Legacy of Lies by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Author:Jill Elizabeth Nelson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2010-11-28T06:00:00+00:00

TEN

Nicole nibbled at a tuna sandwich without tasting it. The security company was booked solid and couldn’t get to her job for a few days. Rich would have a fit…if she told him. Otherwise, except for a couple of interruptions from reporters calling for interviews that she declined, she’d spent the afternoon hunting for the elusive insurance policy to no avail. Surely, Grandma had insured the shop.

While Nicole looked, she’d put things in order from the police search, but had hardly made a dent. Amazing how easy it was to make a mess compared to the time it took to clean it up. Mostly, she’d concentrated on her grandmother’s bedroom as the likely place to yield important papers. No insurance policy had come to light or anything to do with the baby buried in the backyard, but in the closet Nicole had found a wealth of photos from her dad’s and her childhoods, plus a box of awards and school papers of her father’s. Nicole discovered things she’d never known about her dad.

The sentimental journey had absorbed more hours than she should have allowed, but the distraction had been welcome. She would never have guessed her dad took dance lessons as a small boy or that he had a lead part in a play in junior high. An artsy streak wasn’t what she associated with her manly-man father. The image was sort of jarring, like Clint Eastwood singing in the movie Paint Your Wagon. Come to think of it, that had been one of her dad’s favorite old flicks. Now she knew why.

A knock sounded on the back door, and Nicole jerked. She laid the remnants of her sandwich on a plate and went to peer out the curtain over the door’s window. Rich stood on the porch, gazing around as if searching for threats. She opened the door, and he stepped into the kitchen. His grim expression didn’t convey comfort.

Nicole tensed. “Bad news?”

“Stan says the fire was arson.”

A forlorn cry escaped her throat. “Who would want to burn the shop? Why? It can’t be to destroy evidence. The place had already been searched.”

“So had this house when someone attacked your grandmother.”

Rich’s bald statement sent a pang through Nicole. Maybe the motive was sheer malice. Who could possibly hate the Kellers so much? She couldn’t recall her grandparents having a single enemy, unless she counted her grandmother’s antipathy toward Hannah. Was the feeling mutual? Hannah had shown herself plenty spry when she did that pirouette in her bedroom. Still, Nicole couldn’t picture the plump, elderly woman tearing down those attic steps like the attacker had done or roaring around in a sports car setting fires. Of course, Nicole hadn’t been able to picture her dad as a dancer or an actor, either, yet he’d been both.

“How did it happen?” Nicole steeled herself to absorb another vile report.

Rich described a crude Molotov cocktail flung through a back window.

“So anyone could have started the fire,” Nicole said.

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.