Cop by Her Side (The Mysteries of Angel Butte) (26 page)

“Except the son never married, and the father can’t stay out of divorce court. Anyway, I sort of understand why Peter claims I’m not due anything from the sale of the firm....”

“
I
don’t,” Layne said stoutly.

“Unfortunately the math appears to add up. The embezzlement crashed the value of the company and Peter repaid every penny of the stolen money from his own pocket. At the end of the letter you can see he’s offering to give me twenty-five thousand dollars as a goodwill gesture, but that’s all.”

“It’s hard to believe you wouldn’t be due several million at the very least. The property alone is worth a fortune.”

While Dee didn’t say anything, Layne thought she agreed. Her aunt had never dealt much with money, focusing on art while her husband went into business after getting out of the navy. They’d seemed to have the perfect marriage, but Layne wasn’t naive enough to think there hadn’t been occasional problems.

Dee sat next to her and traced a pattern in the quartz countertop. “The thing is, I know how good you are at research and putting pieces of information together. And I’ve been thinking...if anyone can prove Will was innocent, it’s you. And then I could challenge Peter about the sale and be able to pay off the mortgage before I have to sell the house. Will and I built this house together—I don’t want to lose it.”

Layne froze.

Okay, so she was good at her job. That didn’t make her a criminal investigator. And what if she proved Uncle Will
had
embezzled from his company? How could she tell Aunt Dee? It might hurt even more to know for sure.

“Uh, about the mortgage,” she said. “The house means a lot to me, too, and I have some money saved—”

“I can’t accept it. This is my problem,” her aunt said predictably. “But if you
could
find out the truth, it would help in more ways than one.”

“What if you don’t like what I find? I’m not saying Uncle Will was guilty, but you never know.”

“I need the truth, wherever it leads.” Dee put a hand in her pocket, her mouth tense. She was a lovely woman, with golden blond hair and warm blue eyes that had twinkled brightly before her husband’s death. She resembled Layne’s mother in physical appearance only; eleven years separated them and Dorothy’s nature was far more artistic than her older, brisk cardiologist sister’s.

“All right,” Layne agreed reluctantly.

She loved Aunt Dee dearly and had loved Uncle Will. She
couldn’t
say no. Her aunt and uncle were the ones who’d made her feel special when she was growing up with a star athlete brother and beautiful twin sisters who could charm the paint off walls. Her parents were so brilliant and accomplished themselves, they hadn’t known what to do with a daughter who was merely average and didn’t fit in. It was Uncle Will and Aunt Dee who’d understood her.

“Good.” Dee slowly opened her fingers. “This is the key to William’s home office. Maybe you can start with the stack of boxes that Peter sent over from the company. I haven’t had time to open them because there’s been too much to deal with. I know the police went through everything before it was packed, but they were looking for things that made William look guilty, not anything to show he was innocent.”

Heart in her throat, Layne took the key. The metal seemed to be burning a hole in her palm and she quickly hooked it on her keychain. The answers might be in her uncle’s office...but it was also the place where he’d died.

Was that why Aunt Dee was imagining that she’d heard him around the house?

Layne lifted her chin.

Ghosts weren’t real, but if they
did
exist, she could never be afraid of Uncle Will. He might even help her discover what had happened to him.

Copyright © 2014 by Julianna Morris

ISBN-13: 9781460335284

COP BY HER SIDE

Copyright © 2014 by Janice Kay Johnson

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