The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1) by Diana Xarissa (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“I believe the most common motives are money or love,” Janet told her.

“Well, he certainly has plenty of money, but all of it will be going to Lucy, and even though I don’t like her, I don’t believe she’d do anything to hurt her father. They are devoted to one another, really.”

“What about Tony, then?” Janet suggested.

“He’s never going to get his hands on a penny of Lucy’s money, not even if she suddenly inherited a fortune because something happened to Bobby. Lucy is determined to act as if she’s a child most of the time, but she’s fiercely protective of her fortune. She gets engaged every few months, but, as I said before, I don’t think she’ll ever get married. She may surprise me one day, but whatever happens in the future, I’m confident that she won’t be marrying Tony.”

“Why not?”

“They bicker constantly. He isn’t nearly devoted enough. Tonight was a perfect example. If Tony truly cared about her, he would have gone with her to the top of the tower and then held her hand when she freaked out about the height. I don’t know if he’s simply amusing himself with her or if he’s too stupid to realise that he’s going about things all wrong with her.”

“But she hasn’t ended things with him yet.”

“Because she hasn’t found his replacement yet. Once we get back to Texas, she’ll find someone else and then dump Tony.”

“She’ll find someone else first?”

“Oh, yes. She’s like a chain smoker, lighting the next cigarette from the previous one. She can’t stand the idea of being single. She was starting to look around just before we left, but I think she’s resigned herself to staying with Tony now until we get home again. I wouldn’t rule out her finding herself a handsome Frenchman, though, if she gets any more fed up with Tony.”

“So you can’t see him being behind the murder attempts?”

“I can’t see him actually trying to kill Bobby at the moment. If he and Lucy were married, I’d be giving you a very different answer, but if Bobby dies tomorrow, Tony won’t be entitled to anything, and a much wealthier Lucy would probably dump him within hours.”

“What about Theodore, then? What would he gain if Bobby were to die?”

“Not only would he not gain anything, he’d lose his job. While I’m sure Bobby sometimes makes him so angry that he’d happily punch him, I can’t see any reason why he’d want to kill the man.”

“Neil?” Janet asked.

Dixie laughed throatily. “Ah, poor Neil. He’s forever following Bobby around, hoping that a scrap or two will fall his way.”

“Really?”

“He’s a reasonably successful businessman, actually, or he was when he first started out. He and Bobby started working together when Neil was in his early twenties. Unfortunately for Neil, he quickly became rather dependent on Bobby. Now his only business concerns are partnerships with Bobby. Bobby, on the other hand, has many other companies, which means he doesn’t always give Neil as much time and attention as Neil would like.”

“What would happen to Neil if Bobby died unexpectedly?”

“I believe he would become the sole owner of all of the businesses where he partners with Bobby. Of course, that would double Neil’s wealth, but at considerable cost. I can imagine every one of the businesses going under inside of a year, or maybe eighteen months at the most. Neil simply isn’t up to the challenge of running them by himself.”

“Does he know that?”

Dixie chuckled. “He should. I believe he does. Years ago, he sometimes would get himself involved in ventures without Bobby, but most of them failed quite quickly. The last time he refused to take Bobby’s advice was about his marriage. Bobby told him that the woman in question was only interested in Neil’s money and some cheap publicity. Neil refused to believe him.”

“Didn’t he marry Kaytlyn Kortlyn?”

“He did. I’m sure you know that it didn’t end well.”

“From what I read, it ended disastrously.”

“For Neil, it was disastrous. Kaytlyn got a ton of publicity and a large amount of Neil’s money. For her, it was a huge success.”

“Poor Neil.”

Dixie nodded. “I’ve known him for years and as far as I knew, he wasn’t particularly interested in romantic relationships. We were all shocked when he started seeing Kaytlyn and even more surprised when he proposed.”

“And Bobby warned him about her.”

“He did. Bobby could see that she was simply after his money. I mean, let’s be honest here, the entire world could see that she was only after his money. Bobby was the only person who was brave enough to point that out to Neil, though. Neil was furious. He told Bobby that he was going to end their business relationship as soon as he got back from his honeymoon. Bobby didn’t even go to the wedding.”

“Was the marriage in trouble by the end of the honeymoon, then?” Janet asked.

“Apparently Kaytlyn spent most of the honeymoon in bed with morning sickness. Once Neil realised what was wrong with her, he realised that she’d been lying to him. He’d insisted on waiting to consummate their relationship on their wedding night, you see, and by that time Kaytlyn was already several months along.”

“Poor Neil.”

“He came back to Dallas and talked the whole thing over with Bobby. He had some crazy idea about trying to make it work anyway, in spite of the baby and everything else. When Bobby had a meeting with Kaytlyn to hear her side of everything, she propositioned him.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Luckily, Bobby had a video camera set up. When he showed the footage to Neil, that was the end of that.”

“It sounds as if Bobby saved him from even more misery.”

“Neil was grateful, but also devastated. Bobby