Pecan Pie Predicament (Murder in the Mix #27) - Addison Moore Page 0,39
up above.
He rolls it closed once again. “The landlord said he’s trying to get in touch with her family, but if that doesn’t work, he’ll hire someone to put her things in storage. As soon as he does a few things around here, he says we can take possession of it. We’ll have a home again in no time.”
“A home.” I shake my head. “I guess we’ll need to do a little shopping. We lost everything we owned. I’m lucky Lainey still had some more maternity clothes to give me, and Everett, you’re lucky your tailor had an entire new line of suits ready for you in no time.”
Noah steps in close. “I’ll take you shopping, Lot. We can pick up a pizza and make a date out of it.” He inches back as if catching himself with the blunder. “A friendly date.”
“Would you think I was a loser if I said I’d rather curl up on our couch and do a little internet shopping while eating that pizza? In fact, I might just order the furniture to this place in the same way.” I shrug over at Everett. “All I want to do these days is eat and sleep. If my fingers can do the clicking, my feet don’t want to do the kicking.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Everett glances to Noah. “I’m going to do a quick sweep of the house and make sure Evie and Carlotta aren’t lying on the kitchen floor clutching crullers. Enjoy your date.”
“Very funny,” I say just as Greer and Barry step into the room. “Ooh, quick, give me your hand.”
“If you’re going to cheat, I suggest you start with my lips. No reason to move slow. We’re having a baby.”
I make a face. “You’re a real comedian. Greer Giles and Barry Honeycutt are here.”
A while back I discovered that if someone was holding my hand, they, too, could hear the dead. I guess you can say it’s like a bad game of telephone, only the other line links straight to the other side.
“Hello, Barry.” Noah gives a circular nod to the space in front of us. “So how did you know Hannah?”
“I saw her at the gym now and again. I asked her out, and we dated hot and heavy for about six months. But I was doing competitions and she was sailing around the world, going on exotic vacations, spending her daddy’s money faster than her father could earn it.”
“Right up until he lost it all.” I filled Noah in on everything Barry and I gleaned from Reese. “Hannah may have been a socialite who fell from financial grace, but she did get her life together pretty quickly. I mean, this is a nice rental house. She had a business. She seemed like a real go-getter.”
Barry floats over and glances to the filing cabinet. “All right, let’s have at it. Those donuts are calling my name.”
I pull open the pink file first, and it’s loaded with paperwork of some kind—something to do with art.
Noah leans in. “It’s a certificate of authentication. Ivy dug into it. It belongs to a few oil paintings that were purchased on a cruise ship about a year ago. The pieces are currently in her bedroom.”
“Nice,” I say as I riffle through the rest of the file. “Receipts from the track—as in horse races. Huh. It looks as if she won a few small jackpots, nothing over seven hundred dollars.” There’s nothing else in the file, so I move on to the blue folder, and no sooner do I open it than I see an eight-by-ten picture of a horse. It’s black as midnight, and its mane is long and gloriously crimped. “What a majestic beast.”
Greer leans in. “I’ll say. That’s a Friesian. They cost as much as a Bentley. I once dated a man who had both.”
I turn the picture over, and there’s an inscription on that back that reads To Hannah, Merry Christmas. He’s all yours. Chuck
“Wow,” I muse. “Do you think this Chuck person gifted this horse to Hannah?”
Noah shakes his head. “I have no idea. But I can run a search and track down all the Friesians I can in the area.”
The rest of the file is filled with receipts spanning from an oil change on her truck to a receipt from a Doctor Van Spalding’s office. I quickly search through it.
“Look at this, Noah. It’s the paperwork from her gluteal augmentation.” I flip through