God Rest Ye Murdered Gentleman: A Foxy Ladies Christmas Novella (A Foxy Ladies Mystery Book 2) by Melissa Bourbon

Author:Melissa Bourbon [Bourbon, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake House Press
Published: 2023-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Turns out Cricket did have the answer to Robin’s question. The small group congregated in Mary Brightly’s shop where Cricket had been nursing her bunion. Her face, which was decidedly less wrinkled than Hattie and Maude’s—but not Lemon’s, since Lemon was closer to Cricket’s age—lit up when she heard the question. Real estate was her jam. She sat back, her foot pain forgotten. “The original terms of the loan would apply, but if his, uh, beneficiaries—” She paused and Hattie knew she was wondering if Michael was one of…or the beneficiary. “If it’s in the fine print and they want to call in the loan, they can. If they—the beneficiaries—want to sell the oceanfront property to settle the estate, they can do that. But the loan is on Blackbeard’s boat, so either the beneficiaries continue to carry the loan, or it needs to be settled. Maybe sold. But the whole thing will go through probate first. Robin didn’t say. Why was Matty terminating the loan?”

Robin didn’t know. Nobody knew. Matty Mooge had been as tightlipped as they come. The land was a stretch of oceanfront that he’d snapped up eons ago. The Board of Commissioners was strong in its position on limited growth on the island, so he had to leave it undeveloped. He leased a parcel to Robin for his pirate ship, but that was it. It was the only time Hattie knew of when he had done something that didn’t actually benefit him. Selling it or developing it would have made him a mint, but he’d tried to get the commissioners to change their minds and let them rezone…unsuccessfully.

“The only reasons I can think of—besides him being a horrible human—”

Lemon’s gasp cut her off. “Cricket!”

Cricket gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “You know me, sugar. I call ‘em like I see ‘em. I’m not saying he deserved to die, but he was horrible.” She looked at each of them. “Am I right?”

“Truer words were never spoken,” Maude said dryly.

Cricket cleared her throat. “As I was saying. The only reasons I can think of for him to call in the loan are—” She ticked them off on her fingers as she went through them. “One. He’s just being a horrible human being. Two. He planned to develop the land. Three. He planned to sell the land.”

“You can check on that last one, can’t you?” Hattie said.

“I can check in the MLS if it was listed, but it could be a pocket listing.” Robin looked at her blankly so she elaborated. “The Multiple Listing Service is basically a database of properties listed that all agents have access to. We can put in search parameters and it spits out all the houses and properties that fit.”

“And a…what did you call it? A pocket listing?” Robin asked.

“That’s when a property is not put into the MLS, so only the agent representing the sale knows about it.”

“Seems underhanded,” Maude commented.

“It’s not though,” Cricket said. “When you know a lot of people and have client referrals, it’s a way to keep more of the pie, but it’s completely legitimate.

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