Bed & Breakfast 11 - September Mourn by Mary Daheim

Author:Mary Daheim [Daheim, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mary Daheim
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

SEPTEMBER MOURN

159

whether or not you already had a reservation in Laurel Harbor or the surrounding area. You may reach me at . . .’’

Two telephone numbers followed, one at work, the other at home. The letter was signed Simon Dobler.

‘‘Hunh!’’ Judith exclaimed, handing the letter to Renie.

‘‘ Simon Dobler? He’s got to be related to Elrod. It can’t be a coincidence. That’s not exactly a common name.’’

‘‘Call Simon Dobler. Or. . .what’s her name?’’ Renie scanned the single typed sheet. ‘‘Ella Stovall.’’

‘‘I have to wait until Rob gets off the phone,’’ Judith said, craning her neck to see if the young man was still at the kitchen counter. ‘‘It looks like he’s on hold.’’

‘‘So are we,’’ Renie said, putting her feet up on the coffee table. ‘‘What do you think? Burrell was involved in real estate?’’

Judith chewed on her forefinger. ‘‘I should try to call Adhab again. What if it is a recovery center, the same one Herself is considering? Directory Assistance listed several of them, and now that I think about it, they were all in remote areas—the mountains, the peninsula, I forget where else. Maybe Burrell or his bosses were planning to expand. Maybe,’’ Judith went on, her voice climbing with excitement, ‘‘that’s why he wanted to see Bates Danfield.’’

Renie made a clucking noise with her tongue. ‘‘Then Bates lied. He said Burrell was one of his advisors. At least that’s what he implied.’’

‘‘Right,’’ Judith agreed. ‘‘But I understand why Bates would do that. If he owns most of the island, would he want anybody to know he was thinking of selling off property to a rehab center?’’ Suddenly, her eyes grew wide.

‘‘Ah! Now I know what Abu was talking about! Sort of. He said something about a hospital. It was so garbled that I thought he meant he would have had a smaller story if Burrell had been hurt and had had to go to the hospital, but now it was a much bigger article because he’d been killed. But that’s not it, I’ll bet. I’m guessing he meant there were two stories—one about building a recovery center—

which he might call a hospital because of his limited En-160 Mary Daheim

glish—and the other, the murder itself. I should have listened more closely.’’

Rob Estacada was listening in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. ‘‘Excuse me,’’ he said as Judith paused to catch her breath. ‘‘I’m done. Those were one-eight-hundred numbers, so there’s no charge. It was a toll-free number to the hotel in Port Royal, too. I made a reservation at a place a friend recommended. It’s supposed to be really quiet and out-of-the-way. It’s called the Clovia. Do you know it?’’

Judith and Renie exchanged horrified looks. Five years earlier, they had spent a few days at the Clovia, also in search of peace and relaxation. Instead, they had found a body in the elevator. But surely, Judith thought, history couldn’t repeat itself. Not for the Estacadas, at any rate.

‘‘The Clovia,’’ Judith said, with a lame little laugh.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.