War of the Squirrels by Kirsten Weiss

Author:Kirsten Weiss [weiss, kirsten]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery, dog mystery, funny
Publisher: misterio press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Blackmail, Susan?” Arsen folded his arms across his golf shirt. Frowning, he stood inside the open door to the foyer. “You had your phone volume on high. I could hear everything.”

I set the phone on the kitchen table. “That was a PI in San Francisco, Jared Sterling. He’s going to do a background check on Franklin Asher, since I haven’t been able to find anything on him online. It’s a little strange that he’s an internet ghost.”

“What’s strange is overhearing your girlfriend sounding like she’s blackmailing a private investigator. What’s going on?”

“Blackmail?” I asked, confused. “I wasn’t blackmailing him.”

“And yet he’s going to work for you for free.”

“That’s not blackmail, that’s guilt.” Wasn’t it? I replayed our conversation in my mind. The detective couldn’t have thought...

Oh. Oh, no. My stomach twisted, and I sank back in my chair.

My parents. The detective had gotten a lot more nervous and cooperative when I’d brought them up. But he couldn’t know what they did for a living. Could he?

I needed to call the man back and explain. I reached for the phone on the table.

Arsen’s face smoothed. “He was the investigator your parents hired to follow you, wasn’t he?”

I nodded, my hand retreating.

“He should feel guilty,” Arsen said hotly. “But you could have asked me for help. I do own a security firm, you know. I’ve got people on call who do background checks for a living.”

“You do?” But one of us would have had to pay those people, and I knew Arsen would try to cover that cost. I wasn’t about to let him.

He sat across from me. “So you think there’s a real chance the butler did it?”

“I hate to say it, but Franklin makes a good suspect. He found the body. He had means, opportunity, and motive. Plus, it’s suspicious for someone his age not to have any social media accounts. And Maive hinted there’s something in Franklin’s past that needed looking into.”

“Hinted? She didn’t tell you what it was?”

“No.”

“That doesn’t seem like Maive.” He scratched the back of his head. “She’s pretty direct.”

“Is she?” I rubbed my forearm. How well did Arsen know Maive?

I pulled my phone to me and found the footage Darla had sent. “There’s something else. Darla’s home security camera caught these the day Mr. Van Der Woodsen was killed.”

I handed him the phone.

Frowning, he watched the videos. “The Mercedes belongs to Mr. Van Der Woodsen. It looks like Asher was driving. And that Tesla looks like Maive’s car.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Does the sheriff have these?”

“Darla said she’d already given them to her.”

“Are there any others?” he asked.

“No. Just these.”

“Maive and Franklin Asher were the only suspects to come through the gate the day Van Der Woodsen was killed.”

“But there must be other ways onto the grounds,” I said.

“There is. His estate backs onto an open preserve. You can get to it from Dead Horse Road.”

“So anyone could have snuck in,” I said, glum. At least we were filling in the timeline, but we needed more evidence.

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