Free Dead Wake (The Forgotten Coast Florida #5) by Dawn Lee McKenna Page A

while, it was just a tax write-off, which I needed by then,” Boudreaux said. “Then I had new floors and windows put in and leased the spaces out.”
    “What went in there?”
    “A hair salon,” Maggie answered for Boudreaux. “I had my hair done there for prom.”
    “Yes,” Boudreaux said. “Then it was a gift shop, but that went out of business fairly quickly. That was when I sold the building to the gentlemen who own it now.”
    Maggie had a brief memory of sitting underneath a hair dryer up against that brick wall. If she’d known what was encased just behind her, she’d have been more curious than anything else, even then.
    “Let’s revisit your alibi for a second,” Wyatt said.
    “I don’t have one,” Boudreaux said.
    “I don’t believe you,” Wyatt said. “And that’s problematic.”
    “I suppose it could be,” Boudreaux said smoothly. He looked over at Maggie.
    “Mr. Boudreaux,” she said. “It concerns me that you won’t tell us where you were or who you were with. Just clear it up.”
    “I apologize, Maggie.”
    “I tend to think you didn’t have anything to do with this,” she said.
    Boudreaux held her stare for a moment before he spoke. “Why is that, Maggie?”
    Maggie was trying to come up with an answer when Wyatt spoke up.
    “Maggie says you wouldn’t kill for money,” Wyatt said. Maggie thought about shooting him.
    “Is that right?” Boudreaux asked, smiling slightly at Maggie before he looked at Wyatt. “She’s correct.”
    “So why would you?”
    “Why would you?” Boudreaux countered. He sat back in his chair. “Buying Crawford’s assets was an investment. It cost me money for quite some time before it actually made me any. To be truthful, I had no need of his business at the time, and my father was misguided in thinking that empty lot would help him. He just wanted to get what he wanted, whether it was a good business decision or not.”
    “But he didn’t get it. You did,” said Wyatt.
    “Yes. My father passed away the year before Crawford was declared legally dead, and his wife was free to sell the business.”
    “Then you took over both businesses.”
    “Correct.”
    “Do you know of anyone else that might have wanted to kill Crawford?” Maggie asked.
    “I don’t really,” Boudreaux answered. “He was a decent enough man, though a poor businessman.”
    “How’s that?” Wyatt asked.
    “He went into debt to buy that property downtown, then took out more loans to renovate it. Yet he held onto that empty lot on the waterfront. His wife nearly went bankrupt trying to keep his business afloat after he disappeared.”
    “But you don’t know of anyone else he might have had trouble with?” Maggie asked.
    “No.”
    “Neither do we,” Wyatt said almost cheerfully.
    Maggie shifted in her seat, drawing Boudreaux’s attention from Wyatt to her. “Do you know which company it was that was doing the remodeling for Crawford?”
    “No, I’m sorry. I don’t,” Boudreaux answered. “By the time I moved here in ’83, they’d already done whatever they’d been doing.”
    “What was in there when you bought it?”
    “It was being used to store antiques. Mrs. Crawford had a shop next door,” Boudreaux said. “I bought this desk from her.”
    Maggie nodded and looked over at Wyatt, who was frowning in the general direction of Boudreaux’s desk.
    “So, if you bought Crawford’s business, what happened to it?” Wyatt asked. “There’s nothing there.”
    “Precisely,” Boudreaux answered. “The point of buying it was so that it wouldn’t exist. I do still have some of his boats and equipment. I sold that building to a developer a long time ago. They never did anything with it. I believe they’ve since sold it to someone else who isn’t doing anything with it.” He glanced at his watch and stood. “I’m sorry, but I need to get home,” he said. “I’m expected at a city council dinner.”
    Maggie and Wyatt both stood up as well.