Never Con a Corgi Read Free Page B

I want nothing to do with this mess. I'm a mother now, remember?"
    "Yes," Maura said hopefully. "There is that." She tapped her pen impatiently on her notebook. "Start talking."
     
    ***
     
    Maura lifted a hand to massage her temple. Her short, dark hair was limp; her dimpled baby face (which had always made an interesting contrast to her otherwise intimidating appearance) was beaded with sweat. "Koslow," she said wearily, "when you say 'he practically blew up, right there in my office,' do you mean that he raised his voice, or do you mean—"
    "I had to threaten to call security before he would leave."
    Maura sighed.
    Leigh's description of how she had found the body had gone well enough. Explaining her personal association with Brandon Lyle was proving more problematic.
    "It wasn't the first time an ad agency ever had a business argument cross the line," Leigh defended. "I've seen it happen other places. At Hook, we work hard to keep our clients from getting irate in the first place, but when you're dealing with a guy like Lyle, who was a total—"
    "Koslow!" Maura barked, "Will you watch what you say to me, please?"
    "Oh, right," Leigh retreated. "What I meant to say is, when an agency has a client with a volatile personality who's risking large sums of money, meetings can get emotional, no matter how professional we are. Brandon was a problem from day one, but Jeff Hulsey and I were able to manage him. Until yesterday, that is."
    The sweat on Maura's brow had coalesced into droplets, and she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed. Maura was the only woman Leigh had ever known who carried a handkerchief. Then again, she was the only woman Leigh had ever known who did a lot of things.
    "Just start at day one," the detective said tiredly.
    "His development company has been with Hook for a couple of years now," Leigh explained. "We did two other projects for him before this one; we produced brochures and presentations to help him recruit investors and then later to sell the properties. Things went fine on our end, but rumor has it those two previous developments ran into major problems. Exactly what, I don't know—we had nothing to do with the financials. But it was clear he was banking on this current project to bail him out somehow."
    "You mean the deal where he needed to buy your aunt's land, or the church's, in order to connect his other properties with the road?" Maura questioned, clearly remembering at least some of the conversation they had enjoyed so casually over pierogie casserole last night. Leigh had given her guests a quick overview of the situation after she had excused herself to take Cara's anxious call about the church meeting. But she hadn't told them everything. When you had a family like hers and you were friends with two married detectives—both of whom had a thing about not showing favoritism in official matters—you learned certain editing skills.
    "Either both of those properties, or the land where the animal shelter is, or maybe both the church and Bess's neighbor Clem's place," Leigh explained. "It's a little complicated, but Lyle had several options. Two months ago, when he hired us to do the investment piece, he wasn't even worried about the access. I had no idea Aunt Bess's place was even involved until Cara showed me the mockups for the brochures."
    Leigh's cousin Cara, a graphic designer of some repute, had for years now been doing high-profile jobs for Hook, the ad agency Leigh had helped to create. Cara didn't ordinarily work on brochures, and she hadn't been working on Lyle's. The woman was just plain nosy.
    "When I saw the architect's drawings, I almost lost my lunch," Leigh continued. "These things never turn out as grandiose as the original plans, of course, but Lyle wanted more than just a fancy entryway with brick gateposts and a waterfall. He had a whole neighborhood shopping square laid out, with a coffee shop, boutiques, even a grocery market! In order to do even half of