The Ghost of Christmas (Ava James FBI Mystery Book 6) by A.J. Rivers

Author:A.J. Rivers [Rivers, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ava James FBI Mystery Thriller
Publisher: A.J. Rivers
Published: 2022-12-24T16:00:00+00:00

Pacing the length of her hotel room, Ava analyzed her meeting with Kate Ward from the moment she stepped into the house. Kate seemed to be a bundle of very loosely tied-together emotions.

At first, she had been smiling, pretty, warm, and inviting. Then she became the sad, grieving widow who still cried at unexpected moments throughout the day. And finally, she had turned into that nearly hysterical ball of raw emotion from which Ava had barely escaped unscathed.

She shuddered and rubbed her arms. How did people survive having all that emotion pent up inside them? How could they even think logically?

“They can’t,” she said, scoffing.

Something about Don Ward’s donations—hefty donations—to Robbie hit a sour note in Ava’s mind. Even though the super-rich did sometimes act in ways that she would never pretend to understand, she still thought it was too contrived to be true. All this sudden blubbering about a baker?

Maybe Don was paying Robbie to keep him quiet about something.

“But what?” she asked, pacing harder.

Robbie could have accidentally witnessed something shady at one of the many gatherings he had catered for the Wards. Maybe the doting husband doted on more than just his wife, and Robbie had found out about it. That would be a legitimate reason for Don to pay for his silence.

Then again, Robbie could have been helping Don with some shady business, like a partner. Maybe Don hadn’t gotten super-rich by totally legitimate means, and the payments were Robbie’s cut of whatever deal they’d had. It wasn’t unheard of.

“Why did Robbie die shortly after Don?”

She moved to the window and threw back the heavy drapes. Her breath fogged the glass a little as she stared out over the wintery scene. Kids in brightly colored knit caps with big pom-poms on top and Michelin Man puffy coats ran across the parking lot giggling and trying to scrape up enough snow to throw at each other. Mom and Dad walked slower and were dressed in neutral tones. They watched the kids as they lugged bags toward the minivan.

“Maybe Robbie really was helping Don in some kind of dirty business. After Don’s death, it might have left Robbie in the lurch with the dirty business and the people over it. That could’ve gotten him killed.”

But it was ruled suicide, not homicide, remember? she reminded herself as she turned from the window scene.

“Suicide might have seemed a better choice than what the other guys would do to him,” she mused, nodding and pacing again.

Pulling her laptop out of the nightstand drawer, Ava sat cross-legged on the bed and decided to research Don Ward, find out what kind of man he’d been in life, and then she could decide where to go with the investigation from there.

Immediately, EB Ward’s name popped up in the search results. Don himself seemed to only have secondary status in the results. There were no results that included only Don. He was always listed in the main results for EB, who turned out to be Don’s younger brother.

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