Hollywoodland Magic (Silver Screen Coven Series Book 1) by Dominique Daoust

Author:Dominique Daoust [Daoust, Dominique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2023-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

“Sorry to keep you waiting, my boss would have had a fit if I even considered leaving early,” Annabelle explained as she approached a defeated-looking Louise Thorne. “Have you been sitting here since you called me?”

“I suppose so.” Louise’s eyes were glassy and unfocused.

Annabelle had raced to the Red Car the moment she clocked out and met the new widow on a park bench outside a Security First National Bank. Her hands were oddly empty considering the frantic call where she blubbered about finding something horrifying.

“Where are the letters?” Annabelle asked, hoping they hadn’t been torn up in fury. That would be a lousy way to lose evidence.

“In the bank. They wouldn’t let me leave with them,” Mrs. Thorne replied, getting up and motioning Annabelle to follow her.

They walked back into the silent bank where the clacking of their heels on the marble floor rang unusually loud as they walked all the way to the back of the building where an employee was standing guard over a locked door.

“She’s with me, I need to see the contents of my late husband’s lock box again,” Louise said.

“Certainly.” The bank employee gave a slight nod as he let them in. They went into a garishly bright room where the walls comprised lock boxes from floor to ceiling. He jangled a hefty set of keys, retrieved the correct box, and left it open on a metal table at the centre of the room. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

They waited for the employee to close the door behind him before looking at each other, then the box, and each other again. The room felt airless and cold. After an unnatural throat clearing sound, Louise gestured for Annabelle to take a peek.

Annabelle had never used a lock box before and had no idea what to expect. What did people even keep in these things? Mundane documents like insurance papers, contracts, jewelry, family photographs? Or would someone hide something away from their significant other? It turns out she was right on the money with her theory of a hidden secret.

She took a stack of letters out of the box and for a second she thought, Jeepers, I hope these aren’t sappy love letters between Chuck and Clover! How horrendous that would be. They were personal letters all right, but they were the opposite of lovey-dovey.

“He was being blackmailed,” Annabelle gasped, eyes still glued on the papers. “And for a while according to these.”

“Chuck never uttered a word about this.” Louise shook her head and crossed her arms. “And an affair, too!”

“Jiminy Christmas,” Annabelle mumbled as she skimmed through the letters more rapidly. The other party wasn’t named in these letters, so Clover was in the clear for now—doubly so on the pregnancy front. “This is a lot of information to process. What do you think of all this?”

“I feel sad, betrayed, and angry!” Louise huffed, much less composed than during their first conversation. “He put himself in a scandalous situation and some monster was trying to extort money out of it.

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