Free Darkness Falls by Franklin W. Dixon

he couldn’t go on living the way he had been. His last book had disappointing sales, and his TV show had been canceled. But he refused to cut down on his expenses. Did you see the house they rented here? Three thousand a week!”
    â€œSo that explains the missing funds?” Joe suggested.
    â€œSome of them, but not all,” De La Rosa said, shaking his head. “Even accounting for what they spent, there should have been a lot left over. Either Ebersol was giving it away in bunches without telling anyone, or somebody was stealing from the fund. There’s so little left that I had to tell Michele she couldn’t have the advance she wanted. That’s what we were fighting about this morning.”
    â€œWhat advance?” Frank asked. “For what purpose?”
    â€œShe said she was going to take her husband’s place and that she wanted to make abig publicity push for herself. She was scary. I mean, the guy was just murdered!
    â€œAnyway, I told her I couldn’t sell enough stock from the Ebersol Foundation’s trust fund to advance her the amount she needed. There are bylaws that prohibit spending the trust’s capital beyond a certain point. And we’ve already reached that point. She blew a gasket when I told her. She threatened me with everything from murder to firing to a lawsuit. But if you want to know the truth, I think
she’s
the one who’s been stealing the money. Oh, sure, they both blamed me from the beginning. But it’s not my fault, and nobody’s going to make it my fault!”
    â€œStay calm, Mr. De La Rosa,” Frank advised. “We’re not accusing you of anything.”
    â€œHow long has money been disappearing from the trust?” Frank asked.
    â€œAbout a year,” De La Rosa said. “Since just after I came on board. Several hundred thousand dollars is what we’re talking about. It’s put the foundation in serious financial trouble.”
    â€œTell me how the foundation is set up,” Frank said.
    â€œBasically, Ebersol is—was—allowed to seek funding from the corporate sponsors of his TV show. The corporations would donate cash or stock to the foundation, and in return he wouldplug their message and their products on the show. Of course, that all fell apart when the show was canceled.”
    De La Rosa sighed in frustration. “I kept telling Jim that he had to reestablish his scientific credibility—spend less time on the talk show circuit and more time in the lab, working. And I’ll bet in addition to everything else, she’s even accusing me of his murder—am I right?”
    â€œNo, sir,” Frank said, wondering what had made De La Rosa bring that up. “She didn’t say anything like that. Only that you belonged in jail.”
    â€œBesides,” Joe broke in, “they’ve already arrested someone for Ebersol’s murder. Why would she accuse you?”
    â€œI, er, I didn’t say that she did for certain.” De La Rosa backtracked. “I was only guessing—”
    â€œTell us more about Ebersol and Michele,” Frank urged. “What were they like as people?”
    â€œThat’s easy,” De La Rosa said. “They were two spoiled children who expected everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. They had no idea what anything cost. They just charged everything to the lab and expected money to appear in front of them.”
    â€œIs that how she behaved this morning?” Frank asked. “When she demanded the advance from you?”
    â€œYes,” De La Rosa said, frowning. “You know, I don’t know why she should care so much about an advance when in a few days she’s going to collect a life insurance payment for Ebersol’s death.”
    â€œWait a minute,” Joe said. “Are you implying that Michele had something to do with her husband’s murder?”
    â€œI’m not accusing