Root of All Evil by Libby Howard

Author:Libby Howard [Howard, Libby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-01T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

My heart wasn’t into yoga the next morning. All I could think about was poor Mr. Elmer and how I could possibly help him. Daisy and I cut our exercise short, and I’d showered and headed out, taking the remaining pumpkin bars and some apricot scones with me as potential bribes. I got the feeling I’d need them.

Marissa Thompson was actually waiting for me at the coffee shop this morning, looking forlorn as she sat alone at a table with her cup in hand. I detailed what I’d found out so far—about her husband’s partnership in an LLC with Tracey Abramson, as well as his suspected ownership of Brockhurst Properties.

“But where is the money?” she demanded, her hand so tight on the coffee cup that she was nearly crushing it. “If he had this other company, he certainly wasn’t getting any of his pay deposited into our joint account. Five years? That must add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in income.”

I didn’t blame her one bit for being angry. I would be too if I’d been in her shoes. “It should be easy for your lawyer to gain access to that deposit information once you file for divorce,” I assured her. “And I’m sure there’s income in Brockhurst Properties as well. They’ve bought at least one home at a foreclosure sale, so there has to be a checking account somewhere.”

“None of this was on our taxes,” she said between clenched teeth. “None of it. And where did he get the money for this partnership with this Tracey woman? Are they sleeping together? Maybe he’s kept all the money in her name so I won’t be able to get any of it.”

I eyed her in alarm, worried that there was about to be a scene in the coffee shop, complete with screaming and a latte hurled across the room. “Tracey Abramson isn’t a woman. He’s a man. My age or older from what I can see. He’s married, and I don’t get the impression he had anything other than a business partnership with your husband. In fact, it sounds like things are not good between the two of them. Mr. Abramson has been trying to dissolve the LLC for the last few years.”

I thought that would calm her down, but if anything, she seemed to become even more angry.

“There’s no woman. None. He’s just hiding all this money from me, running these other businesses on the side and not letting me know. That bastard. That rat bastard. How could he do this to me? How?”

I’d thought of telling her about Melvin Elmer, perhaps enlisting her help in getting her husband to hold off on the eviction, but I now realized that wasn’t a good idea. Marissa Thompson didn’t look like she was in the mood to be asking her soon-to-be ex-husband for favors, and I was worried that letting her know Spencer was kicking a terminally ill old man out of his home would just be throwing gasoline on the fire.

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