Mission to Murder (A Tourist Trap Mystery) by Lynn Cahoon

Author:Lynn Cahoon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-07-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Brenda’s words shocked me. “You shouldn’t talk like that. Someone might think you’re serious.”

“Honey, I am serious. The guy wouldn’t give up, and Vanna hated him for it. I’m not stupid, I know he didn’t love me. I just couldn’t say no around him. I’m like an addict with the wrong men. And Craig, he didn’t want to lose something he owned. So he gave me the song and dance that once this big deal came through, he’d be different. Not as driven.” Brenda snorted. “I’m not sure I could have been strong much longer. And then, when he got me back, everything I’d worked for would have gone down the drain. I like my life. I have friends.”

“Well, you got away. And you got the last laugh.” I reached down to pet Fifi. “You get to start over now. Do you have plans?”

Brenda shook her head. “I’ve got to wait for the investigation to end so the insurance will pay out. Of course we had savings, a lot more than he led me to believe when I moved into the city. The guy pleaded poverty and now I find he has cash stashed in his apartment at The Castle. No wonder my attorney couldn’t find it.”

“Did you tell the police what you found?” Greg hadn’t mentioned an unusual amount of cash in Craig’s apartment. Maybe that was why the guy was killed, someone else knew about the stash.

Brenda’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding, right? This is my money, or would have been if he’d been honest during our talks about divorce. No way am I going to risk losing it.”

“Why would you lose the money?” Brenda’s logic sounded reasonable, but something kept nagging at me about Craig stashing money. I tried one more time, “The money may be why Craig was killed. Maybe it’s not his?”

“My former husband was pretty good at playing both sides of the fence. If he was holding this cash out of the banking system, I can assure you, he did something he didn’t want others to know about.”

I thought about the receipts for “services” I’d found at Josh’s store. Had Josh been part of this cash business? I watched Brenda take a sip of her coffee. “Do you know whether Craig and Josh had a business arrangement? Was Josh doing appraisals for The Castle?”

She glanced in the direction of Antiques by Thomas, like she could see through the building’s walls. “You mean the new antique dealer?” Brenda shrugged. “Maybe. I know Craig was always griping about having to call in someone from Bakerstown. I assume he’d rather use a local guy and save on the travel charges.”

“Enough business to pay out thousands of dollars to an appraiser?” I thought of the stack of receipts I’d found.

“I don’t think Craig paid over a thousand for a year of appraisals. The Castle didn’t buy that much new stuff anymore. New purchases have only been for select pieces that add to their collections.” She stood, laying a ten on the table.

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.