Magnolia Moonlight by Mary Ellis

Author:Mary Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736961745
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

TWENTY-NINE

After leaving Detective Lejeune in the conference room, Michael drove to Calvary Baptist Church. He spent the next several hours poring over the church’s financials again without even plying Mrs. Purdy with another pie. He explained he had urgent business and headed straight to Reverend Dean’s office.

Urgent, indeed. With Buckley’s confession of an illegal loan of sixty K, half a million bucks was still unaccounted for. And poor Pastor Dean didn’t have his pockets full of cash when he took his last breath on earth. The longer the money floated in the ether, the less likely it would be returned to the congregation. Buckley’s alibi would most likely check out. Lejeune wouldn’t have called if he had any doubt about that. Which brought up another reason for urgency. Michael wanted something to show Beth when she got back to town, other than a morning spent consorting with the enemy.

Although Price Investigations and the Natchez PD were on the same side, Lejeune calling him to view the confession videotape might not sit well with Beth. The new partner getting chummy with the old partner? That smelled like betrayal, whether they were on the same team or not. So Michael was glad to have something good to report when she called on her way back from Vicksburg.

“Hi, Mike,” Beth said in a chipper voice. “Did you miss me today?”

“More than I thought humanly possible. How did it go up north?”

“Despite bureaucratic wheels turning at the speed of glaciers, if the ME receives Reverend Dean’s body by Wednesday night, she’ll start the autopsy on Thursday, Friday for sure. Certainly before snow flies in the Bahamas. I’ve got friends with their ears to the ground. What did you do today—work on a tan to go with your new body?”

“It’s hard to improve on perfection, so I spent the day looking for the missing half-million dollars.”

“Good idea. I’m sure Alice wants the funds for the new school tracked down. As soon as that autopsy is finished, we should be able to lock up Buckley and throw away the key.”

“Let’s just follow the evidence and not jump the gun. Isn’t that what you taught me from day one?”

There was a hesitation before Beth asked, “What’s going on? Did something weird turn up today?”

“Where are you, Elizabeth?”

“Just outside of town on Route 61.”

“Good. Why don’t you come straight to my place? I’ll have a deluxe pizza, plenty of Coke, and a six-pack of orange soda so you can take your pick of what you would like to drink when you get here. I prefer to discuss this in person.”

“My protégé has gone mysterious on me.”

“All will be revealed when my assistant drops the black cloth. Come alone and make sure you’re not followed.”

“You better not be referring to me as your assistant.” Beth laughed as she hung up.

However, Michael was no longer smiling. With his interim boss on her way, he needed to choose his words carefully. Twenty minutes later, Beth parked on the street and pressed his buzzer.

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