The Chocolate Castle Clue by JoAnna Carl Read Free Book Online Page A

for generations—some of them for a hundred years.”
    â€œExactly. Warner Pier has always been a family resort. Even now there’s hardly any nightlife.”
    â€œTrue. The wildest entertainment is the piano bar at the yacht club or the deejay on weekends at the Dockster.”
    â€œYeah, and as the former city attorney, I can testify that the city fathers like it that way.”
    â€œToday they do.”
    â€œThey did back then, too. I’ve read the files. You can’t believe the city ordinances they tried to pass in those days—all aimed at keeping the ‘hippie element’ out. Or at least the Supreme Court wouldn’t have believed the ordinances they tried to pass. Freedom of speech wasn’t a major concern for the city council back then.”
    â€œHow did this affect the Castle?”
    â€œThe unconstitutional city ordinances probably didn’t bother it, but the era itself nearly killed it. Rice tried to keep the Castle respectable. But it was a losing battle. Big ballrooms just weren’t popular, and the place had closed up by the time the disco era arrived. I think the talent show that the Pier-O-Ettes were involved in was a last-ditch effort to attract so-called family entertainment. Then Rice was found shot to death.”
    â€œWas it suicide?”
    â€œNobody knows. Rice was shot in the heart at short range. The wound could have been self-inflicted. Or he could have been shot by some attacker. Or a stretch of the imagination would allow for an accident.”
    â€œWhat was the law enforcement ruling?”
    â€œThey didn’t really know. The insurance company claimed it was suicide, but that was to their advantage.”
    â€œRice must have had a newish policy.”
    â€œRight. He was way under the two-year limit. If it was suicide, the insurance didn’t have to pay off. Of course, Mrs. Rice tried to prove it was an accident.”
    â€œDouble indemnity?”
    â€œRight again. If it was an accident, she got a double benefit.”
    â€œSo nobody wanted it to be murder?”
    Joe laughed. “Nope. That didn’t benefit anybody financially. Plus, Mrs. Rice swore her husband was such a wonderful man that no one could possibly want to shoot him.” Joe raised his eyebrows quizzically. “But Mrs. Rice is still today trying to prove it was an accident.”
    â€œAfter forty-five years! I guess you have to admire her tenacity.”
    â€œI don’t know. There comes a time to let go of the past. Mrs. Rice inherited the place, but she didn’t try to keep it open. Finally the banks foreclosed, the property was sold at auction, and the building was demolished. If she proved her case today, the whole thing would go to legal fees.
    â€œToday Mrs. Rice is almost a recluse. Now and then she emerges, just to put on some sort of scene.”
    â€œWhy does she haunt the Dock Street, Joe? Why did Brownie say Mrs. Rice came in ‘for the obvious reason’?”
    â€œThe Dock Street Pizza Place sits on the site of the Castle.”
    â€œYe gods!”
    Joe called Brownie back, and the two of them explained where the Castle had stood. Actually, Brownie said, the building’s site occupied an area that today is on both sides of the street, plus the street itself.
    â€œThe street went around it then. Or rather it ended on one end and took up again on the other,” Brownie said. “I’ve seen maps. Anyway, once the Castle was gone, the city nabbed a right-of-way through the property and extended Dock Street—the way it should have been in the first place.”
    â€œBrownie,” Joe said, “you have to remember that when the Castle was built—when? 1900?—this was the edge of town. Dock Street dead-ended into the Castle.”
    â€œI’d forgotten that.” Brownie scratched his paunch. “Today’s layout is much better. The city took the land for the park along the river