“Good.” Peyton sat back, resting his arm along the curved top of his chair. He waited for me to speak first.
“I want to begin by telling you how much Emily Grace appreciates your offering her the opportunity to renew her lease on the property where Graceland School now stands,” I said.
Peyton nodded.
“The school has been in operation for nearly twenty years. It’s highly regarded in its field. It’s a place whose mission your father believed in.”
“I’m aware of that,” he replied. “That was my father’s vision. He felt it was important to help people whose dreams had real merit. And, obviously, Emily made the most of what he was able to offer her.”
“She’s very grateful for everything your family has done for her,” I said.
“And she would like our largesse to continue.” Peyton’s expression was stern enough to discourage hopes from being harbored on that score.
“You should know that Emily’s working to raise the money she’ll need to renew the lease at the terms you’re currently offering. As you may be aware, however, she’s run into a few small difficulties lately.”
Peyton lifted a brow. “A dead body seems like more than a small difficulty. I’m wondering how those people who hold her school in such high regard feel about that complication?”
“Of course, everyone knows she wasn’t responsible for what happened,” I said quickly.
“Do they? It’s my impression that the police are investigating Emily as a suspect in her ex-husband’s murder.”
I leaned back in my seat, affecting what I hoped looked like a casual pose. “I’m sure you have better connections than I do. What else have the police told you?”
Peyton’s gaze remained level. “If my resources are better than most, it’s only because my family owns the property next to where the shooting took place. Believe me, we don’t perceive that as an advantage. A murder is not something the Hancock family wishes to be associated with.”
“Even if it turned out to be the impetus for removing Emily from your property before her lease ends?” I asked. “I understand there are developers who are anxious to get their hands on that land. I’m sure you’ve had some significant offers to sell.”
I’d hoped the question wouldn’t anger Peyton, and it didn’t. Instead he looked amused.
“Let me make sure I understand you,” he said. “Are you trying to suggest that a Hancock family member might have been responsible for that man’s murder, with profit as the motivating factor?”
I shrugged lightly. That seemed like a safer idea than agreeing outright. Or mentioning that Peyton’s character hadn’t withstood the temptation to act dishonorably when his own interests were at stake in the past.
“If that’s the case, you could not be more wrong,” he said. “Even if I were willing to set ethics aside in order to gain control of that land—which I am not—I wouldn’t have needed to kill anyone to do so. An under-the-table offer was made to me several months ago that would have accomplished the same thing. I turned it down then, and there’s been no reason for me to change my mind since.”
I stared at him in surprise. “Who made that offer?”
“It was presented to me by Will Grace.”
My surprise turned to shock. “The man who was subsequently murdered behind your property?” I sputtered.
“Precisely,” Peyton said.
Chapter 23
“Do I look as dumbfounded as I feel?” I asked.
Peyton nodded. It seemed he was trying not to smile.
“Emily isn’t aware of that,” I said firmly. At least I hoped she wasn’t.
“I didn’t think so,” Peyton agreed. “Grace certainly didn’t give me the impression he’d brought me the offer with her endorsement. In fact, quite the opposite.”
With everything I’d learned about Will Grace over the past ten days, there was only one thing I could say. “He came to you for money, didn’t he?”
“Yes. Grace framed the request as a loan—though I doubt either one of us thought for even a moment that the money would ever be repaid.”
“What did Will offer to do for you in return?” I asked.
“He said he still possessed a great deal of influence over his ex-wife. That she would do whatever he told her to.”
I snickered at that.
“That was my first thought too,” Peyton agreed. “Though I was able to hide my feelings better than you do.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Please continue.”
“Grace informed me that he was aware of the status of Emily’s lease. He said when the time came for renewal, Emily planned to raise a fuss about the new terms. She would go to the media and paint the Hancock family as moustache-twirling villains, eager to prey on a poor defenseless woman. Grace offered to help me circumvent that problem. In exchange for a generous sum, he would convince Emily to vacate the property quickly and quietly.”
“All of that is wrong,” I said. “Emily feels indebted to your family for the opportunity your father gave her. I’m sure she would never turn around and stab you in the back.”
“What she might or might not do was a moot point with regard to my response to Will Grace. The man struck me as a shifty character from the outset. Even if I had been interested—which I was not—the man inspired no faith in his ability to deliver what he was offering. I turned him down flat.”
“That was a good move,” I said.
“That was the only move,” Peyton replied sharply. “That’s not the way Hancock Finance, or the Hancock family, does business. There’s nothing illegal or immoral about our plan to rewrite Emily’s contract when it expires at the end of next year. Surely people will understand that.”
I nodded, then said, “Does it seem like an odd coincidence to you that Will would try to make a deal concerning that piece of property—and then be found dead there just a few months later?”
“Not necessarily. Considering the dexterity with which he outlined his scheme, I doubt that I’m the first person Will Grace has tried to dupe. Perhaps not even the first he thought he could engage in a deal over that particular property. For whatever reason, he seemed to think he could make a score there. Perhaps it’s poetic justice that he discovered in the worst possible way that he was wrong.”
“Was that the last time you had any contact with him?” I asked.
“When I showed Grace to the door, I told him I didn’t want to hear from him again.” Peyton’s lips flattened in disgust. “Nevertheless, as he was leaving, he pressed his attorney’s business card into my hand. He said if I wished to reconsider his offer, that was who I should call.”
“Do you still have that card?”
“I did until last week.” Peyton stood up, signaling that he’d given me enough of his time. “I’d tossed it in a drawer and forgotten about it. Then Grace was killed and the police came to see me. I gave the card to the detective.”
“Do you remember the name that was on it?” I asked as we walked to the door together.
“I should hope so, since I just saw it. The two men shared the same last name. Owen Grace was the attorney. His office is in Southbury.”
“Yes,” I said. “I know.”
This time I’d managed to surprise him. “You do?”
“Owen is Will’s brother.”
“Not two peas from the same pod, I hope,” Peyton said.
I hadn’t thought so. But now I might have to reevaluate.
When we’d spoken, Owen had been clear about the fact that his business dealings weren’t intertwined with his brother’s. Now it looked as though he’d been lying to me. If he hadn’t told the truth about that, what else might he have lied about?
“I guess that remains to be seen,” I said.
* * *
I considered calling Aunt Peg to tell her that I’d followed her directive and met with Peyton Hancock. But with Coral’s next dog show just two days away, I knew she’d be busy grooming the Standard Poodle. Rathe
r than interrupting her, I decided to head back to Graceland School. Camp would still be in session, but hopefully Emily would have time for a chat. I wanted to bring her up to date on what I’d learned.
As soon I turned in the school’s driveway, I saw the three Dalmatians running around the grassy field beside the entrance. The puppies shouldn’t have been that close to the road without supervision. I quickly stopped my car and started to get out. Then Pansy raced toward the trees before circling back the other way, and I realized that the dogs weren’t alone. Miles was in the field with them.
As I continued up the driveway, Miles called the puppies to him. The trio quickly obeyed. When he began to walk back toward the school buildings, they followed along behind him.
When I got out of the Volvo, Miles was just a few steps away. The puppies came running over to sniff my legs and check my pockets. I patted each of their silky heads in turn.
“That was amazing,” I said to Miles. “You need to teach Emily how to do that.”
“Do what?” He raked a hand back through his hair. There was a sheen of sweat on his brow. He and the Dalmatians must have been outside for a while.
“How you get those puppies to listen to you. And to follow when you want them to go somewhere.”
“It’s no big deal.”
“Yes,” I said, “it is.”
Miles shrugged. “I’ve just been spending time with them, that’s all. Actual quality time. No yelling, or chasing, or telling them everything they do is wrong. Emily’s problem is that she never bothered to train these guys.”
“You’re right,” I agreed.
“Puppies are like sponges, they absorb whatever you expose them to—the good stuff and the bad. If you don’t set expectations for their behavior, they’ll decide for themselves what they want to do.”
Right again, I thought. Aunt Peg would love this guy.
Miles grinned. “Plus it helps that I’m a big believer in positive reinforcement—and that I always have a pocket full of treats.”
“Hey, puppies!” he said, drawing the dogs’ attention back to him. “Who wants a biscuit?”
The three Dalmatians immediately spun away from me to line up in front of Miles. He slipped a hand in his pocket, then raised it above the puppies’ heads. Three sets of dark eyes followed it.
“Sit!” he told them.
Poppy and Posey quickly lowered their hindquarters to the ground. Pansy took a little longer, but within seconds she was sitting too.
“Good dogs.” Miles slipped a small biscuit into each puppy’s mouth. “Well done!”
“Well done to you too. If you keep that up, they’ll be solid citizens in no time.” I couldn’t help but smile. “How long are you going to be staying?”
“Just until Emily gets her problems sorted out,” he replied.
That thought had a sobering effect on both of us.
“I’d hoped to be back in New Hampshire by the end of next week. But Emily’s been talking about some sort of country fair/school benefit that she and your aunt have cooked up. Now she wants me to be here for that.”
“You might enjoy it,” I said. “The event is shaping up to be great. Last I heard, they’d hired a country western band.”
“Whooheee!” Miles pretended to doff a cowboy and twirl it. “I guess that means I’ll have to brush up on my line dancing.”
The Dalmatians suddenly saw something near the school. All three heads turned. Then they jumped up and took off running.
“Their sit was great,” I said with a laugh. “Now you have to work on their stay.”
We looked to see where the dogs were going. Emily was standing in the doorway of the smaller building. She lifted her arm over her head and waved.
“It looks like we’ve been summoned,” Miles said. “I hope there isn’t more bad news.”
“No, we’re good,” I told him. Emily was smiling.
I hoped she’d still be happy when I finished telling her what I knew.
* * *
By common consensus we ended up in the school kitchen, because that was where the cold drinks were. While Emily got several bottles of green tea out of the refrigerator, I refilled the puppies’ bowl with fresh, cool water.
The cafeteria next door—used when school was in session—had neat rows of plastic tables and chairs. In the kitchen, there was just a scarred wooden trestle table that looked as though it had seen several generations of use. We sat down around it. The Dalmatians fanned out on the cool linoleum floor.
Emily gazed at me and Miles across the table. “You guys looked like you had plenty to talk about out there.”
“We did,” I told her. “We were discussing dog training.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “I thought it might have been something interesting.”
That attitude, in a nutshell, explained why the puppies had been running wild for the past three months.
“It was interesting to us,” Miles said.
“He and I were agreeing that the puppies’ lives are easier when they understand what’s expected of them,” I added.
“I know what I expect,” Emily retorted. “I want them to come when they’re called, behave in the house, and stop barking all the time.”
“Those are all tall orders,” Miles told his sister. “Especially since you don’t appear to have put much effort into training them to do those things.”
“I’ll get to it,” Emily glared his way. “I’ve been a little busy, okay?”
Miles didn’t snap back at her. Instead, he twisted the top off his bottle and took a long swallow of tea.
“Are you aware that before Will gave you those Dalmatians he offered them to Vanessa first?” I asked.
Emily’s glare swung my way. “How do you know that?”
“I talked to her a couple of days ago about your mutual ex-husband. That was one of the things she mentioned.”
“I told you not to do that,” Emily snapped.
“You also asked for my help. That means I get to talk to anyone who might have useful information.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Miles’s head dip in a small nod of approval.
“Vanessa is the woman Will ran off with, right?” he asked.
“That’s right.”
“What else did she have to say about Will?”
“Mostly good riddance,” I told him. I glanced back at Emily. “She and Will were married, by the way. It didn’t last long before she kicked him to the curb.”
“Which is exactly what he deserved.” She snorted. “I guess that means she doesn’t have a motive for wanting him dead?”
“Probably not. She said that you were the most likely person to blame.”
Emily’s outraged expression wasn’t entirely convincing. “I have no idea why she would say that.”
“Really?” Miles smirked. “It’s not like it was a secret how you felt about the guy when he dumped you.”
“Why can’t anyone ever get past that?” Emily’s voice rose enough to make Poppy lift her head to look at us. “All that crap is behind me. Okay?”
Well, sure, I thought. And that was where it would have stayed—if her ex-husband hadn’t been murdered virtually in her backyard. Surely Emily had to understand why it was necessary to talk about this.
“Let’s change the subject,” she said.
“Okay,” I replied. “Peyton Hancock.”
“Oh lord.” Emily moaned. “You went to see him, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“If he refuses to renew my lease because you went down to Hancock Finance and annoyed him, I will never forgive you.”
“At the moment, it doesn’t seem to matter whether he offers you a renewal or not,” I pointed out mildly. “Because you can’t afford the terms the Hancock family plans to propose. So I hardly think that anything I said or did has any bearing on the matter.”
“She has a point,” Miles agreed.
Emily frowned. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”
“I
assume that’s a rhetorical question, but I will answer it anyway. I’m on your side. We both are. So rather than snapping at us, you might try showing a little gratitude.”
Bravo, Miles, I thought. As a family member, he could say what I, a friend, could not.
“You’re right,” Emily admitted after a minute. “Melanie, I apologize. My behavior was uncalled for. I wouldn’t tolerate it from a student, so there’s no reason either of you should have to tolerate it from me. Please tell us about your conversation with Peyton.”
Her small speech cleared the air. The three of us relaxed. For now—because what I was about to say was bound to be disturbing.
“Peyton told me that Will had approached him last spring with a scheme to screw you over and extort money from the Hancocks,” I said.
“What?” This time Emily’s outraged expression was entirely real. “Damn that man, anyway,” she growled. “It’s a good thing Will is already dead, or I swear I could murder him myself.”
Chapter 24
“That’s exactly the kind of talk that gets you in trouble,” Miles said.
“Shut up.” Emily reached over and gave her brother’s arm a sharp slap. “You just told me I’m among friends. That should mean I don’t have to watch every word that comes out of my mouth.”
She continued to look annoyed, however. “Every time I think Will can’t sink any lower, he still manages to surprise me. I can’t believe that bastard tried to make a deal with Peyton Hancock behind my back.”
Miles muttered something under his breath. I suspected he was lamenting Will Grace’s treatment of his sister.
Emily frowned, thinking back. “That must have been around the same time Will gave the puppies to me. He asked me for money then too. I didn’t give it to him,” she added unnecessarily.
“Will was never happier than when he had a deal in the works,” Miles said. “What did this one entail?”
“He assured Peyton that in exchange for a sum of money, he could convince Emily to give up this property without a fuss.”
She shook her head. “As if Will would be able to make me do anything—much less that.”
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