Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 03 - The Great Chocolate Scam (9 page)

The Kollar
Flour Mill was north of Kansas City in a desolate area not far from the banks of the Missouri River. In the early years of the twentieth century, it was probably a booming region, but that was a hundred years ago when the river was the major transportation route. Now we had a system of major highways, none close. To get to the place, I had to travel several miles along a rutted dirt road, passing a couple of other crumbling buildings surrounded by trees and brush. I supposed those were also properties owned by Rick’s estate, but nobody was trying to get them back.

The old mill was surrounded by a relatively clear area,
relatively
being the key word. Weeds grew thick and healthy, but only a few scrubby trees thrust up amongst the weeds as opposed to the large trees and dense brush in the rest of the area. I wondered briefly if enough flour had escaped from the mill to retard the growth of vegetation in the immediate area.

Nah, that did
n’t seem likely considering what a beneficial effect flour had on my desserts.

I pulled up and parked in the weeds next to Marissa and
Grace’s cars. Too bad they’d got there before me. I’d have liked to see them tripping through the weeds in their four-inch heels. Neither Bryan nor Fred had arrived. No surprise that Fred hadn’t. As slow as he drove, the meeting could be over and all of us home in bed before he got there.

I had no desire to hurry inside and listen to Marissa and Grace hurl insults at each other, so I sat in my car listening to country music and waited for somebody else to arrive. Prior to meeting those two women, I would have said
there’s nothing like a good cat fight for entertainment, but the reality did not live up to the hype.

As I looked around the place, I had a hard time visualizing a shopping center with hundreds of people dashing from store to store. The only creatures dashing around at that moment were probably mice and spiders. Maybe a few snakes. What did Rick know that made him think this area could be renovated and profitable, so profitable he wanted to be sure I did
n’t stand a chance of getting part of those profits?

A few minutes later Bryan pulled up in a Jeep. He got out wearing jeans and sturdy boots.
He’d been to the place before, knew what to expect.

I was torn between going in with Bryan or waiting for Fred to get there so I could see how freaked out he would be about the dust that was going to settle on his pristine car and all the weeds that would be touching it. I finally decided to go in with Bryan. I did
n’t want to miss the hoopla that was bound to occur when he met Grace and she pressed her claim. I slid out of my car and moved up beside him.

“
Lindsay, I didn’t expect to see you here.” He gave me his television commercial smile though he looked confused.

“
I wouldn’t want to miss it.” I gave him a bared-to-the-molars smile. I didn’t want to tell him anything and ruin the surprise, so I just kept walking toward the building.

The door hung open, dangling on one rusted hinge, and I could hear Marissa and Grace sniping at each other even before I saw them in the dim interior.

“Ladies,” I shouted, “Bryan’s here!”

Marissa met him at the door and flung herself into his arms, giving him a passionate kiss. He returned her embrace.

Who’s scamming who?

I walked inside and looked around the abandoned structure. It was a large building erected of rough timbers, several of which had rotted and fallen away leaving holes in the walls and ceiling. At the rear of the building a ladder with at least half the rungs broken led to the remnants of a storage area upstairs. Spider webs decorated the walls and ceiling, and a barn swallow darted about in the rafters. It would
n’t surprise me if what was left of the roof collapsed at any moment.

Other than dust and leaves, the building was empty.
I’d expected remnants of antique equipment, but that had probably been sold off or stolen a long time ago.

Rickie stood in one corner kicking the wall, gradually making one of the holes larger.

Bryan expected me to believe his parents wanted this place for sentimental reasons? Really?

If four scam artists—Rick, Bryan, Marissa and Grace—wanted it, there had to be money involved. A lot of money.

“Sweetheart,” Bryan said, pulling away from Marissa but still holding her in his embrace, “I thought this was going to be a business meeting between you and me.”

Grace strode over, cocked a hip and fisted her hand on it.
“I hope you and this old woman weren’t planning to talk business about my son’s inheritance.”

Bryan’s
smile remained in place even though he was obviously confused. “Who are you? Who is your son and what is he going to inherit?”

“I’m
Grace Ganyon, and that boy over there is Rick’s only child. He’s going to inherit all his father’s property, including this dump, so if you want to bargain about what happens to it, you need to talk to me, not her.”

Marissa kept her arm firmly wrapped around
Bryan’s neck. “Pay no attention to that silly woman. She’s been trying to pass that boy off as Rick’s for years, but nobody believes her.”

Bryan’s
gaze shifted from Marissa to Grace to Rickie then to me. “Is that Rick’s son?”

I shrugged.
“I have no idea. We’re going to get a DNA test and find out.”

“
What?” Grace shrieked, stomping over to get in my face. “You want to make Rick’s son take some kind of painful test?”

“It’s
not painful, and we won’t know if we’re testing Rick’s son until the results come back.”

She became the sad, pitiful mother again.
“Poor Rickie. All his life he’s had to deal with his father not claiming him, and now you want to put him through this.”

I looked to the corner where Rickie had ceased kicking the wall and was carving something in the wood with a broken piece of glass. Poor Rickie.

“He’d have been worse off if Rick had claimed him,” I assured her.

Bryan looked completely confused. Could
n’t blame the man. He’d had no idea there was going to be a party.

“
Good afternoon.”

I turned at the sound of the familiar voice. Fred stood in the open doorway wearing a dark suit and conservative tie.
“Fred Sommers,” he said, extending a hand to Bryan.

Kollar blinked a couple of times, released Marissa and shook
Fred’s hand though without his usual enthusiasm. His perpetual smile had faded. “Bryan Kollar.” He dropped Fred’s hand and turned to Marissa. “What’s going on? You insisted on seeing the property before you’d make a deal, but you didn’t say anything about bringing all these people.”

“
I didn’t bring them,” Marissa protested. Despite her best efforts to look beautiful, self-possessed and unfazed, her jaw was clenched and her pouty lips scrunched into a thin line.

“I’m
here on Ms. Powell’s behalf.” Fred moved past the lovers and came to stand beside me. “Information has recently come to my attention that this property in which we are currently situated was purchased by the deceased from monies that were community property though such funds were secreted from my client in an attempt to conceal such real property from his legal spouse, Ms. Powell.”

I suppressed a laugh, but Bryan, Marissa and Grace stared at Fred in bewilderment tinged with a slight awe. I had to give him credit. He is good at the baffle them with bullshit thing. Only Rickie, over in the corner torturing a spider, was unimpressed. The evidence was building that he could be
Rick’s son.

“
No.” Grace gaped at Fred. “That’s…that’s not right…what are you saying?”

“
I thought—” Bryan gave a weak wave in Marissa’s direction then looked at Grace. “But she said that kid…”

“
If you intend to regain possession of the property in question in order to negotiate a larger profit margin upon completion of the shopping mall project, Mr. Kollar, that may not be an option since Rick owns the other properties around here and you could be subject to eminent domain.” Not exactly a lie since he said
could
instead of
will.
I could probably hone my lying skills by listening to Fred.

Bryan’s
eyes were glazed. “What? Shopping mall? What shopping mall?”

Fred looked smug as if
he’d just conned a piece of information out of Bryan. Of course, Fred usually looked smug so it was hard to be sure. “Are you saying you’re not trying to get this property back so you can sell it for a larger profit when the shopping mall goes in here, Mr. Kollar?”

Bryan turned pale beneath his perfect tan.
“Shopping mall? Here?”

Marissa smiled benignly, dollar signs appearing in her eyes.
“Shopping mall. So that’s what Rick was up to. That’s what his big deal was.”

Grace’s
jaw dropped, but then she recovered herself. “A whole shopping center?” A wide smile spread across her face. “A whole shopping center for my son.”

“
No,” Bryan said, visibly attempting to recover his composure. “This place has been in my family for generations. Nobody’s tearing it down to build a shopping center.”

Fred folded his arms and looked extremely official.
“That’s out of your hands, Mr. Kollar. You no longer own the property.”

Bryan Kollar, Mr. Body Beautiful with the seductive voice and perennial smile who charmed the entire city, men and women alike, was losing his cool. The famous sculptured jawline clenched. His gaze slid around the room from Fred to Marissa then to Grace, Rickie, me and back to Fred.
“My family owns this place. Rick Kramer scammed my parents out of it, and I want it back.”

Marissa stepped up and took his arm.
“This is all a silly little legal technicality. Let’s go somewhere alone.” She glared at Grace and me. “Between the two of us, we can sort this out.”

Bryan let her lead him toward the entrance.

Grace turned to her son. “Rickie, say good-bye to the nice man.”

Rickie dropped his stick and ran toward Bryan Kollar, grabbing his leg before he could get out of the way.
“Did you kill my daddy?”

Kid had a limited repertoire of accusations.

Bryan stood rooted to the spot, looking down at the psycho kid in astonishment. I knew exactly how he felt.

Marissa pried the
kid’s fingers loose, tugged on Bryan’s arm, and the two of them headed out the door.

“
Are we finished here?” I asked Fred. “Can we leave now?”

“
You can. I want to look around.”

Rickie charged over to Fred and grabbed his arm.
“Did you kill my daddy?”

Fred looked down at him and Rickie stepped back. Nobody is impervious to
Fred’s glare. “No, but I thought about it,” he said. “Would you like a piece of bubble gum?” Fred produced a colorful paper-wrapped object from his jacket pocket and presented it to Rickie.

The boy grabbed it, ripped off the paper and began to chew.

“What do you say to the nice man?” Grace prompted.

Rickie scrunched up his face and spit out the gum.
“That sucks,” he said.

I
wasn’t sure if Grace had meant for him to say
thank you
or if
that sucks
was another of the cute little phrases she’d taught the boy.

Grace glared at Fred then turned to her son.
“Let’s go.” They hurried out of the building.

“
That went well,” I said sarcastically.

“
Actually, it did. We found out Bryan Kollar didn’t know about the shopping mall venture, but there’s something here that’s worth a lot of money to him.”

I looked around the ramshackle structure.
“Just offhand, I’d say it’s not the building itself.”

“
Maybe. Maybe not.” He produced a plastic bag, leaned down and picked up the wad of chewing gum Rickie had spit out.

I threw my arms into the air.
“I do not believe you’re picking up a piece of gum off this filthy floor. Please tell me you’re not planning to clean the entire place before we leave. I’m not sweeping.”

Fred put the gum into his jacket pocket.

I gaped at him in amazement. “I’m hallucinating. The man who wears rubber gloves to take a shower did not just put a used piece of gum in his pocket.”

“
How did you know about the gloves?” He was teasing me. I’m pretty sure of it. “You could say I put a used piece of gum in my pocket, or you could say I just stored a sample of Rickie’s DNA in my pocket.”

I expected to get home before Fred because I drive faster, but I had time to feed Henry, let him out, take a shower, make plans with Trent for the evening and mix up a fresh batch of cookie dough before Fred finally drove into his garage. I noticed that his car was once again clean and shiny. A car wash would explain some of the time lapse.
I knew all that dust would freak him out.

I w
ent to his house and knocked on his front door.

He opened the door and looked over my shoulder.
“Are you alone?”

“
Of course I’m alone. Why would you ask such a question?”

“
You so rarely are these days.”

I could
n’t deny that. “For the moment, I’m alone.”

“
Come on in.”

I entered
Fred’s house and went to sit on the dark green leather sofa. “The good news is, I think my career as the manager of a B&B is over. Rick’s relations have his house and each other to wreak havoc on. Trent’s coming over later, and we expect to have a nice Friday night alone.” I got a little thrill just thinking about our first night together.

Fred took off his jacket and settled into his recliner.
“A word of advice, don’t answer your door or your phone for anybody except me.”

“
Got it. And you don’t call unless you’re dying,” I warned. After all this time and anticipation, I wasn’t about to have the evening interrupted by anything less than a huge emergency.

“
Not even if I have the results of Rickie’s DNA test?”

I looked at him dubiously.
“Can you get results that fast?”

He shrugged.
“Probably not. But I told my friend to put a rush on it.”

“You’
ve already dropped that gum off?”

“
Of course.”

“
With a friend?”

“
Yes.”

“
You have another friend besides me?” I was only half-teasing. Fred never talks about his past, and nobody ever comes to visit him except Paula and me. At least, nobody that I know of. He could have a secret tunnel leading to his house that only his best friends get to use.

Nah.
I’m his best friend.

“
I do have other friends, but none like you.”

I
wasn’t sure how he meant that, but decided to take it as confirmation of my status as his best friend. “So what do you think makes the old flour mill so important to Bryan Kollar if he didn’t already know about the plans for a shopping center?”

“
At the current time, I don’t have the answer to that question.”

“
But you have some ideas,” I prompted. I felt certain he had a whole list of possibilities.

He shook his head.
“I don’t have enough data to speculate.”

“
You could make a SWAG.” Fred’s SWAGs (Some Wild-Assed Guess) are usually more accurate than most people’s well-researched opinions.

“
I could, but I won’t. I’m going to spend the evening gathering more data. Did you ever find out the name of Rick’s girlfriend who was in the explosion with him?”

I sighed.
“Trent’s so close-mouthed about all that cop stuff. You could hack into the police computer and get the name.”

“
Honestly, Lindsay, some of the things you expect me to do just amaze me.”

But he did
n’t say he wouldn’t.

“I’m
making some fresh cookies. Come on over and have a few. The massive quantities of sugar will keep you awake all night so you can find some answers.”

“
Thank you, but you and Trent should have the entire evening alone.”

I rose from the sofa.
“If you change your mind, we still have a few hours before the
alone
part becomes critical.”

“
Are you going to wear those clothes?”

I looked down at my best jeans and red shirt.
“Not all night.”

“
The gray silk blouse and matching slacks your mother gave you for Christmas might be more appealing.”

I’d
shoved those clothes in the back of my closet and forgotten about them. How did Fred even know I had them?

X-ray vision.

“I’ll think about it.”

*~*~*

Fred’s rarely wrong, so I dragged out the clothes my mother gave me and put them on. Then, while I was thinking about her, I phoned her just to be certain she didn’t call during the evening and interrupt me while I was wearing…or not wearing…those clothes she gave me.

“
Are you on that cell phone?” she asked immediately.

Damn. I forgot about caller ID.
“Yes, but it’s okay. You won’t be getting any of those evil signals in your brain, just me, and my brain’s already doomed.”

“
Please call me back on your real phone.”

I sighed, disconnected and called her back from my landline.

“I’m so glad you called, sweetheart. I just heard the news about Julia Akin.”

I searched my brain trying to place the name. Probably one of
Mother’s friends that I met once twenty years ago and was expected to remember for the rest of my life. I had no idea if the news was good or bad, whether Mother loved or hated Julia, if I should commiserate or celebrate. “I hadn’t heard about Julia Akin,” I said, trying to be as noncommittal as possible.

“
Oh, Lindsay! I didn’t realize you didn’t know! I’ll be right over. You don’t need to be alone when you hear this.”

I was supposed to know who Julia Akin was, and my mother was coming over to tell me about her and interrupt my evening with Trent.
“No, Mother, don’t do that. I’m not alone.” There were plenty of spiders in the basement and Henry would be back soon.

“Who’s
there with you?”

“Trent’s
on his way.” He might be, and certainly would be as soon as he got off work.

“
Oh. Trent.” My mother’s voice dripped icicles. But she sighed and relented. “Very well. At least you won’t be alone tonight.”

“
No, I won’t. I’ll be just fine. Look, I’m really sorry about Julia, but I need to run. That may be Trent’s car coming down the street.”
May be.
Odds were it wasn’t, but that was a technicality.

“
Sweetheart, I don’t think you understand about Julia. We need to talk about her.”

I sank down onto the sofa, prepared for a pretentious, verbose recitation of poor
Julia’s troubles. “Okay, let’s talk.”

“That’s
the woman who died in the explosion with Rick.” Give my mother credit, she can be succinct and to the point when the occasion demands.

Though I had nothing against the late Julia Akin, I was delighted to get that news. It would give me something to throw up to Fred, that my mother had this information before he did.
“I appreciate your concern, but it really doesn’t bother me that Rick had another girlfriend.”

A long moment of silence ensued.

“Do you know who Julia Akin was?”

“Rick’s
fifty-seventh girlfriend since we got married? That’s just a wild guess. I didn’t really keep track of the number.”

My mother heaved a long-suffering sigh. It
wasn’t easy having me for a daughter. I could appreciate that. I wouldn’t want to have me for a daughter. “She’s Thomas Akin’s wife.”

“
Married? Bummer. I hope they didn’t have kids.”

“
They didn’t. Lindsay, Thomas Akin is a very prominent man in the area. He’s on the board of several organizations as well as chairman of the Missouri Roads and Highways Commission.”

This was all starting to make sense.
“Mother, where did you hear about this? It’s not on the news yet, is it?”

“
No, but it will be soon. Brent Hathaway told your father. He heard it from Sam Carruthers.”

The news was making the rounds of the elite of Kansas City. My mother was suffering from shame by association. It was one thing when her
daughter’s estranged husband dated strippers and store clerks, but now he’d branched out into my mother’s world.

Everyone would know.

“I’m sorry, Mother. Marrying Rick was a huge mistake, but I can’t take it back, and I can’t undo his misdeeds. He’s dead. She’s dead. It’s a done deal.”

“
When the television reporters come to interview you, please be circumspect in what you say.”

I thought Mother was probably being a little paranoid about the TV reporters, but I
wasn’t going to argue with her. “I can be circumspect. How about,
No comment
?”

“
Yes, that would be best. Have you decided yet when the funeral will be? We need to get that over with as quickly and discreetly as possible.”

“
Oh, well, about that…” Maybe I should have let my mother come over or gone to her place. I could handle the news about Julia, but I wasn’t sure my mother could handle everything I had to tell her. “The funeral’s been sort of taken out of my hands. Rick’s family has arrived.”

She gasped. If she had not had impeccable manners, she would have interrupted me with an expression of her astonishment.

“I know, I told you I didn’t think Rick had a family, that he was hatched from an egg in an experimental laboratory and the scientist who did it committed suicide from remorse. But it turns out he has a mother, two brothers, a former girlfriend and maybe a son.”

A long moment of dead silence.

“Mom? Are you okay? Is Dad there? Do I need to come over? Do I need to call 911?”

“
What sort of people are they?”

“
Loud, pushy, demanding. You’re not going to want to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner.”

“
Where are they right now?”

“
In Rick’s house, probably destroying everything.” I smiled at that image.

My cell phone broke into
Wild Bull Rider
. Fred.

“
I gotta go, Mom. I’ll let you know when the funeral is.”

I hung up and answered
Fred’s call.

“
I found out the name of Rick’s girlfriend,” he said.

“
Me too. Julia Akin.”
Bazinga! I said it first!

“
I suppose it’s common knowledge already. That was bound to happen.”

“
If it’s not, it will be soon. My mom’s bridge club will be spreading the news to the far corners of the earth.”

“
I didn’t realize your mother played bridge.”

Poor Fred.
I’d just scooped him and now he thought there was something he didn’t know about my mother.

“
She doesn’t play bridge. I was just making a point. The news is going the rounds in her circle of acquaintances.”

“
I see.”

“
Sorry. Didn’t mean to steal your thunder. Well, actually, I did mean to.” I couldn’t repress a short giggle. It’s so seldom I’m able to beat Fred at his own game.

“
Does your mother’s fictitious bridge club know about the new highway extension planned for the area out by Kollar’s Flour Mill?”

I sat bolt upright on the sofa.
“So that’s why Rick was buying up that property and planning a shopping center! Somehow Julia found out through her husband and told Rick.”

“
It would appear. Short of finding a good medium, I don’t suppose we’ll ever know exactly what happened, but apparently something along those lines did.”

“
I wonder what this will mean with respect to all those properties he bought? Will Marissa or Rickie or whoever gets them have to give them back since Rick had inside information he didn’t reveal?”

“
No, of course not. Julia probably broke a few laws when she shared the information about the highway, but they can’t prosecute her or Rick now.”

“
You think Bryan Kollar could have known about the highway even though he didn’t know about Rick’s plans for the shopping center?”

“It’s
possible, but I don’t think so. I need to do some more research on him.” He hung up.

I sat there on the sofa mulling over this new information until I heard a knock on the door.

Trent.

I got up to let him in. Henry darted in alongside him. I was glad my cat liked my boyfriend.
I’d have hated to have to choose between them.

Trent smiled, the green in his eyes dancing. He held out a bouquet of brightly colored flowers.