Page 84 of The Cottage on Plum Island
“And let’s not forget sarcastic!” Jennifer rolled her eyes at her friend before turning to Harley. It had been the first time since their last kissshe’d made full eye contact. “Yes, you broke off from that conversation to hand me these.” She pointed to the letters on her lap.
“Which escalated the tension in the car tenfold,” Harriet pointed out and scooched closer to the front. “Are you going to read those?”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Harley answered before Jennifer could. “Jennifer won’t even wear the charm bracelet from her mother.”
“I don’t know it’s really from my mother,” Jennifer defended her actions. “Andrew could be a liar, which would fit as he’s a top defense attorney, so he’s used to manipulating people into doing or thinking what he wants them to.”
“So read them and find out,” Harriet said, holding out her hand. “Or give them to me, and I’ll read them for you.”
“Okay,” Jennifer surprised Harley by saying to Harriet, but she turned toward him. “But first, I want to know why you’re hedging about telling us how James and Duncan are related.”
“I’m not hedging,” Harley said a little defensively because it was true he was.
He was shocked to discover who James’s ex-wife was and hoped he could speak to them before pulling Jennifer further into this mess. It wasn’t fair that Harley’s life was whirling around her like a category five tornado pulling her into its path. This was his family’s, or at least extended family, that he was technically divorced from, mess, not hers.
“Well?” Harriet prompted Harley, her eyes filled with impatience. “You are the worst at passing on information. Trying to get details from you is like streaming a movie with a bad wifi connection. The movie starts to get interesting, and wham, the picture freezes.”
Harley looked into the mirror, grinning at Harriet. “The two of you are so impatient.” He shook his head and sighed. There was no dodging this. “James is Duncan’s uncle by marriage.”
Jennifer’s head shot around to look at him, her eyes wide. “James is married to Annie, as in Leigh-Ann Liddle?”
“Yes.” Harley nodded. “Or rather,washis wife. They’re divorced.”
“I wonder how long they were married for?” Jennifer frowned, rubbing her top lip as she did when she was thinking.
“They were married for twenty years and have been divorced for three years,” Harley told her.
“You got all that from a few minutes talking to James?” Jennifer looked at Harley, impressed.
“While I like to think I’d have made a decent detective, I know how long they were married and divorced because Annie told me a while ago,” Harley explained. “I didn’t know who she was married to, though, as it never came up.”
“Do you know who Leigh-Ann Liddle is?” Jennifer turned toward Harley.
“Yes. I told you Annie used to work for the Wesleys until she got her psychology degree and eventually took over as head of the Newbury Port Mental Health Institute,” Harley told her again.
Jennifer reached between the seats and picked up her phone, which she flipped through. “I’ve sent you and Harriet some articles about Leigh-Ann Liddle.”
“Just tell us!” Harriet groaned, dropping her head back in frustration. “You know I get car sick reading in a car, especially in the back seat.”
“I’ll give you an overview,” Jennifer said as she turned to face Harley and Harriet. “Leigh-Ann had an older sister, Gloria, who was Shaun Hanover’s assistant forty-two years ago.”
“Wallis’s father?” Harley frowned at Jennifer before turning back to the road.
“Yes.” Jennifer nodded. “She was the daughter of Sylvia Liddle, who was the Wesleys’ housekeeper, and they lived in staff housing on the Wesleys’ property.”
“Okay.” Harley wondered where this was going.
Annie hadn’t mentioned she had a sister. But then he and Annie weren’t good friends. They were more like acquaintances as Harley dealt with her over Angela’s care.
“A year after she started working for Shaun Hanover, Gloria had a little boy,” Jennifer told them. “In all the articles I’ve read about Gloria, there’s been no mention of who the father was, and as far as I can gather, Gloria never married.”
“You think she was having an affair with Shaun Hanover?” Harriet guessed. Excitement tinged her voice. “And that her baby was the illegitimate child of Shaun!”
“That’s what I thought at first, too,” Jennifer nodded. “So I sent Sam a message.” She looked at Harley. “I’m so glad your uncle uses messaging, as I can’t get Aunt Betty to.” She flipped through some messages. “According to Sam, Gloria had opened a case of abuse against Shaun and alleged that he and two of his friends had abused her.”
“Let me guess,” Harley said, not able to quell the surge of anger that washed over him. “No one believed her because of who Shaun Hanover is.”
“That and the other two were, as your uncle put it, even more evil than Shaun Hanover could ever be,” Jennifer told him. “Luckily, the morning before she reported the incident to the police station, Gloria had gone to the hospital. She’d demanded a copy of her file before she left as a precaution. That’s how scared she was.”
