Murder in the Marigolds by Dale Mayer (good books to read for 12 year olds txt) 📗

But they broke her nose and ended up killing her instantly, as a bone pierced her brain. So the burglary ended up being two murders.

Doreen stared at the information on the page and shook her head. “What a waste,” she said. As she continued, she realized it was, indeed, a cold case. The murderer had never been caught, and the local authorities had very few suspects. Doreen knew that the son would be a suspect by default, since he was the one who inherited.

And he was married at the time, to her lovely ex-lawyer.

“Interesting,” she muttered. “Law school is expensive. Is that how she funded it?” And that, of course, led to Doreen wondering if both Robin and her husband had funded college that way deliberately. Doreen hated to think that anybody would kill their parents in order to get the money to go to school, but she had seen murders for less. And she knew Mack had seen murder cases with much less motive. She frowned as she sat back.

What motive would there be, besides money? The burglars apparently got away with handfuls of jewelry and a painting, all of which had yet to show up later. And just like that, she was fascinated. She got up and paced her kitchen and then the living room. In a comedic array, Mugs matched her, step by step by step. Goliath, in true fashion, settled himself on the bottom step of the stairway, and she watched his tail twitching, as she went past him again and again and again. Thaddeus was on the kitchen table, doing a stiff-legged march along the tabletop, keeping time with her. She laughed. “I don’t think any of this is helping us, guys.”

“Helping Thaddeus. Helping Thaddeus.”

“Are you helping, Thaddeus? Well, in that case, do you want to go find something shiny for us?” she asked. “I feel like we need a break in the case.”

“Break in the case. Break in the case.”

“Well, I said we needed a break, and, being a cold case, the details are quite sketchy.”

She wondered if she dared ask Mack to take a look at the file. She did as much research as she could and found various snippets of information, including an obituary on the parents, but, as far as actual forensic information, it was pretty skimpy. Nick might help too. Delighted to have another resource, she quickly forwarded the information she had gathered on the case and sent it to him. Is there any way to track what happened to the money they received?

Nick called her right away and said, “Not really. That was a long time ago, and, once the inheritance is paid, and no further investigation involves them, nothing much anybody can do about it.”

“And it wasn’t insurance money, right? It was just that they got the house and personal belongings, correct?”

“Again, I haven’t seen the will, and I don’t know what the estate looked like, but, in a case like that, if they’re not considered suspects, they have every right to inherit.”

“What if they are considered suspects?”

“Which they aren’t,” he reiterated. “Nothing in any of the files indicates that. The authorities had no evidence to move in that direction.”

“Well, what I find interesting,” she said, “and maybe you can help with this, is that both of them went to law school.”

“Well, that makes a lot of sense,” he muttered. “Most people have a defining moment in their life that changes the course of what they were planning on doing, and, in this case, the murder of his parents probably sent them both looking for justice.”

“Oh,” she said, then sat back and thought about it.

“What were you thinking?” he asked curiously.

“I was thinking they were looking for money for school.”

He gasped in shock.

“I know it sounds bad,” she said, “but you know that people have committed murder for a lot worse reasons. Surely we can find out if they had student loans, can’t we?”

“And you’re thinking, if they didn’t have student loans, that would support the theory that they murdered her in-laws?”

“Well, I mean obviously, if they got the money free and clear on the inheritance, they would have used that for law school, depending on how much it actually was, and both of them got an education. Still paying cash seems suspicious.”

“If they paid cash maybe, but maybe not. Maybe they worked several jobs,” he said. “You can’t assume anything.” Hearing the same rebuke in his tone that Mack always used on her, she groaned. “I’m not trying to assume,” she said. “I’m just trying to figure out how we can prove that.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “So far, none of the jewelry or the painting was ever found again.”

“That would be something too,” she said. “I wonder how we could find out about that.”

“Well, if they haven’t shown up in ten years, you can bet it won’t show up anytime soon.”

“No, but there’s got to be a reason. If it was theft, then maybe people are just sitting on it, until they can sell it.”

“It’s hot, meaning, that as soon as it’s identified through a sale or something public, then people will know the seller had something to do with the murders.”

“Right, so whoever it is maybe took it out of the country or something,” Doreen said.

“You mean, like take it to another country and sell it?”

“Yes, depending on how much it is worth,” she said. “I mean, it’s pretty easy for a woman to wear jewelry onto a plane, and you’d never really know if it was stolen or not.”

“I guess it depends on what jewelry it was.”

“Right. Which is exactly why I need the cold case file,” she said triumphantly.

“Well, you know exactly who to ask then, don’t you?” he said. Then he hung up on her.

She stared at the phone. “Oh no, you don’t,” she said. “Not you too.” She glared at her phone, but then it rang right in her hand. And, sure enough, it was Mack.

“What’s up?” he asked suspiciously.

“You called