Read Online Traci Tyne Hilton - Mitzi Neuhaus 03 - Buyer's Remorse by Traci Tyne Hilton - Free Book Online Page B

I’ve got nothing to sell right now and no one looking to buy. What will I do in your trailer all day?”
    “Read a book?”
    Mitzy rolled her eyes. “It’s hard to find the killer from your trailer.”
    “You do not need to find the killer.”
    “Of course I don’t need to. But can you think of something better?” She pulled her new Macbook out of her Birken bag and set it on the table beside her. She picked up the plastic salad dish and tossed it in the recycling. “I guess I could try to learn something more about the people involved. Google is bound to have an hour’s worth of work for me.”
    “Or a whole day’s worth. Google away if it keeps you here. I’ve gotta get back inside.” He leaned over and kissed the top of Mitzy’s head.
    She nodded at him and he left. Lunch had fortified her. She didn’t want to go back to her parents’ house just yet, but getting together with a friend to do a little more digging into Lara’s life sounded right up her alley.
    Mitzy made a few phone calls. Joan agreed to meet Mitzy at the office, ASAP.
     
    “It’s a pity about the murder,” Joan took a sip of her latte. “That new brick facade was going to increase property values. But with the murder…well. Good luck getting anyone to buy in that building.”
    “That’s a bit callous. I’d think the pity is the murder and nothing else really matters.”
    “Well of course the murder is all that matters, and yet, they spent a lot of money…oh, never mind. That was a rotten thing to say. It does feel like the last few years have been a constant string of bad news. The murder, the floods, the hurricanes, the fires. The economy. Will the real estate market ever recover?”
    “It depends on what you mean. We won’t have the soaring prices we used to have for a long time, if ever. But we won’t have the interest rates we had in the 1980’s either. We’ll come around to a balance. The day of the flipper is over, I’d say.”
    “ More’s the pity. I know, I know. The murder is the real pity. Did you see my new bag?” Joan held up a slouchy black leather messenger bag with heavy stitch work and dull ruby and clear crystals decorating the flap.
    “Very wintry,” Mitzy said.
    “That’s what I thought. A little gothic Christmassy thing going. It’s a local designer.”
    “Of course it is. Where did you get it?” It looked to Mitzy like it could have come right off of the racks at Neveah’s.
    “I got it online. Look at the lining, isn’t it luscious?” She flipped the flap over to reveal the vintage velvet paisley inside. Mitzy took a close look at the label.
    “It is an Alice McNinch, isn’t it?” she asked.
    “It is, but how did you hear of her?”
    “That shop Lara worked at carries Alice McNinch. They said they had an exclusive line or something like that.”
    “Over at Neveah’s? I’ve been there. They might have an exclusive. I confess I got mine from a resale shop.”
    “Hmm.” Mitzy rubbed the velvet lining with her thumb. “I wonder what this Alice knows about the business at Neveah’s.”
    “Let me guess, you and I are going to get one more coffee for the road and find out?”
    “Sounds good to me.”
    “Okay. But I’m going across the parking lot to the coffee hut and you can hunt for her digits.” Joan swung her bag onto her shoulder and pushed the door open.
    Mitzy had now seen one person in her whole life carrying an Alice McNinch bag and zero people wearing her clothes, and the bag had been purchased resale. Lara couldn’t have made enough money at a store no one shopped at to save up her whole down payment.
    While Mitzy waited in her office for Joan to return from the coffee hut she pulled out the big, clunky white pages. She thumbed through until she came to the M’s. Alice McNinch was listed. She tore the page out of the book and went outside to meet Joan.
    Her keys jangled against her office door handle as she locked up her shop. The key stuck a little and it took some