Page 119 of Noel Secrets

3. Uncle Grant for the inheritance money.

She didn’t know how he’d get his hands on the money if she died. She added him to the list regardless.

Suzanne Crompton, her former employee, earned fourth place on the list. She’d trashed the business ever since Darby fired her for stealing from a house-cleaning client. Afterward, Suzanne had started her own business in direct conflict with Darby’s. But she continued to conduct an online smear campaign in retaliation. Would she would go so far as to hire men to abduct and murder Darby, just to get revenge?

Unlikely, still … She jotted down her name.

4. Suzanne Crompton, disgruntled former employee.

Agent Walker returned, and her face warmed. She fought the sudden urge to hide the notepad so he wouldn’t see how incredibly pathetic her life was. Instead, she handed it over to him.

He read through the names. “Is this everyone who might have a grudge against you?”

“Everyone I can think of.” She covered her face with her hands. “How can this many people hate me?”

What had her life become, that she had such conflict with so many others?

He glanced at the list. “What this about an uncle and an inheritance?”

“It’s from my grandmother. She passed away last year.”

His voice softened. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you, but I hardly knew her. My father died when I was nine. After my mother remarried and we moved away, I saw my grandmother only a handful of times. But she was always kind to me. I remember visiting her in a huge house by the ocean. Even as a child, I knew she was well-to-do. The lawyer told me over the years, Grant squandered most of it. He’d taken over her finances and forced her into a nursing home before she died, but my uncle didn’t know that she’d put away some money for me into a trust. That fact came out after her death. He believes he’s entitled to it because he and his family took care of her all those years. He’s suing me to recover it.”

“How substantial is this inheritance?”

She shrugged, embarrassed by the amount. “$500,000.”

He whistled and made a note on the pad. “I’ve seen people do worse for a lot less. We’ll check him out.” He moved to the next name on the list. “Who’s Suzanne Crompton?’

“She used to work for me. I own a cleaning business and she was one of my employees. A client caught her stealing. She was on tape digging through her jewelry box. I had no choice but to let her go, but she’s been retaliating for a year now. Ever since she opened a cleaning business, she’s been smearing my name and reputation. She’s cost me several clients.”

“She didn’t go to jail for the theft?”

Darby shook her head. “She has an unbelievable talent for avoiding trouble. In this case, the necklace she took was valued at over a $1,000 which made her theft a felony. It was never recovered. She would have gone to prison, but the tapedisappeared from evidence. The prosecutor had to drop the charges.”

He frowned at the injustice. “How does that happen?”

She had her own suspicions in that matter. “Did I forget to mention she’s dating the Sheraton police chief?”

That caused him to raise a curious eyebrow. She hoped he wasn’t the kind of agent who refused to believe anything bad about another law enforcement officer.

“I’m not saying he’s involved,” she hurried to say. “But I think he used his position to pull some strings on Suzanne’s behalf in order to get her out of trouble.” Suzanne seemed to have a way of manipulating men to do what she wanted. She had Chief Dean under her spell too.

“We’ll check into that too.” Agent Walker’s vague, emotionless response told her nothing about his opinion of her accusation. He pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and looked through it. “I had Sheriff Malone pull some background information and discovered multiple noise complaints your neighbor made against you. I notice you didn’t put her on your list.”

She groaned at yet another reminder of people who made her life difficult. “My neighbor, Mrs. Buford. When I was going through the divorce, I needed to make extra money, so I started boarding and training dogs. I have four now. They can get rowdy at times, and she likes to complain.”

“You don’t think they bother her?”

She didn’t like always having to defend herself. “I’m not saying they don’t. But before I started training dogs, she filed complaints that I mowed my lawn too loudly and that my son played too loudly in the backyard. Everything we do annoys her, so I ignore her. We don’t have an HOA so I suppose complaining to the police was the next best thing.”

He jotted down the information, a curious look on his face.

What was that about? “She’s sixty years old. Surely you don’t think she had something to do with this. She barely knows how to use a computer.”

“You’re probably right, but we should still check into her.”