Page 98 of The Summer Inn on Plum Island
“Who’s your sister, Connor?” Dawn leaned over and asked, but Liam had a feeling she, like him, already knew the answer.
“Jackie Travis,” Connor told her.
Liam wasn’t sure why, as he’d already started to piece it together, still, when Connor said the woman’s name out loud, shock waves reverberated through him. But Liam was sure it was because of how pale Dawn had gone.
“I believe you know about the problems Greg Albright is having?” Detective Winslow took over the story, her patience with Connor’s long-winded one coming to an end. Dawn and Liam nodded. “Turns out, Greg and his ex-wife Jackie Travis, although divorced, are still very much together. Especially as business partners.”
“Their extravagant lifestyle took a turn for the worst about four years ago when Greg’s business started getting into financial trouble,” Connor told them. “He told my sister not to worry. He’d sort it out.” He glanced at Dawn. “I now think he meant by marrying you, Miss Vanderbilt.”
“Well, he would’ve got a shock there,” Dawn said with a nervous laugh. “My family makes sure our finances are locked down so tight that any marriage contract ensures my spouse would get nothing unless I died.” Her eyes widened. “But even then, the death has to be natural or proven accidental.”
“We believe it was to be an accidental yachting accident,” the detective told Dawn, giving her an apologetic smile. “Our young Connor overheard Greg and Jackie arguing last night.”
“That’s why he had the yacht built that looked exactly like Alex Blackwell’s,” Connor told them. “He planned to kill all of you on his yacht while stealing Alex’s. Then Greg and my sister would skip town once he got the money. Oh, and he’d already taken out a massive insurance policy on you, Dawn, the day you were supposed to get engaged.”
“Can he even do that?” Dawn asked.
“You’d be amazed at what con artists can do,” the detective assured her.
“So this was about money,” Dawn said in disgust.
“And a sprinkle of payback for you dumping Greg twice and his hatred of your friends,” Connor told her. “That man’s evil. I told my sister that the day she married him, but now I know why they make such a good team. Jackie’s just as evil as Greg.”
“Are you okay?” Dawn leaned past the detective to look at Connor, whose eyes and voice were filled with pain.
“No.” Connor shook his head. “My sister tried to kill me.” He swallowed. “Chris saved me, but he wasn’t able to save Missy. He told me to run. So I did.”
“I found him hiding in the back of my police car this morning,” the detective told them. “Jackie’s been hustling old people out of their money with last will and testament schemes that just skirt the edges of being fraudulent.”
“Like with Tiger?” Dawn asked.
“Yes.” She nodded. “Jackie sneakily opened Tiger’s cage and managed to convince the real Daniel Peters to leave the back window open because the cat liked to travel that way. She lied to him, telling him that’s the way she’d taken Tiger to the vet for Mrs. Peters.”
“He didn’t know Tiger had jumped out of the car until he arrived in Boston,” Connor added.
“In Mrs. Peters’s last will and testament, it stipulates that if the Peters family can’t look after, or if they injure or try to get rid of Tiger, the three million a year that comes with him automatically goes to the late Mrs. Peters’s favorite charity.”
“Let me guess,” Liam said. “The Nicol-Travis Animal Foundation?”
“Yes, and guess whose names are all over it?” The detective’s eyes turned to Connor. “As well as the late vet Chris Nicols.”
“I knew that woman was cold, but to throw your own brother under the bus like that,” Dawn hissed.
“Oh, she wasn’t just going to throw Connor under the bus,” the detective stated. “She was going to kill him and then blow him and the boat up. Guess who the sole beneficiary of the insurance policy that she convinced Connor to take out for himself is?”
“The queen of evil!” Dawn sneered, shaking her head. “Plus, I bet she’s already siphoned everything out of the animal foundation that I was going to donate a heavy sum of money to, plus all the money for Tiger if I got to keep him.”
“Not to mention the ransom money they were going to demand for your return,” the detective shocked them by saying. “Yup. They’ve been planning to kidnap you, Dawn, since you dumped Greg, got a restraining order, and took away any custody of his daughter.”
“They were going to ask for thirty million for your safe return,” Connor added. “But once they had the money, they were going to kill you and make sure Ben Hardy got blamed.”
“But you were found before they could even call in the kidnapping the first time” the detective continued. “You must have a guardian angel looking out for you. According to Connor, that dinghy wasn’t supposed to be on the boat, but all three of you were, alongside the bodies already in it the second time you were kidnapped.”
“How were they going to get away with that?” Dawn asked.
“They’d planned to be well out of the country with what money Jackie managed to wrangle with the animal fund and last will and testament scheme,” the detective replied. “They were cutting their losses after all their failed attempts at kidnappingyou. They were probably going to start a new life in some far-off land that has non-extradition laws”
“That’s exactly what they were going to do,” Connor told them. “After you’d thwarted their plans the first time, my sister also discovered that Chris hadn’t really wired the boat with C4. By that point, he’d realized that my sister wasn’t trying to bring Dawn’s novel to life because they were lifelong friends. He thought she wanted Dawn to find happiness and help me into an acting career.”
