Free I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) by Cheryl Bradshaw Page A

her.”
    “Have you spoken to Doug’s parents?”
    “Why would I—what do they have to do with it?”
    “Rosalind might be able to shed some light on things for you.”
    “Doug’s mother?”
    He nodded.  “She’s your best bet.  I don’t know much.  Seems to me you’re goin’ about this all wrong.  You should focus on Doug.  Why you’re interested in Alexa is beyond me.”
    “So far you haven’t been able to answer any of my questions,” I said.
    He just smiled and shoveled another spoonful of noodles into his mouth.
    “If you can’t help me, why are we here?” I said.  
    “I got you to go out with me.  I’d say that’s progress.”
    Jesse’s words had become monotone, but it was obvious he was feeling me out, seeing what I knew while resisting my questions and not answering anything directly.  He was hiding something from me, but what and why?  I rolled my eyes.  All this time—wasted.  And I’d learned nothing.  If it wouldn’t have been for the incessant growl in my stomach, I would have left.  But I stayed and we finished dinner and chitchatted about stupid things that had nothing to do with the reason I’d agreed to meet in the first place.  My goal was to end the night without it being a total wash, so I tried one final topic.   
    “I ran into Heather Masterson the other day.”
    He raised an eyebrow.  “Fun girl.  We dated last year for a while.”
    “What happened?”
    His nostril flared. “Other men happened. She started seeing Nate, and then out of nowhere she developed a thing for Doug.”
    “I heard—although, that’s not how she described it.”
    He grabbed a napkin and wiped two hours of drool and sauce from his face. “Stalker should be that girl’s middle name.”
    Finally, we were getting somewhere. I kept my mouth shut hoping I’d get more. And I did.
    “She was his sponsor in AA.”
    “Yeah,” I said, “I know.”
    “But you wanna know the best part? She wasn’t an alcoholic.”
    I choked on the piece of ice I’d been twirling around in my mouth. “You’re kidding, right?”
    He shook his head. “She only pretended to have a problem so she could get closer to Doug. And she did.”
    “Sheesh, sounds like she attended the Candice school of naughty behavior.”
    Jesse laughed. “She probably did. They’re friends.”
    “Candice lives here?” I said. 
    “No.” He did air quotes with his fingers. “Beverly Hills.”
    “As in 90210?”
    “As in an ailing eighty-something-year-old husband who’s ready to kick the bucket and leave his millions to her. She’s been around here a lot more lately and has taken Heather on as a kind of special needs project. At least that’s how it seems to me.”
    “I walked down Candice memory lane on the cruise,” I said. “And I have to say, I hadn’t missed her.”
    He frowned. “Who would? She’s already been with every guy in town, married and single. You wanna know the truth? I always thought she’d be dead by now. A jealous wife, a husband wanting to make sure she kept her mouth shut—it’s crazy to me that Doug’s dead while Candice lives to see another day.”
    Enough talk about Candice for the night. “So…where does Heather work, anyway?”
    “She’s a nurse at the hospital.”

 
    “Let me give you a ride,” Jesse said. 
    I managed a weak smile and tried to keep the I’m-ready-to-get-away-from-you look off my face.  “I’ve already called a cab…so, I’ll see you later?”
    He pulled out his cell phone, dialed and cancelled the cab, just like that.  “Looks like you don’t need it anymore.”
    I’d played nice with Jesse since I arrived in town, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could manage being around him without becoming the cause of California’s next major earthquake.  But I didn’t plan on seeing him again if I could help it, so what was another fifteen minutes? 
    Because of the recent events at the hotel and the sharp object found lodged in my door,