A Motor for Murder (Veronica Margreve Mysteries Book 1) by Valerie Murmel Read Free Book Online

police”.
    He didn’t deny it – so I guessed right. I didn't know what else to say. No point in trying to discuss further, if he wasn’t going to answer any questions. I turned towards the door. That law school photo, however, triggered a thought.
    “My ex was a lawyer. I know how much those loans grow to, and how big a burden the repayment can be. He wanted to be an environmental lawyer, work for the Sierra Club – but then realized that there was no way to make the finances work with the loan payment schedule. He does bankruptcy law now. He had to give up what he really believed in...”
     
    It was true. My ex was a lawyer. Smart, charming, handsome, ambitious. Very image-conscious, with great (and expensive) taste in clothing, cars, the gifts he gave me. The student loans certainly put a dent in his monthly budget, and he was spending so much to keep up his image that he was constantly broke. I originally found his drive and single-mindedness towards a goal (whether advancing his career, or getting me to date him) flattering, and thought our life together would be “happily ever after”. And back then, he was still very idealistic in some ways – e.g. trying to be vegetarian due to the concern about animal rights and treatment of animals, being involved with the Sierra Club. Later, that changed. He showed his true colors by going to work for a sleazy bankruptcy firm – but I was too blind to see them when it first happened. He had repeatedly said that at his firm, you had to be an asshole to advance. And then that disdain that he felt towards everything that he didn’t think would help him reach his goals finally turned on me – or maybe I just came to my senses...
     
    I stood in the hallway, thinking about the past, lost in thought for the moment.
    Paul sighed and kept looking at the photo. We were both remembering. He finally spoke. “Her mother left me when Claire was in junior high school, moved to Oregon and filed for divorce. Didn’t want to have anything to do with Claire since then. I got the house, as you can see. I wanted to keep Claire in the same school, to provide some stability for her during a very tough time. My ex got most of the money, so I’ve had to struggle to have enough for all the bills, try to save for retirement. We could have moved to a cheaper area, but we stayed for the schools.” I nodded – the schools in the neighborhood were widely known to be some of the best in the state. “I put Claire through undergrad – she got some scholarships and had a part-time job, so that helped.”
    He sighed. “I could have, and maybe should have, sold the house when she started college – the prices hadn’t dropped too much yet.” The housing market crash came to Seattle a bit later than to the rest of the US, and prices here haven’t started dropping till about the end of 2008. “But I still thought that I could get more money out of this house by getting a home equity loan. I didn’t see the housing bust coming.”
    “When she graduated, the Great Recession was going on, and she couldn’t get a job.” Paul continued. “She was always interested in law, so she applied to law school, partially to try and ‘wait out’ the bad economy. Claire dreamed of using her law degree in working at a women’s defense non-profit. I tried to get a loan against the house to help her pay for law school – and, as you can guess, with the mortgage bubble bursting, that option has all dried up by that time. She lived at home to cut costs, got student loans, and ended up with loan amount of around 80K. There was no way she could work at the non-profit and pay back that money in anything under 20 years.” I felt genuinely sorry for him. He looked down, swallowed and continued.
    “Around that time, George and Rita wanted to purchase and remodel that big house, and were being... very obstinate about the HOA rules. He came to the HOA meeting a couple of times, was very pushy about his remodel