Murder at the Teddy Bears Picnic (Zachary Gagewood Mysteries Book 3) by Lee Pulaski

Murder at the Teddy Bears Picnic (Zachary Gagewood Mysteries Book 3) by Lee Pulaski

Author:Lee Pulaski [Pulaski, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pulaski Publishing
Published: 2015-05-01T06:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER EIGHT

Zachary absentmindedly stepped through the front door to The Literary Barn, his mind still reeling from the death threat Newell had received. “Hey, Alexander. I apologize for being late. Had an incident at the feed store that required a visit from the...”

Zachary stopped short when he saw two large men—one with a knife—standing at the counter at an uncomfortably short distance from Alexander. The man with a knife had a deep scar on his left cheek. The other guy wore a black leather jacket burgeoning with silver studs and had a pair of brass knuckles in his hand. They didn’t seem like they were interested in buying any of the latest bestsellers.

“...sheriff’s deputies.” Zachary involuntarily finished his sentence. He looked warily at the two men. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Are you Zachary Gagewood?” the scar-faced man asked.

“That depends. Do you plan on gutting me if the answer is ‘yes’?”

The man looked at his knife, smiled an evil smile and guffawed. “This little thing? I just use it to clean the dirt out from under my fingernails. Nothing for you to worry about. We understand you’re the executor for Thad Sheppard’s will.”

“Let me guess—you guys roomed together at Harvard.”

The two men gave each other a confused expression, while Alexander had a pleading expression indicating he was afraid Zachary’s sarcasm might get one or both of them killed.

“We’re associates of Peter McNally,” the man with the brass knuckles said. “He operates an entertainment company in Green Bay. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.”

Zachary was very familiar with Peter McNally’s reputation. His “entertainment” business included providing loans to people who had gambled everything away on sporting events and then sending enforcers to deal with anyone who might get behind on paying him back. In other words, a loan shark.

“I’ve heard of Peter McNally. Never dealt with him, but I hear he leads a life of luxury.”

The man with the brass knuckles paced the floor. “Well, he made a rather sizeable loan to Mr. Sheppard, and it seems the giant stuffed toy’s untimely death came before the loan could be fully repaid, so we’d like to talk to you about making a claim on his estate.”

“I’m just responsible for carrying out Thad’s last wishes. I can’t give you money unless it’s specified in his will. I’d talk to his attorney.”

“Actually,” said the man with the scar, “we were just wondering if you knew what happened to Mr. Sheppard’s trailer. See, we feel that the value of the trailer would settle his debt to Mr. McNally. Give us that, and we can be on our way.”

“Well, I don’t have anything in the will addressing what happens to the trailer. However, the county law enforcement seized it during an investigation into his murder, so you’d have to talk to the detective about when you could get your hands on the trailer.”

“You know, we were kind of hoping to keep the cops out of this. It just seems so uncivilized to talk out matters with a deputy or three looming over you.



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.