Free Maddie's Recipe Of Mysteries (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Emily Page Page A

as a way to exploit the relationship and get money out of him.”
     
    She took a deep breath before she continued. “I was furious, and I wanted a divorce right then and there. Tom was afraid that a divorce would ruin his chances at reelection, so he decided to get rid of her instead.”
     
    “So, what did he do?”
     
    “That’s when her true colors came out.” Kelsey spoke now with bitterness and anger in her voice.
     
    “She threatened to expose him and do a full exposé in the local paper. Tom ended up having to pay a lot of money to keep her quiet. It took a lot of lawyers and hard-core negotiating to keep things quiet.”
     
    “Oh my! I had no idea,” Madeline said again, stunned.
     
    “Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Kelsey continued.
     
    “Where do you think she got the money to get that new bakery off the ground? Emma had no money, and her partner, Evan, he had even less.”
     
    “She couldn’t qualify for any type of bank loan, so she did what she did best.” Kelsey stopped to get a little more control of her voice before she continued.
     
    “She started doing the same thing to a whole host of people. Martin, the president of First Allied Bank, Allen, the owner of Barclay’s Investments, Peter, president of Constance Property Management—”
     
    “Wait,” Bailey interrupted. “Are you telling me she did the same thing with all of these men?”
     
    “Yes,” Kelsey confirmed.
     
    “And more. That’s how she made the money to get that rival bakery off the ground.”
     
    “She was clever, that one. I knew that one day, she’d get it in the end.”
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Madeline and Bailey drove out of the Kelsey’s driveway, speechless. While they expected to uncover some of Emma’s secrets, they didn’t expect the earful they had gotten. If Kelsey’s accusations proved true, there could be a host of possible suspects who had wanted to see Emma eliminated. But there was a nagging bit of doubt running through their minds.
     
    Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and it was clear there was no woman more bitter than Kelsey Bryson.
     
    Still, as they discussed the details of their afternoon with Kelsey, there seemed to be one continuous thread that ran through all the evidence they had uncovered so far: the rival bakery on the other side of town was the one thing that linked everything else together.
     
    From what Madeline remembered, Evan Foster was a relatively simple man. He was neither outspoken nor pushy. Yes, he had his own ideals and dreams, as did everyone else in the school, but he was rather mousy for a man.
     
    “Well, what do you think?” Bailey spoke up first.
     
    “I’m not entirely sure what to think,” Madeline answered.
     
    “Do you think you can believe what Kelsey said about Emma and all of those men?”
     
    “I’m not sure. It’s a might convenient that all of this comes out after her death.”
     
    “Well, I believe it,” Bailey asserted.
     
    “I mean, she’s been around the block, there’s no secret about that. She’s shrewd and conniving. You know that for yourself.”
     
    “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that she got into bed with all of those men.”
     
    “Think of it this way, Gran. If she slept with even half of the men Kelsey commented on and then blackmailed them into backing her business with Evan, it creates a lot more possible suspects. That could be enough to take some of the heat off of you.”
     
    “True,” Madeline said, thinking about the possibilities. “But all of these things supposedly happened several years ago. Why would they wait until now to try to kill her?”
     
    “Good point,” Bailey said. “But I did find out a lot about her from those social media sites. She wasn’t a very popular woman.”
     
    “Everybody knows that,” Madeline continued.
     
    “But Emma didn’t just get that way recently. She’s been that way her whole life. Why would anyone try to kill her now?
     
    It