Read Online Raspberry Revenge by Jessica Beck - Free Book Online Page A

but it’s conditional.”
    “Upon what?” he asked her, never giving me a second look. I didn’t blame him. Momma was clearly in charge of this meeting, no matter what the topic might be.
    “You have to answer a few questions for us before I’ll even consider your offer,” she said.
    Curtis pushed away from his desk and leaned back in his chair. “It can’t be that easy. I don’t get it. What’s the catch?”
    “Only that you answer truthfully, fully, and to the best of your ability,” Momma said.
    “It sounds as though you’re asking me to testify,” Curtis said with a partial smile.
    “Take it as you will. I need your word, Curtis.”
    “Fine. If it’s that important to you, I’ll answer you if I can.”
    “Where were you in your progress to dissolve the company when Harley was murdered?”
    Curtis didn’t answer immediately, and I wondered if we were going to get a true answer, no matter what he’d just promised my mother. “We were in the final stages,” he admitted. “We were just waiting for the final audit so I’d know what it was costing me to buy him out. I suppose it’s no big secret that we weren’t happy with each other anymore. That blasted woman started getting into his head, and she was slowly ruining him, if you ask me.”
    “Are you referring to Amber North?” I asked him. So much for me being the silent witness to the proceedings.
    “Yes, of course. Who else? She thought I was taking advantage of Harley, when in truth, I was bending over backwards to make our partnership work.”
    I doubted the veracity of what he was saying, but he was convincing nonetheless. I knew my mother could hold her own doing business with him, but I also realized that he would have eaten me alive if I’d come there alone.
    “What happens now?” she asked softly.
    “Who knows? That’s why the attorneys are coming in. They’re going to help me straighten this mess out.”
    “Did you have a surviving partnership clause in your contract, by any chance?” Momma asked him.
    “It’s a great deal more complicated than that, Dot.”
    “Answer the question, Curtis,” Momma said icily.
    “Yes and no,” he finally admitted.
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning it’s not that easy to explain. There were riders and conditions that I can’t remember, thus the attorney visit.”
    “But ultimately, you gain control of the company, and probably Harley’s share of the business as well.”
    “Don’t you think I know that I have to be a suspect in his murder?” Curtis asked as he stood and began pacing behind his desk. “Your husband has already been to see me,” he added as he pointed to me.
    “You can’t blame him. He’s just doing his job,” I said. “Did you happen to provide him with an alibi when you spoke?”
    “Ask him yourself,” Curtis snapped at me.
    Momma frowned. “I thought you were going to cooperate.”
    He shrugged, and after a moment, he said, “I happened to be in Union Square all morning looking at some of our holdings.”
    “Why were you doing that?” Momma asked him.
    “We were going to have to liquidate several properties we owned jointly in order to pay Harley for his half of the business.”
    “Something you are no longer required to do,” Momma said.
    “Don’t read too much into it, Dot.”
    “Can anyone verify you were there?” I asked him.
    “No one was with me the entire time, if that’s what you’re asking me. Right now I feel as though I can’t turn around without someone taking note of it, but I have a question for you two. You’re both friends with the mayor, who happened to work in the office where Harley’s body was found. Why isn’t anyone asking him these questions?”
    I wasn’t about to tell him that George was missing.
    That didn’t stop Momma, though. “As soon as he is found, I’m certain that he’ll have a reasonable explanation.”
    I wanted to cover my head in my hands. Momma had just revealed something that might end up being