Wicked Games (Hartley Grace Featherstone Mysteries Book 3) by Gemma Halliday (books for students to read TXT) 📕

was suing him, and we now know she actually had a good case. Why kill him when she could just get what she wanted in court?"

"Court costs can be expensive," Sam said. "I know. Kevin wanted to sue this company last year, and the lawyer he saw said it would take like a hundred thousand just to get into a courtroom."

"Wow." Chase sipped his coffee. "That's a lot."

"Who was Kevin suing?" I asked.

Sam shrugged. "The maker of his smartphone. He left it too close to his SVO converter and it exploded."

I stifled a laugh. "Poor Kevin."

"Okay, so suing someone is an expensive proposition," Chase said, getting us back on track. "But, if there was potentially millions on the line for Phoebe, a hundred thousand would be a sound investment."

"Okay, so maybe she didn't kill him over the money. Maybe it was more a reaction," I offered. "She serves Connor the papers, and maybe he laughs at her or argues or says something that riles her up. Then she kills him in a sudden burst of rage."

"I could totally see that," Sam said, licking sauce off her fingers. "She seemed pretty mad at you back there, and all you did was ask a few questions."

"Right?" I agreed.

"I don't know," Chase said.

I turned on him, hating how he insisted on defending the cute, successful older woman.

"I still think the person with the most to lose here would be Connor's manager, Jason Pruit," he went on. "I mean, if Connor really was thinking of firing him, that was a lot on the line for Jason."

"But why kill Connor? Doesn't that kill the goose laying his golden eggs?" Sam asked.

"Maybe." Chase nodded. "But, now he'll still get his percentage of everything Connor's estate makes, whereas if Connor had fired him, he'd be cut off with nothing."

"And a witness did see him arguing with Connor," I reminded them.

"I wish we could talk to Pruit," Sam said.

"Agreed." I had little hope Jason would be calling Connor's cousin back. Especially if he'd been the one to murder him.

"Well, here's what I want to know," Chase said, breaking into my thoughts. "How did the killer slip into the VizaSoft booth unnoticed?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, there was a long line of people waiting to get into the booth. And the con was packed. If the killer slipped in unnoticed while Sophia was using the restroom, they must have been waiting for the opportunity to catch Connor alone."

"And taken it quickly," Sam agreed.

I nodded. "That's a good point. Okay, so maybe that narrows down our killer. Whose story matches the timeline?"

"Good question," I said.

"Well, we're here—let's reconstruct the scene of the crime," Sam suggested.

I was about to tell her I didn't think that would make any difference, when Chase jumped in. "That's a great idea."

My protest died on my lips.

"If we can physically act the moment out, it might give us a better idea of who is lying about their alibi and where they might have really been," he continued.

"But we only have three people," I pointed out.

"Kyle's on his way. That will make four," Sam said.

"What about that friend of yours. The Pikachu?" Chase said, turning to me.

"Ellen. And I don't really know her that well."

"But she seemed invested in Connor. I bet she'd help."

I'd bet he was right. So, even though I still had doubts about the whole thing, I texted Ellen and asked her to meet us at the VizaSoft booth again.

*   *   *

Twenty minutes later, we'd filled Ellen in on our latest developments, and all four of us were standing just on the safe side of the crime scene tape waiting for Kyle to arrive. Which he did in style. Kyle walked up wearing a black tuxedo jacket, a top hat, and a red lined cape over his usual T-shirt and jeans. A white masquerade ball style mask covered his eyes, and at first I thought he was the Phantom of the Opera. But as Sam squealed and hugged him, Chase leaned down to fill me in.

"Tuxedo Mask," he said, his voice low and close to my ear.

So close it sent a shiver down my spine. "Who?"

"From Sailor Moon's anime," he continued.

I nodded, pretending I was totally interested in what he was saying and not fixated on the feel of his breath.

"So, fill me in," Kyle said, once he'd detached Sam from his lips. "Sam said something about reconstructing a crime?"

I nodded, shaking myself back to present and filling him in on everything we'd learned so far about Connor's death that had not made it into one of Sam's texts. "The thing is, whoever killed Connor only had a moment of opportunity. So we want to see which one of our suspects could have taken it."

"Dude, I'm in," Kyle said. "Let's do this."

"Okay, I'll play our victim," Chase offered. "Connor Simon."

"We're not actually going in there, are we?" Ellen asked, her big brown eyes on the crime scene tape.

Chase shook his head. "I think this is close enough for our purposes."

Which I was glad to hear. The last thing I wanted to do was actually go in the booth and see where the man had died. I shivered a little just thinking about it.

"Featherstone, you're my girlfriend."

My heart leapt into my throat. "Your what?"

"You play Sophia. Connor's girlfriend."

Oh. Right. Connor's girlfriend. Not Chase's. I shook the silly thought out of my head. "Right. Sure," I agreed, hoping the fluttery sensation in my belly wasn't obvious in my voice.

"Sam," Chase said, turning to her, "you can play Phoebe Lyons."

She nodded and laced her fingers through Kyle's. "Smart, driven, successful. I think I can pull that off," she joked.

"Don't forget potentially a killer,"