Chapter Thirty-Five
Jessica pulled up next to the curb in front of Jasper and Melanie Dayton’s pale, stucco home. Her hands shook so badly, she could barely switch off the engine.
A tall, handsome man with short, brown hair, exited the garage holding a bucket and what appeared to be a pile of rags.
The man dropped the rags into the bucket, brought his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun and then set the bucket next to a white truck that read, DAYTON’S CONSTRUCTION on the side.
Jessica climbed from the car, hurried up the drive, and cleared her throat. “Mr. Dayton?”
He nodded, slowly lowered his hand from above his eyes, and then sauntered over, stopping a few feet in front of Jessica. “What can I do for you?”
“My name is Jessica Nobles.” Jess extended her hand in greeting. “I’m sorry to drop in unannounced this way, but I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your son’s disappearance?”
Jasper’s gaze became guarded. He accepted Jessica’s palm. “My wife told me about your recent visit. She won’t be happy about you showing up again.”
“I know, and I’m really sorry, but I have nowhere else to turn. I need your help, Mr. Dayton.”
Releasing his hold on her hand, Jasper glanced toward the house. “Help with what?”
“Someone is trying to make it look like I’m guilty of crimes I didn’t commit, and I have a feeling it has something to do with me looking into your son’s disappearance. I believe someone in my neighborhood is behind it.”
Jasper studied her for a moment longer. “We can talk inside.”
Jessica hated like hell to follow him into that garage but follow him she did.
“Mel?” Jasper called out as he stepped into an immaculately clean kitchen.
Melanie Dayton rounded the corner holding a phone in one hand and an envelope in the other. Jess assumed she’d been paying bills.
“What is she doing here?” Melanie paled, her stance becoming rigid.
Jasper held up his hands in a defensive manner. “She says she needs our help. I invited her inside, Mel. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to hear her out.”
Melanie’s shoulders remained stiff. She set the phone and envelope on the kitchen counter and crossed her arms over her chest. “If you’ve come here with more insanity about seeing ghosts, I’ll call the police and have you locked up for harassment.”
Jessica’s heart lurched. The last thing she wanted or needed was for the authorities to be called. She took a hesitant step forward. “I didn’t come about that. Please, just hear me out.”
Though, Melanie relaxed somewhat, her expression remained tense. “Make it quick.”
Jasper intervened. “Let’s all move to the den and have a seat.”
Thankful for Jasper’s intervention, Jessica sent him a grateful look and preceded them into the front room. She took a seat on the same sofa she’d sat on during her last visit to the Dayton’s.
Melanie perched on the edge of a high-backed chair, while Jasper took up residence behind her. He rested his hands on his wife’s shoulders. “Would you care for something to drink?”
Jessica shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“Very well,” Jasper continued. “Why don’t you start by telling us what this is all about?”
Taking a nervous breath, Jessica filled them in on everything that had happened since moving into the house on Meadowbrook Circle, ending with, “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to break into my home and leave such a message on my wall, let alone kill poor Sandy Weaver.”
Melanie had paled even more during Jessica’s recanting of the last week. “The psychic died the day after you visited me?”
“Yes,” Jess whispered, clasping her hands together in her lap.
Clearing her throat, Melanie asked, “How can we be sure that you didn’t do it?”
“You can’t. Actually, no one can. Other than the fact that I had no motive and barely knew the woman, I have nothing but my word that I’m innocent.”
Jasper moved away from his wife and lowered his weight into a chair across from the sofa that Jessica sat on. “What is it that you want from us?”
A tiny spark of hope soared inside Jess. Jasper believed her. She could see it in his eyes. “Your help in proving my innocence.”
“I don’t see how we can be of any help,” Jasper responded in a quiet tone.
Jessica sent him a pleading look. “If there is anything at all you can remember about your son’s investigation that might shed some light on why this is happening to me, that would be a good start.”
Jasper leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. A faraway look entered his eyes. “I know they investigated Eustice Martin, his wife Gerri, the Hawthorns, Sandy Weaver and Dale Schroder. They also questioned the Peewee football coach at the school my son attended and the registered sex offender who lived two blocks from us at the time.”
That was the first Jess had heard of the sex offender and the Peewee football coach. “Do you happen to remember their names?”
Jasper rattled off the two men’s names and then pinned Jessica with a serious stare. “Melanie told me that you thought you saw Terry in the upstairs window of our old house.”
Melanie jumped to her feet and faced her husband. “I asked you not to bring that up again. Clearly this woman is insane, yet you invite her into our home and entertain her preposterous ideas of being framed?”
“I know what it sounds like,” Jessica interjected, drawing Melanie’s attention back to her. “But I swear to you, I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, you can call Steven Ruckle. He’ll tell you I’m not making this up.”
“Steven Ruckle?” Melanie and Jasper simultaneously chorused.
Jessica looked from one to the other before focusing on a now standing Jasper. “You know Steven?”
“Unfortunately. The question is, how do you know him?”
“He was the reporter that covered your son’s disappearance. I found him through an internet search.”
A harsh laugh escaped Jasper. “Ruckle was more than some reporter who covered my son’s story. He was my wife’s lover.”
All the blood drained from Jessica’s face. She couldn’t have heard him right.
Shifting her stunned gaze to Melanie, Jessica swallowed around her disbelief. “Y-you…I…”
Melanie smoothed her palms down the front of her skirt. “Steven and I…became close during my employment for The Daily Sun.”
“Which, in my opinion,” Jasper ground out, “is the reason why he asked to be assigned to cover Terry’s disappearance. So that he could be closer to my wife.”
Swinging around to face her husband, Melanie’s hands flew to her hips. “Steven may have been a lot of things, but an opportunist he wasn’t. He would have never used our personal tragedy to his advantage like that.”
“Still defending him after all this time.” Jasper spun on his heel and headed toward the front door. “I need some air.”
Once the door shut behind her husband, Melanie returned to her seat. “I’m sorry you had to see that. Steven Ruckle is still a sore subject around here. Even though our…friendship was more than sixteen years ago.”
Jessica remained quiet, her mind still reeling with the knowledge that Melanie Dayton had been intimately involved with Steven. How could he have kept that piece of information from her? “I’m not here to judge you, Mrs. Dayton. I’m just hoping that you can help me figure out who would possibly want me gone bad enough to break in my home and to make it look as if I killed Sandy Weaver.”
The sound of a vehicle revved to life and then slowly faded as it moved away from the house. Obviously, Jasper had taken off.
Melanie tucked her pretty blonde hair behind her ears and glanced toward the door before returning her gaze to Jessica. “I have no idea who would do such a thing. But from what I remember of Sandy Weaver, she was a paranoid fruit cake who claimed to have seen my son buried in a shallow grave. With that being said, I’m sorry she died the way she did. No one deserves such a horrible death.”
“Then you must think I’m crazy as well,” Jessica whispered, remembering the last conversation she’d had with Melanie.
“Regardless of what I think, I know that you lost a child a few years ago…and for that, I am deeply sorry. If anyone understands the pain you’ve experienced, I do.”
Jessica fought back the tears that threatened and decided not to reiterate her encounters with Terry’s ghost to Melanie—at least for the time being. Right then, she needed the Daytons’ help in clearing her name. “Tell me about your relationship with Eustice Martin.”