Deadly Disco in Las Vegas: A Humorous Tiffany Black Mystery (Tiffany Black Mysteries Book 6) Read Free

had left a lot of his estate to his ex-wife? No wonder Mary was worried that any investigator would consider her to be a suspect.
    Once we’d signed the papers, I asked Mary casually, “Why’d he leave so much of his estate to you?”
    Mary shrugged. “Beats me. I got one-third, my son Taylor gets a trust that he can access when he’s thirty-two, and Josh’s business partner David got the rest. There are odds and ends that go to charities, a small gift to his assistant Amelia, and a couple of thousand cash to his nieces and nephews.”
    Ian said, “Maybe Josh never updated his will since your divorce.”
    Mary shook her head. “No, it was updated a year ago.”
    “Well,” I said, leaning back and getting ready to take notes, “tell me more about Josh. Any friends, any enemies, competitors, that kind of thing.”
    Mary fiddled with her short hair as she spoke. “Josh was a good guy, but he liked the ladies too much. That’s why our marriage fell apart. He was always with some woman or another. Josh would’ve been fifty-three later this year, but the girls he was with were always in their twenties.”
    “Any girl in particular?” I asked.
    “He was seeing a stripper for the last year or so. Chloe Dechapelle. Other than that, I think he was hooking up with random girls every now and then. It wasn’t hard for him to meet these girls, you know. He was rich, he was charming, and he offered them a good time.”
    “But Chloe still dated him?”
    “Maybe she didn’t know about his philandering. I met her once, and she was very pretty, but not necessarily too smart.”
    “Right. And what about his family? Did he have anyone out here in Vegas?”
    Mary shook her head. “His parents passed away a while back, and he’s got a brother and sister, and nieces and nephews, living out on the East Coast. I think he flew out to see them every couple of years, but they weren’t particularly close. If anything, I think Taylor and I were Josh’s real family. He cared about us, even though we’d split. We spent Christmases and holidays together.”
    “And his new girlfriends didn’t care about this?”
    “Sometimes his latest girlfriend would be there. But Taylor was his son; Josh wanted to spend time with him.”
    “How old is Taylor?”
    “He turned nineteen a few months ago.”
    “And how does he feel about all this?”
    “Well, he’s sad, of course. A bit shocked about the trust fund. I don’t think either of us expected that. If anything, the trust fund makes Taylor sadder, because it shows how much Josh cared about him.”
    “But he can’t access it,” Ian said. “I’ve got a trust fund, and I can get to it, but my parents and legal advisor control it and they never really give me much cash. That’s no fun.”
    “I don’t think Taylor needs a trust fund.” There was an element of steel in Mary’s voice, and I imagined she’d had to be a tough mom when her son was growing up. “He ought to work hard and make something of himself.”
    “That’s an admirable sentiment,” I said. “And what about Josh’s business partner, David?”
    “David’s an old friend of Josh’s. They went to college together in the East, and then they both worked together in a New York investment bank for a while. Josh came out here to invest in the entertainment business, and David started his investment firm. A few years back, David moved here for the tax breaks, and the two decided to buy some commercial real estate together. They’re great friends—golf together, gym together.”
    “And Josh’s assistant? The one who got the text?”
    “Amelia. She’s been his assistant for about four years now. Josh has a rule of never mixing work and pleasure, and he means it. I’ve seen Amelia—she’s very pretty, but I’m sure Josh never slept with her.”
    “And did she like working for him? What about any boyfriends?”
    “I don’t know if she’s got any boyfriends. I never heard about any. The last we chatted,