Kentucky Sunrise

by Fern Michaels

  Also by Fern Michaels

  The Jury

  Vendetta

  Payback

  Picture Perfect

  Weekend Warriors

  About Face

  The Future Scrolls

  Kentucky Rich

  Kentucky Heat

  Kentucky Sunrise

  Plain Jane

  Charming Lily

  What You Wish For

  The Guest List

  Listen to Your Heart

  Celebration

  Yesterday

  Finders Keepers

  Annie’s Rainbow

  Sara’s Song

  Vegas Sunrise

  Vegas Heat

  Vegas Rich

  Whitefire

  Wish List

  Dear Emily

  FERN MICHAELS

  KENTUCKY SUNRISE

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Also by Fern Michaels

  Title Page

  Prologue

  PART I

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  PART II

  8

  9

  10

  11

  PART III

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  Epilogue

  Own the whole series . . . and put them on your keeper shelf!

  Teaser chapter

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Babylon Hotel and Casino

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Sage Thornton looked across the table at his twin brother Birch. His expression clearly said “board meetings are deadly dull.” Birch rolled his eyes as if to say, “I agree, this is boring as hell.”

  Fanny Thornton Reed peered at her sons over the rims of her reading glasses. “I wonder, Sage, if you can tell me why the Emperor Room has been operating in the red for the past two months. The Emperor Room has always been the hottest ticket in town for fine dining. As far back as I can remember, we’ve always been backlogged for reservations. The way it stands now, you can walk in off the street and get a table without a reservation.”

  Sage leaned forward, the better to see his mother. “The chef bailed out on us. She didn’t give us any notice, so we shut down for ten days until we could find a replacement. One day she was here, and the next day she was gone. Obviously the new man we hired isn’t doing the job he was hired to do. I’ve been looking for a new chef since the day she left. Five-star chefs are not that easy to come by, Mom.”

  “Let’s try to do better. I hate seeing all these red circles,” Fanny said. “I think we’re adjourned unless any of you have some business you want to discuss.”

  Sage glared at the board members sitting at the long conference table. His gaze said there had better not be any new business to discuss.

  “Then we are adjourned.” Fanny shuffled her papers and booklets into an accordion-pleated envelope. The sound of the rubber band snapping into place was exceptionally loud to those in the room.

  The twins waited until the room emptied before they approached their mother. They both hugged her. “Nice to see you, Mom. You should come to town more often,” Birch said.

  Fanny twinkled at her sons. “What good would that do me, Birch? You’re in Atlantic City all the time running Babylon II. As for you, Sage, I only live fifty miles away. You could come to visit. By the way, you are going to Kentucky for the family reunion in May, aren’t you? I think it’s wonderful that Nealy is willing to host a get-together. Marcus and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Your sisters Sunny and Billie will be there as well as all the Colemans. It should be quite wonderful.”

  “We’ll be there,” Birch and Sage said in unison. “Are you staying on, Mom,” Birch asked, “or heading back to the ranch?”

  “Marcus is waiting for me. I have to get back. How’s my mountain, Sage?” Her voice was so wistful, Sage felt his eyes start to burn. He stared at her for a long moment, his heart fluttering in his chest at how old and frail his mother suddenly looked. He blinked. Her hair was snow-white and the fine wrinkles were deeper. Her smile was the same gentle, warm smile of his youth. He made a mental note to go out to the ranch at least once a week, even if it was at midnight.

  “It’s as beautiful as ever and just as wonderful. The kids love it. I wish you and Marcus would come up and spend some time with us. Iris would love it if you’d come for an extended stay.”

  “If I were to do that, I might not want to leave. We’ll be there for Christmas. I’ll say good-bye now.” Fanny gathered up her purse and coat.

  “How about a trip to Atlantic City, Mom?” Birch asked as he hugged her good-bye.

  “One of these days. I like to be close to home. You know I’m only comfortable around my own things in my own place. Marcus is having knee-replacement surgery after the first of the year. Recovery time will be at least a few months. I will think about it, though. Be sure to call me. That goes for you, too, Sage.”

  “Okay, Mom. Do you want us to walk you to the car?”

  Fanny laughed. “I think I can get there on my own. You can walk me to the elevator, though.”

  Even there on the fourth floor of the casino, the noise from the first floor could still be heard as the slot machines whirred and clanked to the sound of silver.

  “Uh-oh, here comes trouble,” Sage muttered, as soon as the elevator door closed. He made his way across the deeply carpeted hallway to greet two burly Las Vegas police detectives. “What brings you here at this hour of the morning, Joe? Noah, good to see you again,” he said, pumping the second detective’s hand. “You both know Birch.”

  “We’re here to ask you about one of your employees. She’s got at least twenty aliases that we know of. Willow, Willa, or a variation of that first name. As to her last name, here, take your pick,” the detective named Noah said, handing over a sheet of paper. “We have no clue as to what her real name is. She’s a cook. We were told she worked here at Babylon.”

  Sage looked at his brother, a frown building between his eyebrows. “If you’re referring to Willa Lupine, yes, she worked for us in the Emperor Room. She’s a five-star chef, but she quit a few months ago. She pretty much left us high and dry. Why are you looking for her?”

  “Murder.”

  This time Sage’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Murder! Willa? Who is she supposed to have killed?”

  “Her husband, Carlo Belez. Also known as Junior Belez. It was in all the papers. Didn’t you see it?”

  Sage threw his hands in the air. “Hell, it was on the front page of the paper every day for weeks. It didn’t say anything about a wife or mention our chef by name. I would have remembered something like that. If this happened two months ago, are you telling me you just figured out Junior was married to one of our employees? I didn’t even know Willa was married.”

  The detective looked sheepish. “So you did know Junior.”

  Sage jammed his hands into his pockets. “I never said I didn’t know him. Every casino owner on the strip knows . . . knew Junior Belez. He was a high roller. Never ran a marker that I know of. He won and lost money in all the casinos. Are you implying our former chef killed Junior?”

  “It looks that way. We want to question her. The only problem is we don’t know where she is. We have an all-points out, but nothing has come in. We just found out about her a few days ago.”

  Sage raked his hands through his hair. “Wait a minute. The guy was killed two m
onths ago, and you’re just now finding out he was married? What the hell kind of police work is that?”

  The detective clenched and unclenched his teeth. “Junior lived on his ranch way out there, maybe twelve miles or so past the Chicken Ranch. He liked privacy. He didn’t have a housekeeper but he did have a groundskeeper who sticks his snoot in the bottle from time to time and then has to dry out. He was drying out when this all went down. He came back expecting to pick up where he left off only his boss is dead. He’s the one who told us your cook was married to Belez. If it wasn’t for him, we still wouldn’t know about her.”

  “She wasn’t a cook. Anyone can cook. Willa was a chef,” Sage said. “I don’t know anything that can help you. She worked for us. She drew customers like a magnet. She was one hell of a chef. She quit and took off. That’s the sum total of what I know. Feel free to go to the kitchen and talk to the people who worked with her.”

  “We’ll do that. If you hear anything, call us.”

  “I will,” Sage muttered. He looked at his brother. “Don’t look at me like that, Birch. I don’t know anything about the woman. The kitchen was strictly off-limits to everyone when she worked here. She was hell on wheels about people going in and out of her kitchen.”

  Birch shrugged. “You taking me to the airport or should I catch a cab?”

  “Do you mind taking a cab? I want to talk to the kitchen staff myself. I have this . . . weird feeling I know something, but I don’t know what it is. It’s like . . . something I heard. Then again, maybe it was something I saw and didn’t realize it at the time. Christ, I hate when that happens. It makes me damn near nuts trying to figure it out.”

  “No problem. Let me know if I can help.”

  “Hey, wait just a damn minute, Birch. You’re looking kind of smug. You didn’t snatch her away, did you? Damn, it would be just like you to pull a stunt like that.”

  “Sorry. Never saw the lady, and I don’t know anything about her. I’m just glad she wasn’t my . . . cook. See you.”

  “One of our employees is wanted for murder. I can’t believe it, Birch.”

  Birch bent down to pick up his briefcase. “He said she was wanted for questioning. There’s a difference between questioning and murder. She might be a suspect. That still doesn’t prove she committed the murder. It’s the elimination process to track down the killer or killers. Don’t go off half-cocked here, Sage. I’ll call you when I get home. We can do that word-association thing we used to do when we were kids. Maybe something will come to you. You could also call that sister of ours. Sunny is great with stuff like that.”

  Sage watched the elevator door close behind his brother. He felt his stomach muscles bunch up into a knot.

  Murder!

  PART I

  1

  Fanny Thornton Reed watched the young dawn creep over her beloved Sunrise Mountain. A sadness, unlike anything she’d ever experienced, washed over her. One small part of her wished she hadn’t turned the mountain over to her son Sage. Yet it would have been selfish of her to keep it with just herself and Marcus to enjoy. The mountain was intended for a family, for children to run and play, to hope and dream.

  She’d raised her four children there, and it was always the place where she’d come to lick her wounds, to cry in private and bury those close to her.

  She looked across the road to the little valley where Chue’s family lived. Chue was the young Chinese immigrant Sallie Coleman had befriended and brought to the mountain eons ago. She’d given him a large plot of land and built him a house so he could get married and raise a family. His loyalty and love had served Sallie and Fanny’s own family over the years. Chue and his wife were gone now, buried in the family cemetery, but their children remained to care for the mountain and for the new generation of Thorntons.

  Twelve children on the mountain. She smiled. Sage’s three children and her daughter Sunny’s two children plus Chue’s seven grandchildren romped the mountain from morning till night.

  Fanny reflected on her life on the mountain, where she’d been happy as well as miserable at times. Those other times, the times when she’d been less than happy—they weren’t worth thinking about. She was in the winter of her life now, her hair as white as the snow on the tips of the trees in the winter. She was also older, and Marcus was even older. She closed her eyes, wondering what it would be like when it was her time to join those who had gone before her. Tears blurred her eyes. Then she smiled again as she thought about her first husband, Ash, and how much she’d loved him. It was true, what they said, about only having one true love. Yes, she loved her husband Marcus, but it was a different kind of love. Ash was the bells and whistles and the kids’ father. Marcus was the steady rock she clung to.

  “Fanny, Fanny, you’re doing it again. You’re stewing and fretting instead of taking action.”

  “Ash! Oh, Ash, it’s good to talk to you again. It’s been years and years. I don’t even want to think about how many. Yes, I was just standing here thinking about how old I am. If I close my eyes, I can see us here on the mountain with the kids running around. I’ve been all over the world, Ash, and this is still the prettiest spot on earth.”

  “Why so sad, Fanny?”

  “It’s Jake, Ash. If you’re so all-knowing, you must realize the young man is suffering. He can’t seem to find his direction. I know how much you loved him, and he returned that love. I don’t think he ever forgave you for dying and leaving him behind. All he ever talked about was being a navy pilot like you. Those gold wings you gave him are his most treasured possession. I think he still sleeps with them pinned to his pajamas. You know he will never be a pilot. It’s that damn disease, where he didn’t grow the way he should have. We took him everywhere, to every clinic, to every specialist, and there was nothing they could do for him. Right now, he’s looking at his eighteenth birthday and doesn’t know what to do. He absolutely refuses to go to college. Sunny said he has to accept his condition and work it out, the way she did when she found out she had multiple sclerosis. I think she’s right, but it hurts me to watch him.”

  “I know, Fanny, but there are other ways to fly. I don’t mean literally. I’m talking about the same dedication, the same exhilaration. Think about it.”

  “Ash, I hate it when you talk in riddles. If you have an idea, tell me. I’ll do anything for the boy. Anything. Help me out here, okay?”

  “That’s your problem, Fanny. You always wanted me to do your thinking for you. Use your head. Go inside and turn the VCR on.”

  “Why would I want to do that? It’s only six o’clock in the morning. What kind of tape should I watch?” Fanny asked curiously.

  “The one that’s in the machine. Come on, old girl, you’ve been thinking about it but were afraid to say the words out loud. You were always so damn cautious.”

  “And you were always going off on one tangent or another. I was the one who had to remain grounded for all our sakes.”

  “Don’t be afraid to take chances, Fanny. Get Jake off the mountain before it’s too late. If you don’t, he’s going to turn into another Simon. You don’t want that, do you?”

  “Ashhhh.”

  Fanny whirled around when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, Jake, what are you doing up so early? Couldn’t you sleep?” She reached up to tousle his blond curls, the same kind of hair as his grandfather had had.

  “I like to watch the sun come up. It’s a new day, and I always hope that maybe some miracle will happen.”

  “Jake, I’ve lived a long time, and over the years I found that each of us has to make our own miracles along the way. I want you to come with me into the family room and watch a tape. Let’s get some fresh coffee first, though.”

  “What’s on the tape, Grandma?”

  Yes, what was on the tape? Ash had sounded as if he knew what he was talking about. “You’ll see,” she said.

  Jake sat down next to her on the sofa, weighing only 105 pounds, his legs barely reaching the floor. Even though
he was approaching his eighteenth birthday, he looked like a child of twelve. She was thankful the disease hadn’t eaten into his mind. He was brilliant, in the top one percentile of his class, and had a photographic memory just like his grandfather Ash, who had always been his idol.

  “You have to turn it on, Grandma,” Jake said.

  “Yes, yes, I do have to turn it on. Marcus always handles the remote. Get ready now.” This better be good, Ash.

  Fanny sat back, wondering what it was she was going to see. “Oh, look, Jake, it’s Nealy Clay! I think this is her first Kentucky Derby race. She won two Triple Crowns, and she’s your aunt. She was in her fifties when she ran her last race. We didn’t know about Nealy for a long time.” She looked sideways at Jake. “She’s just your size, and she’s a jockey. She was very young, not as young as you are, but still young, when she ran her first race. She doesn’t look big enough to handle a Thoroughbred, does she?”

  “Size has nothing to do with a person’s ability to control a horse,” Jake said as if he knew what he was talking about. The camera switched to the jockey room and panned the jockeys as they finished dressing. “Look how muscular those guys are,” he said, an enthusiasm in his voice that hadn’t been there before.

  “That was the preliminaries. Now, they’re going to show the race. Before it starts, I want you to know one thing. Ash, your grandfather, always said there are other ways to fly than in an airplane. Keep that in mind as you watch the race.”

  Fanny and Jake watched as the crowd rose to the playing of “My Old Kentucky Home,” then fell silent as the gates clanged open.

  “And they’re off in the Kentucky Derby!” the announcer blared.

  “Flyby got away cleanly and moved to the left right at the start. Serendipity takes the early lead and Crusader is on the inside as he challenges early. Celebration is third on the inside with Nightstar fourth. Finders Keepers is fifth, Dark Sire is in the sixth position. Here comes Phil’s Choice in seventh. On the outside is Texas Rich at eighth. Leisure Boy is between horses as they round the clubhouse turn and MacInerny takes Crusader to the front three-quarters of a length. Serendipity on the outside is second. Saturday’s Warrior in blue and yellow moves to the outside. Finders Keepers is fifth on the outside with Phil’s Choice tucked in at the rail and sixth at this point. Dark Sire is seventh, Celebration is eighth, Nightstar is ninth. After that, Saturday’s Warrior racing in the tenth position.”