Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2)

by Lauren Carr

  After one pump, Royce released her hand to pursue Joshua, who was on his way into the living room. “Belle really isn’t feeling well right now. This has been a terrible shock to her—to all of us.”

  Even though Royce was approximately the same height as Joshua, his slight frame and stooped-over posture, which accentuated his flabby stomach and pear shape, made him appear much smaller. His pasty complexion added to his unattractive appearance.

  In contrast, Belle was a stunning brunette—attractive enough to make Cameron feel a tinge of jealousy when she jumped off the sofa to throw her arms around Joshua, hug him tightly, and sob into his chest.

  “I’m sorry, Belle,” Joshua whispered while rubbing her back. “I am so sorry.”

  “I always wondered … I thought I had grieved and was over it … but when Hunter told me … it’s like it’s started all over again.” Clutching him by the arms, she pressed her face into his chest and cried.

  “His cruiser was in the lake?” Royce asked while prying his wife out of the other man’s arms.

  “At the bottom of the lake,” Joshua said with a nod of his head.

  Royce grasped Belle’s arm. “He must have had an accident. Lost control of his cruiser and ended up crashing into the lake.”

  Cameron’s eyes met Joshua’s. If it was an accident, how did Mike lose his gun?

  “Considering how far into the lake the cruiser was, I don’t think so,” Hunter said. “Someone killed my dad.”

  “Now, Hunter,” Royce said, “don’t go upsetting your mother.” After easing Belle back to the sofa where she sat down, he handed her a fresh tissue.

  Joshua and Cameron sat on the love seat across from them. “Before we start investigating this case, we do need to get a positive ID,” Joshua said. “Tad will do a dental record comparison. Assuming it is Mike, Belle … I asked you this before, but I have to ask again, on the off chance that you remember something—When I last saw Mike, he mentioned something about investigating a murder. The victim was a prostitute.”

  Belle was already shaking her head. “I have no idea what he could have been talking about. You must have misunderstood him, Josh. Mike was a deputy. He was a patrolman. He wasn’t a detective. He didn’t investigate murders.”

  Even while Belle was objecting, Cameron noticed Hunter sit up in his seat. At first, a questioning expression crossed his face and his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought.

  For the first time since they had come into the Fontaine home, Cameron observed the young man sitting next to his mother. His face was filled with concern. His expression was one of serious contemplation.

  A wave of recognition washed over her. Where have I seen him before?

  Joshua noticed the suspicion on Hunter’s face as well.

  Royce was on his feet. “Josh, now is really not a good time to be asking Belle all of these questions. Believe me, we have been over Mike’s disappearance forward and backward and never have we ever turned up anything. Frankly, if Belle knew anything, I think she would have remembered it by now.” He ushered them to their feet and toward the door.

  “Actually,” Cameron said, “it has been my experience that families of victims often remember, or are able to piece together facts better, after some time.”

  “There’s nothing to put together. Mike had a horrible car accident. That’s all.” Royce opened the front door and gestured for them to leave.

  After the door slammed behind them, Cameron and Joshua looked at each other.

  “He seems rather insistent on Mike’s death being nothing more than an accident, don’t you think?” Joshua asked.

  “Extremely.” She let Joshua take her hand and lead her to his SUV. “Hunter knows about the dead hooker. Did you see his face?”

  “Yes, I did.” Joshua opened the door for her.

  “Why didn’t you ask him about it?” She slid into the passenger seat.

  “I don’t have to ask him,” Joshua said. “He’ll tell me … when his mom and Royce aren’t around.”

  “Why did Cameron jump off a second-floor fire escape?” At the refrigerator, Donny turned around from where he was getting a drink of milk when Joshua escorted Cameron into the kitchen.

  They had finally made it home to their three-story stone house on the corner of Rock Springs Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in Chester, West Virginia.

  It seemed like Donny thought his dad wouldn’t notice him drinking straight from the milk jug if he directed his attention to Cameron’s latest stunt.

  “It was one of those cases where you had to be there.” Joshua took the jug out of his hand and put it back in the fridge.

  The sixteen-year-old boy, who at six feet and four inches was two inches taller than his father, looked down at Cameron who had slipped into the first chair she encountered in the country kitchen.

  “Okay,” she said, “I admit it was a little foolish to jump off a second-floor fire escape—”

  “A little?” Donny laughed.

  “But when it comes to catching bad guys,” she said, “we tend to be so focused on how dangerous it will be for the next guy our perp runs into that we don’t notice from how high up we’re jumping.” She didn’t want to confess to how tired she had become during the drive to the park, time on the lake, and the visit to the Fontaine home.

  Sensing that his mistress had had a rough day, Irving, Cameron’s Maine Coon cat, leapt into her lap and rubbed his face against her chin.

  Cameron had inherited five grown children from Joshua’s first marriage, as well as Admiral, a Great Dane-Irish Wolfhound mix. Joshua had inherited Irving, a twenty-five pound Maine Coon cat who prompted screams from the neighbors. The long-haired cat was black with a white stripe from the top of his head down to the tip of his tail. At first glance, he was identical to an oversized skunk. Even though everyone on the street knew about Irving, there was still occasional screaming on Rock Springs Boulevard when he was out—especially from a neighbor who had a tendency to drink a few too many beers in the evening.

  With an odd personality that was more canine than feline, Irving held a strong resentment toward the human male that was taking up so much of his female human’s time. Since moving into their new home, Irving had tolerated Joshua. Granted, the three-story home with a rolling front and backyard with lots of things to explore and a dog who had become good buddies with the cat was nice, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for stealing his mistress’ attention.

  “Anybody hungry?” Donny asked. “You must be since you didn’t get to the picnic. After what you’ve been through, don’t worry. I’ll take care of dinner.”

  “I’m too tired to eat,” Cameron said.

  “What are you going to make?” Joshua asked his son with a knowing smile. Donny only cooked two things: hot dogs and microwave French bread pizza.

  “I was going to order pizza to be delivered,” Donny answered.

  “I don’t want any.” Cameron was already on her way up the stairs with Irving in her arms. “I’m going to take a hot bath and go to bed.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Joshua replied.

  “Dad …” Donny stopped him before he could follow Cameron up the stairs. He held out his hand. “Credit card for the pizza?”

  “Didn’t you get enough to eat at the picnic?” Joshua took his wallet out of his pocket.

  “That was four hours ago,” Donny said.

  “So this is not about getting dinner for us, but about you.” Joshua slapped the credit card into his palm.

  At the same time, the phone rang.

  “I’ll call them, place the order, and answer the door when they come. What do you want on it?” Donny checked the caller ID. “It’s Tracy.” Without bothering to connect the call, he held out the ringing phone to his father. “I’ll go call from my cell.” He raced up the stairs to his bedroom.

  Taking the pho
ne, Joshua pressed the button to connect with his older daughter. “Hey, Tracy.”

  “Dad, is it true?” she responded in a breathless voice.

  “Is what true?” Climbing the stairs to the master suite, Joshua tried to piece together what would have his daughter so anxious that she would be calling him from New York. Is something happening with one of the kids that I’ve missed? Something I’ve neglected to stay on top of since meeting Cameron?

  The churning in his gut told him that he was not as focused on his children as he used to be, and should be, since falling in love a second time around. In rationalizing the situation, he told himself that with four of them living away from home and having their own lives, the last thing they wanted was Dad sticking his nose into their business.

  “Hunter’s father,” Tracy replied to him. “Someone sent me a text that they found Hunter’s dad at the bottom of the lake in Tomlinson Run. Did they really? Is it him? Was he murdered, or was it an accident?”

  Joshua opened the bedroom door and stepped inside. He could hear the water running in the claw-footed tub in the bathroom. Sitting on the bed, Cameron had stripped down to her black lace bra and panties. She looked exhausted.

  “First,” he replied to Tracy, “Tad has to compare the dental records to make a positive ID. Then he will need to examine the body to see how he died. Third, forensics has to examine the cruiser and scene to determine if it was a car accident or murder.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I don’t think anything until I get all the pieces—”

  “I’m not the media, Dad,” Tracy said. “I’m your daughter, and Hunter is my friend. What do you think?”

  “Based on the conversation we had …”

  “I’m coming home,” Tracy said.

  “Honey, you don’t have to come home.” Joshua noticed Cameron’s head jerk up to look at him. “There’s nothing that you can do. You have your internship …”

  “I finished that for the semester,” Tracy said. “I’ve already taken all of my finals. Summer break started Friday. Hunter is my friend and he needs me. Besides, I haven’t seen Cameron since the wedding that you two didn’t have. I think it’s time for your new wife and me to get to know each other.” Vowing to call the next day with her travel arrangements, she hung up.

  Joshua gazed at Cameron, who was wordlessly looking up at him. “Tracy is coming home.”

  Without a word, Cameron stood up and went into the bathroom. When he tried to follow, she closed the door.

  “Is that a clue that you aren’t happy about this?” he asked through the door.

  “I’m tired,” she called out to him. “I have a headache.”

  He could hear the water splashing when she climbed into the tub. “Does Tracy coming home have any impact on your headache?”

  “No.”

  Joshua tried the doorknob to discover it was unlocked. He went in to find Cameron in the tub. “You just lied to me.”

  “No, I didn’t.” She closed her eyes and sank down into the water until it was up to her chin.

  He pointed a finger of accusation at her. “There, you did it again. When you lie to me your voice goes up two octaves. What’s your problem with Tracy?”

  “The real question is what’s Tracy’s problem with me?”

  Joshua closed the toilet lid and sat on the seat. “Tracy doesn’t have a problem with you.”

  She opened her eyes to glare at him. “Now who’s lying?”

  “I’m not lying.”

  She narrowed her eyes into greenish-brown slits. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that Tracy and J. J. don’t have any problem with me—with us.”

  Joshua leaned forward. Resting his elbows on his knees, he gazed into her eyes. “Tracy and J. J. have no problem with you or us.”

  “You’re looking me in the eyes.”

  “That’s what you told me to do.”

  “Which proves you’re lying.” She sank down into the hot water.

  “How does that prove I’m lying?”

  “If you were telling the truth, you’d be looking at my breasts,” she said. “A naked woman is lying right in front of you and you’re looking into my eyes instead of at my breasts. Why? Because you want to convince me that you’re telling the truth. If you were telling me the truth, it wouldn’t be so important for you to cover up your lie by looking me in the eye. So you would be relaxed and stare at my breasts at will. Instead, you were focusing on my eyes. That tells me that you’re lying.”

  “I’ve been looking at your breasts for months,” Joshua said. “Maybe I decided to look into your eyes for once.”

  “I guess this means the honeymoon is officially over.”

  “What makes you think Tracy and J. J. disapprove of you …” he asked, “besides my looking into your gorgeous eyes instead of at your sexy breasts?”

  “Josh, I live in this house.” Cameron picked up the wet sponge and wrung the water out of it. “I hear your side of the conversations you have with your kids. Tracy and J. J. objected to you marrying me—” She threw up her hand to point a finger at him when he started to object. “Don’t you lie to me again. I’ve heard them. Everything was fine until we got married, and suddenly—”

  Caught, Joshua sat back in his seat on the toilet and crossed one leg over the other. In silence, they eyed each other until she backed down by closing her eyes and dropping down into the water. Under the water, she rubbed her scalp with her fingertips before sitting back up.

  “What do you want me to say?” Joshua asked her while she pressed the excess water from her hair.

  She dropped back against the end of the tub. “There’s nothing you can say,” she said with a miserable tone. “I guess—”

  “They’re problem is not you.” Joshua startled her by sitting forward and leaning his elbows on his knees. “Do you want me to tell you what their problem with us is?”

  “What?”

  “That we didn’t have a wedding,” he said. “They’re upset that we didn’t have a big celebration with bridesmaids and groomsmen and guests and the whole nine yards.”

  “Be serious.”

  “I am serious,” Joshua said. “J. J. and Tracy took it personally. Murphy and Sarah don’t care. But Tracy and J. J. feel like we shut them out of this new chapter that our family has transitioned into.”

  Cameron lifted her eyes to peer at him through her long eyelashes. “What did you tell them?”

  “That it was my decision,” he said. “We had all the big weddings and white gowns and parties and all that when we were young. Now we’re older and we didn’t need it, and I didn’t want to wait for all of them to arrange their schedules so that they could all be home at the same time to have a wedding. We wanted to get married and move on with our lives.”

  “You took the blame,” she said.

  Joshua grinned at her. “I’m a man, I can take it. That’s what husbands do.”

  Moving over to the side of the tub, she folded her arms across the top and rested her head on the crook of her arm. Her glare had been transformed into adoration. “And you do it very well.”

  “Of course,” he said in a husky voice, “I do expect certain privileges for blame taking.”

  “Well, big boy, why don’t you just slip out of those clothes and come on in and talk to me about what payment you want from me in exchange for doing your husbandly duty.”

  Chapter Four

  As the doctor had predicted, Cameron was sound asleep before the sun set.

  Out of what had become habit, Joshua turned in with her. Unable to fall asleep so early, he read a deep and intriguing mystery on an e-reader.

  Irving took his spot at the foot of the bed—on her side. Admiral was stretched out on the floor. The great dog used to sleep on Joshua’s side of the bed, but since Cameron had moved into their lives,
he preferred sleeping next to her. She had a softer touch for pettings.

  Joshua wasn’t quite certain when he had finally fallen asleep. He had rolled over and was holding Cameron’s body close to his when he woke up. She smelled like the vanilla bath oils she had put in her bath water. Her cinnamon colored locks were tickling his nose while he dreamed about them going away, alone, with no cat, no dog, no kids—the two of them—when—

  Donny banged on the bedroom door. “Dad, someone is here to see you.”

  “What?” Cameron’s arm came flying up. Her bony elbow collided with Joshua’s nose. “Where am I?”

  “Coming.” Holding onto his throbbing nose, Joshua got twisted in the covers while reaching for his bathrobe and the edge of the bed.

  “Dad, are you up? Did you hear me?”

  “What’s happening?” She grabbed her head with both hands.

  “I’m here, honey.” He grabbed her hands and kissed her on the forehead. “Donny says someone is here. I have to go. I’ll be right downstairs.”

  “Josh?” She rolled over and reached for him.

  He turned to her. “Yes, dear?” He shrugged into his bathrobe and tied the belt.

  A soft smile came to her lips. “Can you bring me a cookie and glass of milk when you come back up?”

  Even though he was certain she would be asleep seconds after he left the room, he kissed her on the forehead. “Anything you want, darling.”

  He was not surprised to find Hunter Gardner waiting for him in the living room. After apologizing for waking Joshua up, he explained, “I needed to wait for Mom to fall asleep before coming over here. She was really upset about all this coming back up again. Royce gave her a sedative.”

  Gesturing for Hunter to sit down on the sofa, Joshua sat in the chair across from him. “I could see by looking at your face that you knew what case your father was working on. Why didn’t you want to say anything in front of your mother?”

  “She doesn’t think I know,” Hunter said. “Maybe that’s why she’s pretended all this time that she had no idea what you were talking about when you asked her before. Talk about denial. Actually, I don’t know really, but when you said ‘prostitute,’ I thought that if Dad said he was going to be investigating a hooker’s murder, maybe … ”