Give Up the Ghost: A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery by Juliet Blackwell

Author:Juliet Blackwell [Blackwell, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451465818
Amazon: 0451465814
Publisher: NAL
Published: 2015-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I sat in the car in the garage, pondering what I had learned during my visit to the Tempus, Ltd. headquarters.

After Mason’s rather cryptic response, I had tried to pursue the topic of Lacey, but he clammed up.

Probably it was nothing. Clearly there was no love lost between Mason and Lacey. And given what I’d seen of Grandpop George, he seemed to me the type to pit brother against sister in the boardroom as well as on the golf course.

And what was it George had said, that Andrew had been “obsessed” by Chantelle? That wasn’t the impression Andrew had given me. Hadn’t he said Stephanie had called Chantelle in? Then again, he had seemed quite shaken up by the news of her death. Chantelle was a beautiful woman, and I imagined she had been fascinating.

So why wouldn’t Andrew have mentioned that she was a client—possibly an investor—in Tempus?

Was it possible Andrew had been closer to Chantelle than he’d let on? Maybe even having an affair? And if so, could that be the news Chantelle was planning to use to blackmail him?

I wondered if I should mention this admittedly vague suspicion to Annette Crawford. The inspector had told me, time and again, that people are most often killed by those who were supposed to love them: by parents and siblings, spouses and lovers. It was enough to feed the natural cynicism of a person like me.

But unless Andrew really had been having an affair with Chantelle, and was so desperately afraid of being blackmailed that he killed her in a fit of rage, there was still no tie that I could see among Tempus, Ltd., the Flynt clan, and Chantelle’s death. No matter how off-putting the Flynts were.

Unless there was something else in play that I hadn’t discovered yet. What might the other Flynts—George, Mason, Stephanie, or Lacey—have been trying to keep secret that would inspire blackmail?

There was the sale of Crosswinds. Had Chantelle somehow managed to keep people from buying it? There were twenty-nine million reasons to want her dead right there. But that made no sense. The ghosts were chasing people out of the house long before Chantelle arrived—it was why the Flynts had hired her.

Of course, there were no doubt a whole lot of corporate secrets hidden behind the heavy doors of Tempus, Ltd. Could Andrew have let something slip to Chantelle, and she used the information to blackmail him, or members of his family? Was that what Mason meant when he said Chantelle was interested in getting involved with Tempus, Ltd.—could it have been more than a mere endorsement deal?

Then again . . . Chantelle had been stabbed to death. Such an up close and personal attack suggested passion, didn’t it? Or had I watched one too many episodes of Dad’s favorite crime show?

As I sat there, thinking, George Flynt walked by, deep in discussion with a woman.

That was odd; he said he was headed to Sausalito, and then to lunch with the mayor.

Odder still was the woman he was talking to—make that, arguing with.

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