Once Upon a Christmas by Kathi Daley

Author:Kathi Daley [Daley, Kathi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kathi Daley Books
Published: 2023-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

After Ryliee left and I finished jotting down my notes, I headed downstairs. Eden was helping a customer, but Velma was alone at the coffee counter. I briefly filled her in on the details of my conversation with Joy’s mother. We both agreed that while it was possible that Ryliee Stone killed her husband, it seemed much more likely that someone else had killed him after she’d left the house to take Lilly to the doctor. But who? And why?

“Ryliee didn’t seem to know very much about the Stone Family Trust, so perhaps that would be a good place to start,” I suggested. “We all know that more often than not, the reason for committing murder comes down to one of three motives: love, money, or revenge.”

“I’m not sure that’s always true,” Velma laughed. “But it sounds as if Steven benefited financially from Douglas’s death. While it sounds as if the assets owned by the trust stay with the trust no matter who is in charge of managing those assets, I’d be interested to know if Joy was accurate when she said that her mom and Douglas had discussed buying out Steven’s share of the house. If that’s true, then it sounds like the house may not have been included in the trust.”

“Perhaps their father handed the house down outside the trust,” I said. “I don’t know a lot, or really anything, about this sort of thing. We may want to consider bringing in an attorney or financial adviser if we decide the financial aspect is relevant to what occurred, but I don’t think we’re there yet. In the meantime, we’re meeting with the larger group tonight and can ask if anyone has a suggestion about how to proceed from here.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Velma said. “While I have you, I wanted to let you know that I spoke to Shelby about using the Bistro as a location for our Christmas Eve dinner, and she was fine with it. In fact, she said that both she and Amy would help as long as we had it early enough in the day that it wouldn’t conflict with plans she’d made with her sisters. While I realize we discussed serving dinner, a Christmas Eve lunch would be just as nice. If we served the meal around one o’clock, it would allow the volunteers to be home with their families that evening.” Velma referred to Amy Hogan, Shelby’s business partner and the Bistro’s head chef.

“That sounds fine to me,” I said. “Let’s discuss it with the others when they get here.”

“I also wanted to let you know that the girl who adopted the kitten last week returned with a friend, and her friend is interested in the orange and white one. I gave her an application and told her she needed to return with the application and a parent if she was really interested. Five minutes after she left, the woman who came in a few days ago to play with the cats came over and told me she’d decided on the orange and white one.

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