Free The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds by Bobbi Holmes

and Dani
confronted her cousin. Cheryl insisted it was all a mistake; that she had too
much to drink.”
    “Cheryl’s version was
that Lucas had made a pass at her. She says that explains her and Danielle’s
fractured relationship. According to Cheryl, Lucas cheated on Dani throughout
their marriage, and when he was killed in the car accident, he was with his
lover.”
    “Well, the last part of
that is true enough,” Lily said with a sigh.
    “It is?”
    “I have no idea if he
cheated on her throughout their marriage. When I first met them they seemed to
have a good marriage. I never noticed him having a wandering eye or being
inappropriate with other women. But during that last year, before he was
killed, their business had really taken off. They started to make a lot of
money, and he seemed to change. Danielle was never heavy into material stuff,
but Lucas was suddenly spending money like crazy. A new car, a new house, and
he spent way more money than Dani did on clothes. In fact, he’d get annoyed
because she wasn’t dressing up to their new station in life—as he put it.”
    “Sounds like a nice
guy,” Ian scoffed.
    “He was. No I mean
really, he used to be, when I first met him. But he changed a lot that last
year. That’s why I don’t think he was cheating on Danielle earlier in their
marriage.”
    “Were Danielle and
Cheryl close before the incident at the wedding?”
    “No. According to Dani
they’ve never been close. When they were teenagers Cheryl used to hit on Dani’s
boyfriends. That’s why she wasn’t terribly surprised when she hit on Lucas.”
    “Now I’m just starting
to feel cheap,” Ian grumbled.
    “Ahh, because you
aren’t special?” Lily teased. Ian chuckled in reply.
    Sadie gave up on
waiting for Lily to throw the ball. She walked to the bench and sat down
between Ian and Lily’s feet.
    “I do have a question
for you,” Ian asked
    “What?” Lily reached
down and gave Sadie a pat.
    “Why were you playing
croquet all alone?”
    “Oh that,” Lily
laughed. “Danielle and I thought it might be cool to put the croquet set up in
the backyard for the open house—an old fashioned touch. After I set it up,
decided to try it out.”
    They sat in silence for
a few minutes. Finally Lily said, “I keep thinking about Cheryl’s claim.
Danielle was so excited with opening the B and B. This really bugs me.”
    “I was thinking about
that myself. I suppose, worse case scenario—Danielle can pay off Cheryl with
the proceeds from the sale of the necklace. After all, in the beginning she
thought it was a fake. From what I understand about what the house is worth,
Danielle could easily cover half of the estate’s worth from the sale of the
necklace and still have money left over.”
    “That’s true, if Cheryl
was willing to let Dani keep Marlow House.”
    “Why wouldn’t she? I
didn’t get the impression Cheryl was thrilled with this place,” Ian said.
    “According to Dani,
Cheryl has a habit of wanting what ever Dani has. If Cheryl thinks Dani really
wants Marlow House, she might decide she wants it too.”

Chapter Ten
     
    Walt watched as Cheryl
crawled along the attic floor on her hands and knees, inspecting the baseboard.
Still wearing her bathing suit and short summer shift, her bottom waddled in
the air as she made her way across the floor. Walt had never seen a thong
bathing suit bottom before and was quite fascinated at the sight.
    It was obvious to him
she was treasure hunting. He smiled when she reached the loose board where he
had once hidden the Missing Thorndike. Of course it was no longer there, but by
Cheryl’s gleeful squeal when the board came off in her hand, and she discovered
the secret cubbyhole, the woman clearly thought she’d stumbled upon new
treasure. Her hand was shoved into the cubbyhole when Danielle walked in the
room a moment later. Danielle noticed Walt first, but he didn’t see her. He
couldn’t take his eyes off the woman crawling around