Читать книгу Hometown Detective - Jennifer Morey - Страница 15

Chapter 4

Raelyn Johnston checked out a customer in line at the gas station counter. This was the only job she could find after college. She didn’t want to leave Chesterville. Her grandparents lived here and that was really all she had left of family. Kendra came to mind then. She didn’t like thinking about her. Mom hadn’t told her a thing about her. Why not? The only explanation was that her mom hadn’t been close to her and maybe hadn’t wanted to bring her into their lives.

It didn’t matter anyway. Raelyn didn’t want her aunt in her life. She looked like her mom the way other sisters did but not in a twin way, and just reminded her of the hellhole her mother had left her in when she killed herself.

Raelyn slammed the cash register shut with a fresh wave of anger. She still got so mad over that. How could her mother have done that to her? Living with Dad had been horrible but at least they had had each other. How could her mom have left her in that situation?

The last year living with Dad had been a nightmare. She’d come home from school to cops swarming her house and her mother’s body being wheeled out in a black bag. Her dad hadn’t even called the school.

A cop had told her that her mother died and the coroner would be in touch to explain how.

After they’d all left, her dad had started drinking and only told her Kaelyn had killed herself by hanging. No hug. No talk over how she’d deal with such a huge loss. He seemed to not care at all. Looking back, she realized he’d drowned whatever sentiment he’d had for her mom in alcohol.

Another patron showed up at the counter. She looked up and saw a tall, beautiful blonde she recognized from the news. It was the prosecutor’s wife, Melody Franklin. She put a cold bottle of iced tea on the counter.

Raelyn began checking her out and Melody inserted her credit card into the machine, eyeing Raelyn.

“You’re Kaelyn Johnston’s daughter, aren’t you?” Melody asked.

She recognized her? “Yes.”

“I was real sorry when we heard about her death all those years ago.”

What was this, Hash Over Her Mom’s Suicide Day? She didn’t respond.

“She was so well liked in town. No one ever really got to know your dad. He never came with her when she visited.”

“My dad was and still is a first-class loser.”

“You seem to have turned out all right despite that fact. You’re quite lovely.”

Raelyn grew uncomfortable with the compliment. She thought she looked okay, but what did lovely mean?

“I heard your aunt hired an impressive private investigations firm to look into your mother’s death.”

What? Raelyn handed Melody her receipt. “What detective agency? Why is she looking into her death?”

Raelyn felt a surge of multiple feelings assail her. Rage. Pain. The sting of tears. She couldn’t take this.

“As a possible homicide. You didn’t know?”

“My aunt and I haven’t spoken much.”

“Doesn’t she keep in touch with you? I would think she’d want nothing more than to be in touch with her twin sister’s daughter.”

That was getting too personal. “She does, but I’ve been too busy.”

Melody glanced over the cash register and counter as though she found that difficult to believe. Raelyn only worked at a gas station. How could she possibly be too busy to be in touch with her aunt? Clearly she didn’t want to be in touch with her aunt.

“I’m sorry,” Melody said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“What agency?” Raelyn asked, borderline snapping.

“It’s fairly well-known. Dark Alley Investigations.”

“Why does Aunt Kendra think my mother may have been murdered?”

“Good question. That’s why I brought it up.”

Raelyn would not entertain any thoughts on the matter. She’d had it rough enough without her mother around. She didn’t need to start feeding the notion that her mother hadn’t abandoned her. Kendra was just reaching. Her mother wasn’t murdered. Period. End of story. Time to move on with her life.

Melody took her tea and started to turn. “Have a good day now.”

“You, too.”

Raelyn saw the next clerk who’d take over at the counter. Her shift was over.

Good. She needed to get out of here and get her mind off Mom. Adam texted her, saying he’d meet her at a local bar near where she worked.

Perfect.

She didn’t drink like her dad had, and never would. He’d set a fine example of what not to become. Try as she might not to think about that last year living with him, the memories filled her anyway. Whenever he got drunk, which was every night, he got angry. At first, she’d tolerated it. Without her mom, she’d been so lost and sad. The awfulness had consumed her. She’d come home from school and go to her room and cry every night. Her grades had slumped. Luckily, summer had arrived and she’d had a few months to get past the worst of it.

Dealing with her dad hadn’t helped. He yelled at her all the time and made her basically take care of him, cooking and cleaning. She’d hated him for that. She lost her friends because he demanded she be home. Then one night, he’d gotten so mad that she hadn’t made dinner yet, she’d lashed out at him and yelled back. He’d smacked her like he had her mom so many times.

She’d packed a bag and left. She went to one of her friends’ house. But she couldn’t live there for a year so she’d had to go back home.

Her dad had apologized but the violence had returned. She’d barely graduated from high school but made sure she had scholarships for college. Between that and two jobs, she’d paid her own way through school.

She hadn’t really had a chance to grieve the loss of her mother. In college she had. But the one thing she never lost was that deep, aching resentment over her mother taking the coward’s way and killing herself. Hadn’t she thought of her daughter? Why couldn’t she have just taken her and left her dad? That had gnawed at her ever since the day her dad emotionlessly told her of the suicide.

For the longest time, she couldn’t believe it. She refused. Her mother would never leave her that way. But she had. The coroner had sealed the truth of it when he’d stopped by to tell them. While Raelyn had broken down in tears, her dad had gone to a bottle of whiskey.

Leaving home for college had been one of the happiest days of her life. Now she never wanted to see him again.

Aunt Kendra? She didn’t know if she could see her, get to know her. It was just too painful. Now a woman she only knew through the news had told her Aunt Kendra had hired a detective to look into her mother’s death.

Raelyn did not welcome the ray of hope trying to butt its way past her control. If her mother had been murdered, that would mean she hadn’t intended to abandon her. But what did that really change? Nothing. She’d still lost her mom and that still made her really, really angry.