Uninvited House Ghosts: A sapphic paranormal cozy mystery (East House Mysteries Book 1) by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford [Ford, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen – Tennessee

Cindy settled him at the table with a cup of coffee and a piece of cake – her solution to all woes, it seemed. He’d been dubious about the latter offer, until she presented it. He took a ginger bite, and his eyes widened.

“Wow. That’s delicious. You said it’s strawberry what now?”

“Rhubarb,” she said, preening a little. “Locally grown and harvested.”

“Wow,” he said again. “This is going to be a huge hit.”

Which brought the conversation back around to him, and what he was doing in Marshmeadow. His name was Daniel Williams, and he represented American Rebirth and Regrowth, an investment firm from Chicago.

“We were in negotiations with Ms. Hastreiter for a downtown renovation project. I say negotiations, but it’s rather more advanced than that. We’d all but signed. All that remained was seeing the properties in person, and putting our names on the dotted line.”

He paused, a deep and troubled frown marring his brow. “And you say she was murdered? At East House?”

I confirmed this, adding, “I was at work. Here, actually. But I found her when I got home.”

“Murdered,” he said again, shaking his head. “That does complicate things.”

“I guess it would,” Cindy said, a dry note in her tone.

He must have caught it, because he glanced up. “I’m sorry. That probably sounds heartless. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No need to apologize,” Cindy said. “I think you’re going to find a lot of dry eyes around Marshmeadow, Mr. Williams.”

“She…wasn’t liked very much then?”

“Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘very much.’ Me personally, I’d have gone with ‘at all.’”

“I see.” He glanced between us. “I…well, this is awkward, actually. Ms. Hastreiter gave us to believe this project would be welcomed by the city. That, in fact, the idea had originated with the residents.”

Cindy snorted.

“Am I to take it that is not the case?”

“The first I heard about it was earlier this afternoon,” I said. “I don’t know what she was talking about with my house. If it was a power play, or if she thought, in her own twisted way, she was doing me a favor…”

“Don’t believe it for a second,” Cindy interrupted.

“But I’m not selling East House.”

“And no one around here knows anything about a development project,” Cindy added.

“I see.” Mr. Williams sipped his coffee with a perplexed expression. “The investors I represent – they have a vision for Marshmeadow. It’s an investment, yes. But to revitalize a community, you need the community’s buy-in. We’re not a greedy big city firm coming in trying to buy up the town and force the locals out. It’s places like this one that give a town its flavor. Literally, in this case.”

He smiled, and Cindy eyed him thoughtfully.

“The idea – which Ms. Hastreiter led us to believe was widely shared by the community – was that our investment capital would be the spark that Marshmeadow needed, to restore it to its former self.”

“Marshmeadow’s always been a quiet town,” I said. “It’s never been – well, something you’d invest in.

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