Free The Lake House Secret, A Romantic Suspense Novel (A Jenessa Jones Mystery) by Debra Burroughs

they’ll be all over it. But that doesn’t seem likely.”
    “Send me what you have by six,” McAllister said.
    “Will do.”
    ~*~
    Jenessa wrote her story, what little she knew, wishing she’d hear back from the detective about the timeline. After reviewing and editing, she still hadn’t heard, so she decided to make a preemptive call.
    “Detective, this is Jenessa Jones, from the Hidden Valley Herald.”
    “Hello, Ms. Jones. I’m kind of busy right now. Can I call you back?”
    “Just one question—have you heard from the CSI team on how long the bones that were discovered this morning had been buried?”
    “They’ve barely had time to get back to their lab.”
    “I know. I was just hoping.”
    “I can tell you this much, at the scene the lead investigator said she suspected between ten and fifteen years. They’ll be running a carbon dating test to try to pinpoint it a little more accurately, but that may be as close as they can get. No promises.”
    “Do you think they’ll be able to give us any more details, like age, height, ethnicity? Anything like that?”
    “That’s a heck of a lot more than just one question,” he snapped.
    “I need it for my story, Detective. If someone could help identify who this woman was, then it’ll help you find out who killed her and buried her. She deserves that much, don’t you think?”
    “I’d like to tell you more, but I can’t release those details just yet.”
    “Then when?”
    “I can’t say. My captain wants to play it close to the vest until we know who she was.”
    “He must have some idea, then.” Who was he trying to protect?
    “I really can’t say. I need to go. Good luck.”

Chapter 10
    Her conversation with the detective left her unsettled. She knew there were times the police withheld certain facts that only a killer would know. Was that it? Did they already find something that could point to the killer?
    Maybe her contacts at the Sacramento paper had an in at the state crime lab. She decided to call her old boss, Jack Linear.
    “I have a cousin at the lab,” he told her, after she’d explained the situation.
    “Would she be willing to talk to me?”
    “Depends. I’m sure she’s not going to break the law or risk losing her job.”
    “Hey, I’m only trying to find out who the woman was, and more precisely, when she was killed. If she could get me the approximate age, height, race—you know, that kind of thing.”
    “Maybe she’d do it if you could guarantee her anonymity.”
    “Absolutely. You know me, I would never divulge my source.”
    “If she’s willing, I’ll have her call you. Same number?” Jack asked.
    “Yes. Thanks for the help.”
    Jenessa downloaded the photos from her camera into her computer and pulled them up on her laptop screen. She scanned through them, looking for the best front-page shot. She had been able to take six, from different angles, before the detective stopped her.
    From the photos, she could see that a bit of old fabric still remained on the body, and several brass buttons lay in the pelvic cavity, near the waist, looking like they might have come from blue jeans or cut-offs. There was a narrow silver chain around the neck area with something oval hanging from it, probably a necklace of some kind.
    In one photo, she picked up something beside the body—a button maybe? Or was it an earring? She opened the picture in her Photoshop software and enlarged it. Still, she couldn’t tell what it was, it was too blurry. She sharpened the image, added contrast and took the size down a notch. It was square-ish with a design of some sort on it—but what was it?
    Jack Linear’s cousin hadn’t called her yet. More details would definitely add to the story, but she had no way of contacting the woman herself. All she could do was wait and hope she called.
    As the afternoon wore on into evening, time was beginning to run out and she had to get her story in. The Herald wasn’t a big-city paper. The