Fatal Fade by Brent Jeffries

Author:Brent Jeffries [Jeffries, Brent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Leiper's Fork, TN. Friday

“Where are you guys staying?” Mark, the driver, asked as he started the car. Either he was a conversationalist or Chris hadn’t told him where we were going.

“We’re at the Grand Marquis. And thanks for doing this! We could have taken an Uber, but it seems there aren’t many of them around here,” I said.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Mark said with a strong Tennessee accent.

“You have to do this often?” Jennifer asked.

“Not really, nah. I mean, we all have to drive Mrs. Valentine around whenever she wants, but that’s it. Mr. Valentine usually drives himself,” he said.

“That’s quite a garage they have back there. They have some nice cars?” I asked, partly trying to get Mark to talk and partly because I was interested.

“They have a few, yeah. He likes his German vehicles, like this one, but she likes the more flashy cars,” he said.

“Oh yeah. What’s your favorite to drive?” I asked.

“Probably her Bentleys. She has a couple, and the smaller one, if there is such a thing as a small Bentley, is really fast. Plus, it’s a convertible, which is nice in the summer. Only problem is, it’s not big enough to sit in the back, so she has to sit next to me. That’s just weird,” he said.

“Oh, nice,” I said, swiping and typing on my phone. The thought of Mrs. Valentine driving around in a Bentley reminded me of my trip to Zapata.

I was already on my phone trying to find recent photos of Mary Perez-Valentine. Her name was hyphenated everywhere I saw it online, which sort of fit with the message we were getting from Chris and Mark. The photographs in the house caught my eye as they resembled the woman I had seen in Zapata, but her hair wasn’t blond in any of the photos.

There were photos of her all over the internet. It seems Mrs. Perez-Valentine was quite a businesswoman and socialite. And after swiping through a few pictures of her, I was certain that’s who I had seen in Zapata.

“We weren’t introduced to Mrs. Valentine at the house, but it looks like she’s on the road quite a bit?” I asked, using the unhyphenated name like Mark did.

“Yep. She travels a lot. Just got back from Texas yesterday, in fact,” he said.

Jennifer caught that one and glanced my direction. She could sense I had discovered something.

“Chris mentioned Mary was the one with the money. I knew he did well as the CFO, but their property is amazing,” I said, trying to make Mark believe I knew Chris and Mary better than I really did.

“Yeah, no kidding. Y’all didn’t even see the whole thing. That place is huge. It’s one of the biggest ranches in the area, which is sayin’ something out here. I don’t know if she came from money, but she sure has it now. Although she hates the ranch part of it. She just likes the lifestyle,” he said.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

I could see a mild smirk come across Mark’s face, which he quickly covered.

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