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“Thompson embezzled from their firm, leaving her broke and stealing her ideas and all of their clients. Martha tried suing and lost.”
“So, we’re looking at revenge for a motive.”
Jessica nodded. “Christie once said there are only two reasons for murder: love or money.”
“She isn’t wrong. Who’s next?”
“Barbie Addison,” said Jessica.
“Snooty bitch,” said Sudie.
Thorn chuckled. “Who is she, and why would she have wanted him dead?”
“Barbie is the closest thing that Badger’s Drift has to a grand dame. She also had an affair with Thompson, which he broke off. Rumor is he was pretty callous and she was left pretty beaten up emotionally. She too would be looking for revenge, but instead of money, her motive would be scorned love.”
“Anyone else?” Thorn said, taking a sip of coffee.
Jessica nodded. “George Martin. He and Thompson were business rivals. They had a long-standing feud and were incredibly competitive. If he takes out Thompson, the path is clear for his influence and politics to take precedence, increasing his profits.”
“So, again, it comes down to love or money,” said Sudie.
“It does, indeed,” said Thorn.
“While you were getting dressed, I went ahead and started organizing some of the stuff we found yesterday. I have to tell you, some of it is pretty disgusting,” said Jessica.
“It is, and if you want to pull back on the investigation, I’ll understand and keep all the nastiness from you.”
“No. I want to help. I need to clear my name.”
“You were a suspect?” gasped Sudie.
“Not really,” said Thorn. “Thompson was found in her room. We had to eliminate her officially, which we did. Not once did I believe for even a second that she had anything to do with it.”
“So basically, she’s just like Tracer and wants to snoopervise,” teased Sudie.
“Let’s go see if we can get what we already have organized before we start conducting interviews. I know you’ve got a book, but if you’re free, I’d like if you could sit in or observe the interviews. I think your insight into this town and its citizens could be of inordinate help.”
“Why, Detective Wilder, I thought you’d never ask.”
Thorn started to pick up the dishes and was shooed away along with Jessica and Tracer. They headed for the office, where Tracer took his place on the antique day bed.
“I found this earlier and wanted to show it to you.”
There was a picture of a leering Gregory Thompson and a girl who looked young enough to be his daughter. “Who is she?”
“That’s Sophie Gates. She was Thompson’s assistant.”
“That doesn’t look like a very assistant-like pose. In fact, she looks repulsed by him.”
“Wouldn’t you be?” asked Jessica rhetorically.
“Let’s add her to the list. I need to check in with my team.”
“Not a problem, I want to spend some time with that ledger. Thompson went to a lot of trouble to hide that thing. It has to be important. If you want some privacy, there’s a desk in my bedroom, or I’ll be in here, and Sudie will be in the kitchen, so you could use the living room as well.”
“Thanks, babe. I’ll just make myself comfy in the leather wingback.”
Thorn started making calls and Jessica tuned him out. As she looked through the ledger, she got the distinct feeling that she might be looking at some kind of blackmail scheme. There were numbers to identify individuals, dollar amounts, and dates. The numbers, which she was sure were a way to identify people, seemed out of kilter. They were in random order and there was no pattern as to how many numbers were in each sequence.
