Letters and Lawsuits (An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Book 12) by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

9

“Your father?” Fenella echoed.

Autumn shrugged. “Well, the man that my mother always insisted was my father. It’s something of a running family joke that I have a different father to my brother and sister. Mum always denied it, but even she had to admit that I don’t look much like my siblings.”

“Any idea why he’s here?” Breesha asked.

“None at all. As far as I know, he hasn’t had any contact with anyone in the family in over thirty years. He and Mum split up when I was two or three, another thing that gives some weight to the idea that I wasn’t his child, I suppose. We visited him from time to time right after the split, but within a year or so, he simply disappeared.”

“And now he’s on the island,” Fenella said thoughtfully.

“I suppose my mother’s death may have been covered in some of the UK papers,” Autumn said. “Maybe he read about it and decided to come over and see if there was anything in it for him.”

Fenella must have looked surprised, because Autumn laughed and then shrugged. “From everything my mother has told me over the years, my father was always looking to make a few pounds out of every opportunity. She didn’t have very many nice things to say about him, really, which is hardly surprising under the circumstances.”

“You don’t remember him at all?” Fenella asked.

“Not even a little bit. My mother gave me a photograph of him when I started doing that family research we were talking about, but she’d only kept one, from their wedding. When I asked, she told me that she’d burned every other photo of him. She’d only kept that one because she knew one of us kids would want to see it one day.”

“I wonder if your brother or sister remembers him any better,” Breesha mused.

“April used to talk about him when we were kids, but I don’t think she truly remembered him. It was more made-up talk about how he was really handsome and rich and how one day he was going to come back and take us all to live in a mansion somewhere. Matthew used to get really cross about it, but I loved her stories. I even believed them for many years.”

Autumn’s phone buzzed loudly. She picked it up and read the message. “I’m afraid I have to go,” she said, getting to her feet. “We’re having an emergency meeting in April’s room to work out what we’re going to do about Peter Ballard and his unexpected arrival.”

“Good luck,” Fenella told her.

“Thanks. I think we might need it,” Autumn replied.

Fenella watched as Autumn walked out of the room.

“That was odd,” Breesha said.

“Her father turning up like that?”

“The whole thing,” Breesha countered. “What did she want?”

“I got the feeling she was leading up to asking me for money before I mentioned that Joe had already beaten her to it.”

“You could be right,” Breesha agreed.

“I’m surprised she thinks the killing was random, although maybe she just told me that because she didn’t want to accuse me of murder before she asked me for a payout.

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