Free Beach Town Trouble (A Port Grace Cozy Mystery Book 2) by Emily Page Page B

contacted Camila in hopes that she would give him money. He didn’t know that she was under Tim Sr.’s thumb and had little money of her own. He found that out quick enough, but he decided to use it to his advantage. He thought he could persuade her to help him kill his father for the inheritance. He befriended her, and then he started hinting at his plan in his letters, but poor Camila was too far gone in the head to fully understand what he wanted. So, nothing happened.
    “I’m betting Timmy started getting more and more pressure from his debt collectors, so he made a trip to see his father to beg for financial help in person. That’s when you found out the truth, isn’t it, Timmy?” said Georgia, leaning over the table and staring right into Tim Jr.’s eyes as she pushed the thick document across the table toward him. “That’s when you found out about the will.”
    Tim Jr. stared at the will like it was a steaming pile of vomit. His hands clenched into fists so tight that he left indentations in his palms.
    “Your father saw you as a failure and a disappointment who squandered money and who was too lazy to earn it back. He didn’t think you deserved any more of his money. He thought there was someone much more deserving.”
    “A dog!” Tim Jr. said, rising from his chair, his face like a boiled lobster. “He cuts me out of the will and leaves everything to a dog! Who does that? What kind of a lunatic does that?”
    “You don’t mean he left everything to Cupcake?” said Crimbleton, mouth agape.
    Ryan chuckled. “That’s exactly what he means.”
    “See for yourself,” said Georgia, grinning as she pushed the will toward Crimbleton and pointed at Cupcake’s name listed under ‘beneficiary.’
    “Well I’ll be damned,” said Crimbleton, a smile of her own playing at her lips. Her eyes flicked up to Tim Jr., and she pointed a stern finger at him. “Sit down or I’ll cuff you to the table.”
    “You didn’t like that too much, did you, Timmy?” said Georgia.
    “Quite calling me that,” said Tim Jr. “He called me that, and I hated it. He called me that right before I pushed him over that cliff! You know what he said? ‘You don’t deserve a single cent, Timmy, and I’ll see that you never get one. It’s for your own good.’ For my own good? I told him what kind of guys were after me, and he thinks throwing me to the wolves is for my own good? That dog was his son, not me! That’s essentially what he told me. Of course I got angry! Who wouldn’t? I wanted to punch him, to throttle him, but I didn’t. I shoved him, and he went over the edge. Good riddance!”
    “Even in your anger, you were clever enough not to leave any marks on him,” said Georgia. “You thought you’d gotten away with it. No one even knew you existed except Camila. But then you got the call to come back into town. You had to know your gambling debts would come to light soon enough, so you had to point the investigation away from yourself. What better scapegoat than your crazy aunt who trusted you because you were the only person who spoke kindly to her? How did you convince her to burn the body, Timmy?”
    “Wasn’t that hard,” said Tim with a scoff. “When I came to see her to ask about the funeral arrangements, she said he wanted to be cremated. She said the best place to do it would be out in nature, under the sky, so that his spirit would have an easy trip into the heavens, or some nonsense like that. I told her we could do that, and she believed me, as easy as that. I hadn’t even planned on that part. She dropped it in my lap.”
    “You helped her steal the body and build the fire,” said Georgia. “Then, when the fire was started, you left and called in a tip to get her caught.”
    “But then you screwed up,” said Ryan. “Trying to play the dutiful nephew, you hired her a lawyer who got her off the murder charge. You could have just let it go, but you wanted the money. You planned to destroy