“I remember Harry talking about the adoption, and what his parents had been like, but then that was probably true if what you’re saying is right.”
“To be honest he wasn’t that old when all this happened. He was old enough to know what he was doing was wrong and if someone had found out the truth it would have affected his whole life.”
“That would be if someone believed them. Phil… as much as I liked him people would have thought he was lying to everyone. George wasn’t close enough to anyone for them to believe him. The Walters would have been the real problem.”
***
Reading through the life of Benjamin Laurence was hard. Mary-Ann felt sorry for him, but that wasn’t enough to stop her from being really angry with him for making the decision to hurt people in order to keep his secret. Sighing, she looked over at Hannah. “What do we do?”
“We have to tell them the truth. They deserve to know.”
“Yeah, they do.” Mary-Ann brushed a hand through her hair. “I don’t know where to start. How can I tell the Reynolds their adopted son is actually a man called Benjamin Laurence?”
“All you can do is start at the beginning and go from there. You can do this, Mare. I know you can. I’m going to be right by your side, because I believe they deserve to know too.”
“Okay.” Standing, Mary-Ann gathered the documents Rob had left for her. “I can’t believe this is really happening. Harry… I thought I knew him.”
“We all thought we knew him.” Hannah sighed. “This is as hard for me as it is for you, but we can do this. We can tell the Reynolds the truth about their son, because it’s something they should know, and together we’ve gone through a lot.”
Nodding, Mary-Ann held her free hand out to Hannah. “After we’ve done this I think a drink is in order.”
“Tell me about it.” Hannah shook her head. “Vodka, or are we going to pretend we’re posh and buy wine?”
***
Sitting in the Reynolds living room took Mary-Ann back to the first time she met Harry, but she pushed the memory aside. Telling them the truth was the most important thing. “I really don’t know how to do this, so I’m just going to be blunt. Harry isn’t who you think he is.”
There was a long silence as the Reynolds looked at each other. “I was wondering when someone would find out the truth.” Mrs Reynold’s voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “Benjamin Laurence came to us just after his eighteenth birthday and asked for our help. Ben…” She glanced at her husband again. “He’s my nephew. When he turned up here I knew I had to help him and I was happy to go along with what he wanted, even though we knew there was a chance it would all fall apart in the future. We did everything we could to make certain it wouldn’t. Ben had been unlucky, nothing more.”
“It’s possible Ben might have killed at least three people.”
“He wouldn’t do something like that.”
“Not even to keep his secret.”
“Of course not. If someone had found out the truth we would have dealt with it together.” Mrs Reynolds studied Mary-Ann. “I know Ben wouldn’t have hurt Theo. The two of them were best friends.”
“Mrs Reynolds, Theo was best friends with Harry, not Ben. None of us knew Ben. We knew the person he was pretending to be.” Mary-Ann could hear the anger in her own voice. “He was lying to us the whole time.”
“We thought it was for the best. Ben needed somewhere he could call home and he needed time to sort himself out. Giving him a chance to go to high school for the first time… I couldn’t have said no to him. He’s my sister’s son and I know what she’s like. I wasn’t going to walk away from him when it was obvious how much he needed somewhere he could call home.”
“Couldn’t you have done that without changing his name, and his age, and faking most of his life?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand, Mary-Ann. You’re just like your mother.” Mrs Reynolds shook her head. “She was just as judgemental as you are.”
“Do you not understand how much this hurts? I thought I knew Harry, but I didn’t. He was someone else entirely and you seem to think that’s something we can just sweep under the carpet, but it isn’t, because he isn’t the friend I knew. The Harry I knew wouldn’t have lied to me about something this huge. The Harry I knew was four years younger than he actually is.” Mary-Ann pushed away the tears that were threatening. “I accept you did it for the best of reasons. I don’t know, personally, what I would have done if someone came to my doorstep and asked for help in that sort of situation, although I believe I wouldn’t have said to pretend to be a freshman in high school and we’ll make it easy for you.”
“You should leave now.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. Theo’s death hit him hard and he told me he needed to go away for a little while.”
“The police are looking for him.”
“I doubt they’re going to be able to find him. He isn’t the sort of person to sit around waiting for the police to come for him.” Mrs Reynolds stood. “As I said…”
“No, Frieda. Listen to Mary-Ann. I told you this would happen and you need to accept you made a mistake when you made the decision to send Ben to school as our son. You were the one who convinced me it was the best thing we could do for him, but I think you were wrong, and I think you need to listen to what Mary-Ann is saying to you. She’s hurting. The friend she thought she knew is someone else entirely, and I believe that someone would have been willing to kill if he thought his secret was about to come out.”
“How can you say that about him?”
“Look at the evidence. Ben had the key for the Rosen cafe. He could easily have invited both Phil and George there to talk, because they wouldn’t have wanted to believe he was the sort of person who’d do something like that. Theo was poisoned, as that was far simpler, and I believe the poison he used in our kitchen.”
Chapter 9
“How are you doing?”
Mary-Ann shook her head. “I have no idea.” She looked at Alex. “The Reynolds admitting to the fact they knew Harry was Ben wasn’t something I expected to happen.”
“To be honest it wasn’t something I expected either, but at least I know I’m right.”
“What’s the next step?”
“Harry booked himself on a flight to Seattle under the name of Benjamin Laurence. I have officers out there looking for him, although I think it’s going to be some time before they find him. I went back to Theo’s, to see if I could find anything that would make me think he knew who Harry really was, but there wasn’t anything there.”
“Couldn’t it have been enough for David to say there was a connection between the three murders?”
“Possibly.” He brushed a hand through his hair. “Harry wasn’t friends with either Phil or George, and I can’t work out how either of them would have found out Harry was Benjamin Laurence.”
“Maybe they overheard the wrong conversation.” She sighed. “I don’t know how they could have found out. I never once suspected Harry wasn’t who he said he was, so I can’t imagine why they would have done, and it’s entirely possible they didn’t know. Harry just thought they did.” Their eyes met for a moment. “I don’t know how I would react if I was in that sort of position and thought someone knew who I really was.”
“You’d never do something quite that stupid.” Alex sat down opposite her. “Rob’s looking into Ben’s past, to see if we can work out where he might have gone in Seattle, but he hasn’t been back there in years as either identity. I don’t think he wanted to go back. It was just the one place he could think of where he might be able to hide from us.”
“When I was thinking about the case I wondered if the whole reason Theo was found outside the shop was because someone wanted to put him there to scare me off. Harry knows how many murders I’ve solved. He’s going to know I’m going to be involved in this one and he isn’t going to be willing to talk to me.”
“Maybe he isn’
t, but then I think it would be easy enough for you to pretend you don’t know the truth. To be honest you have no reason to. There was no reason for me to put Harry’s prints through a whole country search.”
“Why did you?”
“It was something David said about the connection being the cafe. When I realised that was probably the case I wanted to see if anyone working in the cafe had criminal records in other cities. Finding out Harry had another identity… that really wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m sorry.”
“None of this is your fault. I can understand why you did what you did and I’m glad I know.”
***
After spending too much time focusing on the case Mary-Ann made the decision to go into work early, to get some things sorted out, before she handed over to Hannah for the rest of the day. It was nice earning enough to be able to hired her sister part time, as it did make everything much easier. She walked into the kitchen with her mind on other things. Pies, mostly. Then she saw him. “Hello, Harry.”
“Mare.”
“What are you doing here?” She studied him. “I didn’t know you’d kept one of the keys.”
“I shouldn’t have done, but this is a place that’s full of happy memories for me. I like to come back occasionally and remember what things were like when I was working here.” Their eyes met. “Do you know who killed Theo?”
“Still looking into it.” Even though she had no idea how she managed it she smiled at him. “You can help me out if you want. When I get involved in these things I often find myself falling behind. I could do with someone to help make the fillings for the pies, if you’re up for it.”
“Really?” Excitement changed his face. “I’ve always wanted to help you out with this, but I never knew how to ask.”
“You’re a fool. All you had to do was say you wanted to help.” He moved over to stand next to her. “I normally start off with the sweet pies, so I think a cherry, and apple, and a pear for this morning.”
“Where do I start?”
Texting Alex with her phone in her pocket wasn’t an easy thing to do, but she managed it as she pointed at the notebook hanging on one of the shelves. “I keep all of my recipes in there, for times when I end up being too busy to work, because the last thing I want is for Hannah to screw anything up.”
“Do you need someone here on a more permanent basis?”
“Give me a few days to check my financials. If I can give you a job I will, because you’re an old friend.”
For a long time the two of them were silent s they worked, and then Harry looked at her. “Can I ask you a really strange question?”
“Of course you can.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about Theo’s death, because I can’t quite believe he’s really gone, and I was wondering what you’d do if you found out it was an accident.”
“What sort of accident?”
“If someone was trying to scare him, but accidentally put too much of the poison that was used into the pie.”
“That is still illegal.” Mary-Ann focused on the pastry, knowing she couldn’t look at him. “I’d still have to tell the police, Harry.”
“There’s no way of convincing you to keep that to yourself, if you were to find that out?”
“No, there isn’t, because I believe in the justice system. Why are you even asking this?”
***
“Harry was asking me if there was any way he could convince me to keep who kill Theo a secret if it was an accident.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “I know it was him who killed Theo. I don’t know if he killed Phil, George, and Steve.” She looked at the door of the Walters’ place. “I’m going to talk to Anne about what she found in Steve’s journal and then I’m going to call Harry. I want to get this all over and done with.”
“Just don’t do anything without me being there. I don’t know what Harry might be willing to do.”
She smiled. “One thing I’m certain of is that Harry would never hurt me, Alex.”
“There’s a chance he killed four other people, so you can’t know that.”
“Harry wants me to be on his side. He’s going to try to convince me to work with him to hide all of this, even though he should know I’m not that sort of person.” She sighed. “I’ll call you soon, okay, but Anne’s waiting.”
“Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I’m always careful, but this time I’ll be doubly careful. I’ll text you so you know where I am.”
***
“Hey.” Anne smiled. “Have you found out who killed Theo yet?”
“I think I might have done, but I need to talk to you first. What have you found in Steve’s journal?”
“There’s no suicide note. It doesn’t really change anything, although…” Their eyes met. “Steve talked a lot about how hard it was being a Walters. He wanted to take Mel and leave Green Springs, but he knew he couldn’t. Theo said he could. Theo was willing to become the Walters heir, even though he didn’t want to, because both of us had spoken to Steve before about his depression. We knew there was a chance Steve might do something stupid.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Steve wasn’t willing to do that to Mom. Keeping secrets from her was one thing. Abandoning her entirely… he wasn’t ever going to do that to her, so I can’t help wondering if he would have killed himself when he wasn’t willing to leave Mom to go to another city.” Anne made a face. “Right now I have too many questions and not enough answers.”
“If we’re lucky I might be getting those answers for you.” Mary-Ann sighed. “I need you to know this, because you deserve the truth. There is a chance it was Harry who killed both Theo and Steve. I’m almost certain he killed Theo. Steve still could have been a suicide, but I’m in the same position you are. I don’t believe Steve would have done that to you, Theo, Mel, or your mom.”
“Harry?”
“Do you have time to listen to a long story?”
“Of course.”
“When Benjamin Laurence was eighteen he left Seattle and travelled to Green Springs, where his aunt and uncle lived. He hadn’t had an easy life, so he wanted a new start, a new start his aunt was willing to give him, even though that meant creating a whole new identity for him. The reason for the identity - Benjamin hadn’t finished high school in Seattle. He dropped out a couple of weeks into his freshman year and wanted a chance to start again. At the time he was eighteen.” Mary-Ann shook her head. “Benjamin Laurence became Harry Reynolds. He started school at the same time Theo and I did, but I didn’t think for a moment he was any older than he said he was. He was our friend, our good friend, and I never believed he was lying to us the whole time about who he was. Now I know the truth I think it’s possible other people did.”
“Phil and George.”
“Do you have any idea how they might have found out?”
“I wish I did.” Anne stared out of the window. “There was a time when I thought I was in love with Harry, until I realised he spent most of his life telling lies.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “How can he have been keeping that secret from all of us?”
“That’s something I can’t answer. I wish I knew, but I don’t. All I know is that I need to talk to him and get the whole truth. The thing that really hurt me was the fact the Reynolds knew the whole time. It didn’t seem to bother them.”
“You spoke to them?”
“Harry might know you know.”
“I don’t think it matters. I think Harry believes I’m going to be on his side, because I’m one of his oldest friends, but I can’t be. Not when he’s lied to me all this time. If he was responsible for the deaths of both your brothers I promise you I’m going to make certain he ends up in prison, where he belongs.”
“I want to come with you.”
“You need to stay here. Someone else needs to know the truth about Harry.”
“If we’re both there it will be much less likely he’ll hurt us. I want you to be safe.”
“Knowing he might have killed both my brothers means I’d be an idiot not to be careful. Is Alex going to be there?”
“He should be, or one of his officers. Normally that’s how we do this sort of thing.”
“Good.” Anne stood. “Let’s get this over and done with. I want to know for certain if Harry really did kill my brothers, because I didn’t think he was someone who could do that. Obviously I was very wrong about that.”
“So was I, Anne.”
Chapter 10
“Harry.”
He looked between the two of them. “Did you know this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you offer me a job?”
“I didn’t want you to know I knew.”
“Deceiving you wasn’t something I wanted to do, Mare.” He shook his head. “You were one of my best friends.”
“Obviously I wasn’t, because if I was you would have told me the truth.”
“You wouldn’t have accepted me if you knew the truth. All I wanted was real friends and when I started at Green Springs High School that’s what I found. You, and Theo.” Their eyes met. “I wanted to tell you the truth from the beginning, but my aunt wouldn’t let me. She wanted me to keep it from you all, because she thought it was the sensible thing to do, and she said the two of you wouldn’t have been able to accept me for who I was. You were friends with Harry Reynolds, not Benjamin Laurence. Obviously she was right about that.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 68
