Page 9

As the sun set over the desert horizon of Arizona, Nash directed the car toward their home for what he hoped would be only a few days. The resort was lovely, with a two-bedroom suite all to themselves, swimming pool, and much more.

“This is so nice!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “The boys back home made sure we were taken care of. Let’s drop our bags and have dinner here. Sound good?”

“Perfect,” she smiled.

Nash hadn’t heard anything else from the team back home, but he was damn sure itching to learn what they’d found.

The restaurant downstairs was relatively quiet, with a few people enjoying their evening meal. Most tourists don’t visit Arizona in the summer. They waited until a slightly less hellish heat was upon them to visit the desert, Native American sites, monuments, and beautiful scenery.

“It all looks so wonderful!” said Jenna. “What are you having? Nash?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m a bit distracted, that’s all. I think I’ll have the seafood pasta.”

“In Arizona?” she chuckled. “Maybe go with the side of the menu featuring Mexican dishes. If I remember right, it was always delicious here.”

After ordering, Nash took it upon himself to prod a little bit further into Jenna’s background.

“You know, I don’t think I ever asked if you and your family were from here originally,” he said. “You know that I wasn’t. My family was transferred here.”

“Oh, no. I think my parents were from the Northeast, New Jersey. I mean, that’s where they moved to Arizona from.

That’s strange, isn’t it? I never really asked them much about it.

Actually, that’s not true. I had to do a family tree one year in school, and my parents couldn’t give me a lot of information about their families. ”

“Why not?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said, shrugging. “They just said it wasn’t something they felt was important.

They’d met, fell in love, and left New Jersey.

I came along almost right away. Then, there was quite a gap between me and my sisters.

I was almost five years older than Jeannie and eight years older than the twins. ”

“I’m glad you had them,” he smiled.

“I suppose. I always felt like a second mother to them,” she said, frowning.

“I didn’t really think much of that before.

Not until I came to Belle Fleur. I’ve watched how all the siblings behave with one another there, and it was really different than what I was used to.

My sisters looked at me more as a surrogate mother.

“We looked nothing alike. I mean, all of the Robicheauxs look as if they were cut from the same cloth. I had this light brown hair, blue eyes, and medium build. They were all dark hair, dark eyes, and a little more full-figured.”

“Why do you suppose that was? I mean, looks could be a lot of different factors, but why do you think you felt more like a surrogate mom?”

“I’m really not sure. My mom and dad were gone a lot, working several jobs at a time. Sometimes, they were gone for several days at a time, and I had to get the girls ready for school, make sure they had lunches, that sort of thing.”

“How old were you?” he frowned.

“I guess between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. I felt guilty about leaving for the convent because I knew they would have no one to take care of the girls. But they weren’t upset about it. Not really that I saw, anyway.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility for a young girl,” he said, smiling at her. “I always knew you were special.”

She nodded at him, tilting her head, staring at him. Pushing her food around on the plate, she set the fork down and looked up once again.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered. “Why are you suddenly asking me all of these questions?”

“There’s no big reason, Jenna.”

“There must be a reason, Nash. I’m not a stupid woman. We’ve known one another a long time, and you’ve never been interested in my family history before. Why now?”

“Jenna, the boys back home were trying to see if they could find any living family for you. Perhaps an aunt or maybe the spouses of your sisters, maybe even children they had.”

“That was nice of them,” she smiled, “but I could have saved them the trouble. There’s no one. I’m not really sure what happened to their husbands, and they never had any children.”

“Maybe there’s no one,” he said. “Honey, they can’t find any death record, marriage record, nothing for John or Mary Brooks.”

“Well, that’s just silly. I know they were married.”

“I’m sure they were,” he said calmly. “It’s just that there’s nothing on their deaths.”

“Nash, I went to their funerals. They died after my sisters. I was there!” she said with a raised voice. He nodded, holding up his hands and waving for her to lower her voice as people stared at them. “Sorry. I was there for the funeral.”

“Listen to me. I don’t want to hurt you.

I don’t want you to get upset. Your sisters?

They died suspiciously, honey. Jeannie Brooks, no married names for any of your sisters, by the way, was found dead in the desert, stripped with two bullets placed in her forehead.

Jillian was killed in a head-on collision with a tow truck, and the driver was never found or tried.

Jari didn’t die of a stroke, honey. She had a massive heart attack due to a chemical ingestion. ”

Jenna’s face turned an ashy gray color, and she shook her head, pushing her plate aside. She stared down at her hands in her lap.

“Jenna? Jenna, look at me,” prompted Nash. “Jenna?”

“I hear you,” she whispered. “Secrets. There were always secrets in our house. Ridiculous, stupid secrets. Daddy has a job to go to, Jenna, watch the children. Daddy has another job, Jenna. We’ll be gone a few days.

Jenna, Jeannie died. We’ll have the funeral in three days.

Always secrets about the what, why, when, and how.

And I was the obedient little daughter, the nun, who never pushed. ”

“Honey, we don’t know anything yet. We’re just trying to help you find some closure. We can stop if you want. We can stop right now and return to Belle Fleur.”

“No. No, we’re going to continue. We’re going to continue, and we’re going to find out the truth about my family even if I have to dig up every damn corpse.”