Fatal, Family, Album by Joanna Campbell Slan

Author:Joanna Campbell Slan [Slan, Joanna Campbell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spot On Publishing
Published: 2017-11-11T05:00:00+00:00

~*~

At four, we heard an insistent pounding on the back door. I opened it and Lee Alderton stumbled in. If I hadn’t grabbed her by the arm, she would have done a face-plant.

“Lee? You okay?” I slipped an arm around her waist and led her to a chair. Lee sat down with a plunk that suggested she was about to keel over.

Her knit scarf had been pulled up around her face like a cowl. You could barely see her features. With mittened hands, she pulled it down. A pair of red-rimmed eyes and a nose suitable for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer appeared. Red blotches marred her skin.

“Lee? Are you all right?” I crouched beside her chair. Seeing the normally competent woman this discombobulated had me worried.

She looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. After blinking a couple of times, she seemed to get a hold of herself. “You have to swear not to tell anyone. Promise?”

Rebekkah, Clancy, and I raised our right hands and promised to keep our mouths shut.

“I just met with Fareed. We have a problem. A big problem. The cashier’s check that he and Nancy co-signed for a million dollars is missing.”

“A cashier’s check for a million dollars?” Clancy’s voice was a notch higher than usual. “And you lost it?”

Lee explained how Zoo Keepers had been doing fundraising all year, tapping big donors, hosting events, and asking for pledges. “It was Nancy’s dream to give a substantial amount to the Tusk Trust, the prince’s own conservation organization. She wanted to personally hand that check to Prince William.”

“It’s missing? Who had it last?” I asked.

“Fareed and Nancy showed it off at our board meeting. They’d gone together to the bank, signed for it, and brought it back so the board could see it. It’s the culmination of three years’ work. We all signed a card for the prince. Nancy tucked the check inside the card and put it in her purse. Since she’s the longest serving board member, she would see her dream come true. She and Fareed were going to personally hand it to Prince William after his speech in the Coronado Ballroom.”

“So you actually saw it at your board meeting. Did you watch Nancy put it in her purse?”

“Yes. We all did. She was going to take it home and lock it in a wall safe.”

“The news reports said that nothing was missing from Nancy’s car, but they could have been misinformed. Sometimes the police hold back information. Lee, do you know whether Nancy had the check on her person when she was shot?”

“I don’t know, but I would assume so. She must have gone directly from our board meeting to Ferguson.” Lee dabbed her eyes with a paper napkin.

I really needed to keep a box of tissues back here. Either that, or we all needed to quit crying.

Lee continued, “The last we saw of the check was when Nancy tucked it inside the card and put the card in her purse.

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