The Golden Chance by Jayne Ann Krentz Read Free Book Online Page A

just as stunned when she found out he'd left her a big chunk of his shares in Castleton & Lightfoot?” Nick asked blandly.
    “No. By the time he died, Crissie had gotten to know him well enough to believe he wouldn't leave her out of his will. She was right about that at least, wasn't she?”
    “Yeah. But Burke Castleton rarely did anything out of the kindness of his heart. He always had a motive, and sometimes that motive was nothing more than a desire to stir up trouble.”
    “Sounds like that might have been a family trait,” Phila murmured. “One Crissie inherited.” She watched as Nick spread tuna-fish salad on slices of bread.
    “Apparently so.”
    “Tell me something, Nick. Just how badly did the families hate Crissie?”
    He hesitated, thinking of what he had learned from Eleanor. “She didn't go out of her way to make herself lovable, from what I understand. Why did she leave the shares to you?”
    “I was the sole beneficiary of her will, just as she was in mine.”
    “The two of you made out wills? Isn't that a little unusual under the circumstances? How old were you when you did that?” Nick was amazed.
    “We made them out the day we turned twenty-one. It wasn't that we had much to leave to each other, you understand. It was sort of a symbolic gesture. But the wills exist, and I am Crissie's legal heir.”
    “Okay, okay, I believe you. What were you implying with that question about how much the families hated Crissie?” Nick asked quietly as he served the tray of sandwiches. He sat down at the small table and helped himself to one of his own creations. “You're not crazy enough to think someone might had tried to kill her, are you?”
    Phila made no move to touch the sandwiches. “The thought crossed my mind, so I hired a private detective to look into it. His report says it was clearly an accident. She was driving too fast that night, and she'd had a few drinks. She took a turn too quickly, went through a guard rail and landed in a ravine. There was no evidence of foul play. Just tragedy. Lots of evidence of tragedy.”
    Nick stopped chewing. “I don't believe I'm hearing this. You actually checked out the possibility of foul play?”
    “Of course. I told you. Crissie was like a sister to me. Do you think I'd take a Castleton's or Lightfoot's word that her death had been an accident?”
    “What about the word of the cops who investigated the scene of the accident?” Nick asked with set teeth. He was suddenly feeling angry.
    “Cops can be bought. Especially by people as powerful as your precious families.”
    “Jesus.” Nick forced himself to breathe slowly. “Who the hell do you think you are to hurl those kinds of accusations?”
    “Me? I'm the only real friend the deceased had, remember? Who else has a better right to hurl accusations? Besides, I'm not hurling them. Not any more. I already checked them out. The families are technically off the hook—technically, at least.”
    “Technically? What the hell does that mean?” Nick was having a hard time controlling his rage now.
    “I mean that as far as I'm concerned the Lightfoots and the Castletons bear some moral responsibility for what happened to Crissie.”
    “ Moral responsibility .”
    “Oh, nothing that would ever hold up in court, I'll grant you that.”
    “Thank you very much.” He wanted to pick her up and shake her. “You've got a lot of nerve, Philadelphia Fox.”
    “Why? Because I dare impugne the honor of the noble clans of Lightfoot and Castleton? Let me tell you something, Nicodemus Lightfoot, there are plenty of ways to ruin a person's life short of murdering her. Believe me, in my line of work I've seen a whole lot of examples of just how it can be done.”
    “You can't blame us for what happened to Crissie Masters.”
    “No? The fact that she even came into this world was Burke Castleton's fault. And he didn't stick around to help raise her, did he? Who knows how she might have turned out if she'd had a