The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) (7 page)

“Hello, Officer. Yes, I’m Jenessa Jones from the Hidden Valley Herald. I’m looking for whoever is in charge here.”

“That would be Detective George Provenza.” The officer pointed to a man with silver hair, likely early sixties, wearing a button-down shirt and tan slacks, standing and talking with a few other people. “The one in the light blue shirt, gray hair.”

She started to duck under the yellow tape when the officer grabbed her arm. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you can’t go in there.”

“I need to speak with the detective and take some photos for the newspaper. Do you mind telling him I’m here?”

“All right, but you wait here.” He pointed at the ground outside of the cordoned-off area. “I don’t think he’ll let you snap any pictures, but he might be open to speaking with you.”

Staying where she was ordered, Jenessa watched the officer dip under the tape and go to talk to the detective. Both men turned, glanced her way, then looked away again to continue their conversation.

The officer returned and told her the detective would give her a statement as soon as he was finished talking to the couple who made the grisly discovery. A few onlookers had approached the tape. The officer, arms straight out to his sides, warned them to back away.

The sound of a large vehicle approaching caught Jenessa’s attention and she spun around. It was a sizeable black van with the words
Crime Scene Investigation Unit
painted on it. The officer moved the small crowd to the side and the van parked between them and her.

When the CSI team disembarked from the van and moved toward the scene, Jenessa ducked under the tape with them and used them to shield her from the detective’s view. As they moved in unison toward the site of the unearthed remains, on the far side of the foundation set-up, Jenessa leaned in and managed to snap a few photos before the detective noticed her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, lady?” Provenza hollered.

Jenessa froze and all eyes were suddenly on her.

She sucked in a breath and quickly regained her composure. Turning toward him, she gave him her answer. “My job, Detective. Same as you.” She stuck out her hand. “Jenessa Jones, Hidden Valley Herald. My editor sent me here to cover this story. I hear you’re the man in charge.”

“I am. I thought my officer told you to wait out there,” he growled, motioning beyond the tape.

“Yes, sorry about that. But when the CSI van drove up, I thought I’d lose my opportunity if I just stood around and waited.”

“Opportunity for what?”

“Well, if this is such a big deal that you needed to call in help from the big city, this place is going to be crawling with out-of-town reporters and news crews. I figured I’d give you the chance to fill me in first, so the real story gets out, not some tale that gets blown out of proportion, making Hidden Valley sound like a hotbed of crime. You wouldn’t want that, would you, Detective?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“And I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re the man in charge—I’ll even make sure your name gets spelled right. Provenza—that’s with a V and a Z, right?”

“I can’t have people roaming around the crime scene, no matter how good a reporter you are, Miss…”

“Jones, Jenessa Jones. I can work with you or I can work without you, but make no mistake, Detective, I will get my story. Your choice.” She shrugged.

“But this is a murder scene, Miss Jones, and you’re a civilian,” he said, poking a finger in her face.

She stood her ground and refused to back down. “I’m the press. I’m fully aware that this is a murder scene, and I won’t get in your way. I’m after the story, the truth, Detective.”

“Hmm.” He paused and eyed her. “I see Charles McAllister has hired himself a bull dog.”

“Excuse me?” she asked, not sure if she should be offended or simply confused by the comment.

“A bull dog—you know, a firecracker, a pistol, a feisty woman—someone who’ll keep digging, grab hold and won’t let go.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said with a satisfied smile.

“That’s how I meant it. I can see I’m not getting rid of you, so as soon as I finish interviewing the people who found the bones, I’ll give you a statement. You can look around, but stay out of the CSI unit’s way. Deal?”

“Deal.” A smile was hinting at her lips but she worked to rein it in, wanting the detective to think it was his idea.

He turned and went back to the couple who owned the property and resumed the questioning. He hadn’t said she couldn’t take any photos.

~*~

Before long the detective met up with Jenessa and gave her his statement. The couple that called it in owned the property that was under construction. They’d come to check on it early that morning, walking their two Weimaraners. As they’d walked around the framing for the foundation, the dogs began digging furiously at the far back corner and came up with some bones in their mouths.

From the size and shape of the bones, the people realized they could be human. Once they were able to wrestle the bones away from their dogs, they’d phoned the Hidden Valley police to report what they’d found. When the detective saw what he was dealing with, he called for the state CSI team to examine and retrieve the remains.

The CSI unit extracted all the bones and any other material on and around them.

“Do they know if it was a woman or a man?” Jenessa asked.

“They have a guess, but I don’t think I should say until they release their findings,” Provenza said.

Jenessa leaned in and kept her voice low. “I heard one of the CSIs refer to the remains as
her
. That leads me to believe they think it was a woman.”

“Well, there you have it,” he said softly. “But you didn’t hear it from me.”

She hadn’t actually heard anyone say the remains were a
her
, but the bluff worked.

“Any idea how long she’s been buried?” she asked.

“They won’t know ‘til they get her back to their lab.”

“If you could let me know as soon as you do, then I can add that fact into my story. Maybe someone will remember something out of the ordinary around that time.”

“I can’t be giving out that kind of information.”

“The townspeople will want to know, Detective.”

He glared at her. “I’ll think on it.”

“Seems like it must have been a shallow grave. Am I right?”

“A few feet down, I’m guessing. Ten or twenty years ago there weren’t as many homes here as there are now. That house would have been here,” he pointed to the Alexanders’ house, “but this house under construction and the next one over would have just been treed woodlands back then. Maybe even the next house after that.”

“I know it’s early, but any gut feelings about who may have done this?” she asked.

“Not yet. It’s way too early. Could have been some random partiers from town who got out of hand and someone ended up dead. Maybe they buried her quick because they were afraid of someone finding out.”

Jenessa knew what he meant. Going to the lake often meant beer parties, and sometimes smoking pot, for some of the teens and twenties crowd from Hidden Valley back in the day. Not knowing when this woman died, it was hard to say what was going on. For all she knew it could have happened in the nineteen fifties, although, with the few shreds of clothing still attached, it likely wasn’t that long ago.

“Is there anything else you can tell me, Detective?” Jenessa asked.

“I think that’s about it for now.”

~*~

Jenessa swung the Roadster around and headed for home. She peeked over her shoulder at the Alexanders’ lake house as she cruised past it. She instantly wished she had kept her eyes straight ahead. Her pulse quickened and her throat tightened.

She couldn’t help but think of Logan—and that night. A light layer of perspiration formed on her skin at the thought, and tiny chill bumps covered her arms as the cold air from the air conditioner hit her.

Chapter 9

Once out on the main road, she laid her foot heavy on the pedal, trying to escape the painful memories of what began in that lake house that ill-fated night. She flew around the curves, leaning into the centrifugal force. At times, the tires squealed, trying to stay on the road. Rather than feeling free, now she felt bound, constricted, the sequence of events playing over in her rattled mind.

Six weeks after the passionate night at the lake house, Jenessa had discovered she was pregnant. Opposite of everything she had heard as a teenager, it truly did only take one time—that one night when she’d given herself to Logan. He was leaving for college in a few weeks and she had planned to return to high school for her senior year. But not after that night—everything changed—at least for her.

The first person she had told was her best friend Ramey. Sweet and tender-hearted, Ramey had cried with Jenessa and lamented over what would happen next, to her and to the baby.

Then Jenessa had told Logan. He had picked her up at her house that evening, and they were on their way to the movies. He pulled his car into a parking space and turned the engine off.

She put her hand on his arm as he reached for the door handle. “Wait, Logan.” He turned back and looked at her. “I have something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” A slight frown furrowed his brow as he settled back into his seat.

She paused, searching for the right words to lessen the shock, but none would come, so she just said it. “I’m pregnant.”

“Pregnant? But how? We only did it that one time.”

“I know that, but yet I am.” She held her breath, searched his face, waiting for his response. Did he love her as much as she loved him?

He stared at her in silence for a long time, then finally spoke. “We can’t keep it.”

She shifted in her seat to face him straight on. “We’re not talking about a puppy, Logan.” Surely he didn’t mean abortion.

“Of course, I know that, but I’m leaving for the university in a few weeks, I have football practice starting. And you still have another year left of high school before you go off to college. We can’t get stuck raising a baby. You can’t think that—”

Tears filled her eyes as he spoke. Desperation shook her and she grasped his hand. “Maybe we could—”

He pulled away from her. “Oh, my God, you do.”

“Just listen to me, Logan. We could get married. I’ll get my GED and go to school with you. Colleges have housing for married students, we could stay there until the baby was old enough for daycare. Then I could start taking courses. It could work.”

“No, it couldn’t.” His features twisted in anguish for a brief moment, then he laid his head back against the headrest and expelled a rush of air. His expression softened a little as he leaned toward her and spoke. “We can’t get married—that’s out of the question—we’re just kids ourselves.” His lips were strained as he spoke. “Our whole lives are ahead of us, Jenessa. I think abortion is the best answer.”

There it was. That was exactly what he meant. “I’m not going to kill our baby because it’s the easiest thing to do,” she snapped.

“Then have the thing and put it up for adoption,” he shot back. “Keeping it will only ruin our lives.”

“The thing?” she questioned, her eyes growing wide with anger.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” He shook his head and dropped his chin with exasperation. Then his gaze met hers again and he took her by the arm. “Whether it’s a boy or a girl doesn’t matter, it’s just a little blob right now, so get rid of it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Logan. It’s not a blob, it’s a baby—our baby.” She yanked away from his grip. She could no longer hold back the tears and they spilled down her cheeks.

As much as either of them hated the thought of telling their folks, they agreed they had to. Their parents were friends, sort of. Actually, Logan’s father was her dad’s biggest client and they traveled in some of the same social circles.

Fearful and nervous, Jenessa and Logan gathered their parents together in one room, at the Alexanders’ palatial home, and broke the news to all of them at once. Logan’s father and stepmother were furious, Jenessa’s parents were mortified.

Not that any of the adults asked the teenagers’ opinions, but Jenessa made it clear she wanted to keep the baby and suggested they get married. Logan said he wanted her to have an abortion so they could both get on with their lives. In the end, the parents decided it would be best if Jenessa went to live outside of Hidden Valley, have the baby, and put it up for adoption.

It was easier for them to call the baby
it
so there would be no emotional attachment, they claimed. But no matter what they called her baby, Jenessa knew she would forever have an emotional attachment to the child.

That night, Grey Alexander had offered to pay all of Jenessa’s medical expenses. There was something powerful and dark in the man’s eyes that always made her uncomfortable in his presence, but this particular night it was exponentially worse. Something in her heart told her maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t going to be part of his family.

Her father had stood up to Mr. Alexander and insisted on paying his half, fulfilling his paternal obligation. They were both at fault, he had reasoned, Jenessa and Logan, and the financial burden should be shared equally.

So the final decision was made. For the sake of all concerned, the parents had said, Jenessa would be sent to her grandmother’s home in Santa Rosa until the baby was born and given up for adoption, and Logan would go off to college to play football, as planned.

From that day on, Jenessa’s father never treated her the same.

~*~

The drive home from the crime scene at Jonas Lake was a blur. Before she realized it, Jenessa found herself pulling into the driveway of her parents’ home. She went inside and changed into shorts and a tank top, excited to get started writing her story.

She phoned her boss and told him what she had so far, that she hoped to hear from the detective as to how long the bones had been there, and confirmation that it was a woman’s skeleton.

“I was able to snap a few photos, so I’ll look through them and see if there’s anything we can print,” she said.

He asked her to give him all she had so far and he’d run it in the morning newspaper. “The television news will probably be reporting on it tonight, but the article should give a more in-depth story.”