Page 1 of The Jade Stone Sleuth

Chapter

One

Brexten Cabella studiedthe couple seated across from him on the high-quality gray leather sofa. Late-fifties, polished, dressed in an expensive Brioni suit and a swanky dress—Donna Karan if he had to guess the designer—he didn’t imagine anybody in this home ever relaxed or dressed down. The lady’s earlobes, neck, wrists, and fingers dripped with diamonds he knew were as real as the Glock concealed in the inner pocket of his own Brooks Brothers suit. It was no Brioni, but he’d get there. If he pulled off this job, his first job in the private sector working for none other than Aiden Porter, he’d pay off his Range Rover, upgrade to a larger condo on the beach, and keep some extra for a Brioni suit.

Not a wrinkle dared soften the woman’s face and he couldn’t glimpse a single gray hair in her golden locks. The work she’d had was top-notch and took a decade and a half off of her, though Brex could see her true age in the flesh of her neck and upper arms. He’d met many women similar in looks during the past twelve years in southern California.

The man had enough gray in his hair and sagging skin on his face and neck to show that he didn’t share his wife’s obsessionwith the needles and chemicals fighting for eternal youth. Brex didn’t fault either of them. His future wife might favor treatments similar to Mrs. Hendry in thirty years, but a majority of the ultra-successful men he admired didn’t go to the extremes with beauty their better halves did. It was enough to drive the Bugatti and open the door for a wife like Pamela Hendry.

Their mansion was gorgeous, set all by its lonesome on a sagebrush-covered bluff above Jade Valley. The spacious home had large windows and was dominated by sparkling white and stainless steel. It was hospital clean and boasted a stunning view of the dry valley below and soaring red rock mountains beyond. It was early March, but the sun was bright and it would be at least eighty on this spring day.

Brex could only assume the area’s founders had thought it a good joke to dub this desert landscape in northern Arizona “Jade Valley”. He found the red rock formations fascinating and scenic, a different kind of beauty from his native lush and green Colorado mountains, but there wasn’t a hint of the color jade in this open valley. Even the river that ran through it was a greenish brown. The closest any plant life in view could claim to be a shade of green was the grayish green of sagebrush, cacti, Palo Verde, and Joshua trees.

“You’re hiring me to get close to your deceased son’s former girlfriend and uncover evidence that she murdered your son,” he said, reiterating what the lady had explained to him in many paragraphs and condensing it into a single sentence.

“Yes,” Rulon Hendry answered for his wife. He leaned forward, pressing his thick forearms into his tree-trunk thighs. “Clara Gem and her entire family are revered in this valley, making them untouchable. They have the connections and saintly reputation to get away with anything. Clara’s father, Curtis Gem, is a popular preacher. His congregation is full every Sunday.”

Rulon rolled his eyes even as Brex’s gut clenched. Popular preacher’s daughter. The memory still stung—Alayna dumping him because he didn’t look ‘the part’ of someone a popular preacher’s daughter would date. It had motivated him to prove them wrong and dress and live far above his pay grade. This job would make it possible for him to finally arrive both financially and socially. Millionaire and Aiden Porter’s operative … the actresses, models, and influencers would be beating down Brex’s door.

“Six children in the family who all appear talented, charitable, smart, and attractive,” Rulon continued. “It’s like the Stepford Wives but it’s the entire offish family—except the sixteen-year-old son; he’s a talented athlete but loud and obnoxious, somehow people still love him. No amount of money can buy the loyalty and esteem the Gems have in Jade Valley. The valley was settled by their great-grandparents and named after their jade-colored eyes.”

Well, that explained why the valley was named after jade.

Brex could read through the lines and the research he’d done and Aiden Porter’s team had supplemented for him. Mr. Hendry was a newer move-in to the valley and thought the metal fabrication shop he set up, the jobs he brought in, his mansion overlooking the rest of the valley, and his flashy cars and high-maintenance wife would make him a king here. He’d tried to displace the Gem family as the top dogs with his wealth and hadn’t succeeded.

Intriguing and something Brex could relate to, fighting to be respected and sought-after in the affluent and exclusive San Diego social scene. He couldn’t compute copious amounts of money not being revered here as it would in southern Cal.

Was the valley loyal to the ‘saintly’ and ‘weird’ family and shouldn’t be? Were they uppity and only pretending to be religious like Alayna’s father? Reverend Abraham was the kingof evangelical television. It had made the man wealthy and pompous.

Could it be possible the Gem family didn’t have the skeletons in their closets Mr. Hendry wanted them to have?

“Everyone thinks Clara is some angel because she organizes and supervises mission trips for youth groups,” Pamela said in a soft Southern accent. The bio on Mrs. Hendry revealed she’d grown up in Georgia and had boasted a department-store modeling career before marrying Rulon and relocating to Phoenix and now this more remote desert valley. Pamela had spent the last thirty-two years focused on being a fitness club and lunch-meeting wife and doting on their only son. Brex suspected she’d held onto the accent for over three decades because of the attention it attracted. It was a smart move on her part.

“We tried to warn Malik about Clara’sreputationwhen he came to visit and met her for the first time.” She said the word reputation with all the snoot of a southern belle.

“What reputation is that?” Brex asked.

“My local friends, who can see through the Gems’ false benevolence, all warned me when they heard Malik had become enthralled with Clara. The vixen sets her sights on a man, and they’re drawn in like bees to honey by her beauty and her ‘adorable personality’. Then she kills them.”

“How many do you believe she’s killed?” Brex arched an eyebrow, though he wasn’t uninformed or surprised. His research, and what his boss Aiden Porter’s tech team had uncovered, showed the police had ruled the three deaths of Clara Gem’s significant others occurring over the past twelve years as accidents.

The FBI had gotten involved in Malik Hendry’s case, at the insistence of his parents, but had also found nothing amiss in Clara’s actions, character profile, or the accident that claimedthirty-year-old Dr. Malik Hendry’s life. They found no other suspects or evidence to indicate Malik’s death was anything but a tragic accident. Hiking Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park an hour north of here was treacherous, especially when it was raining with high winds.

“She’s the common link between the three deaths,” Pamela snipped, trying to arch her own brows, but Botox had rendered that movement impossible.

Pamela was right about Clara being the common link between the three deaths, but there was something else the police had in their notes. An inexpensive jade-colored stone had been found at each crime scene. It was noted by the detectives to match Clara Gem’s unique jade-colored eyes. A fascinating detail that had come to naught so far.

Brex shook his wrist and glanced at his Bulova wristwatch. It was a habit that had started years ago after Alayna had gifted it to him. He used to like to draw attention to the high-dollar time piece. Now he hardly realized he made the motion.

“Please,” Pamela tried again when he didn’t respond. “We need your expertise.” She studied him with brilliantly blue eyes. The color likely came from contact lenses, but they were good enough Brex couldn’t be sure. “When we got in touch with Aiden Porter, he promised he would send the very best.”

Brex only nodded to that. He suspected Aiden claimed every one of his operatives was ‘the very best’. Brex didn’t have any bragging rights as one of Aiden’s men, but he’d get there. He had signed on with the San Diego Police Department after he graduated the police academy in Colorado and moved to the coast for sunshine, surfing, dating semi-famous ladies, and escaping his dirt-poor upbringing. He had worked his way into detective. The pay was better but still didn’t give him the clout to prove he was classy and wealthy enough to rule the San Diego social scene.

He’d collaborated with Nick Jacobs, one of the famed Aiden Porter’s top guys, on a few cases and been blown away by how impressive, and surprisingly genuine, Nick and Aiden both were. When Nick offered him training and a job, he knew he was finally going to arrive—money, respect, and beautiful dates would line up and wait for him, just as they had for Aiden when he was single.

He’d learned a different angle of espionage, protection, and security expertise from Aiden Porter and his accomplished operatives over the past six months. It hadn’t been easy, but he didn’t mind hard work … if it got him to his goals.

Brex had the experience as a detective and the training with security, espionage, weapons, and combat that should make it simple for him to get to the bottom of these accusations, but he was uneasy. Not only because it was his first job in the private sector or because it was difficult or unsolvable. He’d known it was a cold case, and Nick had told him it might be unsolvable but was a good one to fly solo on and get his feet wet.

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