Treacherous Secrets novel Chapter 25

Barbara looked at him and smiled. She knew he was trying to find out if she had motive for killing Kenton. "Kenton's company Morgan Chase Investments was trying to purchase land from coal companies outside of Knoxville. The land had once been mountains that the coal companies had cut the tops off of to get to the coal. Now that the coal was gone, they were selling the land. The company was bringing investors in to the project. Besides buying the land, they planned to build a resort and shopping center. I gave Kenton fifty thousand dollars with the promise of more money once the land was secured. There were at least fifty investors involved in the deal, which is going south because a group of environmentalists is suing to keep the land from being developed. They want to try to restore the mountain back to as close to its natural state as they can get it."

"If the deal is not going through, can you not get your money back?" Janice asked.

"Not according to Kenton," Barbara said. "He said that the investors' money was used to purchase the land and pay for the legal team trying to keep the environmentalists from closing down the deal."

"So there are about fifty pissed off investors looking to get their money back?" Harold asked.

"Possibly," Barbara said. "I talked to Walter Chase at the party at Kenton and Emily's house a few weeks ago and he assured me that the deal was still going to go through, and the resort would be built, but I told Kenton that I wanted out, and he told me that I couldn't get my money back."

"Have you seen Kenton since then?" Harold asked.

"No, I expected to see him in Louisville last week because he always goes to the Derby Festival, but he wasn't there." Barbara looked sadly at Carol. "Now I know why?"

"How long have you known the Butlers?" Janice asked.

Barbara looked at Carol. "Oh, I don't know, two or three years. Is that about right, dear?"

"That sounds right. It was after Damon and I bought the house."

"Did you and your husband decide to move out there because that was where Emily and Kenton lived?" Janice asked.

"Yes," Carol said, turning in her seat so she could look at Janice who was sitting behind her. "Damon and Kenton became fast friends after Kenton married Emily."

"Did you have a career before you and Damon got married," Harold asked.

"No, I'd been going to school but didn't really know what I wanted to do." She looked away. "I was very spoiled. My father is CEO of Countland Investments, and I have a large inheritance coming after he passes."

"Did Kenton ever try to get you to invest in the eastern Tennessee deal?" Janice asked, wondering if the investment deal might have something to do with the murder.

"He was trying to talk me into getting my parents into the deal but my father refused to take a gamble on such a troubled project." Carol sighed, "But he had talked Damon into investing in it. I think Damon gave him a hundred thousand."

"About a year ago," Carol laughed bitterly. "Now that I think about how it started. Damon was in Knoxville working with the coal companies about the negotiations on the land Morgan Chase wanted. The project was just getting started. I was getting ready to go to a spa treatment when the garage door opener stopped working." She grabbed the dash of the SUV as Harold had to make a sudden stop at stoplight that changed. "Of course, I have no idea how to fix something like that so I called Kenton because I knew he was home. He came over and fixed it. We got to talking, and one thing led to another."

"So," Janice said slowly, a suspicion forming in her head. "Your affair with Mr. Jenkins started about the same time as the deal in east Tennessee started coming together?"

Carol thought about it for a few minutes. "Yeah, they had just made the first offer to the coal company."

Harold looked at Janice in the rearview mirror. He must be thinking the same thing, Janice thought. "How long after that did he start talking to you about investing in the land deal?"

Harold had taken off again. "The bank is just up there to the right," Carol said and then she turned back to Janice, an angry look coming over her face. "He had asked me about it before that happened, but he really started trying to get me to talk to my father about the investment after we started seeing each other."

"Was he still trying to get you to talk to your father about the investment?" Harold asked.

"No, once my father says no, it's no, but," Carol said through clinched teeth, "he was trying to get me to take out a loan against my inheritance, which he said he would pay back as soon as they built the resort and sold it." Carol slammed her fist down on the dash.