Death and Deceit

DEATH AND DECEIT

Cover image courtesy of Phiseksit at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Carol Marlene Smith

* * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Carol Marlene Smith at Smashwords

Death and Deceit

Copyright 2012 by Carol Marlene Smith

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Author’s Note: This novel is written in Canadian/UK English.

****

PROLOGUE

Neither the softly falling snow, nor the jingle bells on the street-corner Santa’s wrists calmed the trepidation in Jessica Albright’s heart. Unfinished business from last August was still on the menu. Standing outside the bus behind a straggling group of other passengers, she carried her one piece of luggage and took baby steps so as not to bump anyone. When the crowd cleared away, she blew snowflakes off her turned-up nose, brushed back her flowing auburn hair and searched for a familiar face.

Looking down the town’s main street, Jessie acknowledged to herself that Wakefield hadn’t changed a speck since she’d left last summer. Of course the town was now covered like a snowy wonderland, but it probably would easily be recognized by any of her ancestors if they should pop up from their wintery graves.

Years earlier Wakefield had grown into a town because of a fast producing quarry that had been owned and operated by the Wakefield Gypsum Company. It didn’t run out but had been shut down, when the owner died and his son drove it into bankruptcy. But since those early days, when Wakefield was a bustling, promising town, things had changed drastically for the townspeople. Today, most made a living at the chocolate factory and the handful of craft shops in the downtown area. A fine sweep of beach also attracted the tourists.

Jessie, over here.

Jessica swivelled her head to the left and was greeted by her neighbour, Sandra Norton’s waving hand. Sandra and Jessie’s mom, Emily, had been friends as long as Jessie could remember. It always amused her to see them together. Sandra, tall and gangly, with hands as big as bear paws, and her mom almost a foot shorter, slight and small boned, the complete opposites in looks yet the very best of friends.

Emily Albright rushed forward and grabbed her daughter in a tight hug. I’ve missed you, she said, then kissed Jessie on the cheek.

Jessie smelled that old familiar cigarette smoke. She thought her mom looked too thin and pale, but she didn’t mention it.

Sandra looked down at them and said in her deep cigarette voice, Let’s get to the car before we’re stuck here. How was the drive from the city?

A little slippery at times, Jessie replied, but the driver seemed to know how to handle the bus.

They’re experienced, Sandra’s voice boomed, so loud a few people turned to look her way. Jessie showed a half embarrassed grin and continued on walking behind Sandra and her mother. Sandra had taken the luggage straight from her at the bus and carried it as if it weighed nothing.

After brushing off an inch of snow from the car’s windshield and rear window, they spun their way out of the parking lot and towards home. Both Sandra and Jessie’s mom lit up cigarettes. Jessie sat in the back seat and tried not to breathe too deeply. Finally she asked the question foremost in her mind. Is Alan home?

He is, her mother replied. But he’s leaving before Christmas.

Why?

Says he’s moving into a new apartment, and he wants to get help from some of his friends before they go off somewhere for the Christmas holidays.

Why can’t he wait ‘til after Christmas? Jessie asked.

Impatient, Sandra cut in. You know your brother. Never could wait for nothin’.

Jessie shrugged. She wasn’t sure she did know her brother.

Sandra slowly edged her car into the Albright’s driveway which was quickly plugging with snow. Jessie’s dad’s truck was half covered already. After thanking Sandra for the lift, the two Albright women stomped the snow off their boots and entered the house. Warm air from the kitchen hurried outside, replaced by a blast of December. Jessie’s father sat at the table spooning down noon-time soup. He stopped and hugged himself from the cold then broke into a wide smile when he saw Jessie.

Hi, Dad. I’m home. Jessie wrapped her arms around him without removing her coat, but he didn’t seem to mind. He reciprocated by kissing her forehead.

How’s my girl? he asked, continuing to smile.

I’m fine, Dad. How about you? She looked him over. His yellow-stained teeth, from too many years of smoking, looked too big in his now gaunt face, and she had caught her breath earlier when she’d hugged him. She could feel his bones, and it almost felt like he wasn’t there anymore.

Doing okay, he said, his head bobbing up and down. Jessie had inherited her dad’s red hair, but his was thin now, almost invisible. Scraps of reddish-grey hairs brushed across a pale scalp.

He always says that, Emily intervened, as she helped Jessie pull her coat off and then took both coats to the hall closet.

Jessie poured a cup of tea then sat beside her father. It troubled her to notice how much more weight he’d lost since she’d gone off to college in September. Her dad had always been robust and healthy. An athletic man, he loved the outdoors almost as much as he loved his family. While Jessie’s mother had coddled her first born, Alan, Jessie had not felt the least bit neglected. Her dad had been there for her from as long as she could remember. He’d taught her how to skate, and even play hockey, on the outdoor rink he made every winter in the backyard until she was fifteen. Her interest in boys then took over, and Jessie spent more time at the town arena with her friends. Alan, who was four years older, left for university, and Jessie’s mom and dad spent a lot of time alone together.

In her last year of high school Jessie got the shock of her life, when her mother sat her down one day after school and hit her with the truth. Your dad has prostate cancer, she told her in a wavering voice. It was just after Easter and Jessie recalled walking the snow-lined streets of Wakefield, her tears freezing on her face. A week after that, spring set in and so did the cancer. He continued his job as a bus driver for a few months, but by the first week of summer he was forced to retire.

The cancer now ravaged his body, but he was so brave and how she’d missed him. She reached for a cookie and heard footsteps clumping down the stairs. Her heart leaped, and she pulled her arm back from the cookie plate and sipped her tea instead.

Hi, Alan, she called out nervously.

Alan nodded but kept his head down. The same red hair that crowned Jessie’s head also hung over his forehead. He brushed it back and grabbed his jacket off the back of a chair.

Alan was tall and strikingly handsome even to his sister. His perfect nose, strong chin, and bedroom eyes had always attracted a bevy of female admirers, leaving Jessie to wonder why losing Marcy had hit him so hard. As far as she could figure, Marcy had never been such a great catch anyway.

Alan, Emily called from the hall doorway. Where are you going?

Out, Alan called back as he slipped through the kitchen door. The door slammed shut and Emily turned to Jessie.

What’s wrong with him? she asked, a perplexed look clouding her face. She swiped her cigarette package from the kitchen counter and pounded out a smoke with her fingers.

I think he’s still mad at me, Jessie announced, frowning at the cigarette. She caught herself from scolding her mother once again. Emily never listened anyway. Even when her husband had been forced to quit smoking, Emily kept it up. Neither Jessie nor Alan had taken up the habit, even though cigarettes had always been available while growing up.

Emily sat down and Jessie looked across at both her parents. Obviously Alan had never told them about the incident in August. Alan arranged a blind date for me last summer, and when I didn’t show up, he got mad. But I thought he’d be over it by now.

Jessie’s father patted her hand. He holds grudges, Jessie. It’s wrong but that’s the way he is.

Just like you, Jack, Emily pointed out. The smoke from her cigarette hovered over the table.

Just like I used to be, he corrected. Ever since the cancer, I’ve mellowed. Life’s too short for harbouring bad feelings.

Emily smiled at him then turned her attention once more to Jessie. That’s silly, she said, him being mad at you for that. Wait ‘til he comes in. I’ll straighten him out.

****

The snow banks surrounding the Albright’s Cape Cod style house sparkled like rhinestones in the early morning sunshine. Alan threw large shovelfuls of snow away from the truck tires. The kitchen door opened a slit and his mother called to him, Come in for breakfast, Alan.

Inside, Alan rubbed his hands together and warmed them on the electric burner.

Sit down, Alan, Emily said. Where were you last night?

I was at Bob’s house, why?

I want to hear about this feud between you and your sister. She slipped two fried eggs from the pan and dropped them on Alan’s plate next to a slice of ham.

Alan reached for a piece of toast then sat down. Remember Marcy, Mom? he asked. Emily nodded and poured his coffee.

Jessie broke us up. All she had to do was date a buddy of mine, but she backed out and made me look like a fool. He got mad. Then Marcy got mad at me and took up for him. They went off together and that was it. Marcy and I had dated for two years.

Doesn’t that tell you something, Alan? About Marcy?

Alan glared at her. It sure as hell told me something about Jessie.

Alan, stop swearing. You make up with your sister.

Alan jumped up, knocking into the table and spilling his coffee. I knew this wouldn’t work, he yelled, grabbing his jacket.

Jessie was just heading down the stairs. Instead of leaving, Alan stomped into the hallway and started up the stairway. They faced each other. His face was red with anger, just like Jessie’s got many times, but not today. She was more stunned at his continuing rage than anything. If she had ever known it would turn into such a big fiasco, she would have gone on that damn blind date, and she told him so.

You’re a bit too late, little sister, he said sarcastically and continued up the stairs.

Jessie and her mother sat at the kitchen table and watched in unison as Alan dragged down his luggage and piled it by the kitchen door. Finally he turned to his mother. Tell Dad I’ll bring the truck back next weekend. Tell him... He looked across at Jessie. "Never mind. Have a great Christmas," he said sarcastically.

Alan, wait! The door closed on his mother’s words and he was gone.

The roar of the truck’s engine coming alive brought Jessie out of her stupor and to her feet. I can’t believe him, she said crossing her arms and shaking her head.

Tears clouded Emily’s brown eyes. And on your father’s last Christmas too.

Jessie rushed towards her mother who stood up as they embraced. Mom, she soothed, you don’t know that.

She held tight to her mother’s trembling frame, digging her clinched fingers into the bony shoulders. She would have given anything at that moment to bring her brother back to celebrate Christmas as a family again. And suddenly she wished with all her heart that she had gone out with Alan’s friend. Who would have thought that a stupid blind date could ruin a family Christmas?

CHAPTER ONE

Spring 1996

He rose because he could not sleep, a nightly venture, nothing new. It was hard to sleep when memories invaded every dream. Either Julia was hiding somewhere or his mother was crying. He hated the looks of his mother. There was always something…a black eye, a bruised arm, a sore leg, a broken tooth. But she still found smiles for Julia and him. She seemed to have them tucked away behind the swollen cheek or the battered, swollen nose.

Because of those smiles he managed to go on, day by day. But Julia was sullen, defiant, and he trembled in the other cot across from her bed many nights, while their father entered the room and made her cry. He was glad that his father had neglected him.

He was happy when his father went away and never returned. He was not happy when Julia did the same. That left just him and his mother. She was so proud of him and he did things to make her proud. He wanted to see her smile again. He wanted to make her happy but the dream that reoccurred more than any other was not a happy one, it was a dream of horror. For on his happiest occasion, she left him and from then on he wandered through his life looking for someone to protect, in order to end the dreams.

Today was no different, his life in Harbourside took him to bad places and good places. He helped many, and he tried to leave behind as many smiles as he could, remembering his mother. He vowed to avenge the helpless and aid the oppressed; to him his name was Diego.

****

In the sea-washed city of Harbourside, Nova Scotia, high in the hot afternoon sky, a hawk circled on motionless wings searching for its next prey. Romance had spread its warm blessings over the Maritimes with a free hand that touched many.

Down below in one of the city’s newest buildings, housing the Justice Department in one wing and at the far side an impressive new health club, Jessica Albright worked her aerobic class through another fast-paced session.

Hurry, though, was almost forgotten on the quaint, narrow downtown streets. People walked leisurely from shop to shop or lounged at the waterfront. Gulls flapped lazily and swooped down to roost by the pier, and the hawk still circled on steadfast wings, searching...searching. Jessie was searching too, but up until now the free hand of romance had not touched her.

She stretched her aching muscles, her breath slowing, her pulse dropping. Sweat trickled down her neck. Standing on one foot she went into a quadriceps stretch. Everyone leaned one hand against the wall. Now, Jessie called out, reach back and grasp one foot with your other hand. Bring that heel real close to your butt. One, two... Jessie counted to fifteen. Okay, just relax. This will stretch your quadriceps and your hip muscles.

They repeated the exercise three times for each leg, then Jessie turned to face the group.

Aerobics, she stressed, "means with air or oxygen. But exercise alone can’t prevent heart disease. It’s only one factor. You need a risk-reduction program to control such factors as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, also getting rid of bad habits such as smoking is a must."

She noticed a pale blonde glance discreetly at her nicotine-stained fingers. Jessie’s eyes moved on, so as not to linger on the woman and embarrass her when she looked up.

She changed the subject. Baby sitting is available, please check at the desk. Also, anyone interested in a massage can inquire there also.

Jessie felt drenched in her yellow bike tights and T-shirt. Next time she’d wear a bra top and shorts. She crossed to a wall bench and sat to untie her training shoes, while the class that had just finished up the cool-down portion of her aerobic session dispersed. A sharp pain raced through her shin. One look at her old aerobic shoes told her it was time to replace them.

That was a good begin. Jessie heard and looked up.

Wearing a black, sleeveless, two way stretch body-suit, blonde hair earlier tied in a ponytail — now cascading down her back — Elizabeth Barrow trained her very blue eyes on Jessie’s hot face, while she smiled her approval of the newest instructor. Where’d you learn all that good stuff?

Like...? Jessie extended her arm and open palm for Liz’s elaboration.

Liz took the motion as an invitation and sat beside her. Like all the jazz talk — motivation — yada yada yada.

Jessie smiled and placed her shoes under the bench then reached for street shoes as a replacement. I believe everyone who exercises should know what’s happening to their body and the benefits of training. And believe me I’ve had a lifetime trying to convince my own parents to quit smoking. My father finally had to, but Mom...her excuse when Dad was sick was that it helped calm her nerves. But, she’s still smoking.

Jessie realized she was rambling and losing Liz’s attention. She got back to the subject at hand. So you liked the class?

Loved it. Liz dragged out the words. I’ve been coming here ever since this place opened and you’re the best instructor yet.

Jessie laughed outright at that. To think as much seemed foolish to her. She was a complete novice having attained the job by the skin of her teeth, since she had never had any experience. Through sheer boredom during after hours at college, she’d signed up for an aerobic certification workshop. She liked the pace and life’s frustrations could be managed better when one controlled her stress level. And you’re a liar, Jessie replied, but I appreciate it.

She had met Liz during her first class, and the club had only been open two weeks then. At the time, Liz had made her feel more welcome than the instructors had. The two became quick friends. I was really nervous out there, couldn’t you tell?

Liz shook her head. "You handled yourself like a pro and that’s what counts — not how many years experience you have. I rescind my statement. You keep it up and you will be the best. How’s that?"

More truthfully put, Jessie said. "Thanks, but I don’t plan to spend my life jumping in step. I hope to get a librarian job soon."

Liz nodded and both women rose simultaneously. Ready for lunch? Liz asked.

I can’t, Jessie said. I have to work on registration and I dread it. Greeting customers and selling passes, even helping with the health questionnaire is okay, but entering data about the participants into the computer is nerve wrecking. I’m a complete klutz. Every time I press a button, I’m terrified that the whole history is going to disappear before my eyes.

Nonsense, Liz replied. Computers are simple. You just need some tutelage.

Easy for you...a programmer to say. I spent too many frustrating hours at college getting through my assignments.

"Look, you need a computer. How many times have I told you that? You’re going to be a librarian. You’ll live on the computer."

"And how many times have I told you that I can’t afford one, let alone want one?

"You need a computer, Jessie, Liz repeated. And I can find you an excellent used system...cheap."

Jessie sighed. I’ve gotta go.

Lunch tomorrow? I won’t be here but you can set the time. My job is flexible. Jessie waved from the registration desk as Liz left the building. She turned to watch Anne sign off the computer leaving the big box with the intimidating screen for her to sign in.

****

Climbing up four flights of stairs was a mini workout in itself for Jessie, especially with three over-stuffed grocery bags in her arms. It was always a game trying to stick the key into the lock and open the door of her apartment without placing the bags on the floor. This time she lost. One overloaded paper sack struck the floor upside down and Jessie groaned. Just as she opened the door and managed to shove the groceries back into the bag, the phone rang.

I’m coming, she yelled in frustration. She shoved the sacks on the kitchen counter and grabbed the receiver. Hello, she shouted into the phone.

Liz’s voice was hesitant. Hi. Ah, you sound—

Cranky? Jessie finished Liz’s sentence for her.

Some.

I just did battle with my groceries that’s all. Thought you were meeting me for lunch Tuesday?

Sorry, Liz said. I...met someone.

You did? A guy?

Of course a guy. Would I be excited over meeting a girl?

You just hurt my feelings, Jessie teased. Tell me all.

Jessie had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Liz cut in. His name is Kent Morgan and he’s a gorgeous blue-eyed blond.

Okay, Jessie stressed. So does that mean no more lunches with me?

Of course not. I’ve still got time for my pal. Anyway, we had a date last night. He was at the office when I got back there on Monday. He’s a computer technician. He was working on mine when I walked in.

Oh. How compatible. So, did you have lunch with him?

No, not that day, but he was back yesterday and he asked me to lunch. Then at lunch he asked me to have dinner with him. Then we saw a movie.

And then?

He’s a gentleman, Jess, but he did kiss me goodnight.

Ooh. So, what now?

Well, he didn’t ask me out tonight, but he said he’d call. Liz drew a long breath and changed the subject. Hey, I’ve got a great deal for you. You can’t pass it up. This computer is the best buy of the century. And I’m taking you down to see it tonight. So, be ready in an hour.

Liz, I told you before. They’d have to be giving it away.

They practically are, and only because I’m on the inside track. My friend, Ross, isn’t making a cent on it. He’s doing it for you.

Don’t you mean, you? Ross likes you.

Yeah, I know that. And I’m taking advantage of him, right? Be ready.

Liz hung up before Jessie could object further. Two hours later they were in the computer shop. Two hours later they were home dragging boxes up the four flights of stairs, while Jessie apologized for the out-of-order elevator.

Leave everything, Liz panted. Tomorrow night I’ll come over and help you set it up. But, I’ve got to get home now...Kent might call.

He can leave a message.

I know, but I’m anxious, okay?

Jessie gave Liz a hug and thanked her, even though she was still wondering how Liz had talked her into buying the computer. She had had to dip into her savings