Chapter Two

a few minutes after his arrival in Willow Creek, Jason walked up on the porch in front of the Lake house. He checked the number on the house with the address Ashley had given him. satisfied that this was the right house he knocked on the door.

a few seconds later The door opened and he found himself face to face with a tall blonde girl that bore a slight resemblance to Ashley.

"Stevie Lake?" he asked

"Yeah," she said, "Who are you?"

"I'm Jason Whyte," Jason replied

"Oh yeah!" said Stevie in a tone of realization, "Come i_,"

Just then she was interrupted by a voice coming out of one of the doorways up at the top of the stairs.

"I can't find my toothbrush!" yelled one voice. Stevie pinched the bridge of her nose, the universal sign of an on-coming headache as the voice continued.

"Again," said a second voice, "That's the third time this week!"

"That's your problem!" a third voice yelled back, "so you look for it and try and find your head while you're at it!"

"Shut up!" snapped the first voice

"You shut up!" retorted the third voice!"

"All of you shut up!" yelled Stevie, whose annoyance level was a max capacity, from the foot of the staircase. "Before I come up there and pound your faces into pancakes!"

She turned back to Jason who was standing there with an amused smile.

"Sorry, brothers." She muttered, "Come in."

She led Jason up the stairs to her room. he noticed the yelling had stopped!

Just as they went in, one of the voices called from his room again.

"Hey Stevie who was at the door?"

"None of your beeswax, Alex." Stevie retorted

"I'll bet it was her boyfriend," teased Michael making kissing sounds

"Thin ice, Michael." Snapped Stevie before slamming the door.

"Sorry again," she said to Jason.

"No worries," said Jason chuckling, "It's a little like having my little sister around times 3."

Stevie nodded,

"except one of my brothers is older than me so I get it from both directions." She replied

"Okay," said Jason getting down to business, "What can you tell me about this Case. All Ashley told me were the bare essentials that her father was accused of killing his secretary, that she was sure he didn't do it, and that she and her family get stonewalled around her every time they try to look in to this themselves."

"Well, that's the long and short of the situation," said Stevie, "But I can give you a little more background information."

"I'm Listening." Replied Jason

"Okay, Ashe's father is My uncle Matthew Christopher Lake, now he is or was the president and CEO of Lake Technologies a company that was left to him by his Aunt. Now this surprised everyone in the family because the company was originally called Paradigm Tech and everyone thought that she would Leave it to her own Son Devlin Parks a 2nd cousin of ours. Needless to say, Devlin was furious when he found out that his mother's will changed the name of the company to Lake Technologies, and handed it over to Uncle Matt. I guess he was expecting to live on more than just his trust fund."

Jason nodded in understanding and mentally added Devlin to his person-of-interest list.

"I have to ask this," he said, "what did the cops believe was your uncle's motive for killing his secretary?"

"It was no secret to anyone that the day before the Murder, Uncle Matt was furious with Lydia." Replied Stevie, "That was her name by the way, Lydia Carmichael."

"Why was he furious." Asked Jason

"She deliberately wrecked uncle Matt's marriage, by convincing Aunt Maddie that she and Uncle Matt were having an affair." Replied Stevie.

"and he found out it was her." Nodded Jason

"The morning it happened." Nodded Stevie

Jason nodded.

"But why does everyone involved in the case seem bound and determined to keep anyone from looking into this?" asked Jason

"Beats me," shrugged Stevie throwing up her hands, "It's not like Lydia was beloved in this town or anything it's even been rumored that she sabotaged a couple other secretaries and got them fired in order to get her position as the Boss's secretary!"

"It doesn't seem to make sense does it!" said Jason

Just then there was a knock on the door!

"Oh no," said Stevie, "you can't get caught! No one but Ashe is supposed to know you're here!

TO BE CONTINUED….Please Review