Proof of Murder (Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #4) - Lauren Elliott Page 0,101
beginning, my dear?” He tightened his grip around her throat. “And now you’re going to be my ticket out.” Addie took another step toward him. “Stop right there, or I’ll snap her neck like a twig.”
Addie stopped, her gaze darting around the room for something, anything, to use as a weapon, but it was no use. Blake had cleared the room of everything except the large desk.
Vera squirmed under Art. Her hands flew to her throat, her fingers struggling to work their way under the ivory handle. By the discoloration on Vera’s lips, Addie knew she was in trouble. She had to think fast.
“Why don’t you let her go, and you can tell me what this is all about.”
“There’s nothing to tell. The plan has been in the works since before I met this lovely lady last year. I discovered her daughter owned a real-estate company in Greyborne Harbor, and that since the authorities thought I was dead, my family home was going to be sold for back taxes. I needed an in, and”—he stroked Vera’s cheek with his free hand—“what was a better in than befriending the lonely widow of the real-estate owner who would be handling the listing? I played my cards right. It gave me access to the keys for the house, and I began squirreling away the items I knew I could sell and make a lot of money from. Then I found my grandfather’s journal stashed in here and my ticket to a different future: heir apparent to the Gallagher estate.”
“But you destroyed a valuable book in the process. It could have added to your wealth.”
“Collateral damage, my dear, one small sacrifice to find the birth certificate my grandfather had hidden inside it. How else was I going to prove the right to my inheritance since I had been presumed dead?”
“Did you find the journal upstairs in that hidden room?”
“Yes, it seems my great-grandfather liked to entertain his lady friends up there. That’s why he built it and the tunnel leading up from the garden.”
“The rumors about Tobias Gallagher were true. He was a womanizer.”
“He was that and much more. What’s written in the journals about him would curl your toes, my dear. Let’s just say that secret room and tunnel provided his family with a very affluent life. It’s just too bad my great-grandmother couldn’t live with what he was involved with and took her life because of it.”
Addie shivered, recalling the news article she’d read. “You learned all this from your grandfather’s journals?”
“It seems I’m not the first of the Gallaghers to take a walk on the dark side.” His face twisted in a mock laugh. “From what I read, I knew the certificate was somewhere in this mausoleum. There were clues in his journals, too. I just had no idea at first what they meant. I only knew it was hidden inside something in this house. Then I discovered the barrister’s case hidden in one of the wings in the attic. It seems your good friend, Blake, and his Irish crony were running a scheme of their own, which was foiled when a staffer discovered the case and brought it downstairs for appraisal. I had already found the books in there and the one that matched the vague clue about a scarlet thread running through the skein of life. I had ordered the replicas just in case my hunch about that book was right.”
“It obviously was.” Addie kept her eyes on his as she shuffled closer to the desk.
“But who knew you’d show up and start asking questions and discover the originals were gone before I could claim my inheritance?” His grip around Vera’s throat tightened. “With that piece of paper and a DNA match to the lock of hair with it, I can now put a stop to the sale of the rest of my property, and I don’t have to leave town with the loot I’ve taken like I had first planned.”
“You’re forgetting one important factor.” Addie edged her way around the desk. “You now have two witnesses to all this who know what you’ve been doing.”
He smirked, turning his body to match her position. “Do you really think I have any intention of letting either of you go?” Vera wheezed as his hand tightened on her neck. “This one will escort me out of town so we can celebrate our honeymoon in which she’ll meet with a most unfortunate accident while we walk the path around the Grand Canyon.”