The Lady Who Cried Murder (A Mac Faraday Mystery) by Lauren Carr Read Free Book Online Page A

“the worst kind.”

    In the upscale resort town of Spencer, Maryland, where many of the town’s residents were listed in “Who’s Who,” the small police station resembled a sports club. Its fleet of police cruisers was top-of-the-line SUVs painted black with gold lettering on the side that read “SPENCER POLICE.” Located along the shore of Deep Creek Lake, the log building that was home to the police department sported a dock with a dozen jet skis and four speed boats. For patrolling the deep woods and up the mountains trails, they had eight ATVs. Like the cruisers, all of the vehicles were black with gold trim.
    The conference with Ben Fleming and Ed Willingham, the attorney for Khloe’s late mother, turned into a luncheon meeting. Ben brought Chelsea along to take notes during their meeting. Whether she liked it or not, she was eating lunch with David.
    They met in David’s office, which was located on the second floor with a view of the lake. Ben had ordered Chinese takeout from the one restaurant that dealt with it on the lake. While dealing out the food around the conference table, Ed Willingham, a prestigious lawyer and senior partner of one of the largest law firms in the Washington, DC, area, tried to talk business to Mac about a producer wanting to purchase the movie rights for Robin Spencer’s last three Mickey Forsythe books.
    In spite of the obscene amount of money the producer was offering, Mac balked. “No cast approval, no rights.”
    “He’s not going to let you have say in the casting of the movie.” It was difficult to tell if Ed thought, or rather hoped, that Mac was joking in his request.
    “Mickey Forsythe was my mother’s creation,” Mac explained. “I’m not going to have his image tarnished by the casting of some degenerate to play him on the screen, or maybe by someone who decides to make him more sensitive or more like a boob.”
    “Or maybe select a neutered German shepherd to play Diablo,” David said.
    “That’s right,” Mac agreed. “Gnarly would be in a snit for a year if that happened. Have you ever seen Gnarly when he was in a snit about something?”
    “It’s not pretty,” David said.
    Mac pressed the top of his finger against the tabletop. “No cast approval, no rights. That’s final.”
    “I guess these movies won’t get made,” Ed said in a firm tone, as if the decision had been his.
    Mac picked up an egg roll with a shrug of his shoulders. “Fine with me.”
    After everyone’s plates were made, Ben Fleming took the lead in the meeting. “As you know, close to a month ago, Florence Everest passed away, which started a whole mess with Khloe coming back to town and expecting to collect an inheritance, only to discover that her mother had been serious when she said she was disinherited.”
    “Knowing Khloe,” Ed said, “she thought that since she was an only child she would get it all no matter what. Big surprise when her mother left it all to charity to help women victims of violent crime.”
    “Which Khloe then became,” Mac noted the irony.
    “Khloe managed to find an attorney to file a suit against Florence’s estate and fight the will,” Ed said. “No way was she going to win that. In the meantime, she took up residence in the house and refused to leave.”
    David urged them to continue. “What information do you have that can help us find her killer?”
    Ben looked across the table at Ed. The lawyer got up and closed David’s office door. On his way back to the conference table, he took a micro cassette recorder out of his pocket, turned on a button, and placed the recorder in the middle of the table.
    A woman’s voice came from the speaker with the smooth, cultured tone that had belonged to Florence Everest.
    “I said no!”
    Slap!
    “Oh, I forgot how you like it rough,” a male voice said. “If you want it like the last time—”
    “Last time was not rough! Last time was an attack. I said no—”
    “Of course you said no. They