Foreclosed: A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery (A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery, a Cozy Christian Collection) by Traci Tyne Hilton Read Free Book Online Page B

he did. She couldn’t quite remember what he looked like. Sort of nondescript.
    However little they may have been disturbing him, they had been disturbed and turned back to their coffee more subdued.
    “Speaking of fishy, I still think paying cash for the 72 nd house is a strange move. Very strange.” Joan took a slow sip of her coffee and looked at her young friends over the tops of her glasses.
    “So what?” said Sabrina.
    “So…what if it is some kind of cover? Money laundering, for example.”
    “Again, so what? We couldn’t prevent it and it wouldn’t harm us,” Sabrina said.
    “Doesn’t crime harm us all? And the amount of money we are talking about…well…we could talk to a few people if we honestly thought there was something wrong with the transaction. Why couldn’t we? What are Attorney Generals for? Or is that District Attorneys? We could talk to my brother, actually, if we felt like we needed legal advice. Which I don’t feel. We do cash transactions sometimes.” Mitzy was torn between supporting the absolute right and closing her eyes with the hope that the sale was completely legit.
    “Money laundering was just one thing it could be. It could be identity theft,” Joan said.
    “How on earth could it be identity theft?” Sabrina asked
    “Apparently Sabrina has left her imagination at the door. Someone could have stolen an identity and be clearing out that bank account by buying a house for cash.” Joan lifted an eyebrow. She seemed to be enjoying her theories now.
    “That would leave one easy to follow paper trail. Do you realize how many places those forms have to be signed and how quickly the person would realize that their hundreds of thousands of dollars were gone? The house would immediately go back to the bank. The bank would have to pay all of the money back. The person trying to perpetrate the crime would be snapped up—there are cameras all over banks. We would know exactly what the person looked like. Ridiculous.” The women sat in silence for just a moment. It was just long enough for Mitzy to wonder again what the man sitting behind her looked like. But when she turned to peek, the chair behind her was empty.
     
     
    They brought the remains of the pastry feast to the office with them. “Thanks a million,” said Ben, helping himself to a bear claw.
    “Any calls?” Mitzy asked.
    “Nope,” Ben said.
    “Good package, thanks,” Mitzy said, flipping through the papers on her desk. “Why don’t you take tomorrow off, Ben? Things are awfully quiet.”
    “Thanks, Mitz. I could use it. Is there anything at all I can do for you guys today?”
    “You could run to the dry cleaners and pick up the order for Homes by Joan ,” Joan offered.
    Ben looked up at Mitzy with one eyebrow lifted.
    “If you want.” She looked at her watch. “Okay, Ben, go pick up the drapes and things for Joan and then take the rest of the day off as well as tomorrow. Consider yourself on call and if something urgent comes up be ready to save the day, okay?”
    Ben’s shoulders relaxed. “I can do that. Thanks.” He grabbed the drycleaners slip from Joan and made his way out.
    “One sale is great, but it’s just not enough. Sabrina, go ahead and get back on the First Things proposal. Joan, stay, go, whatever. Your call.” Mitzy waved her hand behind her as she sat down to her desk as though to say, ‘The world is your oyster.’

Alonzo had been back at work for two days, if you could call it work. Yesterday he had put his staff into rolling lay offs. It made his gut feel like it was filled with rocks to do it, but there was no work coming in.
    No money.
    If they could all take a bit of the hit, they could all stay for the long haul.
    He had one large emergency savings. He tossed around ways he could use his life savings to save his company, but nothing he came up with was big enough to get them through an endless economic depression.
    He did have one idea that would help his business in the