Read Online Death by Lotto by Abigail Keam - Free Book Online Page B

Versailles at the Sylvania plant and his boss told me that he was a good worker. Rarely took a sick day off, but there are rumors that Jubal was in hot water. His boss’s secretary told me that Jubal loved to play the ponies, and ran into trouble, having to borrow from a loan shark.”
    “When Ethel dies, everything goes to Jubal?”
    “Bull’s-eye. That’s enough for motive. She may not have a lot, but there is a paid-for house, some savings and a car. Maybe enough to satisfy Jubal’s loan shark.”
    “If that story has legs to it.”
    “Exactly,” Neff agreed.
    “So why do you need me again?”
    “It was that story about her house being searched. Now why was Jubal searching her house?”
    “Looking for cash?”
    “Ethel’s strictly a bank gal. She writes checks and uses debit cards. At the most, she has a hundred at the house for emergencies.”
    “Maybe a druggie got into her house.”
    “Then he would have turned it upside down looking for cash or drugs. Whoever went into her house didn’t want her to know it was searched. He didn’t buy on the old lady being so astute.” Neff searched around his catchall and pulled out a pair of vintage aviator Ray-Bans. “Clean these off for me, will ya?”
    I wiped them off with my skirt and handed them back.
    “It was that her Bible had been moved. That’s what’s piqued my interest. Why look in her Bible?”
    “Because that’s where she kept her lotto tickets,” I replied.
    Neff snapped his fingers. “Bingo. I’m thinking the lotto ticket wasn’t in her Bible and he had to search the rest of the house.”
    “But then . . . why cut the brake line to her car?”
    “I bet the intention was not to kill Ethel since she doesn’t drive over forty miles an hour. Two possible explanations. Number one – to scare her into revealing the location of the lotto ticket or number two – the loan shark did it as a warning to Jubal.”
    “But Ethel said she didn’t win. So what’s the point?”
    “I found out at the tea interview that you set up with Ethel that she didn’t examine the ticket. She assumed the numbers were the ones she had dictated to Jubal. What if he bought two tickets and switched them accidentally, with his ticket winning the lotto?”
    “Or that he put down the wrong numbers to begin with, but still won.”
    “Yeah. That’s what you’re going to find out. We’re going to the store where Ethel gets her lotto tickets.” Neff handed me a piece of paper. “These are the numbers that she plays every week and directions to the store. You’re going into the store and say that you are getting a ticket for Miss Ethel. Just talk it up and see what you can find out.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Come on. Women talk to women. The clerk might be guarded with me – a stranger and all.”
    “How do you know it’s a woman?”
    Neff rolled his eyes. “Because I asked Ethel. Now are you going to help me or not?”
    “If you say please,” I cooed.
    “Good. Just do what I say. I can’t stand all these questions. Yak. Yak. Yak.”
    “Ummm, you didn’t say please.”
    “Really?”
    “I must insist.”
    “Please will you help me? Pretty please with sugar on top.”
    “I would be delighted, Mr. Neff. There’s no need to be sarcastic.”
    “I don’t remember shamuses using please when telling their dolls what to do. They did it or got their noses mussed.”
    “My nose is fine as it is, thank you, and you are not in a Raymond Chandler lead role.”
    “You’d look swanky with your hair in a French twist wearing a black hat with a veil. You know, those hats from the ’40s. Nothing sexier that watching a dame fold up her veil to put on some lipstick. Gives her an air of mystery.”
    “Oh really. I’ll bite. What kind of dress?”
    “A black dress accentuated with Joan Crawford shoulder pads and a low v-neckline, cinched in at the waist with a sparkling belt. A great dress for accenting a woman’s breasts and hips. Then Dragon-red lipstick.