Read Online Shelley Freydont - Celebration Bay 03 - Independence Slay by Shelley Freydont - Free Book Online Page A

on the sidewalk after they left the station. Liv gave them their privacy because she knew Ted would tell her what was said, and she didn’t want to cramp the lawyer’s style.
    After almost a year, she was still considered an outsider. Not in the day-to-day happenings, but when things got dicey and the town drew together. She didn’t feel too bad; BeBe had lived in Celebration Bay for twelve years and she was still considered a newbie.
    “What do you make of Leo’s story?” Liv asked as she and Ted were driving back to town.
    “Well, if I didn’t know Leo—and really, I haven’t had much interaction with him—I would say it’s pretty farfetched.” He slowed down at a crossroad and looked both ways before proceeding.
    “But I’ve never heard of him being in any kind of trouble. He’s liked by the other kids, except for the bullies of course. He spends a lot of time at the community center. I think he lives with a single mother and several siblings.”
    “You think? Don’t you
know
?” she asked half-teasingly. Ted was Gossip Central, he generally knew everything about everybody, and it seemed to Liv that he didn’t even have to try. The weird part was that nobody knew much about him.
    He wasn’t secretive; he just didn’t talk about his past or his personal life. And where that would usually run up red flags for Liv, it didn’t with Ted. He was a man unto himself. A gentleman—intelligent, dependable—and he loved her dog.
    “Okay,” Liv said, bringing her mind back to Leo’s dilemma. “He really does believe in ghosts?”
    “Seems so.”
    “And he really thinks there is a treasure.”
    “Yes. You saw his face when Rundle was talking about it out in the yard.”
    She had. “Do you believe in the treasure?”
    Ted cut her a quick look but kept his eyes on the road. It was dark and late and country roads were notorious for accidents, especially on holidays, when the drinks flowed to excess.
    “I don’t discount the possibility.”
    “Really,” said Liv, intrigued.
    “Though I tend to think that if something is still hidden after all these years—over two hundred of them—it would be a document of some kind. And if someone actually found it, it would probably disintegrate the moment they picked it up.”
    “Hmm,” Liv said. “The other thing—” Her sentence was stopped by a jaw-cracking yawn. It was after midnight; they’d both been working nonstop and had to get up early the next day for the parade. “When the housekeeper saw the gurney, she thought it was Henry Gallantine. I thought you said he left town every July to visit family.”
    “I did.”
    “Let me rephrase that. Does Henry Gallantine leave town every July?”
    Ted shrugged.
    “He doesn’t.”
    “Let me put it this way. He does. But not until after the Fourth and the reenactment. He likes to keep up the mystery of the ghost appearing on the roof. So he makes a big show of leaving town, then comes back for a final appearance before he really leaves for the summer. It’s part of his mystique: It’s a big secret, only everyone is in on it, but they pretend not to know. It’s more fun that way. A true eccentric.”
    “Along with a lot of other people in this town. So that’s why Hildy was so upset? She knew it should have been Henry Gallantine on the roof.”
And covered up on the gurney.
    “Hmm.”
    “I wonder if the murderer thought he was killing Henry?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “And if Henry Gallantine was supposed to be there and wasn’t, where is he?”
    Ted smothered a yawn. “Oh Lord, I couldn’t even follow that question, much less try to answer it.”
    “Ted, don’t be obtuse. Do you think whoever killed Rundle was after him or Gallantine?”
    “I don’t know. I’m going to drop you off at home. There’s no need to go back to the office tonight.”
    They passed Town Hall, passed the square where chairs lined the parade route. And turned onto Liv’s street.
    “Do you think he’s dead,