Meredith Potts Fourteen Book Cozy Mystery Set Page 8

  Jennifer shook her head. “No. My plan is and has always been to have this baby and give it up for adoption. Once my child has been adopted, I’m going to go back home.”

  That sounded like a very simplistic plan considering how complicated her situation was.

  I hated to play devil’s advocate, but in this case, I felt like I had no choice. “You really think it’s going to be that easy? That you can just go back to your old life like nothing happened? People think you killed yourself. When they find out that you didn’t, they are going to want to know what happened to you.”

  “I know that.”

  “What are you planning on telling them?”

  “I was going to make up a story about having been abducted. My plan was to tell them that I had been held captive this whole time by a masked maniac.”

  I scoffed. “Do you really think they will buy that?”

  “Yes. At least I did until you came along.” A look of deep concern came to her face. “Are you going to tell my father the truth?”

  I was now the one who was in a terrible position. There didn’t seem to be any good answer to that question. I took a deep breath. “You haven’t put me in a good place here.”

  She pointed back at herself. “What about me? If Tyler finds out that I am alive and that I’m still planning on giving birth to the child he never wanted, he could try to kill me. Not just that, but if my father sees me like this, I’ll be disowned.”

  “So what do you want me to do? Forget what I know? What I’ve seen?” I asked.

  Jennifer nodded. “For a few more months, at least. Just until I give birth. Like I said, once I have put the baby up for adoption, I’m going to go back home.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I can’t believe what you’re asking me to do.”

  “I have already made it this far. I’m just asking you to stay quiet for a few more months.”

  “Do you really think I’m going to turn a blind eye to this after everything I have found out?”

  Jennifer pleaded with me. “I know that I’m asking a lot, but ask yourself this—what if you go back to Maple Grove and do tell my father the truth? What do you think is going to happen? How do you think this will end? I can tell you the answer, and it’s not pretty.”

  The desperation in Jennifer’s eyes was unmistakable. Even though my head was telling me one thing, my heart was telling me another. I never expected to be so torn. While I wavered back and forth in my head, Jennifer put the ball back into my court.

  “So what are you going to do?” she asked.

  Epilogue

  Surprisingly, I found myself doing something I never thought I would. I waited. For six long months, I sat on the truth. It was the hardest thing I had ever done in my professional life. I had spent a lot of time and energy to uncover what had really happened to Jennifer, so it pained me to keep my findings from her father, but ultimately, I decided that was the best course of action.

  My rationale was simple. Even though Mark Richardson had hired me to discover the truth, it was too much for him to handle. The man had been through so much already. Mark had already lost his wife. He believed his daughter to be dead. The last thing he needed was to deal with more trauma. That was exactly what would happen if I told him that his daughter was in fact still alive but pregnant out of wedlock.

  Deep down, even more than the truth, what Mark really wanted was to have his daughter back. By withholding the truth from him and waiting for Jennifer to give birth and put her child up for adoption, I was able to make Mark’s wish come true.

  On a Tuesday morning in early October, six months after I had tracked her down in Milwaukee, Jennifer, now postnatal, turned over her newly born daughter to her adoptive family. After saying a tearful goodbye to her daughter, Jennifer returned to her father’s house in Maple Grove to reunite with her father. Jennifer and Mark shared a long hug that was punctuated by tears of joy and an unmistakable sense of relief.

  Just as she had promised, Jennifer had concocted a story about having been kidnapped and held captive by a strange man for the last hundred and eighty days. She told her father that she had only just now to managed to escape. In addition, she had added the wrinkle that she had no way of identifying this phantom abductor because she had been kept blindfolded the entire time she was in captivity.

  The local police began an investigation to determine the identity and whereabouts of her abductor but of course did not turn up anything as the man did not actually exist.

  As I paid the Richardson family a visit at their home in Maple Grove, I saw a look of incredible relief on Mark’s face that his daughter was alive and home again. It became clear to me then that the past was of little importance to Mark. The only thing that truly mattered to him was the future, one in which his only daughter was alive and well.

  The investigator in me felt awful being a party to such a distortion of the truth. Another part of me felt completely different. I was a daughter myself, one who had a loving and caring father of my own.

  In that regard, I took comfort in knowing that after all of the trauma that the Richardson family had endured over the last couple of years, they were finally able to have a much-deserved happy ending.

  The End.

  The Last Frontier Of Murder

  Chapter One

  “Hi, darling,” Jake Talbot said.

  I never used to think I’d like being called “darling.” I’d always viewed it as an antiquated saying from a bygone era. A carryover from a more sentimental time. The kind of thing my grandfather would tell my gramma. After all, I was a modern woman. My friends and I rarely ever heard people being called “honey” or “dear” anymore, much less “darling.”

  Yet, the term of endearment flowed so naturally from Jake’s lips. As far as I was concerned, he could call me “darling” any time he wanted. A lot of my opinions had changed since I’d met Jake. It turned out my beliefs weren’t quite as entrenched as I once thought they were.

  My boyfriend had a soothing voice, the kind that would fit in perfectly as a morning radio host at an easy-listening station. His actual profession was strikingly different. He ran his own private-eye firm. While his voice was sweet, his body was strong. He was tall and muscular, with broad shoulders, a square jaw, a handsome angular face, and a heart of gold. His hair was short, brown, and slightly scruffy. I sometimes got lost peering into his baby-blue eyes.

  I wished that I was gazing at him right then. Unfortunately, he was still at work. I, meanwhile, was done with my managerial shift at Frozen Pine Espresso Company, the local coffeehouse in town. If there was one benefit of the dawn patrol shift, it was finishing my work shift by the early afternoon. Because I often had to wake up before the sun even rose, I’d frequently use the two or three hours between when my shift ended and when Jake finished his job to sneak in a nap.

  It was interesting how I got a different perspective on things as I grew older. When I was five years old, I never wanted to take naps. I was far more interested in running around. Now that I was thirty-five years old, a nap seemed like a luxury that came along all too rarely. I certainly wasn’t going to squander the opportunity to fit in a few extra minutes of shut-eye.

  Before I’d had a chance to drift off, Jake had called me. As it was only the middle of the afternoon, I couldn’t help but wonder if something had gone wrong. Was he calling to cancel our date later? I hoped that wasn’t the case.

  “It’s good to hear your voice,” I replied.

  He must have heard the groggy exhaustion in my voice, because he was able to pinpoint my location over the phone from halfway across town.

  “Are you in bed?” he asked.

  “Can you tell?”

  “Kind of. I wish I could take a nap right now.”

  “So do I. You know me, I’m not one to turn down some good snuggling.”

  “Neither am I.”

  Jake had come around at just the right time in my life. His love was like a ray of sunshine cut
ting through a blanket of clouds. He was also proof that timing truly was everything. We met a little over a year ago. It had been the dead of winter. In Alaska, that was saying a lot. Alaska was known as the last frontier, but in my mind, it was first on the list of the worst winters imaginable.

  After living through thirty-five Januaries, I’d learned that there was no winter quite like an Alaskan winter. The days were short, the nights were long, and the cold was so intense that it shook me to the bone. When Jake and I first met, I was slogging through the longest winter of my life.

  Back then, I’d hit a low point. It truly was the darkest time in my life. Shortly before, I’d had my heart broken by a cheating boyfriend. I was so devastated that the prospect of having to ever run into my ex again was enough to twist my stomach into knots. Unfortunately, in a town of only 10,875 people like Frozen Pine, the chances of me crossing paths with my two-timing ex were dangerously high.

  In the excruciating aftermath of our breakup, I was mulling over moving out of town, leaving my home state behind for hopefully greener pastures. After losing both my parents, I didn’t have any family left in town. My father had died in a deep-sea fishing accident when I was nine. Then, my mother passed away three years ago after a heart attack. If I moved, I’d miss my friends, but I could always call them, and thanks to the wonder of social media, they were only ever one click on the computer away.

  It seemed like it was time for me to make a fresh start in my life. After all, I’d always felt like I was born in the wrong part of the country to begin with. I’d never been a fan of winter, which made living in Alaska an uneasy fit for me.

  Then, just as it seemed like nothing could keep me from leaving, I met Jake. He was everything that my ex-boyfriend was not—kind, sweet, considerate, intelligent, funny, and most of all, caring. The first date began with dinner and a movie but ended with us talking effortlessly until deep into the night. More dates followed, each succeeding in making me fall slowly in love with him. As our relationship progressed, the idea of moving out of town eventually faded from my thoughts.

  That didn’t mean my feelings about my home state and its brutal winters had changed. Far from it. I just had a counterbalance in my life. As deeply as I disliked Alaska was as much as I loved Jake. Any ideas that I could convince him to move away were dismissed as quickly as they came into my mind.

  That was because Jake had deep ties to Frozen Pine. He hadn’t just grown up here. Other than the occasional vacation, he’d spent his whole life in this part of the world. In addition, he was an only child. His parents lived only a few blocks away from him. If he left, it would be a big blow to them. Then you threw in the fact that he’d also spent close to a decade building up his own private-eye business from the ground up.

  Both personally and professionally, the roots of his life were planted as firmly as some of the pine trees that surrounded our historic town. If that wasn’t enough, the idea of picking up and starting over fresh had never once crossed his lips during any of our conversations. So, even though I hadn’t asked him as much, I got the distinct sense that he wanted to live the rest of his life in Frozen Pine.

  Aside from my complaints about the weather, I didn’t regret my decision to stay in town. To me, Jake was worth it. After a series of failed relationships, I knew how special it was to find a genuinely good man. Not to mention rare. Our friends often remarked that we acted like honeymooners. Maybe, in the not-so-distant future, we would be. The name Andrea Talbot did have a good ring to it. Maybe even more than my given name of Andrea McDougal.

  Only time would tell what our future had in store. Either way, one thing was clear—the honeymoon phase in our relationship was far from over.

  While my head was firmly in the clouds, Jake switched gears in our phone conversation.

  “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

  “No. I hadn’t drifted off yet,” I said.

  “Good. I can’t wait to see you later.”

  “Right back at you.”

  “Anyway, I’ll let you get to sleep. Sweet dreams.”

  This time, I was the one to notice something in his voice that stood out. I had to stop him from hanging up. He was bringing our conversation to a much too abrupt end, especially since I had a distinct feeling he had something else on his mind.

  “Wait. Jake, is something wrong?”

  “No. What would make you think that?”

  “It’s just that you called me in the middle of the day, and you don’t usually do that unless something is wrong.”

  “I just wanted to hear your voice.”

  My heart fluttered as I heard that. Compliments had the biggest effect when they were completely unexpected. That one, in particular, was a very pleasant surprise.

  “That’s so sweet.”

  I would have let my doubts go right there, but I still had an uneasy feeling in my gut. When it was combined with the nagging suspicion that was growing at the back of my mind, I found it too difficult not to speak up. “Are you sure everything is all right?”

  He let out a big sigh. “It has just been one of those days.”

  Jake clearly didn’t want to get into specifics. I decided not to push him any further. If he’d already been through the wringer, the last thing he needed was for me to hassle him.

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  There was defeat in his voice as he replied. “I wish there was.”

  Even though I told myself I’d simply remain sympathetic and that I wouldn’t stick my nose in his business, my curiosity got the best of me. I couldn’t help myself. The words had spilled out of my mouth before I had the chance to restrain myself. That was a bad habit of mine that had stuck with me throughout my entire life.

  “It’s about one of your cases, isn’t it?”

  “I’d really rather not get into it.”

  “Fair enough. That’s okay, I know just how to cheer you up later.”

  He perked up. “I’ll bet you do, and I can’t wait.”

  Ah, love. There really was nothing like it, nor was there anything better than it in the entire world. It was intoxicating. I’d been in love before but never this deeply. We had the kind of bond that felt like it couldn’t be broken. It was the love I’d waited my whole life for. Since we began dating, I felt like my life was divided into two parts—the time I spent with Jake, and the time I waited impatiently until I saw him again.

  Almost everything was perfect with our relationship. Notice how I said almost. There was one area of concern. It wasn’t major enough to be considered a bone of contention. Rather, it was more a lingering spot of worry. Luckily, it did not concern our personal lives, as those were always the most difficult to solve. Instead, it centered around his professional life.

  I had some very distinct worries about his chosen profession. There were occupational hazards in all lines of work, but as a private eye, he was flirting with danger on a regular basis. It was his job to dig up dirt for his clients.

  Each case came with inherent risks. If things went wrong, he could really get hurt. Just because he’d avoided trouble so far didn’t mean his luck wouldn’t run out one day.

  He assured me that I was worrying too much and that he always took the proper precautions. Even so, that didn’t mean he was completely out of harm’s way. That was the problem with his line of work—there was no such thing as being a hundred percent safe.

  Even more, when he told me there was nothing to worry about, I knew his words rang hollow. He was just saying them to make me feel better—not because they were actually true. So, while I appreciated that he was trying to assuage my fears, it provided little comfort.

  The funny thing was, this wasn’t the first time Jake’s occupation had been dangerous. Prior to being a private eye, he’d been a deep-sea fisherman, just like my dad had been. After nearly a decade on the job, Jake had gotten burnt out on the high-stress work environment, the wildly unpredictable weather, the months away at sea, and how the job had destroyed
every relationship ever been in.

  He finally managed to trade in his sea legs, only to swap out one dangerous job for another. To Jake, the risk was worth the reward. Sure, being a private eye had its risks, but it also had its spoils. It was a lucrative line of work. After all, almost everyone had secrets. The problem was, most people would do almost anything to keep them from being found out.

  I worried that one day all the dirt he’d dug up over the years would come back to haunt him. He’d run afoul of the wrong person and would suffer some grave consequences. While he couldn’t refute that, he kept telling me the chances of that happening were absurdly small.

  In addition, he replied that if he left his job, he didn’t know where in our small town he could find a new one with a comparable income. He had bills to pay, and Frozen Pine didn’t exactly have a bustling economy.

  I argued that his health was more important than money. That I wanted him out of the path of danger. That being a private eye was a profession for a single man, not one in a deeply committed relationship. I had plans for us. We were carving out a rosy future together, and I didn’t want anything to spoil that.

  It wasn’t my intention to be a nag. My instincts just told me this was something I needed to worry about. I usually had very good instincts, so when they nudged me one way or another, I listened.

  It had taken a while, but I finally felt like I was wearing him down. It seemed like it wouldn’t be much longer until I got him to come around to my line of thought. With Jake so on edge, the timing wasn’t right to bring up any of this now. It was just that every time he told me about having a tough day at work, these thoughts came to my mind.

  “I can’t wait to see you either,” I said. “I’m sorry again about your day.”

  He tried to downplay things. “I’ll be fine.” Jake exhaled. “I’ve had worse.” He then switched gears. “Anyway, it’ll be good to see you. In the meantime, back to work.”

  “Love you,” I said.