“He was a former employee of my son, Vinnie. Dernice hired him.”
“She can’t do that,” Elvira blustered.
“She can and did. And now I’ll repeat Mercedes’ question – Why are you here?”
“I already told you.”
“We’re only getting half the story. This has something to do with Coastal Adventures and somewhere along the way, your husband, as well.”
“Will you stop saying that,” Elvira hissed. “I am not married.”
“Others might say differently. Listen. I don’t care if you’re married or not. What I do care about is the police questioning me about Kim Turbell’s death. I was one of the last people to see her alive.”
“If you had been minding your own business, you would have nothing to worry about.”
Carlita clenched her fists, resisting the urge to wrap her hands around the woman’s neck. “You purchased a piece of property on Tybee Island, an investment, knowing a potentially large and lucrative development had started buying up the properties. Something happened. My guess is there are a few properties Coastal still needs to acquire in order to move forward with their project. You and the other sellers banded together, you came to some sort of agreement on a sale price and now you’re holding out.”
“Like I said, this doesn’t involve you.”
“Except for the fact, as I’ll remind you once again, I met Turbell yesterday. Your sister and I stopped by Coastal Adventure’s sales office, and I filled out a form. Dernice and I visited your property only hours before the woman died under suspicious circumstances, and now I’m a suspect.”
“What were you doing inside my property?” Elvira asked.
“Dernice asked for my help since she can’t get any from you.”
The man behind the counter’s eyes grew wide as he listened to their exchange.
Elvira glanced in his direction and then pushed Carlita out of the building. “This isn’t the place to air our dirty laundry.”
“Don’t you mean your dirty laundry?”
Mercedes shot the man an apologetic look before joining her mother and Elvira.
“I need to get Zu out of there.”
“I’m sure Dernice would appreciate that.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s a pain in the butt, just like her mother is.” Carlita gave her a pointed stare. “She isn’t helping anyone, including you.”
“Gremlin.” Elvira tightened her jaw. “The man is like a bad case of poison ivy. Once he latches on, you can’t get rid of him.”
“It sounds as if you two were perfect for each other,” Carlita taunted. “Maybe you should stay hitched.”
“As much as I’m enjoying my mother putting you in your place, we’re here to get the names of the other owners whose property Coastal Adventures and Atlantic Deep is trying to purchase,” Mercedes said.
“I can’t help. I don’t have the names. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I’m not selling until I get my personal issue resolved.”
Carlita sucked in a breath. Elvira was stubborn. She was also greedy. “How much is Coastal offering to pay you?”
“Two hundred and fifty.”
“Thousand.”
“Correct.”
“That’s a lot of money.”
“It is, and I want to sell.” Elvira tapped her foot on the ground, looking away and then looking back. “If I sell now, I have nothing to use as a bargaining chip with my ex. He’ll have the property he needs, and he can still petition the courts for half of my businesses since we’re still technically hitched. I have a lawyer working down here to get it sorted out.”
“Why in St. Augustine?”
Elvira lowered her voice as a couple passed by on their way inside. “Gremlin and I divorced years ago. I tried to serve him with the papers, but he was MIA. After the required amount of time passed, the courts ruled in favor of the divorce. Unfortunately, my incompetent attorney failed to file the paperwork, leaving me still hitched to the jerk. I had no idea until recently. It’s a technicality. As soon as we can get the proper paperwork pushed through, the divorce is done, Gremlin won’t be able to touch my businesses and I’m free to sell the property.”
“Except someone, maybe even Gremlin isn’t willing to wait. Have you thought that maybe whoever is targeting you, the person who is messing around your businesses, killed the woman and possibly even planted her body inside your building to set you up?”
“I haven’t had time to process the woman’s death. What was her name?”
“Kim Turbell.”
“Yeah. I know her. She’s a nag, calling me almost every day about selling.”
“The other sellers might be a non-issue,” Carlita said. “They can just go ahead and sell.”
“They can’t. Coastal needs my property. If they can’t get mine, there’s no point in purchasing the others. They view it as a package deal.”
“Which leads us back to the other property owners. I need names.”
“Two of the properties were purchased in trusts. I only have the first names and emails since that’s how we communicated. I was gonna do a little more digging around until I got caught up in this un-divorced fiasco.”
“The authorities are going to want to talk to you not only about the woman’s death but your Tybee property purchase, as well.”
“Yeah. That might present a problem.”
“Why?” Mercedes asked.
Elvira’s eyes slid to the side.
“There’s something other than the woman’s death. You did something you don’t think the authorities would approve of,” Carlita guessed.
“Maybe,” Elvira hedged.
“What did you do?”
“I was collecting a fee for helping one of the other sellers negotiate the property sale.”
“You were acting as a real estate agent?” Carlita briefly closed her eyes and shook her head. “That’s illegal.”
“It’s a gray area. I considered it more of a referral fee, but I’m not sure the authorities would view it the same way.”
“For good reason. It’s called practicing real estate without a license.”
Elvira’s shoulders slumped. “I
