A Dead And Stormy Night Read online

  “The second trimester is more traditional, but I’ve never been much for superstition,” she said. “And to be honest… the last few years have been hard for Jer, and I was afraid Hal might be the last straw. He needed some good news.”

  “Losing a family member is never easy,” I said. “But given the circumstances, I can see how it would add an extra layer of stress.”

  Emily scoffed. “Family! Hal and Jer have—had—been more like business partners than brothers for years, and even that was starting to go sour. Harold wanted to take on the world, literally. That’s what all these overseas trips have been about. Hal had to look like the family man to potential investors, and as long as Jer was healthy enough to travel, he had to be there as a partner in case a sudden deal came through.”

  “That sounds like a lot of stress,” I said. “Especially on Jeremy.”

  She nodded. “And don’t think Harold didn’t try to use that to his advantage. It got so bad he tried to have Jeremy declared medically unfit to serve on the board. Can you imagine a brother doing that to his own flesh and blood?!”

  I couldn’t. In fact, I was so stunned by the news I couldn’t think of how to respond. Fortunately, Emily wasn’t done venting.

  “My husband is a gentle, loving man. Harold was the shark. It broke Jeremy’s heart that his big brother could be so cutthroat when it came to him. At first. Then he got angry.”

  “Mr. Jepsen did mention that he felt… conflicted.”

  “Conflicted… that’s a good word.” Emily drained the last of her glass of juice and set it on the table. “We were going to buy a new house after we got married, as a wedding gift to ourselves. Jer had to spend the down payment fighting off a takeover.”

  “I’m sorry to hear things got so difficult between the two of them so near the end. But it hadn’t always been so tense, right? There must have been good years.”

  “They were long gone by the time I came along. For everyone. Even Catherine and the girls. He was such a bully, and he wasn’t above shoving his weight around. Sometimes… literally.”

  “Oh… I see.”

  “I don’t mean to make him sound like an ogre. He could just be… hard to deal with sometimes,” Emily said. “To be honest, I don’t think he ever forgave Catherine for never giving him a son. Those poor girls. Please don’t say I said anything? Especially not to Tabby, she cares a lot about how people see her family. Too much, I’d say.”

  If Harold Jepsen’s argument with his wife was a common occurrence, that might explain why Tabitha was so insistent on keeping her trip to Kenneth’s room a secret. Maybe she wasn’t trying to hide her love life from her mother at all. Maybe she just didn’t want her mother to find out she’d heard her parents’ last fight.

  “Of course not, Mrs. Jepsen,” I said. “Anything you say goes no farther than this room.”

  That brought a smile to Emily’s lips. “Then indulge me for a minute, because I’ve been dying to share some news with someone, but I don’t want to hurt Catherine’s feelings.”

  “All right.” A sense of dread was creeping up in my stomach. What secret could Emily Jepsen have that would hurt Catherine’s feelings?

  “I took a blood test right before we left and I got the results right after we landed.” Her smile widened into a grin. “We’re having a boy!”

  “Congratulations!” I mimicked Emily Jepsen’s smile, but I couldn’t help but wonder what it would do to the family’s already fractured dynamics.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I had a few more chores to do downstairs, mostly setting up for lunch, which gave me plenty of time to mull over my strange conversation with Emily Jepsen. Somehow, every time one of his family members talked about him, they ended up having to defend his behavior. Yet whenever they were alone with me, they couldn’t seem to help themselves.

  It was as if Harold had been the dam holding back their emotions, and now that he was gone, the rush had nowhere to flow but out of their mouths. No matter how much they regretted sharing afterward.

  By the time Danielle came back from her break in the condo to start assembling ham and cheese sandwiches and potato chips for lunch, I was more than ready for a break. I offered to help. Danielle took one look at my slumped shoulders and exhausted expression and said she could handle it alone.

  This time, I’ll go to the office and lie down for a proper rest where no guests can hit me with accidental revelations.

  I had almost reached the door to the office when I noticed the door to the executive suite was ajar. Walking over and peeking through the crack, I saw Catherine Jepsen. She was standing alone in the middle of the room, hugging her thin salmon shawl tight around her shoulders. They still trembled against the air conditioner. Except for the constant hum of the air unit, the room was eerily still.

  Knocking gently to announce my presence, I stepped into the room. “Mrs. Jepsen? Are you all right?”

  She turned around, and I was taken aback. For the first time, she looked like a woman who was every bit old enough to have a college-aged daughter.

  “Catherine, please. And I’m fine. Right as rain,” she said. Then blinked and shook her head. “Actually, I’m sick to death… I mean, I’ve had enough rain to last me quite a while.”

  I resisted the urge to furrow my brow, instead smiling as warmly as my tired face could manage. “Should I give you some time alone?”

  At first, Catherine was silent as she seemed to consider my request.

  “You know, if this were the last 1800s instead of the early 2020s, we would have stopped the clock and covered the mirrors,” she said. “Just to make sure Hal found his way to the afterlife. And of course the girls and I would adopt a strictly black clothing palette.”

  I glanced at white metal alarm clock on the bedside table. With the hum of the air conditioner I couldn’t hear it ticking, but the second hand was still spinning.

  “If we’d known we would have stopped the clock for you,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  Catherine shrugged. “Why should you be sorry? I could have stopped it when I found him, but I didn’t.”

  I didn’t realize until that moment that I hadn’t known who found Harold Jepsen. Since Andrew was the one who came to get me, I just assumed it was him or Danielle when they delivered a wakeup call. Now that I thought about it, Catherine made more sense. She would have wanted to get back to the bedroom before anyone other than her daughters knew she’d slept in their room.

  “All of this must be difficult for you, Catherine.”

  “You know, I thought it would be. I knew when we married that Hal was going to work himself into an early grave. Nothing was ever enough for him. No deal. No house. No education for our children.” Catherine heaved a sigh. Her gaze drifted back to the bed. “But I thought I would feel sad or… maybe angry. I don’t feel anything at all.”

  She may have said she didn’t feel anything, but the tone of Catherine’s voice made me afraid to leave her just yet. It was soft. Fragile. Not the sound of a woman without emotion at all.

  “There seemed to be some… tension between the two of you at dinner. It can’t have been easy to shift between that and this so quickly.”

  “Tension. Hmm. I suppose that’s a good word for it. When we got back upstairs, it boiled over. That’s why I slept with my daughters.”

  “I… heard something to that effect.” That was all I could reveal and not accidentally divulge Tabitha Jepsen’s secret. “Did it get violent?”

  Catherine shook her head. “He would never while we were staying in a hotel. But he came close enough that I preferred to spend the night in less inebriated company. He was so drunk he tripped on his own feet when he chased me down the hall.”

  Maybe Harold Jepsen hadn’t put his hands on his wife—I didn’t think she would really tell me if he had—but the argument sounded plenty violent to me.

  But if he really had fallen, that would explain both the smudge I saw on the wall and the wound I found. The simplest exp
lanation might be the one that fit.

  “I know that’s what all battered housewives say, but in my case it’s true. Hal wouldn’t have risked the facade crumbling around strangers. What if the staff couldn’t be bought off? What if someone called the police?

  “Sometimes words hurt as much as any blade,” I said.

  “Not after thirteen years of disappointments. There wasn’t a single nerve either of us had that the other hadn’t tap danced on a dozen times. Jer’s been telling me to leave for months. Since things between them cooled down after that stupid takeover attempt. To be honest, I had half a mind to.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because Hal was a vindictive jerk when he wanted to be, and he always put himself in a position to be. He made me sign an ironclad prenup when we married. All of our friends are his business associates. Even the organizations we belong to, he insisted on being the ‘face’ whenever one was needed. He would have ruined me.”

  “I think a woman who can hold herself together in circumstances like these would do just fine in the world, Catherine.”

  She smiled. “Guess I’ll finally have a chance to find out. At the very least, maybe I can find a good death.”

  “Good death?” I furrowed my brow. “I don’t understand.”

  “When we go home, Jer will start calling Hal’s associates. There isn’t a single one of them he wouldn’t have betrayed to get a higher commission on a deal. He never got the son he so desperately wanted, and he never missed a chance to remind me of it. By the end, even Tabby knew.”

  Poor Tabitha. No wonder she’s so anxious.

  “Henry VIII reborn,” Catherine muttered to herself. “But the worst part was Emily. Hal never forgave Jer for that. I think he expected to bury Jer early, what with his poor health. Instead, he watched while a younger woman fell in love with him. He was sure she was a gold digger.”

  “Is that how you feel about her?”

  “If she makes Jeremy happy, I don’t care. Hal just couldn’t accept that he shouldn’t have either. Nothing was ever enough if someone else had even a little bit more or better. And Hal punished us all for it.”

  Catherine was quiet for a long while after that. She seemed content to watch her unmoving husband and listen to the hum of the air conditioner with only the company of her thoughts.

  I was just about to leave the room when she walked to the bed and rested her hands on the footboard.

  “The Harold Jepsen I loved died a long time ago,” she said. “Whoever you were, you couldn’t hold a candle to him. But… wherever you are now, I hope you find the peace we couldn’t give you.”

  And just like that, Catherine Jepsen turned her back on the bed. And her husband. She looked down at the sparkling silver wedding set on her left ring finger, that she was now wearing again. She twirled it around twice, then slid both rings off and put them in her pocket.

  “I guess the difficult part starts when we get back home,” Catherine said, looking at me. “All the phone calls and the paperwork. But then… I guess Jer will handle that.”

  “Maybe, but I’ve got to say, Catherine, I think you did the hardest part just now.”

  Catherine nodded and thanked me. She left the room, probably to go spend time with her daughters.

  I went to the office hoping to rest, but knowing I’d be reviewing everything I learned from Emily and Catherine Jepsen that morning.

  Chapter Seventeen

  After my conversation with Catherine Jepsen, and leaving behind the only functioning AC in the big house, I was tired in my bones, as Granny would say. I stretched out on the cot, only meaning to stay until I cooled off and got some energy back.

  I woke up to Ashley shaking my shoulder.

  “Wake up, sunshine,” she said. “We’re being summoned downstairs.”

  Groaning, I rolled over onto my side. “It can’t be time to serve dinner yet. It’s not dark enough.”

  “Not for dinner, for lunch. Emily Jepsen extended an invitation to the staff on behalf of the family. The younger girls are giving us a concert while we eat our sandwiches.”

  “Huh?” I tried to stifle a yawn and failed miserably. The constant pitter-patter of rain outside the office window didn’t help.

  “You know that thing where people sit and eat together?”

  “I meant why, Ash.” It took all of my energy, but I pushed myself into a sitting position.

  She shrugged. “Maybe she’s just trying to be nice? More likely, she wants to show off.”

  Neither option sounded like the Emily Jepsen I’d spoken to that morning in the kitchen. But then neither woman bore much resemblance to the version who held court during last night’s dinner.

  The motive behind Emily’s request didn’t matter. If Danielle had sent Ash upstairs to find me, she must have intended to honor it. So I hauled myself out of bed, splashed some water on my face, straightened my rumpled T-shirt, and headed downstairs.

  Alexis and Melody Jepsen were just wrapping up their opening number when Ash and I walked into the front parlor. Emily and Jeremy had taken spots on the largest couch. His eyes were locked on the girls, a small smile playing on his lips as they hit a particularly impressive harmony. Judging by the empty plate on the table, Emily had already finished her lunch. But Jeremy’s plate lay untouched in his lap.

  Catherine and Tabitha sat together on the love seat, leaving Kenneth in one of the easy chairs. Now and then, when she thought nobody was looking, Tabitha glanced at Kenneth over her shoulder. Would there be another late-night rendezvous in their future?

  I didn’t know, and really, it was none of my business. But if the sweet eyes and gentle smile Kenneth flashed at Tabitha were any indication, he was as into her as she was into him.

  The night before, I’d told Ashley that everyone except Kenneth had a motive to hurt Harold Jepsen, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe the affection he felt for Tabitha was reason enough, and things had just gotten out of hand.

  Kill a man because you’re sweet on his daughter and he’s a tyrant? That seems pretty far.

  I went to grab my plate from Danielle—who was standing near the window with Andrew holding Baby Ben—and tried to take my focus off the ugliness upstairs and on the show the Jepsen girls were putting on.

  After lunch, Danielle and Ashley started gathering dishes while the Jepsens slowly filed out of the room. Kenneth went to the bar and poured himself a neat scotch. Andrew pulled me to the side.

  “The weather service said the storm might get worse,” he said. “I want to get some sandbags around the garden cottage and the boathouse, but Granny Margaret’s been watching Ben all day and she needs a break. Think you’re up for it?”

  I was sure I wasn’t, but there was no way I would refuse. Before I could agree, Kenneth spoke up.

  “If you need bags thrown, I’m your man,” he said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Andrew said. “Liability.”

  “Liability’s only an issue if I get hurt, and I won’t.”

  I could see that Andrew wanted to argue, but he couldn’t afford to turn down the help. Then Kenneth said the magic words.

  “If it helps, I promise I won’t sue.”

  Kenneth and Andrew shook hands.

  “Think I’ll go too,” Granny said with a mischievous grin I knew all too well.

  “Granny, you should stay inside where it’s safe and dry.” Even as the words left my mouth, I knew there was no point in arguing.

  “I won’t either,” she said, crossing her arms. “In the first place, it’s my house. I know where the sandbags need to go—”

  “Granny, do you think I don’t?” I interrupted.

  “And in the second…” Granny threw me a pointed look. “I’d never pass up a chance to watch a strapping young man throw things around.”

  Kenneth laughed softly. “It’d be my pleasure, Mrs. Fisher.”

  We grabbed raincoats from the utility closet and started the long, wet trudge to the garden cottage.
Aside from the flooding, there didn’t seem to be much damage to the grounds. That gave me a little hope that the final clean up wouldn’t take too long.

  Andrew had left the wheelbarrow of sand under the awning, along with a hand shovel and a thick stack of empty bags.

  Granny positioned herself next to the wheelbarrow so that she would stay mostly dry. Kenneth offered to do the tossing while I filled the bags. I probably should have argued with a guest voluntarily taking the most difficult job, but I was exhausted and, frankly, desperate for the help. So I thanked him and grabbed the shovel.

  “It’s no big deal.” Kenneth took a full bag from my hands and laid it on the growing semi-circle in front of Granny’s door. “My parents had a summer house with a creek nearby. Sandbags were my first free weights.”

  “That sounds pretty rough,” I said, opting to ignore the part about it being his parents’ second house. “Are your parents friends with the Jepsens?”

  Kenneth snorted. “Nah. I did an internship the summer before my senior year with Flamingo Investments. That’s Hal and Jeremy’s company. He liked me so much he offered me a job as soon as my final grades were in. Didn’t even wait for the ink to dry on my diploma. That was two years ago now.”

  “You must enjoy working there,” I said.

  “Not really,” he shrugged. “Been ready to move on for six months, but Hal wouldn’t hear it.”

  “He must have relied on you a lot.”

  “Pfft. He taught me well. Even promised to teach me everything he knew. Then he threatened to ruin me if I gave him notice,” Kenneth said.

  The disconnect between Kenneth’s casual tone and the revelation that his boss had threatened to destroy his career was so stark it made my head spin. I paused with a shovelful of sand still in my hand.

  “That… sounds a little severe for wanting to find a new job.”

  “I guess, but that was Hal. Never use a compliment when an insult could do the job just as well.”

  “And you came on a vacation a family vacation with him?” Granny shook her head in disbelief. “Sweetheart, jobs in your field can’t be that hard to come by.”