by Dale Mayer
“What about your mother?”
“I don’t know. I guess we have to ask her. More questions to ask my mother,” she said faintly. “If and when she’s ready to answer them.” She walked through to the bedroom and bathroom. “It’s so damn clean. Either somebody has just emptied this place out, or Reana moved out earlier and didn’t tell us.”
“Both could be an option.” He walked back to the front door and looked at the neighbors on either side. He turned toward her and said, “It’s early enough that people should be home from work and yet not late enough to be in bed. I’ll knock on the neighbors’ doors and see what they have to say.”
She joined him. At the first house there was no answer. At the second house, still in the same direction, a young woman answered. When Raina and Reyes explained who they were and asked when the neighbor had last seen Reana coming in or out of her place, the woman shrugged and said, “I haven’t seen anybody in that place for a little while.”
“Really? It’s my sister’s condo,” Raina said. “As far as I knew, she was living here full-time.”
The woman looked at her. “A woman has been living there for a couple years. Two of them. One I haven’t seen for a week or so, and the other one just moved out,” she said with a shrug. “I figured they’d had a blowup or something.” She paused, took a better look at Raina. “One of the women looked like you. You did say you’re twins, didn’t you?”
Raina nodded. “Yes. Did the other woman have long curly hair?”
“Not so much curly but big waves, yes. Beautiful woman. Tall and slim,” the woman said enviously. “I wish I had her figure.”
“How long did she live here?” Reyes asked.
The woman shrugged. “I don’t know. As far back as I can remember though. She took a load out today, probably the end of it, but I don’t know.” She moved a step back in and started to close the door.
Raina asked quickly, “You don’t have any pictures of her, do you?”
The woman frowned. “Why? It’s your sister and her friend. Don’t you have pictures?”
Raina looked over at Reyes, and he shrugged. “It’s not for public knowledge at the moment, but her sister was murdered. And we’re trying to find out who else was living here.”
The woman’s gasp was loud and harsh. “Murdered?”
They nodded. “Yes.”
She glanced over at the brownstone in horror. “You don’t think she was killed in there, do you?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Raina said immediately. “Do you know who the other woman was?”
“I don’t know what her name was. But we did get some mail for that address. Just a second.”
She closed the door behind her, leaving them standing on the front step.
She returned a few minutes later and handed over a piece of mail. “The letter is addressed to Jenny Bengals.”
Raina looked at the delivery address, and it was her sister’s, but, more than that, it had her own mother’s address in the return address spot. So her sister had moved back in with her mom? Was that possible? Maybe if Reana was going through a breakup, she’d move out temporarily. Raina asked, “Do you mind if we take this?”
“Be my guest,” the woman said. “I guess I’d have given it to the police anyway.”
“We will,” Reyes said.
The woman nodded and closed the door without saying anything else.
They walked back down the stairs toward his Jeep, and Raina said, “I don’t know that name. How is it my sister had a whole life we knew nothing about?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s because she had a different lifestyle that she thought other people wouldn’t approve of.”
“Maybe,” Raina said. “It’s hard to know. But, now that we have a name, I suggest we try to find Jenny.”
Back in the vehicle, Reyes leaned over into the back seat and pulled his laptop forward. “Let’s see if we can track her down.” He opened the laptop and started a search.
She stared at the envelope. “I want to open it.”
“Then do it.” He looked over at the letter. “Your mother is in no shape to deal with this. And your sister’s death makes you her guardian of sorts. Why not open it?”
She ripped it open and pulled out a single handwritten sheet. She gasped.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s from my sister,” she said. “Mailed to this Jenny Bengals.”
“What does it say?”
Raina read it through, the tears gathering in her eyes as she saw the painful words her sister felt compelled to put down on paper. “She wants Jenny back. She said Jenny is the only person she’s ever loved, and she’s sorry she’s such a coward. But she wants her back and agrees to going public with their relationship.”
“That’s interesting. At least that adds credence to the fact Reana had a female lover.”
“But why didn’t she tell us?” Raina raised her gaze to look at Reyes. “She could have told me.”
“But she didn’t tell you much, did she? She kept you out of that part of her life, correct?”
Raina nodded. With a sad smile she said, “Yes. We were hardly your typical sisters.”
“Your sister was also extremely confident as a woman. She had a lot of personal power. I think she liked the way other people saw her. If people knew she was gay, it would have changed that. Or she assumed it would.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered to me,” Raina said painfully. She got to the end of the letter, realizing her sister’s heart was breaking. “She must have known Jenny was gone. What did she think would happen to this letter?”
“More to the point, when did this letter come? Because it might have been delivered to the wrong house before Jenny left.”
“And that would be very heartbreaking for my sister to be waiting on a response. At the end of the letter, she says, ‘Please call me. Please. Don’t just walk away and leave me like this.’” Even the words made Raina choke. So much pain in such a short time. “Surely something could have been done.”
“For all you know, Jenny is the one who killed her,” Reyes said.
She shook her head. “If it’s the same woman she was sleeping with when you found them together, then it’s at least a two-year-old relationship.”
“You also have to realize that passion is often a killer in itself. We must find out who this Jenny person is.” He clicked a few more buttons on his laptop keyboard.
She looked at the letter. This had been heartbreaking for her sister, who was living a lie, living a life so full of deception that she must have been very confused as to what she really desired and how to make the sacrifice so she could have everything she wanted.
“If this is the same woman,” he said, “and it’s got your sister’s condo address on it, she works at a local PR company. She has done some modeling, and she’s known for her copywriting experience.”
She stared at him. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Why? Does that ring a bell?”
“Maybe. Reana used to talk about this guy, Jamie.” She looked down at the name Jenny. “He had a PR company. I wonder if it’s the same person? She wouldn’t have been using a guy’s name for her sexual partner, would she? Unless to hide the relationship?”
“I have no clue. How did Reana have a relationship with a PR company?”
“That’s easy. They were one of her clients.”
“That makes sense. And somehow, somewhere along the line, she and Jenny hit it off. Actually …” His voice trailed off as he continued to type on his laptop. “Jamie and Jenny appear to be brother and sister. He works at the same company.”
“I suggest we talk to them because, if nothing else, we need to track down Jenny. She may or may not want to see this last letter,” she said, “but we certainly need to get a few answers from her.”
He looked at the address on his computer screen. “I highly doubt they’re open right now.”
“Maybe. But is there a phone number?”
He snatched his phone and dialed the office number. He was surprised when somebody answered. “Hey, this is Reyes, a friend of Reana’s. Is there any chance Jenny is working late today?”
“We’re all working late today,” said a peevish woman at the end of the phone. “We’ve got a marketing project that’s not going well. Can I get her to call you back?”
“Yeah. Tell her it’s very important, please. She should know the name—Reyes.” He hung up the phone and placed it on top of the laptop and waited.
The two stared at each other.
Then the phone rang.
*
He picked up the phone and said, “Hello, Jenny. I’m a friend of Reana’s family.” He took a deep breath. “In fact, I’m Reyes, her ex-fiancé. We might have met once, in less-than-ideal circumstances.”
Silence followed on the other end. “How did you find me?” she asked abruptly.
“We were just at Reana’s condo. We found out you’ve moved recently.”
“She said she’d never tell anybody,” Jenny said, her voice faintly surprised. “What made her change her mind?”
“Can we meet you? Some of this news is a little difficult. And we have a few questions we need to ask.”
“Why?” she asked with suspicion. “It’s been two years since I saw you, and I can’t say it was a great visit then.”
“Reana’s sister is here with me. Please, can we meet somewhere?”
Jenny hesitated and then said, “There’s a Starbucks at the corner of the office building. I’ll meet you there in ten.” She hung up.
He looked up the Starbucks and turned on the engine. “Let’s go. If nothing else, we’re about to meet the most important person in your sister’s life.”
Raina shot him a hard look. “I’m still stumped. Until your arrival yesterday, I had no clue Jenny even existed.”
“Life is like that sometimes,” he said. “Now we just have to go with the flow and try to fill in all the blanks.”
It took ten minutes to drive to the Starbucks. He pulled into the back parking lot, and they walked inside. He stood in the doorway to see if Jenny was already here. But he saw no sign of her. He ordered two coffees, and they took a table in the corner. As they waited, he kept his gaze searching the small coffee shop.
And suddenly a gasp came from behind Reyes. Raina looked up to see a woman staring at her. Raina quickly stood. “I’m Raina. Not Reana.”
The look of relief and pain that crossed Jenny’s face made Reyes realize just how important their relationship had been to her. “Please, would you sit down?” He motioned at an empty chair beside them.
She sagged into the chair as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up any longer.
Reyes gave her a moment and then said, “May I buy you a coffee?”
“No, no. I’m fine, thank you.” She asked Raina, “Why are you here?”
“When was the last time you spoke with Reana?”
Jenny glanced at her phone. “It’s been at least a week. We had a final fight. She’d moved her personal belongings out right afterward to give me time to move out without her underfoot. The furniture was mostly mine, and she wanted me to take everything away, so it wouldn’t hurt her so much to see it. She said she’d start again with new furniture later. Once I started moving out, we severed all ties.”
“Were you expecting to hear from her before you moved?”
Jenny’s lips curled. “Let’s say, I was hoping to. I was hoping your sister would choose us over her current life. But she didn’t.”
Raina pulled the letter from her purse and handed it to her. “We were just over at her condo, and the neighbor had this letter that was misdelivered. Since you’d moved out, she didn’t know what to do with it. It’s a letter from my sister to you.”
The woman stared at her, looked at the envelope, slowly pulled out the letter and started to read. Tears collected in the corner of her eyes, and she looked up. “Where is Reana? Why isn’t she delivering this in person?”
Raina exchanged glances with Reyes.
Reyes leaned forward and softly said, “I’m sorry. Reana is dead.”
Jenny shook her head. “No, no, no. That can’t be.” Her gaze frantically went from one to the other. “When? Why? How? I don’t understand,” she cried out. “Please, please, please tell me that’s not so.”
Raina took a deep breath. “We found out first thing this morning. And we don’t have any answers. She was murdered.”
Jenny stared at her, then seemed to lose all her stuffing. She sobbed, holding the letter tight against her heart.
Raina rubbed Jenny’s shoulders, trying to make her feel better. When Jenny wound down slightly, Raina whispered, “I’m so sorry. I really am.”
“And the police don’t know who?”
Raina shook her head. “They’re trying to figure it out, but we don’t have any leads at the moment. They believe it was Reyes. When he told them how he’d broken off with her two years ago, you came up.”
Jenny nodded. “That was always the big difficulty between us. Reana didn’t want anybody to know. She didn’t want anybody to know about me,” Jenny said painfully. “Finally I couldn’t take only living with part of her and gave her an ultimatum. And we decided to part ways.” She held up the letter. “If you hadn’t brought this, I would never have known she had changed her mind.”
“Well, the good news is, she loved you,” Raina said. “Unfortunately that doesn’t bring us any closer to knowing who hated her enough to kill her.”
Reyes studied the stunning woman in front of him. Grief had taken a toll, and even now he was amazed Jenny could function. But he found no deceit in her gaze, and her fingers trembled with shock as she came to grips with the fact that not only had Reana wanted to get back with Jenny and to tell the world the truth but also that Reana was now gone forever. Reyes asked her, “Any idea who might have wanted her dead?”
“No,” Jenny whispered. “I really don’t know.” She stole a look at Reyes. “She was pretty upset after you found us.”
“I was pretty upset myself,” Reyes said in a laconic voice. “It’s not only that she was cheating on me but that she was cheating with another woman.”
“I understand that too,” Jenny confessed. “When I first met her, she didn’t tell me that she was engaged. But even then I knew our attraction was too strong to ignore. The thing is, it wasn’t just a physical thing.” She waved her hand. “I really loved her.” Her expression became defiant, and she asked, “Did you?”
“No,” Reyes said calmly. “I realized, after we broke up, that I really didn’t. We were like oil and water. And I spent my childhood with that kind of relationship with my mother, which is probably what the attraction had been in the first place with Reana. She reminded me very much of my mother. A mother I’m still trying to have a close relationship with. And maybe that is part of the problem. I thought maybe, if I couldn’t have it with my mother, I could have it with my wife. Because my mother and father are happy.”
Jenny looked at him for a long moment. “That makes sense. She did say something about the fact that she and Annemarie were similar.”
“Very similar,” Raina said quietly. “They’re both very volatile, very passionate, very dramatic women. For both Harold, his father, and for Reyes, it’s been a bit of a trial being with them.”
“She wasn’t like that with me,” Jenny said. “Reana was always very calm, considerate. There was almost a sense of peace around her.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Reyes said. “That probably means she was happy. I’m glad she found a sort of peace with you.”
“But that would mean your father isn’t good for your mother, if we follow that line of thought through,” Raina said. “Or maybe it was just true for Reana and you.”
“My parents have had plenty of difficulties,” Reyes said. “It’s one of the reasons why I found it hard to get along with my mother all this time. She was always really rough on my father.
I found that difficult growing up.”
“Your brother, Ron, is very much like Reana and Annemarie too,” Raina said.
He nodded. “Did you guys have friends outside of your relationship?”
“Not really,” Jenny said. “We kept to ourselves, didn’t have friends in common. We didn’t go out with other friends because nobody knew about us. My brother knew, of course, and I had an ex-girlfriend who knew. And then there were potentially other boyfriends in Reana’s life who she didn’t tell me about,” she admitted. “I wanted her to be completely honest with me, but I don’t think she was.”
“I knew of at least a Jack and a Tom and a Larry,” Raina said. “But again, I don’t know how much of a relationship she had with them. I just know she talked about going out with them.”
Reyes watched pain whisper across Jenny’s face. “You recognize those names?”
She nodded. “We did have one fight in particular. And she said she would go out and have more relationships, so she could forget me.” Jenny stared out the window. “Whereas I stayed inside my little turtle shell and tried to heal, she went out and dated pretty extensively for a little while, almost as if proving she were ‘normal.’”
“Men were always extremely starstruck with her,” Raina said. “Any chance one of those men didn’t want her to break it off? Maybe threatened her?”
“Not that I knew of,” Jenny said. “Although I’m not sure we were exclusive then, so it wasn’t my business.”
“Was she ever exclusive?” Reyes asked curiously. “Because I never got the feeling she was with me.”
“I’d like to think so.” Jenny’s voice and smile were gentle. “I truly believe we had something special, a love that would last. She just had to deal with the fact that some of the world would have trouble with our relationship.”
“And that, of course, is where the problem was,” Raina said. “We’re looking for anybody who might have had a motive for killing her.”
Jenny sagged in front of them. “I can’t imagine why anybody would want to. She was so full of life.”
“That often brings out the best and the worst in people,” Reyes said. “If it was a man who didn’t want to shut down a relationship, a fight—especially in a volatile relationship, like Reana often preferred—could have turned deadly quickly.”
