Buyers? To the cottage? Or thepond? Evie kept her surprise to herself. Had the trust agreed to sell after all? She’d known the mayor had been buying up farmland between the town and the county line to the east, but she thought her family had refused his offers. Now that she knew about the trust...
“There was more than one deed in that package. Was there only one related to Witch Hill?” Evie feared suspicion might be contagious, but she was beyond certain that something shady was happening. Her family would not sell the hill.
“The others are lots around town of no particular significance. Loretta’s money is mostly in investments. Land out here isn’t worth a lot.” With a slight frown, Jax studied the bungalow.
“Unless someone knows about a big development coming,” Evie suggested.
Not understanding the path of Evie’s thoughts, Loretta opened the car door. “Maybe my daddy wanted to move back home and that’s why they came here? Maybe they’re inside?”
“Oh dear, no, I should hope not.” But Evie flung open her door and ran after her.
* * *
Jax knewan empty house when he saw one. He let the females explore while he employed his phone and his time to better use. He ordered Roark and Reuben to Savannah to see if they could break into the Posts’ safe as easily as Evie had. He had Ariel send him a spreadsheet of the Posts’ bank accounts and transfers between them, including the odd one in the Caymans.
He read through Reuben’s comparison of deeds to the registrar’s records—it looked as if the Letitia Post property wasn’t in the county files, even though the deed Evie had in the deposit box looked genuine. And the land trust didn’t show up at all.
He’d suspect Evie’s family of making up the trust and everything else, but a worm gnawing at his gut said they’d been nothing but blunt and open from the get-go—if he ignored the psychic drama.
And now he was starting to wonder if he’d been wrong about that, too. The Cayman Island account had been set up at the time the Posts were reportedly sailing in the Gulf—but what if Loretta was right and her parents hadn’t been on that yacht and had come to Afterthought instead? Anddied here, as Evie swore.
Just that possibility opened an ugly new path of thought—if it wasn’t the Posts,who had siphoned the money to the Caribbean?
A lot of people stood to profit from their deaths. Anyone involved with Lakeland Development in any capacity might have an interest in a building boom in Afterthought. All the businesses in town would benefit from an influx of newcomers. Even farmers wanting to sell their land would appreciate higher land prices.
Only people like Evie’s family who preferred nature and small-town life would object. And Loretta would certainly prefer to have her parents back than have their money.
As an afterthought—and he used the term ironically—Jax took a picture of the cottage with Evie and Loretta peering in the windows. He sent it to Ariel. Maybe he could inspire her to consider living elsewhere. If there was any possibility that Stephen had become involved in illicit activities, Jax worried about her future staying with him.
He was having a hard time accepting that the man he’d trusted most of his life might be a criminal and that the whacko family living on the thin edge of fraudulent behavior for centuries was the honest part of this scenario. But after Afghanistan... He was just jaded enough to not trust anyone.
Loretta trotted back to the car and plopped down on the back seat. “Evie said it’s been too long and she can’t detect any sign of my parents here. But it can bemyhouse when I grow up, can’t it?”
“We’ll have to rent it out so it doesn’t fall apart,” he warned. “What about the house back in the city? Should I rent that out too?”
“I like it here. I can make friends here.”
Huh, that sounded like acceptance that her parents weren’t coming back. Evie’s magic wasn’t exactly mystical, but good enough with kids who read Harry Potter.
His pixie nemesis slid into the front seat, bringing a breath of fresh air sweetened with honeysuckle. She was carrying a bouquet of blooming vines. “It’s hard to make friends in a neighborhood unless you go to school with them. But you’re likely to be tired of Afterthought before you graduate. So don’t set your heart on living here forever. You’ll need to go to college and learn about a wider world.”
“Did you go to college?” Loretta asked as Jax started the car and turned it around.
“No money and no scholarship.” Evie picked an ant off a blossom. “Besides, they don’t teach what I do there. And I don’t think I’d fit very well into a police academy. But I’d like to live in a city for a while. I’ve run out of ghosts here.”
Jax rolled his eyes and figured this was a conversation he could stay out of. He simply couldn’t see anyone as naïve as Evie thinking like a criminal mastermind.
Of course, Evie had been the one dragging him down the road of suspicion from day one.
Jax drove into town with every intention of dropping off Evie and Loretta and returning the sedan to the rental company where he’d left his Jag. But his phone pinged as soon as they hit town. Saturday Main Street traffic was too busy to park. He had to pull into the drive of Evie’s house so he could read it.
A deputation of Evie’s family was waiting for them.
The text from Reuben on his phone read:WAR ZONE. RUN
Oh, well, yeah, thanks, friend, Jax thought, watching the army of females through the windshield. At least they weren’t carrying battleaxes.
Evie almost flew out the door. “What’s wrong? What happened? Where’s Mom?”