and see if he was right? “We’re going to keep running into one another. If it turns out to be a mistake, I’ll make a mad dash for the door.”

“Call me if you need a ride home. And even if you don’t, call me when you get home. I want to hear all the juicy details.” Ramey snickered.

“Please, just see if you can find that photo of Phony Tony.”

~*~

Now that Ramey had confirmed she was the child in the locket, Jenessa wondered if Aunt Renee could shed any more light on Lucy St. John. She had lived in Hidden Valley for more than thirty years and knew most of what went on in that town. If she phoned her aunt now, she’d have time to talk before Logan showed up.

“Now, I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty,” Aunt Renee began, “but I’m pretty sure that Ramey is Grey Alexander’s daughter.”

Jenessa sucked in a quick breath. “Are you kidding? What makes you say that?”

“I knew Lucy St. John when she was about twenty. I had just moved to Hidden Valley with Phillip, my second husband.” Renee paused. “You remember him, don’t you?”

“Barely.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I met Lucy when she was working at the bank.”

“The one where Grey Alexander is the president?”

“Yes, but his father was the president then, and Grey was an asset manager, I believe. Anyway, Lucy worked for him. She was a pretty girl with long red hair and bright blue eyes, like Ramey’s.”

Jenessa leaned closer to the phone, as if her Aunt was right in front of her. “And you think they were having an affair?”

“Oh, honey, I know they were. Lucy confided in me one day over lunch that she had been seeing Grey, but she asked me to keep it to myself. No one could know.”

“Wasn’t Grey married by then?”

“He was. That’s why. You see, his wife was very pregnant. Some men simply can’t go without sex while their wives are in their third trimester and that period of time right after the birth, so he started up with Lucy. He didn’t care about her, he just wanted sex—and she knew it. It wasn’t like he was ever going to leave his wife and newborn baby for her. I don’t know what that girl was thinking.”

“That son of a—”

“Watch your language, young lady. Lucy had a hard upbringing, and not much sense, so when a handsome, powerful man like Grey started paying attention to her, well, it must have gotten the better of her.”

Jenessa knew how that felt. Those Alexander men had a way about them.

“I tried to get her to break it off with him,” Aunt Renee said, “but Lucy was under his spell. She wouldn’t give him up. I didn’t think we should stay friends after that.”

“Then how do you know Grey Alexander is Ramey’s father, if you’d broken contact with her?”

Chapter 18

There was a pause on the phone line, as if Aunt Renee was measuring her words. “As far as I knew, Grey was the only man Lucy had ever slept with up to that point. She was obsessed with the man.”

Jenessa recalled her own obsession with the younger Mr. Alexander. Her stomach knotted at the thought.

“A few months later,” Aunt Renee continued, “maybe four or five, I was in the bank doing some business and I noticed Grey’s wife, Elizabeth, was there with the baby. Logan must have only been two or three months old at the time. Several of the tellers were crowding around them, getting a look at the child and wishing them well. I didn’t see Lucy there though, so I asked one of the girls about her. She said Lucy had been let go, but she didn’t know why.”

Aunt Renee let out a long sigh. “I knew something was wrong, but I wasn’t sure what. A couple of days later I saw her in town, stepping out of a store, and it was obvious she was pregnant, maybe four or five months along. She turned and went the other way when she saw me coming. I called out to her, but she kept walking.”

“That’s odd.”

“I never spoke to her after that. Maybe I should have made more of an effort.”

“But you don’t know for sure Grey Alexander is Ramey’s father, do you?”

“No, not absolutely. But who else could it be?”

“Well, Ramey could get a paternity test,” Jenessa said.

“Assuming she wants to know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Aunt Renee paused, “that Grey Alexander is a powerful man, and he obviously has not wanted any relationship with her. He could make life hard for her in this town if she exposed him.”

“Yeah, that would be bad,” Jenessa replied. Then a thought hit her like a light bulb coming on. “Oh no, that would also mean Logan is Ramey’s brother—well, half-brother. I wonder if he knows.” If Ramey pursued it, he would have to split his inheritance with her, which Logan would certainly be opposed to doing.

“Not likely Grey would have told him,” Aunt Renee supposed, “or anyone else.”

“Do you think his wife knew?”

“It’s possible.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” Jenessa pressed. It wasn’t like Aunt Renee to give such short answers.

“Only that Grey and Elizabeth divorced when Logan was young. There were rumors.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“If town gossip at the time is to be believed, it’s very doubtful Lucy was the only one. Word was that there were a number of other women Grey had been, let’s just say,
spending time
with. So, yes, Elizabeth was probably aware.”

“Do you think she knew about Ramey?”

Elizabeth couldn’t have been pleased with that fact, not to mention the division of the Alexander wealth. Her son would no longer be Grey’s only heir.

“That I can’t tell you, dear.”

“If she did, though, do you think she would kill Lucy to keep it quiet?”

“After all those years? Oh, my goodness, no. Ramey was already grown by the time Lucy ran off. What would have been the point?”

“Then the new Mrs. Alexander perhaps?” Jenessa asked.

“Lauren? Now that’s another story. I wouldn’t put it past that gold digger to do anything she had to, to protect the Alexander fortune.”

~*~

It was six o’clock straight up. The doorbell rang and Logan was right on time.

Pausing before she opened the door, Jenessa gripped the brass doorknob and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and blew it out in short puffs, the way she had learned to do in Lamaze classes. Funny how that training had stayed with her all these years. It occurred to her that she often used this method to relax in tense situations.

The butterflies in her stomach seemed to settle down—butterflies which had hatched from their cocoons as soon as she agreed to have this friendly dinner with the young man who had ruined her life. She had no choice but to open the door or he would just ring the bell again. So she forced a polite, half-hearted smile on her face and flung it open.

There stood Logan, more handsome than ever, his gaze locking onto hers. The bright summer sun was low in the sky behind him and the light from it gave his silhouette a glow, backlighting his blond hair. His alluring eyes held her gaze and seemed to be peering straight down to her soul.

Struggling to break his magnetism, “Hello, Logan,” was all she could manage, flatly, no affable lilt to her voice.

“You look beautiful tonight, Jenessa,” he said, giving her a winsome smile, “but then you always do.”

Her back stiffened at the compliment and her smile faded as she looked away. Was this really only meant to be a friendly dinner to mend broken old fences? She fought to keep her discomfort from showing on her face, continuing to divert her eyes from his. “I’ll get my purse and we can go.”

“Not going to invite me in?”

His question prickled her. She didn’t want to be alone in the house with him. “I’m famished, so I’d really rather go to the restaurant for that burger you promised me.” She took another deep breath as she turned and snatched her purse off the entry table and stepped out the door, locking it behind her.

Logan’s red BMW was parked at the curb. As they strolled together down the stone walkway to his car, his hand hugged her waist for the last few steps before he opened the door for her.

The muscles in her back tensed at his touch. Irritated, she spun around to face him. “This isn’t a date.”

“I know,” he said with a slight nod. “Just two old friends catching up.”

Jenessa slid into the tan leather seat, not sure she believed him. His words said he knew it wasn’t a date, but his actions didn’t quite match them.

~*~

With little conversation, they reached the burger joint and were soon seated in a red vinyl booth.

“Are you glad to be back in Hidden Valley?” Logan asked, sitting across the table from her.

“It’s taking a little getting used to.” Jenessa picked up her menu and read over the offerings, avoiding his probing eyes. “I’m happy to be around my family again, and Ramey.”

“You and Ramey have been friends since high school, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” Jenessa forced her gaze to remain on the menu items. “But you’ve probably known her all your life, since you were both born here.”

“Actually, not until high school. We didn’t grow up in the same neighborhood, so we didn’t go to school together until then.”

Of course they wouldn’t grow up in the same neighborhood. Poor Ramey was the illegitimate daughter, and Logan had the silver spoon firmly planted in his mouth.

Was it really possible Logan never knew Ramey was his sister? Would his father have ever told him?

“Too bad, she’s a great girl, like a sister to me.” Jenessa peeked over her menu at him. No reaction.

“The body the cops found at the lake was her mother, right?” he asked.

Jenessa dropped her menu on the table, cringing at the sharp slapping noise that rang out from it. “What do you know about that?”

“Only what I’ve heard around town. Why the attitude?”

She picked up the menu again.
Who could have told him that?
“Sorry, it’s just that the identity hasn’t been confirmed yet.” She scanned the menu selections once more, then gently set it down on the table. “Did you happen to know Lucy St. John at all?”

“Not really.” There was a slight hesitation in his voice, then he went on. “My father said she had worked for him at one time, before Ramey was born.” Logan folded his arms on the table and leaned in.

Was it Grey Alexander who told Logan the dead woman might be Lucy? He did seem to know everything that went on in this town.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” Logan said, “but wasn’t Lucy pretty much a drunk when we were in high school?”

“She had her problems. She certainly didn’t live the charmed life the Alexanders did—neither did Ramey.”

He bolted up straight in the booth. “Charmed life? Just because my family has money doesn’t mean we lived a fairytale. You have no idea what I’ve been through, what it’s like being the son of the great and mighty Grey Alexander. It was…” Logan paused and stared at Jenessa for a moment, his eyes misting. Evidently, she had struck a nerve. “It was no picnic.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, putting a hand briefly on his, a sympathetic ache stirring inside. Maybe there were things going on in that household that she didn’t know about—awful things. Maybe she had been so wrapped up in her own family drama that she never noticed. “I just assumed—”

“Everyone always does,” Logan cut in, pulling his hand away. He sat back against the cushioned booth and his eyes cleared. “Someday, maybe I’ll tell you about it.”

Would they ever get to the place in their new quasi-friendship where he would open up like that? Because he never did when they were dating. Would she ever dare to share the trials between her and her father with him?

The waitress approached their table and took their orders.

“How’s your mother?” Jenessa asked after the waitress left. “Do you get to see her very much?”

He nodded. “When she’s not busy with her clubs and organizations, or traveling.”

“She’s the president of the Hidden Valley Garden Club, isn’t she?”

“No, my stepmother is. Why do you ask?”

“I’ll be covering the Flower Show next week for the paper, so I thought I’d be interviewing your mother. Guess it will be Lauren instead.”