Page 22 of Meant for Two

Mason jotted down some notes. “You're saying Drew thinks that Phil DePaul is upset because he lost the bid for the land?”

“That about sums it up,” Zane said.

Mason nodded. “I’ll check him out. Anyone else?”

“Yes. John Gaines. He owns a real estate company that Blair Gibson used to work for. I just met him today though. He was this arrogant werewolf. I don’t know where his firm is located though.”

“Who is Blair Gibson?”

My mate. “She works for Drew. She is marketing the Development and furnishing the model homes. Here’s the issue: she and John used to date. After she dumped him, he fired her. Since she brought in most of the firm’s revenue, John eventually—as in a year—realized the error of his ways and asked her to come back.”

“Got it. By that time, she’d already started her own firm. Does Blair think he’s vindictive enough to want to sabotage Woodland Estates?”

“It’s possible."

“I’ll check him out. Anyone else?”

“Blair’s partner, Avery, thinks that Mrs. Hensley might have mentioned she and her husband would be out of town to Renata Blue Sky.”

“Ah, yes, Renata. Nice woman, but rather chatty.”

Zane couldn’t believe Mason would know her. Even though Wildwood was a rather small town, there were enough people in it that a person couldn’t know everyone. But this was Mason. It was his job to know.

“It’s possible Renata was at another client’s home and said as soon as the Hensleys returned home, she’d do a ghost cleansing—or whatever it’s called,” Zane explained.

“That’s a lot of conjecture,” Mason said.

“That’s where Avery comes in. She knows Renata’s secretary. She’ll ask if Mrs. Hensley recently stopped by to make an appointment. But I agree it’s a long shot,” Zane told him.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Dad asked me to look into Bill Hensley’s background since he thought Mr. Hensley might have upset someone where he used to live.”

“Did you find anything?” Zane asked.

“Nothing major. Bill Hensley was a manager at Midvale Bank, so I called Charles Weston—my aunt’s cousin. He runs a financial service business in Midvale.”

“Of course he does.” Zane chuckled. “Your family has more connections than a supercomputer.”

Mason grinned. “It does come in handy. Anyway, it took Charles a bit to ask around. He learned from someone who works at Midvale Bank that Jacob Crenshaw and his wife, Melanie, applied for a loan, and Bill turned them down.”

“I trust Mr. Hensley had a good reason.”

“Yes. The couple was already up to their eyeballs in debt because their three-year-old son had failing kidneys and needed a transplant. Jacob was working three jobs, while Melanie had to stay home and care for their son. Jacob was so stressed that his job performance suffered. He eventually lost two of the three jobs. The last job was barely enough to cover their mortgage and food bill.”

Zane whistled. “That’s horrible. Is there anything we can do?”

Mason shook his head. “It’s too late. Their son passed away about two weeks ago.”

Zane did the math in his head. “Is your dad thinking that maybe Jacob wanted to make Mr. Hensley pay for denying the loan, so he robbed him?”

“He isn't speculating, but Charles said Jacob is not a shifter. If he did hire someone to break into the Hensleys’ home, Jacob would have to have known the couple would be out of town. Secondly, he wouldn’t have the money to hire two thugs.”

That made sense. “And he most likely wouldn’t know that it would take a shifter to make it up that rockface and through the woods.”

“I told Dad that, but we shouldn’t discount him. I’m working on the angle that Melanie’s family might be shifters.”

Zane huffed out a laugh. “It seems as if we have too many suspects.”

“Add in John Gaines and whoever Renata Blue Sky might have spoken to, and I’m sure my dad will agree.”