Vindicated (A Jenny Watkins Mystery Book 6)

by Becky Durfee

“I am merely being realistic.”

  “So, do you like the name Ashley or not?”

  “You know what? I do. I think we should go with it…as our plan B, of course.”

  “Of course.” Jenny couldn’t help but smile. She had really liked the name when she’d thought of it, and she was glad that Zack agreed. At that moment she felt another flutter. “Oh—there she goes again. It appears our little Ashley is quite a dancer.”

  “Wow,” Danielle Kraemer said on the phone. “Nothing like having the biggest regret of your life come back to haunt you.”

  Jenny let out a small laugh. “I know. I’m sorry to do this to you, and I assure you I’m not judging you. It’s just that one of Shane Burke’s young mistresses ended up dead back in 1988, and I figured contacting you would be my best shot at figuring out what life was like for her while she dated him.”

  “Is he a suspect in her murder?” Danielle asked with surprise.

  “Not officially,” Jenny replied. “I’m just trying to find out everything I can about some of the people in her life. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

  “No, go right ahead,” she said. “Although, for the record, I’m not proud of what I did.”

  “Believe me, there is a long list of things that I did when I was younger that would go under the umbrella of regrettable.” Jenny was specifically thinking about her relationship with her ex-husband, Greg. “We all have things we’re not proud of…unfortunately yours has become important in a murder investigation, so it needs to be discussed.” Jenny referred to the notepad containing the list of questions she had made in advance. “I guess the first thing I’d like to know is how you and Shane met.”

  Danielle let out a small snort. “How we met is indicative of our whole relationship. I was working at a department store at the mall—I was maybe, what, twenty or twenty-one at the time? I was in college. Anyway, he came in and said he was looking for a gift for someone special, and he needed some advice about what to get. I walked around the store with him for quite a while, trying to help him decide on the perfect gift. We chatted, and I had to admit he was quite charming. He eventually decided on a pair of diamond earrings and went on his way. I didn’t think anything of it, but he came in a few days later and asked for my advice again. He didn’t buy anything this time, but he said I’d been so helpful the time before that he wanted my opinion again. He asked if a woman would prefer flowers or chocolates; I laughed and said both. We talked some more, and he asked what kind of music I liked. I told him I was a huge Beatles fan.

  “Well, wouldn’t you know…the next time I went into work, all of the girls were giggling and calling me over to the service desk. You can probably guess what was waiting there for me…earrings, chocolates, roses, and every Beatles tape ever made…along with a little card that apologized for coming on too strong, but stating that I had taken his breath away when he saw me.” She changed her tone to reflect her displeasure. “Now how is a naïve twenty-year-old girl supposed to react to something like that?”

  “Wow,” Jenny said, “I guess he really did pull out all the stops.”

  “He did, and at that age I wasn’t equipped to handle it.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Well, he came in to the store a day or two later, asking me how I liked the presents. I wasn’t sure what to say. He was quite a bit older than me and wearing a wedding ring, so I just said that I liked the gifts and I thanked him.”

  “How did you end up dating?”

  “In my defense, he addressed the wedding ring right then and there. He told me that he and his wife had conceived a baby when they were teenagers, and he married her. However, he also told me she was schizophrenic, and the signs of her mental illness didn’t start coming out until after the wedding. He said at that point she had pretty much lost all touch with reality, but he didn’t have the heart to leave her. He needed to take care of her and provide her with a home. However, he also said he was lonely and looking for the companionship she couldn’t provide.”

  Jenny marveled at just how low Shane had stooped to get a young woman by his side. The disgust she had previously felt for him had grown exponentially. “And you were young enough to believe that,” Jenny said with compassion in her voice.

  “I was, unfortunately, although now I realize it was just a horrible lie,” Danielle said. “But at the time, I figured that if he was just looking to go out and cheat on his wife, he would have simply removed the wedding ring. I didn’t think he would have made up such an elaborate—and awful—story when he could have just told me he was single.”

  “That’s reasonable logic,” Jenny said. “Speaking from experience, I usually trust what people have to say. I think that’s the curse of the honest person…if you generally speak the truth yourself, you assume others do the same.”

  “Exactly. And at that point in my life I hadn’t learned that some people are just liars. What sickens me is that I actually ended up feeling sorry for the guy. That’s why I agreed to go to dinner with him that first night; I thought maybe he needed a shoulder to cry on.”

  “Okay, I’d like to interject something here,” Jenny said definitively. “You should absolutely not beat yourself up over the affair you ended up having with Doctor Burke. He was a grown man taking full advantage of the kindness of an inexperienced young woman.”

  “I know,” Danielle said. “I’ve tried to convince myself of that, and on some levels I have forgiven myself, but it’s still hard. Believe me, I am painfully aware that I am now the older wife who has lost some of her appeal. I often think about how much it would hurt me if my husband cheated on me with some perky little college student, and yet I did that to Shane’s wife. I was her worst nightmare come true.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, you were one of many. Even if you had turned him away, his wife still would have been in the same position. Besides, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t beat yourself up for the decisions you made when you were younger.”

  “Thanks,” Danielle replied; Jenny could tell the gratitude was genuine. “’Unfortunately, I’ve spent a good deal of time doing just that. Sometimes I question how I could have been stupid enough to fall for his lies, but then I realize where I was at that point in my life. Honestly, I was a pretty easy target. If you consider they type of guys I was used to dating before Shane came along—college guys—it makes sense that I was so receptive to his advances. For the years leading up to Shane, the only dates I went on consisted of walking to keg parties, watching the guy drink way too much and then warding off his sloppy sexual advances at the end of the night. But when Shane presented me with the flowers and the earrings and that card…I felt like the most important woman in the world. I had never been treated at that level before, and I guess it was very appealing to me.”

  “It would be to any woman that age,” Jenny said. “Actually, it was. Like I said, his tactics worked on a lot of young women.”

  “He was a master,” Danielle noted, “that’s for sure.”

  “How long did you two date?”

  “It’s hard to say. We went out platonically for a while before anything turned physical. At first we just talked a lot…let me tell you, he knew exactly what to say, too. There he was, this older, established doctor, asking me all kinds of questions about my life like I was the most interesting person in the world. And when I talked, he listened. I always had his full attention. So, even though I was a little skeptical about his intentions at first, after a while I actually came to accept that his feelings for me were genuine…that I wasn’t just some young conquest for him. It was at that point that I allowed things to become romantic between us. I guess that was about six weeks in, maybe?” Her tone once again changed to reflect her irritation. “And wouldn’t you know, after a few rolls in the hay, he dropped me like a ton of bricks.”

  Jenny hung her head, unable to mask her disgust for this man. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry that happened to you.”


  “Ah, well, live and learn, I suppose,” Danielle remarked. “Although, I will say that was quite a blow to my self-esteem at the time. After dealing with nothing but college guys who seemed to all want the same thing, I thought that maybe this older man actually saw some value in me. I believed that a mature guy would have had his priorities straight and would have liked my intelligence or my sense of humor…but just when I let my guard down and allowed myself to start to fall for him, he disappeared, like all of the twenty-year-olds I was used to. I became very pessimistic after that, thinking that my dating life was never going to get better. It seemed like the older guys were also only after one thing. It was a very depressing time in my life.”

  If Shane had been in front of Jenny at that moment, she would have punched him in the eye. “Well, I see you eventually did go on to get married, so your romantic life had a happy ending after all.”

  “Oh, yes, it did. It turned out that Shane was the exception, not the rule. Most guys did straighten out their priorities as they got older. But now that I’m an adult and I look back on the situation, I wonder what was wrong with him. It isn’t normal for a married man in his thirties to feel the need to prey on young women like that. He must have had a serious complex or something.”

  Jenny laughed out loud. “To say the least.”

  She concluded her phone call with Danielle, thanking her for her honesty and insight. After the conversation was over, Jenny looked over her notes, trying to see how Shane’s selfish behavior could have translated into a potentially fatal relationship with Stella.

  “He dropped Danielle when she started to fall for him,” Jenny muttered to herself as a light bulb went off in her head. “And that was something Stella never did.” That could have explained why his relationship with Stella had lasted longer than all of the others. She may have been a tougher nut to crack. Unlike all of Shane’s other, short-lived mistresses, Stella had a take-him-or-leave-him attitude, which he may have actually found irresistible. Megan had even mentioned that Stella had tried to break things off with Shane a few times, but he wouldn’t have it. He poured on the charm in an attempt to keep her…probably so he could eventually be the one to break up with her once she rounded the corner and let her emotions become involved.

  Asshole.

  Jenny tapped her pen on the table as she considered this latest development. Then she froze as she realized something was missing from the crime scene…something that could have explained the trail of blood that led to the back door.

  Jenny immediately headed into the dining room to look at the crime scene photos one more time.

  As she approached the end of the cul-de-sac, Jenny noticed Andy’s car among the contractor vans. “Oh, dear,” she said out loud to herself. “Here we go again.”

  She got out of the car nonetheless and headed toward the house. The Denton family was packing up their van in the garage, apparently getting ready to visit Rob’s sister in Savannah. She decided to approach them first. “You guys heading out?”

  Rob looked up when Jenny spoke. “Oh, hey there. Yeah, we’re taking off. I gave your husband the key; I figure it will be easier for them to do what they have to do without us in the way.”

  Jenny smiled. “It also might be nice to have a functioning bathroom for the next few days, which you apparently won’t have if you stay here.”

  Rob’s wife approached Jenny with a look on her face that spoke volumes. She appeared to be on the verge of tears. “I’m Amber Denton, Rob’s wife. I can’t tell you how incredibly grateful we are for everything you and your husband are doing for us. I mean, we don’t even know you.” A tear did eventually work its way to the surface. “Rob calls you and Zack our guardian angels, and I couldn’t agree more.”

  “We’re happy to help,” Jenny said genuinely. “The person you should truly feel indebted to, though, is Elanor Whitby, the founder of Choices magazine; she left me most of the money in her estate with the instructions that I help people with it. All I’m doing is holding up my end of the bargain.”

  “Well, I can’t thank all of you enough. It’s truly amazing to see the kindness of strangers in action.” She wiped her eyes. “It restores your faith in mankind, you know?”

  Feeling overcome with emotion for this family who had endured so much, Jenny reached out and gave Amber a hug. “Truly, it’s our pleasure. Now if you don’t stop, you’re going to get me crying.”

  Amber laughed and released the embrace. “Sorry—I guess I can’t help it.”

  “Well, before I get too mushy, I’d like to go inside if you don’t mind. Something occurred to me about the crime scene last night, and I want to go in and see if I can get another visual.”

  Amber nodded. “Go right ahead.” She gestured toward the door that led from the garage to the house.

  Jenny stepped inside and saw the beautiful new hardwood, as well as the guts of the master bathroom strewn about on a plastic sheet on the floor. Andy came out of the bedroom, stepping over some pipes and what used to be the bathroom sink. “Well, hello, Jenny.”

  “Hi, Andy. How are you doing?”

  “Good. I figured I’d give Zack a hand today…you know, make sure he’s doing it up right.”

  At that point, Zack also emerged from the bedroom wearing gloves and holding a crowbar. Behind his father, he raised the crowbar and made a gesture that indicated he wanted to club Andy over the head with it, causing Jenny to struggle not to laugh.

  Seizing the opportunity to prove her point from the night before, Jenny looked up at Zack and asked, “What type of hardwood is this, honey? It looks nice.”

  “It’s bamboo.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his glove. “It’s more scratch-resistant than most hardwoods, so the wheelchair shouldn’t bother it.”

  “You should have gone with Bolivian Cherry,” Andy said. “It’s even harder than bamboo…but I guess it’s too late now.”

  Jenny widened her eyes and looked at Zack, silently saying, See? Zack simply shook his head.

  “So, what brings you here?” Zack asked. “Well, first, come here and give your big daddy a hug.” He approached Jenny with wide arms, his sweaty and dirty t-shirt clinging to him.

  Jenny laughed and cowered. “It’s not necessary. Really. You don’t need…” She became engulfed in his sweaty arms as he rubbed his nasty body up against her. He released his embrace with a goofy giggle, and Jenny remained frozen in place. “Gee, thanks, honey.” She wiped herself off with mock disgust.

  “That was gross and uncalled for,” Andy said. “Why would you do that to her?”

  “It’s called fun, Dad,” Zack replied. “You should try it sometime.”

  “Anyway,” Jenny said loudly before things got too ugly, “what brings me here is I want to take one more look at the crime scene. I’m working on a theory.”

  “Do you need us to leave so you can concentrate?” Zack asked. “We can go outside for a little bit if you want.”

  After some deliberation, Jenny said, “Do you mind? Construction noise isn’t exactly conducive to getting a reading.”

  “Not at all.” Zack turned to his father. “Come on, Dad. Maybe we can go out and have lunch.”

  “Isn’t it a little early for lunch?” Andy posed.

  “Okay, I’ll eat lunch,” Zack replied as he headed down the steps to the front door. “You can watch, since apparently you think that would be the more appropriate thing to do.” The men walked outside.

  Jenny shook her head once the guys were safely out the door; they certainly knew how to get on each other’s nerves. Switching gears to focus on the matter at hand, she relaxed and walked toward the spot where Stella had once lay. She knelt on the ground, just as Nate had done, closing her eyes to get a vision of what the room had looked like twenty-five years earlier. After a moment, she was able to see Stella looking horrified on the ground with the overturned coffee table nearby. Jenny focused on the papers that stuck out from underneath—papers, but no pen.
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  She looked around, trying to ignore Stella’s desperate and futile cries for help. Try as she might, she was unable to see any type of writing utensil. The vision faded, and Jenny was faced with the conclusion that an ordinary pen may have turned into a weapon on that fateful day, hopefully causing her killer to leave a trail of blood that would lead right to his doorstep decades later.

  While Jenny sat contemplating her latest notion, Zack walked alone through the front door. “Where’s Andy?” she asked.

  “He left, thank God,” Zack replied. “He got a call from one of his construction teams that there was a problem or something.” He shook his head. “I don’t know for sure what’s going on, but I’m just glad he’s gone.”

  “Well, I’ve got a little theory I’m working on,” Jenny said with muted excitement. She explained her idea about the pen. “I’m thinking that blood the forensics team took did belong to our killer, who was suffering from what was hopefully a deep and painful puncture wound.”

  “That’s gross but cool,” Zack replied before guzzling some water.

  “I wonder how long it will take to get the DNA results back on those stains.”

  “They implied it will take a while,” Zack said. “Although, she’s waited twenty-five years for justice. Hopefully a few more months won’t be too painful for her.”

  “Stella isn’t the one waiting for justice, remember? It’s Nate we need to worry about.”

  “At least he’s not sitting in jail while all of this is going on. That does alleviate the urgency a little bit.”

  Jenny looked at Zack, whose sweaty shirt had largely dried and whose messy hair had an element of sexiness to it. “You know, it turns me on when you use big words like that.”

  “It’s the testosterone in your bloodstream, my dear Jenny,” he replied with a pat on her shoulder. “You’ll find that you get turned on when the wind blows.”

  She smiled and gave him a kiss that admittedly sent a little tingle of excitement through her body. Before she got carried away, she stepped back and retrieved her phone from her purse. “I’m going to make a couple of calls, I think. I have some questions that I’d like answered.”