Murder at the Bellamy Mansion by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter Read Free Book Online

biggest sale this town has ever witnessed.”
    As we left the day head we found Jackie Hudson waiting for us. Jackie was impatient. And livid. Practically stamping her high-heeled sandaled foot. “Did you see it?” she screeched. “They are in every head on this ship! Elephant tusks! Elephant tusks used for sink basins and countertops. Turns my stomach!”
    “ Yes, we saw,” I said glumly.
    “ Come with me,” Jackie said. “Let me show you something.” And she led us down a hallway and into the library. “Do you see this paneling? Han has been showing it off to the guests. Brazilian bigleaf mahogany. Can you believe it? That fool is destroying the rain forest so he can panel a room and boast about it to others who are just as easily impressed and ignorant as he.”
    “ Oh my gosh, Jackie,” I said, “you’re right. I am offended. Really offended. I’m going to find Jon and we are leaving this party right now. I know Jon feels the same way we do.”
    “ Wait a moment, Shug,” Melanie called. “You can’t leave without Cam and me, and I’ve got to stay here and reel in my fish.”
    I turned to her. “Melanie, she is so besotted with you, you have nothing to worry about. The next thing we know, she’ll be trying to borrow your clothes.”
    “ I don’t think you two are taking this sacrilege very seriously,” Jackie said with hostility.
    “ We do take it seriously,” I tried to reassure her.
    Jackie fumed, “It’s a crime, what they have done. Here I’ve been leading the campaign against big industry so that we can preserve our air quality, and those two leave behind their polluted cities and sail into our port with a boat load of contraband. Well, I won’t stand for it. I am going to expose them. I am going to get even with them if it means I have to personally throw them overboard and sink this befouled ship myself!”
     

 
     
     
     
    6
     
    Out in the salon, the party was in full swing with servers offering trays of hors d’oeuvres and flutes of champagne. Melanie allowed herself to be dragged off by Candi. I could see the wheels spinning in Melanie’s brain as she narrowed her eyes into dangerous slits while scheming about how she was going to get her hands on Candi’s money.
     
    I found Jon and Cam in a smoking lounge off the main salon, cigars in hand, and deep in discussion with Brian Hudson and Han Cheng about something that had captured their total interest. Jackie Hudson was now out on the dance floor, fox-trotting with one of those heavy-set men who turn out to be incredibly light on their feet when dancing. She was giving him an earful, and I recognized him as an environmental attorney who was associated with the future international container terminal. How many elephants had been slaughtered to outfit this yacht, I wondered. And would Jackie’s dance partner be as outraged as she?
    I slipped in between Jon and Cam. Jon touched me lightly on the back, then turned to refocus on what Brian was saying. I was still stewing over the poached ivory and barely listened until I realized Brian was again discussing the bail-out and how it might impact on his intention to collect outstanding debts.
    “ As you know, the government is funding this huge bail-out of our financial institutions,” Brian was saying. “Citigroup is receiving three hundred billion. One of the stipulations is that they clean up their books. By that I mean they must collect on notes they’ve been carrying on the books for decades. Simply forgotten. Overlooked.”
    “ How is your firm involved?” Cam asked. Cameron Jordan is a television and motion picture industry leader, and there is little about the current economic situation that he is not aware of. “I’ve got to admit, I’m not too sure I approve of these bailouts.”
    “ But your government has got to do something,” Han interjected. “Your financial institutions with their sale of credit default swaps, which smacks more of Las Vegas than Wall