Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man (The Sinatras of Jericho County Book 1)

by Monroe, Mallory

  “Right. The maids could enter the bedrooms, and maintenance could enter the outer rooms, etc.. But only myself, my manager, and my bookkeeper, Meg, had access to the entire building.”

  “Including the safe?”

  “Right.”

  “And you have your key, Meg has hers, and I have Beatrice’s.”

  “That’s right.”

  Jenay handed him the paper she found. “Then what is this?”

  Charles looked at it. He flung his hair out of his face. “What is it?”

  “An order for a brand new, full access, master key. For your new GM. For me.”

  “I’ll be damn,” Charles said, reading the invoice. “You’re right.”

  “You didn’t order it?”

  “No.”

  “Beatrice signed for it.”

  “I see that.”

  “So where is it? She gave you her master key, and you gave her key to me. Where’s my key? Where’s the master key she ordered for me?”

  Charles looked at Jenay. He could look at it either way. He could look at it as if they were desperate, and grappling at straws. Or he could look at it as if they were hopeful, and on to something. “I’ll shower and get dressed,” he said as he got his naked body out of bed. They were on to something, he felt.

  “Is this where she lives?” Jenay asked, as Charles’s Jaguar pulled into the driveway of the modest, brown home.

  “This is it,” he said.

  Jenay looked at the very working-class home and should have felt bad. Beatrice Moynihan was no woman of means. She probably needed that job desperately. But if she had a part in doing to Jenay what Jenay suspected she did, then she had no sympathy. If convicted, Jenay could do twenty years behind this scheme. She had no sympathy at all.

  They got out of the car, walked up to the front door, and Charles rang the bell. Jenay looked at him. He had slept in fits and starts last night, the way she had, and that tiredness still hung under his eyes and cloaked his every expression. As if this very busy man had time for this. Jenay hated that it was because of his concern for her. She hated that she had been placed in a position like this.

  When Beatrice opened the door, and saw that it was Charles and Jenay, they could see panic suddenly appear on her face, as if she was certain they would never be on to her. Here it was, the very next day, and they already were.

  “What do you want?” she asked them. Jenay could hear the nervous quiver in her voice.

  Charles pulled out the invoice and put it in her face. “The third key,” he said.

  Beatrice tried to deny any knowledge. She even insisted no key was made when she had obviously signed for it. And when it was just as obvious that Charles nor Jenay was falling for her alibis, she gave in. And proceeded to throw her partner in crime, Paige Springer, under, over, and around the bus.

  “This was all her doing,” Beatrice said. “She took those jewels! I gave her the key and waited outside. That’s all I did. She took those jewels.”

  “But you turned off the cameras,” Jenay said.

  “No I did not,” Beatrice insisted. “Wrong again! Edna turned those cameras off.”

  Jenay and Charles looked at each other. Then Charles looked at Beatrice. “Edna?”

  “She’s the one who let us in through the side entranceway, yes,” Beatrice said. “She and Paige masterminded that heist. All I did was give her my key.”

  Jenay pulled out her cell phone, to call the police, but Charles stopped her. And then he looked at Bea. “You know who I want in this?” he asked her.

  Beatrice knew. She nodded.

  “Mention a word of what we discussed, and it’ll be over for you too. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” Beatrice said.

  And Charles escorted Jenay back to the car. Jenay was floored. As soon as he got in under the wheel, and drove them away, she pounced. “You’re letting her get away with it?”

  “No,” he said.

  “Then why didn’t you let me call the chief?”

  Charles looked at her. “Because I know this town, Jenay. A powerless woman like Beatrice Moynihan telling the cops what Paige Springer allegedly did, without any proof, is like a murderer accusing a priest. Nobody wants to hear it. I know this town. My only concern is getting you out of this. And Bea’s testimony alone is not going to do it.”

  Jenay was disappointed. Her heart soared when Bea confessed. But she had to trust Charles’s judgment. He knew the people he were dealing with. He knew this town. She had to let him handle it.

  And she did. He dropped her off at the Inn, only telling her that he had to take care of some business, and he was off. He contacted an acquaintance of his, a man he called on to handle delicate jobs for him, and explained to him what he was to purchase, where he was to put that purchase, and what phone call he was to make after that particular purchase was safely in place.

  Paige Springer was at the country club later that afternoon, playing her usual doubles game of tennis with three of her closest girlfriends, when Chief Joffee himself, along with two of his deputies, walked across the lawn in direct violation of club policy, and headed for Paige.

  “What does he want?” one of Paige’s friends asked as all of the ladies gathered near the net, where Paige was standing.

  Paige’s heart began to pound, but she continued to smile and appear nonchalant. “Beats me,” she said.

  But Joffee wasn’t ambiguous in his reasoning for being there at all. He didn’t come there to ask her questions. He came there to arrest her.

  “Good afternoon ladies. Miss Springer.”

  “Yes, Joffee, what is it? You know better than to walk across our lawn like that.”

  Joffee was going to enjoy this. “I’m here to place you under arrest, ma’am,” he said, “for the jewelry heist at the Jericho Inn Bed and Breakfast yesterday.”

  Paige’s girlfriends couldn’t believe it. Paige, too, feigned shock. “Are you out of your mind? I didn’t steal any jewels! Why would I steal jewels?”

  “I don’t know, ma’am, but you stole them. We received a tip that we couldn’t ignore.”

  “But it was in the newspaper this morning,” Paige declared. “Those jewels were found in that black girl’s closet, in her suitcase! How could you put the blame on me?”

  “Some of the jewels were found in the VIP suite at the Jericho Inn, yes ma’am. But the majority of those jewels were found at your home, in your closet, in your suitcase.”

  Paige’s heart dropped. What was he talking about? She didn’t put any of those jewels in her home! She wouldn’t dare! Her friends looked at her. “What are you talking about?” she asked him. “None of those jewels were at my home!”

  “Yes ma’am, they were. Based on the tip, we had probable cause. The judge signed the search warrant. We have concluded, based on the sheer volume of jewels that were actually found at your home, that you not only set up Miss Franklin, but you used her as bait for your real purpose.”

  “My real purpose?” Paige asked angrily, and genuinely confused. “And what, exactly, was my real purpose?”

  “Why to steal those jewels, ma’am,” Joffee said. “And to make sure Miss Franklin, your boyfriend’s new love interest, was blamed for what you did.” Then he looked at his deputy. “Cuff her and frisk her and haul her ass downtown,” he said, and began to leave.

  Paige was floored as the deputies did as they were told. She was cuffed and frisked and taken away. Her girlfriends, who had been so happy playing doubles with her, were all laughing at her now, and texting and calling their other friends. They hadn’t had this much excitement in years!

  “I’m telling you the truth!” one of them blared on her cell phone. “They put her in handcuffs and took her away. Handcuffs! ‘Haul her ass downtown,’ was how Joffee put it. It was a blast to see!”

  And by the time the day was done, the charges were dropped against Jenay. But Edna, Beatrice, and Paige Springer were all arrested. All three sat in their separate interrogation ro
oms at JPD and started pointing the finger at one another, and completely away from themselves. Paige said Bea was the mastermind, and pointed the finger at her. Bea said Paige was the mastermind, and pointed the finger at her. Edna said both Paige and Bea masterminded the entire scheme, and pointed all of her fingers at them.

  But it didn’t matter to Charles. Just as long as none of those fingers were pointing at Jenay.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Three Weeks Later

  The doorbell rang and Jenay, in a sudden panic, pulled Charles back.

  “What?” he asked. “What is it?”

  “How do I look?” she asked for the third time. “Do I look okay?”

  Charles smiled. They were in the living room of his gorgeous home, and his sons had finally arrived. She had met them all, except Robert, but never in any formal way. This was formal. It was high time, Charles felt, that his sons knew the full extent of his relationship with Jenay. And not some local, rumored version either, but the truth.

  He looked down, once again, at Jenay’s blue-and-white Versace pantsuit, a pantsuit he had purchased her himself. “You look fabulous as always,” he said to her, and kissed her on the lips. “I don’t know why you’re so worried.”

  “I’m formally meeting your sons, Charles. All of them! If you had to formally meet my sons, wouldn’t you be nervous too?”

  “I’d be mortified. Especially since you don’t have any sons.”

  Jenay hit him upside his head. He laughed as he headed for the front door. “You’ll be fine,” he said as he went. “Quit worrying!”

  But that was easy for him to say. Since Charles had no parents alive, and his relationship with his sister was badly fractured, formally meeting his sons was akin to taking her home to meet his mother. Those boys, bar none, were the most important people in Charles’s life.

  She stood at the sofa and waited. She heard Charles greeting each of his sons, and she waited for their handsome faces to round the foyer and enter the living room. Her only hope was that it wasn’t the youngest boy she had to greet first. Their first encounter wasn’t exactly a pleasant one for her. Or for him, she thought slyly, given what Charles did to him.

  Thankfully, the first face she saw wasn’t Donald’s, but the very pleasant Tony. “Miss Jenay!” he said cheerfully as he came. “You look great without the shackles!”

  Jenay laughed. “I agree!” she said, and extended her hand. “How are you, Tony?”

  “I’m fab, can’t you tell? But I’m a hugger,” he said, ignoring her hand and hugging her instead.

  “Don’t believe it,” Robert said as he rounded the foyer and entered too. “He’s more like a feeler. Watch that one.”

  Jenay smiled as she and Tony released. “You must be Robert,” she said. She’d never met him, that was the only reason she knew who he had to be. “Very pleased to meet you.”

  “You too,” Robert said as he and Jenay shook hands. Then he looked at his father, who was coming into the room with Brent. He nodded his head. “Very nice, Dad. A step up for a change.”

  Charles playfully ruffled Robert’s blonde hair, causing him to smile, and then they all settled down in the living room. Charles sat Jenay beside him, and held her hand. Robert immediately took the seat beside his father. All of his boys, when they were younger, used to wrestle each other to be the one standing or sitting beside their father. Now Brent and Tony didn’t care. They each sat in the flanking chairs.

  Jenay was pleased, as Charles held her hand. Because just like that, she felt completely comfortable with his sons. Although she noticed one glaring omission. “Where’s Donald?” she asked.

  “Chasing his wife around Jericho,” Tony said. “He gives his regards.”

  Jenay knew better than that, but she didn’t pursue it.

  “The reason I called you guys together,” Charles said as he squeezed Jenay’s hand, “is to let you know the full extent of my relationship with my lady. Jenay Franklin.”

  All three young men were now staring at her.

  “Jenay and I first met at Donald’s reception.”

  “Get out of here!” Tony said cheerfully.

  “You sly fox you!” Robert added with equal cheer.

  Brent, too, was surprised. “You were at the reception?” Although it seemed unlikely, given who Susan was, he asked anyway. “Are you a friend of Susan’s? Or her parents?”

  “No, no, I don’t know her. I was on duty that day.”

  “On duty?” Robert asked. “You mean like one of the waitresses?”

  “She was interning,” Charles interjected.

  “Interning?” Tony and Robert said this in unison. Now Jenay didn’t feel so great. Were they going to judge her because she got a late start in life?

  “She was studying hotel management and doing her internship at that hotel,” Charles said. “That’s right.”

  “So what are you,” Robert asked, “our age then, or what?”

  “She’s thirty-two,” Charles said easily. “She was married, got divorced, and decided to go back to school.”

  “Oh!” the sons said with varying degrees of relief.

  “I’m glad you clarified that, Dad,” Tony added, “because, you look very beautiful and young, Miss Jenay, please don’t misunderstand me. But you don’t look our age. You don’t look that young.”

  Jenay laughed. She appreciated his honesty.

  “We’ve been dating officially for the past six weeks now. We’re still getting to know each other, as you can imagine, but we like what we see so far.” The sons laughed, which relaxed Jenay even more. “We want to take it further, much further, and I want you guys to understand that.”

  “So what are you saying, Pop?” Robert asked. “You’re going to marry her?”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Charles quickly responded. Jenay was equally relieved too. It was one thing to date and get to know. Marriage was taking it to another level. They weren’t there by a longshot. “What I’m saying---”

  “What he’s saying,” Tony interrupted, “is that he’s fallen and he may not get up.” They all laughed. “He’s in love, you doofus! He’s saying he’s in love with this beautiful lady. But Dad, being Dad, is never going to admit such an unmanly thing, so he says phrases like they want to take it further, and he likes what he sees so far, and all of those technical, noncommittal kind of terms. But it’s love. Pure and simple.”

  Jenay loved Tony. He had a way of cutting through the bullshit that was downright refreshing. But she waited for Charles’s response. She waited to see if he would knock down such a notion, the notion that he actually loved her.

  “As I was saying,” Charles said, “I want you guys to appreciate that Jenay is very important to me, and she’s to be treated as someone very important to me.” He didn’t knock down the notion, but he didn’t exactly embrace it either.

  “She’s to be treated with the complete respect,” Charles went on. “Treat her the way you treat me. Mistreat her, you’ve mistreated me, and you will answer for it. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” Brent said.

  “Crystal clear,” Robert said.

  “It’s love,” Tony said, smiling and nodding his head.

  Charles looked at Jenay. “He has issues,” he said, and Jenay laughed.

  But she also took mental note of Charles’s responses. He was taking this relationship very slowly. No declarations of love and commitment were going to be coming from him anytime soon. He wasn’t even discussing it at this point. Which was fine by her. She wanted to take it slow too. But as soon as she was contented with the pace, it all went sideways on her.

  “So what are you actually saying, Dad?” Robert wanted to know. “You’re not marrying her, and love’s got nothing to do with it. So what are you saying then? You guys are going to shack up? You guys are going to move in together? Is that what you’re implying?”

  “I don’t like your terminology,” Charles said, “but yes. That would appear to
be the most logical next step for us.”

  Jenay just sat there. She couldn’t believe what she just heard. Neither could Brent and Tony. They looked at her. But she was looking at their father. “What would appear to be the next step for us?” she asked him.

  Charles didn’t skip a beat. “You and I cohabitating,” he said without reservation.

  “Cohabitating? You and I living together?”

  “Yes. It’ll be a major move for me.”

  “Major,” Robert agreed.

  “And a major blunder for her,” Brent said.

  “Major,” Tony agreed.

  Jenay was speechless. She was amazed Charles would go there, and do it in front of his sons without so much as mentioning it to her first. Was this that Big Daddy side of him? Was this that ruthless side of him she’d only gotten glimpses of? She was good enough to shack up with, but would never be good enough to marry? Was that what he was saying? Was that where this so-called relationship was going? Nowhere special?

  She got up and began heading, swiftly, for the front door.

  “Where are you going?” Charles asked her, surprised by her sudden move.

  But Jenay kept walking.

  “Jenay?” Charles yelled. “Where are you going?”

  She didn’t turn around.

  “What the fuck,” Charles said lowly and angrily as he got up and did something he had never done in his life before: he chased after a woman.

  “What’s her problem?” Robert wanted to know.

  “Dad,” Brent responded. “What else?”

  Just as Jenay rounded the foyer and opened the front door, Charles was upon her and slammed it back shut. He turned her toward him. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked angrily. “What’s wrong?”

  It was only then, after turning her around, did he realize the anguish, and the pain, in her big, gray eyes. And it cut him short. “What’s wrong?” he asked again, but this time more tenderly, and without the edge.

  Tears were beginning to form puddles in her eyes. “I thought we were trying to build something together,” she said.

  “We are! You know we are.”