Leigh snorted and launched into an account of their high school classmates, while Jayden made the appropriate replies. Raising the boys and rebuilding her life here were of vital importance to her. People in town would expect her to make mistakes, to fail, but she wouldn’t. She watched her two little men bouncing in the water. They were good kids. She couldn’t mess up, not this time.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE TWO-BEDROOM HOUSE Eric had been renting was a stone’s throw from her home. Jayden could remember when she’d been a teenager, a young couple bought this property and built the big house and the smaller one with it. They’d intended for the woman’s mother to stay near them when she got older, but the couple had relocated long before that. The property was next door to her aunt, so her sister and Robert bought the place the minute it became available. Now Jayden lived there. It was the boys’ home. The smaller house had become a source of extra income when her sister rented it, a simple act that had eventually led to an enormous problem for Jayden.
Things at the clinic had been slow, so when the sheriff’s investigator called and wanted to search the place, she came in person to unlock it. The sheriff’s car, a city police car and a van from the state crime lab sat in the drive. Jayden waited on the porch, unwilling to watch them trash the interior as they rummaged for evidence. She couldn’t imagine what clues they hoped to find. Certainly Eric wasn’t killed here, or at least she prayed not. The thought of that would keep her awake at night.
She rocked back and forth in the hanging swing on the tiny porch. The front door opened and the sheriff’s investigator joined her. Unlike most of the sheriff’s force, Jackson Cooper hadn’t grown up in Cypress Landing. He’d taken the investigator’s job and married a hometown girl not long before Jayden left, so she didn’t know him that well. He was a huge man and a little scary. As he walked straight for her it was obvious he intended to sit with her. She squeezed to one side and prayed the swing’s chains would hold both of them.
He eased against the slats. “Have you been in the house since Eric went missing?”
“No, I was waiting to see if his family might come for his things. And I knew you guys would be around.”
“Have you seen anyone go inside? Anything suspicious…noises over here at night?”
She tilted her head, trying to see his face. “What are you asking, Officer Cooper?”
“I think an intruder’s been in the house already. They didn’t tear it apart, but a few things seem strange. There’s no computer. Didn’t he work on a computer?”
“Yeah, he had a laptop. But maybe it was with him.”
“Could be, but we’re not seeing notes or any sign of research. His kitchen and bathroom are so perfectly straight, they could be ready for a photo shoot.”
“Eric was so messy. I find it hard to believe he’d straightened the place.”
“Then I’m probably right. We’re not the only ones who’ve been searching the place.”
“What would anyone else want?”
“Same as us, detailed information on the story Eric was working on. Did he ever mention his work, tell you what he’d found?”
She groaned inwardly. Not this again. “He was doing an exposé on the Militia.”
“The Acadian Loyalists, I knew that.”
Her fingers tightened on the swing’s chain. “What a joke. That’s a significant historical name for the Acadian people. But this group has nothing to do with history, though they might like to think they do.”
“So did you and Eric ever discuss the Militia?”
Past her house, through the trees, she could see her mother’s house. A truck was parked in front of her beauty shop. Jayden rubbed her thumb over a rough spot on one of the wooden slats.
“Not much. He asked a few questions, since I’d grown up here…but I’ve been gone a long time. He never mentioned finding anything important. Do you think they’re involved in his death?”
“Maybe. What do you think?”
“I think Duke Swayze is a psychopath and he’s openly proud of his membership in the Loyalists.”
She didn’t look at Jackson, but out of the corner of her eye she could see his head turning as he inspected the area.
“We might want to question the boys. They’ve been around Eric.”
“No. They’ve dealt with enough lately.”
“But they might have heard or seen something.”
Jayden shoved the swing backward as she got to her feet. “I said no. If they mention the least thing to me I’ll call you, but I won’t have them questioned by the police. They’ve lost their parents and now this with Eric. It’s too much.”
She tossed the keys to the house at him. “You can lock it when you’re done. Leave the keys with my mother.”
The wooden steps echoed with her footfalls as she stomped off the porch. Scrambling into the battered truck, Jayden tried to suppress her anger, which had begun to feel more like panic. She just wanted her life to be simple again, but she didn’t see that happening any time soon.
AS MUCH AS SHE’D HOPED to forget about Eric and the Militia for the rest of the day, the clinic had remained slow and she’d hidden away in her office to try to distract herself with computer work.
At a tap on her office door, Jayden looked up from her computer to see a familiar face. She felt a rush of mixed feelings as the man held out his arms. Slowly she got to her feet.
“Mr. Arneaux—or am I supposed to call you General?” She came around her desk and stepped into his grasp.
“Mister is fine. I retired from the army.”
“I heard.”
“It’s good to have you home, Jayden.”
He released her and she sat in a small wooden chair and positioned another one for him. “It’s good to be home.”
He sat and patted her knee. “Is it?”
She gave him a wry smile. “Not really, but I need to be here. California wasn’t home anyway.”
“You certainly stayed there long enough.”
Her chest tightened so that her next words came out in a whisper. “Too many things here were hard to face.”
He squeezed her leg with his large hand. “My son chose to be where he was, and what happened wasn’t your fault. You have nothing to feel guilty about, Jayden.”
She stared at the floor, a knot in her throat—what seemed like the millionth since she’d come home. “I still feel it, whether I should or not. Louis was a good friend. I don’t think he knew Mark Dubois any better than I did. I know Louis didn’t want to be in the army as you’d hoped, but he would have made a wonderful doctor.” Her eyes burned and the tears she thought she’d finished crying years ago ran down her cheeks.
His hand on her knee tightened. “I’m sorry, too, but it happened and you weren’t responsible. It was the Militia that caused his death.”
When she looked up, he smiled. “That’s enough tears. You have two nice young men to raise and you’re going to do a good job. I came by to drop my dog off. I’ll let you get back to work.”
She stood with him and he gave her one more hug then left. Stumbling back into her chair, Jayden gripped the wooden arms. She was glad to have seen former General Reginald Louis Arneaux,