Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) (15 page)

“Can I use your phone to call Roy?” Tj asked him.

“Roy knows what’s going on. I called him when I saw you had veered from the directions you were given. I came after you while he went after Jim.”

Tj leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes. God, she was tired. “Now all we have to do is figure out who killed Holly and we’ll have this whole mystery package wrapped up.”

“I think I may know that as well,” Kyle announced.

Tj opened her eyes.

“Who?” Mackenzie asked from the backseat.

“I managed to clean up the image of the shadow we saw in the trees enough to identify it as Nathan Fullerton.”

“Nathan? Why would Nathan kill Holly?” Mackenzie asked.

“Have you read his work?”

“Sure,” both Tj and Mackenzie answered.

“Do you remember his first book?” Kyle asked.

“
Obsession
,” Mackenzie answered. “It was the book that made him a star.”

“Do you remember the plot of the book?”

Tj’s eyes got big. “Oh my God. He was writing about Holly.”

“That’s my theory.”

In the book there was a teenage girl who was obsessed with a teenage boy who had no interest whatsoever in her. The girl tried everything she could think of to get the boy’s attention, but no matter what he remained uninterested. The girl was used to getting her way, and she’d discovered along the way that the best way to get people to do what you wanted was to blackmail them. She came up with a scheme to blackmail the boy of her dreams into loving her, but in the end he killed her.

“Nathan killed Holly because she was blackmailing him,” Tj realized.

“That’s my theory. I think it also explains why he’s kept a low profile. He came to Serenity early, so he was already here when Samantha Colton showed up. Everyone knew he was here and it would have looked odd if he left, so instead of leaving, he simply laid low in an attempt to avoid her. Once he found out she was dead he realized it was safe to come out of hiding and attend the game. My guess is, had she not died, he would have made an excuse to go home without ever having made an appearance.”

“This whole thing is so surreal,” Mackenzie commented. “I can’t believe Nathan would do such a thing, but I do remember him mentioning he had a stalker. At the time he said it in a joking sort of way, so I thought he was kidding.”

“I wonder what Holly was blackmailing him with,” Tj said.

“In the book the girl who was obsessed with the victim found out that the object of her affections had been physically and sexually abused as a child,” Kyle reminded them. “I don’t know how close Nathan stuck to the truth in his fiction, so it could have been something else entirely.”

“Wow,” Tj said.

“Wow is right,” Mackenzie agreed.

“Roy is going to bring Nathan in for questioning. Let’s not forget that all we have at this point is a photo and a theory,” Kyle reminded them.

“I read
Obsession
a long time ago, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the book is going to end up serving as a sort of confession,” Tj mused. “It seems like every detail about the crime scene is exactly the same as the location where they found Holly’s body. I can’t believe I never put two and two together.”

“I wonder why he wrote it all down and then had it published?” Mackenzie asked.

“Maybe he needed to confess but didn’t want to go to prison. Writing a fictional account of the events was his way of doing that,” Kyle speculated.

“I’m going to call Roy to ask him to come over once he tracks Jim down and talks to Nathan,” Tj decided. “I need to find out exactly how this story ends.”

“I thought you were going to the dance,” Kyle reminded her as he turned onto the resort road.

“Honestly,” Tj answered, “I’m way too exhausted. I bet Hunter will be tired as well, after surgery. I guess I should ask him, but I think we’ll skip it.”

“That close encounter with the big cat took a lot out of me. I think I’ll just head home,” Mackenzie added.

“Stay and have dinner with us,” Tj encouraged. “I’ll order food from the Grill and we can relax on the deck of the cabin Hunter and I are staying in.”

“I don’t want to be a third wheel.”

“You won’t be a third wheel. Kyle is going to stay as well. Aren’t you, Kyle?”

Kyle glanced at Mackenzie via the rearview mirror. “If you want to stay I’d be happy to round things out.”

Mackenzie smiled back at Kyle. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

Kyle grinned. “I’m sure.”

“Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat,” Gracie said when Jenna answered the door.

“Don’t you look beautiful!”

“I’m Cinderella.” Gracie grinned. “Are Kristi and Kari ready?”

“They are. And we’re all very excited about the Halloween sleepover.”

Tj had invited Jenna and her girls to spend the night. Dennis had been called into work when two firefighters from his department came down with food poisoning, and Hunter had decided to take Jake and his friend to San Francisco for a couple of days because Tj was going to be tied up anyway. Ben had decided to go with Jake and Hunter to the city, and Mike was spending the evening with Rosalie.

“Kristi and I will be joining you after our party,” Ashley announced in a very adult tone of voice. “There are going to be boys there.”

“Kristi is very excited about the party and Kari is equally excited to go trick-or-treating with Gracie. This is going to be the best Halloween ever.” Jenna looked at Tj. “Is Kyle joining us?”

“Kyle is on a date. He and Mackenzie hit it off, so he’s taking her to the Halloween Ball at Timberlake House.”

“Awesome. It’ll be just the girls. This is going to be so much fun,” Jenna announced.

“I’m really looking forward to a little girl time,” Tj admitted. “I have snacks and soda for the kids to pig out on during the movie marathon Ashley has all lined up in the DVD player, as well as wine and cheese for the adults.”

“Sounds perfect. Just let me get my coat and we’ll paint the town black and orange.”

Later that evening Tj and Jenna curled up on the sofa in front of the fire. The four girls were knocked out on the floor in the den by eleven o’clock. Tj and Jenna discussed it and decided to take advantage of the quiet before going up to bed.

“It looks like you have a permanent addition to the family,” Jenna commented as Pumpkin wandered into the living room and plopped down next to Echo at Tj’s feet.

“It looks like. I wasn’t sure another pet was the best idea, but Gracie loves Pumpkin and it seems obvious the feeling is mutual. She’s really a well-behaved little pup.”

“Plus she’s adorable,” Jenna added.

“Yes, there is that as well.” Tj yawned. “I can’t believe it’s only been five days since we found her. What a week. It seems more like a month has gone by.”

“It has been a long week,” Jenna agreed. “I still can’t believe Nathan killed Holly.”

“What I can’t believe is that he up and confessed when Roy brought him in for questioning. All we had was a theory. It’s doubtful Roy had enough to press charges.”

“I think Nathan wanted to be held accountable for what he did,” Jenna hypothesized. “That’s most likely why he wrote out a confession and published it in a book. I bet he never imagined it would take ten years for someone to figure it out.”

“And we most likely never would have if Samantha Colton hadn’t decided to avenge her sister’s death and find her killer,” Tj added.

Tj looked at the fire as it snapped, crackled, and popped. The wood her dad had brought in was freshly chopped and still contained a lot of sap.

“I actually feel kind of bad about the way things ended up,” Jenna said. “I really like Nathan, and I’m not certain the whole thing was his fault. If the book parallels reality at all, Holly threatened to reveal some very personal and painful information about him. I think the poor guy felt trapped and took the only way out he felt was open to him.”

“What’s really funny about the whole thing is that if Dalton hadn’t been as obsessed with Holly as she was with Nathan, he wouldn’t have been running around taking photos of her. And without those photos we would never have seen the image of Nathan watching Holly.”

“That’s true.” Jenna took a sip of her wine. “Did Jim ever confess to killing Samantha Colton?”

“No, but they can hold him on the kidnapping and attempted murder charges while they look for evidence.”

Cuervo jumped onto the sofa and made himself comfortable in Tj’s lap. Of all the members of the Jensen family, he was the least thrilled with the addition of Pumpkin.

“I’m sorry our romantic weekend with our guys got waylaid, but this is nice,” Jenna commented as she nibbled on a piece of cheese. “It’s been a while since you and I had girl time.”

“It really has. We should make a point of doing this more often. It doesn’t seem that long ago when it was us having the sleepovers. ”

Jenna leaned over and picked up a book from the coffee table. “Is this our senior yearbook?”

“Yeah. Ashley found it when we were looking for the Halloween decorations. She wanted to look at it, so I brought it down.”

Jenna opened the cover and thumbed through. “Oh my. Look at my hair. What was I thinking?”

Tj laughed. “I have to admit that wasn’t your best look.”

“I look ridiculous, but you look exactly the same.”

Tj shrugged. “You can’t do much with my crazy hair so I don’t even try. It’s been the same since I was a kid and will probably be the same when I’m an old woman.”

“Except instead of curly auburn hair you’ll have curly white hair.”

“True.”

“I love this one of Dennis and me at our homecoming,” Jenna said. “We look so happy. Who knew what was about to happen, or how it would affect homecoming ten years later?”

Jenna continued to look through the photos from that long-ago night. Tj mostly had fond memories of her time in high school, but the night Holly died was a sadness that had stayed with her through the years.

“I don’t see you and Hunter,” Jenna commented.

“We were probably in the hall necking.” Tj laughed.

Jenna frowned. She passed the book to Tj. “Look at this.”

The photo was of Holly and her date, but she was clearly staring at Nathan, who was with his date off to the side, and Dalton was in the background, staring at her.

“I’ve looked at this photo a million times and never noticed that,” Tj admitted. “I guess you have to know what to look for in order to see it.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jenna agreed.

Tj passed the book back and Jenna continued to thumb through it.

“I forgot that you and Hunter were voted most likely to get married before our first reunion,” Jenna commented.

“Yeah, I guess that didn’t work out as planned.”

“Do you ever wonder how your life might be different if you had married Hunter right out of high school?” Jenna asked.

Tj shrugged. “I’ve thought about it from time to time, but I don’t spend a lot of time agonizing over it. I guess there’s a part of me that wishes we didn’t have the apart years and the reason for those apart years lingering between us, but I’m happy with my life. Hunter’s mom was so controlling and I was so young. If we’d married right out of high school she would have walked all over me. I think things turned out the way they were supposed to.”

Jenna smiled. “I’m glad you’ve made peace with the past, and I’m glad you and Hunter are back together. He’s a good guy.”

“Yeah. He is.” Yet Tj couldn’t quite shake a slight feeling of melancholy.

“Hand me that bowl of candy,” Jenna said.

Tj handed it to her and she picked out a candy bar.

“I know I’ve eaten a million of these things already, but Halloween is the only night you can eat candy and the calories don’t count.”

Tj glanced at the clock. “We still have a few more minutes before the stroke of midnight, when we turn into mere mortals, unable to digest ten pounds of candy in a single sitting.”

“Do you remember that Halloween slumber party when we were in the seventh grade?” Jenna asked. “I was sick for a week from all the candy I ate.”

“Or the scavenger hunt when we were freshman?” Tj laughed. “We tried to be sneaky and try out a new neighborhood so we could beat the guys and we ended up on the other side of the river and couldn’t remember where the bridge was to get back.”

“We really did have a lot of fun.” Jenna took Tj’s hand in hers.

“Yeah,” Tj squeezed Jenna’s hand. “We really did.”

“Did we wake you up, sweet pea?” Tj asked Gracie, who had just wandered into the living room.

“I couldn’t find Pumpkin.” Gracie pushed Cuervo aside and crawled into Tj’s lap. Cuervo settled in next to Tj’s leg, and she pulled a quilt over all three of them, cuddling Gracie to her chest.

“I don’t think Pumpkin liked sleeping on the floor, where she had four little girls kicking her every time they rolled over,” Tj supposed.

“Can me and Pumpkin sleep in my bed?”

“Absolutely.”

Gracie started to doze off as Tj held her close.

“I love you to the moon and back,” Tj whispered in her ear.

“I love you even farther,” Gracie whispered back.