“Ready to elaborate more on that?”

“I already told you we met in high school.”

“Yeah, he married Claudia, you married Kevin…” He was peering into her eyes, hungry for more than the meager offerings she’d doled out so far.

“We remained friends as adults. The four of us hung around often—that being Tony, Claudia, me, and Kev. After he and Lindsey died, Tony and Claudia pulled away, and I let them. We fell out of touch, and yesterday was the first time I’ve seen Tony in years. Well, in six-plus years, say.”

“Wow. And then you have to tell him that his wife is dead. That’s shit.”

“Hey, don’t pity me too much. I’m a tough cop.”

Trent smirked. “No one’s denying that.”

“Good. And I’ll do my job. If Tony Bishop was involved with his wife’s death, I will arrest him.” She drilled that point home with solid eye contact.

“No reason to believe you wouldn’t, but…”

“I know. I need to tell Malone about the connection, and the longer I wait to do that, the messier it will be.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll let him know. Right now, though, you and I need to focus on Alicia’s life and who might have had motive to kill her.”

“The tried and true are jealousy, money, revenge…” Trent tapped the steering wheel. “What am I missing?”

“Love. You’d be surprised what people will do in the name of it. But we can’t forget that Alicia was also a very wealthy woman. Who stood to benefit from her death?”

“It is said: follow the money. Tony is going to inherit New Belle, and that place has to be worth a mint.”

“Something he’d never get his hands on without her death.” Again, putting that out there made it all the more real—Tony had motive. “I’m sure there’s far more on the line than her business too—investments, bank accounts, property holdings… We should get our hands on her will.”

“I agree. We might want to look at anyone who was interested in buying New Belle too. Maybe Alicia was a hard negotiator, and someone felt with her out of the way, they could take over the company from her successor for far less.”

“Also, was Harold Armstrong really in the dark about Alicia’s plan to sell New Belle like he claimed? Or did he actually know about it? He was obviously vested in the company—at first financially, but he stuck by Alicia all these years. It likely became more than a business relationship. Maybe even beyond friends. A father figure? I just wonder where he’d be left if Alicia sold.”

“It would have been a major life change for him, and the guy’s not getting any younger.”

There was so much to investigate, and they’d barely scratched the surface. For the people they mentioned, the primary motivating force would conceivably be money. Where did that leave jealousy, revenge, love? “Well, I think our next step is clear,” she said. “We need to talk to Tony again, find out more about Alicia.”

“Here I thought you were going to suggest lunch.” Trent smiled over at her.

She appreciated that he was trying to set her at ease, accounting for her feelings. “Okay, but something from a drive-thru that we can scarf down in the car.”

“I’m not fussy. Just hungry.” He laid a hand over his flat stomach as if to emphasize the point.

“All right.”

He drove them to Petey’s Patties, Zoe’s favorite place to eat. Though her preference might have been swayed by the boxed meals that included a small toy—a marketing ploy they’d obviously copied from McDonald’s. But, as they say, don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Amanda ordered a bacon cheeseburger, cutting out the fries, and a Coke. Trent did the same except he kept the order of fries.

They munched it down in the parking lot.

“Zoe can never find out that I ate here without her.” Amanda bit off a chunk of cow, pig, and carbs… Delicious! She’d never be a vegetarian.

Trent looked over at Amanda. “She likes this place?”

“She loves this place.”

If Amanda knew they were going to stick to talking about personal matters, they could have gone inside and sat at a table instead of balancing everything on their laps and the dash. When she’d suggested dining in the car, she imagined them either discussing the case or eating on the move. But as much as she was in a hurry to talk to Tony, she wasn’t.

It was going on one thirty in the afternoon when they pulled into the Gordon/Bishop driveway. Tony answered the door wearing jogging pants and a fitted tee.

“Mandy?” His gaze danced over her to Trent, back again. “You have some news?”

She cringed at him calling her by her nickname and thought of correcting him. For the purposes of their interactions, he should be calling her Detective Steele. But she let it go for now. “Can we come in?”

“Of course.” Tony shook his head as if he were remiss for not already making that offer. He added, “I was just on the phone with my dad. Mom’s gone. Did you know that? She died of a stroke three years ago.”

“Sorry for your loss.”

“Seems you’re saying that to me a lot lately.”

An awkward silence fell for a few seconds, in which Amanda became curious about something. “Alicia’s parents must be having a hard time,” she said, an inquiry enclosed as she’d heard nothing about them.

“They both died a couple of years back. Car accident,” he added at a near whisper and turned his gaze briefly away from her. “Anyway,” he went on. “I’m just trying to make arrangements.”

“Has her body been released already?” Amanda put that as delicately as possible, but typically Rideout would notify her of such things. And the autopsy had just been conducted. Heck, Rideout could still be finishing up.

“Not yet. I’m just trying to get ahead of things.”

What he was doing was pushing through, like a robot performing its duties. Keeping busy to feel needed. She remembered the feeling. He probably feared if he halted mission mode everything would collapse on top of him. And he wouldn’t be wrong. Then again, there could be another reason motivating him. The faster Alicia’s body was in the ground, the faster evidence of her murder could be buried along with her. She stiffened. “Didn’t Alicia have preparations already in place?”

“Some, yes. Come, let’s sit.” He took them to the sitting room where she’d served notification the previous day.

Once everyone was settled, Amanda spoke again. “She had some ‘end of life’ matters sorted but not everything?” She found that hard to believe about a highly successful business owner. Most of them were organized and ready for all contingencies.

“She had a will but didn’t have her funeral arrangements planned out. That would have been too much for her. Alicia was about living… Life! She was a businesswoman through and through, but she was also somewhat of a daredevil. She was a fresh breeze as far as I’m concerned. She loved skydiving and white-water rafting.”

Tags: Carolyn Arnold Thriller
Source: readsnovelonline.net