Twisted Rock

  Twisted Rock

  A Stoneport Manor Mystery

  Jill Sanders

  Contents

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Also by Jill Sanders

  About the Author

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2018 Jill Sanders

  Printed in the United States of America

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-945100-00-0

  Summary

  Someone to watch over Rose.

  * * *

  Losing her husband in a small plane crash last year has forced Rose to get on with her life. But when a storm rolls in, her world is shattered with the discovery of a body buried deep within her own walls. Now, as all fingers point in her direction, a mistress steps out of the shadows, along with a dark family scandal that might shed some light on motive. As people around her drop like flies, the real killer gets too close, and Rose seeks the help of the police officer who knocked on her door one rainy night a year ago.

  Royce Sawyer is the cop who’d had to tell Rose that the love of her life was gone forever. Seeing the pretty blonde’s struggles for the last year has been heart-wrenching, but when everyone starts to suspect the quiet wife has a dark side, Sawyer finds it hard to keep his personal feelings separate from his professional ones, especially when it’s obvious that someone’s out to stop him from getting to the truth.

  To Jody…

  You know why…

  One

  Rose falls in love…

  * * *

  Rose may have only been ten years old, but she knew, just knew, that Isaac Clayton was the boy she was going to marry when she grew up. He was everything she had ever dreamed of, her very own prince. He was tall, or taller than her, anyway, but most boys in her class were at this point. He had blond surf-style hair that she found cute and deep blue eyes that reached into her soul. Most important of all, he was the smartest boy in her class. Rose was enamored of him, a word she had just had on a spelling test the week before.

  She’d been happily surprised when, during recess shortly after her tenth birthday, he’d sat with her on the monkey bars to talk to her. Her heart had raced and her palms were so sweaty, she had to wipe them on her jean shorts. By the end of that week, they were holding hands on the swings and spending all of their recess time together. Just looking into his blue eyes did funny things to her insides.

  It took a year for Isaac to plant a chaste kiss on her cheek—her first. She hadn’t thought it could get any better, but five years later their first fumbled sexual encounter behind the bleachers during a school dance proved her wrong. Her entire body had exploded when he’d used his fingers on her lady parts, as her mother had called them. A year later they’d had their first “real” sex in the back of the new car his father had given him for his sixteenth birthday. She’d known then that no other man could ever make her feel the way Isaac had.

  When they were eighteen, he asked her to run away with him when he went to college. It had been hard to say no to him, but she’d had her own college plans and wanted to follow through with her own life goals before settling down with him for good.

  Watching Isaac head to Boston for law school as she went in the opposite direction, to California, for art school had been devastating. Still, they had called each other almost nightly and, even though she doubted him, he promised her that he had stayed true to her, just as she had to him. She had flirted occasionally and, once, she had made out with a guy at a party. But it had never meant anything to her, not like it meant with Isaac. She had only done it to confirm that Isaac really was the only man who could make her knees weak and cause her heart to vibrate in her chest. After testing the waters, she knew Isaac was the only man for her. He was her soul mate and she couldn’t imagine being with any other man for the rest of her life.

  Seven years after graduating high school, they were both on the same side of the continent again. He’d finished law school and had immediately been hired at his father’s law firm in New York City. Rose moved into a small apartment with Isaac. New York was bigger than anything she’d ever imagined. It was shocking to know that Isaac still held such power over her mind and body. It was as if no time had passed. They easily picked up where they had left off and she could tell, just by looking deep into his blue eyes, that he’d stayed faithful to her.

  Less than a year later Isaac proposed and in five months she was walking down the aisle surrounded by family and friends in her hometown of Twisted Rock, New York. Her perfect dream wedding with her very own prince. Life couldn’t have gotten any better.

  Isaac surprised her with a honeymoon in Italy, and the weeklong vacation was the most romantic she’d ever experienced. Isaac had been the boyfriend of her dreams and now he was the husband of all the fairy tales.

  That first year of their marriage, Isaac purchased a three-thousand-square-foot loft for her after he got a raise at his father’s law firm.

  She had turned one of the four bedrooms into an art studio and spent her day's painting. In the evenings they attended the many social events that his job and family obligations required.

  Over time she became less satisfied in the city. Her art suffered, her social life was nonexistent, and, since Isaac traveled a lot for work, she found herself becoming very lonely.

  After expressing her concerns to Isaac about it, he’d surprised her by purchasing a house in Twisted Rock for their one-year anniversary. They quickly sold their loft and moved back home.

  Isaac had worked hard and, like his father before him, he’d gotten his pilot’s license the year after graduating high school. For his twenty-fifth birthday, his father had given him a brand-new Gulfstream plane, so he could fly back and forth from Twisted Rock to the city on an almost daily basis. She worried about the commute, but Isaac assured her that he enjoyed the hour and a half trip much more than being stuck on a train or in the back of a cab.

  But still, a month after moving home, Isaac purchased a small two-bedroom loft in the city for when he had to stay overnight. This became an almost weekly occurrence because he’d made partner at the firm, thanks to his father’s influence and pull in the company. Isaac now had a bigger paycheck, but less time at home.

  The house he’d purchased for her was more of a mansion. She’d driven by the old place lots of times when she was younger, but it was bigger than she’d imagined. Stoneport Manor had sat empty for as long as she could remember.

  The old mansion had been given the name long before she’d been born. It boasted six bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a full-sized office with an attached library, a great room, a formal dining room, a kitchen that was larger than her childhood ho
me, and a full cellar. There were several outbuildings on the property including a boat house down a steep set of rocky stairs and an old gazebo that was falling in on itself, which sat at the highest point of the eight-acre property. At one point, there had been two or three other good-sized homes that sat on the Stoneport Manor estates, but those homes had been sold off many years earlier. There was also a large flower garden with high stone walls and old fountains filled with dirt and grass. She hoped to start repairing them that spring.

  The second she stepped through the heavy wood front doors of the house, she understood why no one had taken on the giant task of fixing the place up. It was not only going to take a lot of time but a lot of money, which Isaac assured her they had plenty of.

  That first night, she couldn’t have been happier as Isaac carried her across the threshold. They spent that evening in a sleeping bag in front of the fireplace, making love the entire night.

  Rose spent her days cleaning or guiding the contractors Isaac had hired to help fix the place. She found plenty of time to focus on her art in the lonely evenings when Isaac was stuck in the city. Most of the weekends they spent either working on the place together or driving through the countryside, shopping at antique stores for furniture to fill the giant home. She’d never enjoyed herself more than when they spent time together.

  Isaac took her on a short weekend trip to California’s wine country for her birthday, and she fell in love with him all over again. They had talked about starting a family, but he wanted to wait until the end of the summer when his schedule wasn’t so busy. She understood, even though it broke her heart to wait any longer. In the end, they had agreed to wait a few months longer before trying for their first child.

  Happy-ever-after was no longer just around the corner; she finally had everything she’d ever dreamed of. The perfect husband, the soon-to-be perfect home, and, soon, their first child. Life couldn’t get any better.

  * * *

  A stranger comes calling…

  It was one of those winter evenings when Rose wished it would snow. It felt cold enough, but thunder continued to rattle the walls and the rain kept falling.

  Their home sat along a low bluff on the northeast side of Lake Erie. It was a beautiful spot come spring and summer, but in the fall and winter, the place was a reminder that scary things moved in the nighttime. Floorboards creaked, and the lights flashed every time the fuse box was taxed. Every room had cold drafty spots and some of the windows had cracks or slivers of glass missing from them, letting the chill in further.

  They had lived in the manor for four months now and still most of the work hadn’t even begun.

  The home was quiet that evening since the workers hadn’t been able to return to work due to the rain. Luckily, they had finished pouring the new foundation wall two days prior to the rain starting. The new wall was required on the west side of the manor, where the old stone wall had fallen in.

  It had taken almost a month for the workers to remove all the old stones from the wall. They’d had to place two large steel support beams to hold up the foundation until the cement could be poured.

  They had brought in several truckloads of dirt, and several more were due to arrive after the cement cured and the rain stopped.

  The rain had started the very evening the cement was poured, but she was assured by RJ Gamet, the foreman Isaac had hired, that the cement had already cured enough to withstand the moisture.

  As the rain continued, she feared that the west side of the house would soon slide into Lake Erie far below. The manor sat almost fifty feet from the nearest downslope towards the water, but that didn’t stop the worry.

  Isaac was returning home that night and she knew that he would probably head out there with a flashlight after dinner to check on the wall for himself.

  She was making one of his favorite dishes: pork tenderloin with a caramel rub and wine sauce on a bed of green beans with brown spiced rice. She’d spent the first year of their marriage learning to cook his favorite meals since she’d had a lot of time alone in the loft.

  Cooking, to her, was like art. She enjoyed every aspect of it, from planning and preparation to making the final plate look like a masterpiece. Isaac always told her that he enjoyed every bite.

  Shortly after moving into the home, Isaac had turned a small storage room in the basement into a wine cellar for their growing wine collection. She enjoyed making meals that would complement the wine he’d chosen before heading out to work each day. Since he’d spent the last few days in New York City and on travel, he’d picked out a bottle for the day he’d return before leaving.

  He’d chosen a rich Chardonnay they had picked up in Italy on their honeymoon. She’d searched all weekend and had finally found the perfect meal to go with it.

  With the meal underway, and his arrival getting closer, she couldn’t stop the excitement she felt that tonight they might officially start making a family together. She’d checked all the charts and knew that she was ovulating. Tonight was the first time they would be together after coming to the big decision.

  As she put the finishing touches on the table and lit the tall white candles on the crystal candlesticks they’d gotten for their wedding, she tried to contain her excitement at seeing him again. Would it always be like this? She hoped so. Almost a year and a half into their marriage and she was still finding new ways to fall in love with her husband.

  From his little text messages during the day to the flowers he had delivered to her on a regular basis when he was stuck in the city, everything Isaac did brought her closer to him.

  She had built a fire in the massive stone fireplace that opened to the dining room and the grand living space. Since the old house was always drafty, there was usually a fire going in the hearth. The HVAC system hadn’t been updated yet and the old boiler sat silently in the basement until it could be replaced.

  The workers wouldn’t get to the inside work until they were sure the foundation, roof, and electric in the most-used rooms were sound.

  They still didn’t have power in more than half of the house, but she didn’t complain. She knew they were working as fast as they could. Isaac had made sure the crew had started on the kitchen and bathroom areas first. Unlike the first two months they’d lived there, at least now she could cook and dry her hair. They had spent a lot of time eating at local diners and bumping into old school friends. The small town of Twisted Rock was a fifteen-minute drive from Stoneport Manor and sat along a very small cape. Its name came from the first settlers along the rocky shoreline. Seeing the massive sweep of colorful rocks that the wind had and waters had carved out which rose from the edge of the riverbed, twisting around as if some child’s playthings, had given the town its name and its character.

  Since Rose’s graduation, her mother had moved to Pittsburgh with her second husband, Bill, to be closer to her only grandchildren. Rose’s sister Jenny had moved there after marrying her high school sweetheart. Jenny was four years older than Rose and had three kids now, two boys, Regan and Cole, who were nine and seven, and a six-year-old girl named McKenna.

  Rose had a stepbrother, Hunter McDonald, who lived less than an hour away in Buffalo. She’d gained him as a brother when she was nine and her mother had married Bill. Her father, Glenn Browning, had died when she was very young, and she didn’t remember him. He’d died in the line of duty as a local police officer, but her mother hadn’t shared the details with her. Every time Rose asked about him or how he’d died, her mother would tear up and say it was too hard to talk about.

  At first, she hadn’t known how to act with a brother, but in time, she and Hunter became inseparable.

  Now, there wasn’t a week that Hunter wasn’t up at the house helping them out with one thing or the other. Hunter and Isaac had been best friends growing up. Wherever she and Isaac went, Hunter was usually a few steps behind. She’d missed seeing him when they’d lived in the city and enjoyed having him closer again.

  Rose took eve
ry chance she could to visit the rest of her family, but lately, she was tied more and more to the house. Not that she minded, but it would be nice to fill her time with children soon.

  She checked herself in the mirror one last time and glanced down at the crystal-encrusted watch Isaac had given her as a honeymoon present.

  She ran her hand down the red chiffon dress she’d purchased in the city. The short sleeves and skirt allowed the chill in the air to hit her, but she knew Isaac would enjoy the view.

  He should be walking through the door any minute now. She moved towards the kitchen, her red heels clicking on the old wood floor. The sound changed as she stepped onto the classic black-and-white tile flooring in the kitchen.

  Two new restaurant-quality gas ovens and stovetops sat along the far wall of the kitchen. They had been a gift from Isaac shortly after they had moved in. A beautifully decorated antique copper vent sat over the stoves. The vent was original to the home and had needed almost a full day’s worth of work to clean it up to a shine. There was a small shelf just under the vent and above the stoves where she kept her spices. An old marble-topped chop block with a sink in it sat in the middle of the room. She had plans to purchase barstools for the island area soon. Glancing around, she could just imagine how the place must have looked when it was built and how it would look when they were done with it.