The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1) Diana Xarissa (the beginning after the end novel read .txt) 📖

information in America that we have back home. Mr. Jones has filed polite requests for information. Now we wait.”

“So you could discover, eventually, that Theodore is Bobby’s illegitimate son or at least a distant cousin.”

“Possibly. Either of those things might give Theodore a motive.”

Janet nodded. “I wonder what’s in Bobby’s will.”

“We talked about that tonight, as well. It’s fairly straightforward. Neil gets all of the businesses where he’s partnered with Bobby. There’s a similar provision for another man with whom Bobby owns a chain of parking garages. Everything else goes to Lucy.”

“That seems fairly simple. No one else is even mentioned?”

“Bobby did say something about a handful of bequests to people who were significant to him. I suspect Dixie falls into that category.”

“She seems to have plenty of her own money.”

“She does. She’s done extremely well out of each of her divorces and she appears to be a very clever businesswoman. She recently bought Bobby’s shares in most of the businesses they’d formerly owned together. I believe she’s planning to invest in whatever it is that Bobby is doing in Paris, though.”

“Where is she on your list?”

“I’d put her level with Lucy, at the bottom. Then Neil, then Tony, then Theodore.”

“So Tony is second, even though you’re certain he didn’t have anything to do with Bobby’s fall today.”

“If I weren’t certain that he didn’t push Bobby today, he’d be at the top of my list,” Edward told her. “As it is, he’s where he is because it’s possible, although unlikely, that Bobby was pushed by a random stranger or by one of the others, but that Tony was responsible for all of the other attempts on Bobby’s life.”

“I still think it’s possible that more than one person has been trying to kill Bobby, considering how many different attempts have been made” Janet replied. “I did think that maybe some of the attempts in Texas had been made by someone other than the five suspects who are here, though. It would be odd if two of the five people in Paris were both trying to kill Bobby.”

“I’m inclined to agree with that,” Edward replied.

“Unless Lucy and Tony are working together,” Janet said, as the thought suddenly occurred to her. “Maybe that’s why some of the attempts have been more serious than others. Maybe Lucy isn’t really trying but Tony is.”

“Why would Lucy pretend to try, then?” Edward asked, seemingly amused by Janet’s theory.

“Maybe she has a lot of resentment towards him after her difficult childhood,” Janet speculated. “Maybe she truly wants him dead but she can’t bring herself to do it herself. Perhaps she and Tony are taking turns at trying but she keeps coming up with things that don’t actually work.”

“Which attempts are you suggesting that Lucy was behind, then?”

Janet found the notes she’d taken previously, with her list of the attempts on Bobby’s life.

“She could have done something to the brakes on Bobby’s truck,” Janet said. “She may even have known where he was going to be driving that day and known that he’d be able to stop safely.”

“I don’t know that she’d know how to tamper with brakes.”

“Maybe she looked it up online. I understand you can find everything on the Internet these days.”

Edward chuckled. “You may be right about that.”

Janet looked down her list. “I can’t see her shooting at her father, but I can see her tampering with his chainsaw. Again, she probably knew that he’d be fine.”

“Because she’d left the safety cutoff intact.”

“Exactly. Then the rat poison. That could have been her again, but I think, if it had been, that she’d have only given him a tiny bit. That he needed to be treated in hospital suggests that he’d had a substantial amount.”

“If you’re correct, the hotel fire could have been her,” Edward said thoughtfully.

“There was clearly no way that was going to kill anyone,” Janet agreed. “On the other hand, the stabbing had to have been Tony.”

“Which means the attempt today may well have been made by Lucy,” Edward said. “I’d lost her in the crowd. She could have been anywhere.”

Janet sighed. “Even if she isn’t actually trying to kill him, I hate the thought that she’s involved in all of this.”

“Right now, it’s nothing but an interesting theory.”

“I wish Aggie were here. She’d be able to help.”

“Aggie? Your cat?” Edward asked.

“She’s very intuitive,” Janet explained. “In the past, when I’ve discussed cases with her, she’s reacted very strongly when I’ve talked about the people who ended up being the guilty parties.”

“Do you want to ring Joan and ask her to list the suspects for Aggie?”

Janet shook her head. “Maybe, in a day or two. It’s too late to ring Joan tonight.”

Edward pulled her close. “We should think about getting some sleep,” he whispered before he kissed her.

Some time later, she snuggled in his arms. “Thank you for not laughing at me,” she said.

“At what did you think I would laugh?” he asked.

“My theory about Lucy and Tony, and also the part about Aggie,” she admitted, feeling sheepish.

“One of the things I love about you is that you think outside of the box. I never would have considered that the attempts were being made by two different but connected people, but now that you’ve mentioned it, there does seem to be some sort of pattern to everything that’s happened. You may not have hit on the solution, but you’ve definitely given me something else to consider.”

“And Aggie?”

He laughed. “I told my sister to choose the smartest of the kittens from the litter. When she rang me, she told me that when she went to visit, all of the kittens came rushing over to her, except for Aggie. Aggie sat and studied her for at least five minutes, watching her