14 Booty Bones by Carolyn Haines

Author:Carolyn Haines [Haines, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466846296
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

17

Cece Dee Falcon had taught me two approaches to politicians. If one had the evidence in hand, then a frontal assault was the best option, bulldozing them into either a confession or a dead-out run. Since we had only supposition, we were left with the second approach—deception.

With a few phone calls, Tinkie found the county commissioner hard at work drinking coffee at a small diner not too far from the island. I parked outside, and for ten minutes we watched him through the plate-glass window. He was a hail-fellow-well-met kind of guy, waving his hand and yukking it up with all the locals. But it was impossible to miss the shrewdness in his eyes or the way he laughed and assessed his audience simultaneously.

I took a seat at the counter and ordered coffee and a slice of fresh coconut pie. Tinkie slid into the booth across from Richard Roundtree. “Would you gentlemen give a lady a moment alone with the county commissioner?” she said to the men who’d surrounded Roundtree, hoping no doubt for some scraps to fall from the taxpayer trough. If she’d batted her eyelashes any harder, she would have taken flight.

Chairs scraped, and a few men chuckled as they moved to another table, leaving Tinkie a clear field. We didn’t have any of the recording equipment we sometimes used, but Tinkie’s cell phone was set to document the conversation. It wouldn’t be high-quality, but it might save our bacon at a later date.

“I won’t waste your time trying to pretty up my story,” Tinkie said, blinking back tears. “I’m Tinkie Bellcase Richmond of the banking Bellcases of Zinnia, Mississippi, and my husband is cheating on me, lowlife bastard that he is. While my pride has taken a beating, I won’t let my net worth be diminished.” She blotted a few tears with a paper napkin from the table. “My daddy controls the bank and all of our money. When I told Daddy what Oscar was up to, we had a nice long chat, and he told me to look into some investment properties. I want to invest in coastal development and tie up every liquid dollar we have, which I figure is close to ten million. My daddy, Avery Bellcase, told me to see you. He said you were the man for Dauphin Island development.”

I doubted the name Avery Bellcase meant much to Roundtree, but it was the way Tinkie said it, leaving no doubt her daddy was a man of means and one to take seriously. It was a thing of beauty to watch my partner work.

“And what, exactly, can I do for you, Mrs. Richmond?”

“I want to build a resort. Something with permanent condos and also luxury hotel rooms. I want to thwart my soon-to-be-ex husband from getting a penny, but at the same time, I want to grow my investment. No reason I can’t do both. So what’s the political climate on the island for a development like that?”

“You are a blunt woman,” he said.

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