Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Ash nodded. “I agree. I’ve tried to work it out, and I just can’t. Not to mention he’s had numerous chances to actually do something over the, what, last twenty years? And he hasn’t. Why would he do it now? Especially right when he’s already being a thorn in the man’s side?”
“That’s what’s bothering me, too. Plus, murder is a big jump from being petty and stopping his bid from succeeding.” I tapped my fingers against the table. “Which leaves us with Alan and Steph. One is his estranged, abused wife, and the other is his hard-done-by business partner who was catastrophically injured on site and wants to retire.”
“Well,” she said, leaning forwards. “I happen to know a little bit about Alan and Declan, too.”
The waitress approached our table a second later, and we both quickly scrambled through the menu to place our orders. Once that was done, we waited until she’d disappeared and turned back to one another, both of us leaning into the middle of the table.
“Do you remember my aunt, Jenny?”
“I think so. Don’t you call her Jelly? Because Noah couldn’t say Jenny when you two were little, and it came out as Jelly and stuck?”
Ash grinned. “That’s her. Aunt Jelly famously cannot keep a job. Honestly, she’s lucky Uncle Clive loves her for her flightiness. I’m surprised the woman hasn’t started migrating somewhere warmer each winter.”
I laughed, biting down on my straw. “Not a bad idea.”
“Agreed,” Ash said. “Anyway, about eight months ago, she did a month-long stint as an assistant at the accounting firm down the street.”
“Only a month?”
“Lottie, focus.”
“Right, sorry.” I mimed zipping my lips.
“Me and Mum had dinner at their place last night. Aunt Jelly and Uncle Clive’s, that is,” she clarified. “Not the accountant’s. That’d be a weird place for us to have dinner.”
“Ash, focus.”
“Sorry.” She snorted. “We got talking about Declan, obviously, and she shared this little titbit with me: he wasn’t just rich, he was filthy, stinking, fucking rich.”
“Like Scrooge McDuck rich?”
“Probably. How much money does he have?”
“More than Donald.”
“Bloody hell.” Ash rolled her eyes. “Anyway—apparently, Declan was there one day for a meeting with his accountant, and she overheard their discussion.”
“Doesn’t seem like a very secure space,” I noted.
“Tell me about it,” she said. “Stop distracting me, damn it.”
I clamped my hand over my mouth.
“Jelly said they were talking about the situation with Alan and paying him off. Now, don’t get me wrong, Declan Tierney was rich as shitballs, but a lot of his actual assets were in the business. He had personal cold, hard cash, but the business—where Alan’s money was—is largely in assets. A lot of it is wrapped up in current projects.”
Wow.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I said. “So, if their company went bust, Declan was fine, but Alan was screwed?”
“I don’t know. She said she didn’t hear much after that, but the general consensus was that Declan would either have to hand him twelve million out of his own pocket for his share in the company, or he’d have to offload some assets to raise the funds.”
“Twelve million? Holy shit.” I blinked at her. “And let me guess, Declan didn’t want to do either?”
“No. Aunt Jelly thinks he knew he would eventually be screwed over in his divorce with what Steph would get and he didn’t want to do anything until he knew where he’d be, financially speaking.”
“Kind of makes sense. If he knew he was going to be out of pocket and started selling off some of their property to fund Alan’s buyout, Steph could use that in the divorce.”
“Exactly,” Ash agreed. “That was his real issue and why he was offering Alan less than his share was worth. Aunt Jelly thinks he was trying to fiddle the books to make the company worth less, therefore having to pay out less to Alan and to Steph, but especially Alan. He’s the one who’d lose out the most. He had a personal obligation to Steph as his wife, but not to Alan as his business partner.”
I sat back, pulling my lemonade with me. “Woah,” I said slowly. “Do we think Alan knew about this?”
“Surely he knows how much the business is worth. He’s the one who spends all his time in the office, after all.”
“Then how the hell did Declan think he could cook the books and get away with it?”
Ash pressed her lips into a thin line. “That’s the point, isn’t it? Maybe he didn’t get away with it.”
“Hmm.”
“I don’t know about you, Lottie, but I think Alan has one hell of a motive if he knew what Declan was doing.”
“Right, but how do we find out?” I held her gaze for a moment. “Who’s going to tell us anything? It’s one thing me talking to Steph, it’s another thing entirely us trying to eke out of Alan what he knows.”