Never Thwart a Thespian: Volume 8 (Leigh Koslow Mystery Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

be some disapproval, but he was naive about his ability to sway the local zoning board. He’d paid more for the building than it was worth, and he was in hock up to his eyeballs after expanding his other businesses so rapidly. The zoning board’s decision was critical to him.”
    “So when he got the bad news he took off, rather than face his debts?” Leigh suggested.
    “Well now,” Maura said smoothly, “that’s just it. That’s what everyone assumed. But the fact is, not a single person went on record saying they’d seen Marconi for a full thirty-six hours before the decision came down. He didn’t attend the final hearing; only his lawyer was present. The president of the zoning board said publicly that he had tried to reach Marconi with the verdict, but was unable to contact him. So yes, Marconi could have heard the verdict through the grapevine, or just seen which way the wind was blowing and took off to parts unknown. But there’s not a shred of evidence proving that he ever actually found out the news he was waiting so desperately to hear.”
    Maura eyes met Leigh’s with a level gaze. “And in all the years since, the guy’s never been seen or heard from. The borough tried to find him — they had to in order to process all the legal rigmarole to get possession of the property he abandoned. He left all his other businesses in the lurch as well — had no further contact with family, employees, or his handful of friends.”
    Leigh felt a prickle of angst. “I never knew he disappeared disappeared. I just thought he skipped town.”
    “So did everyone else, at first,” Maura continued. “But his family raised the alarm when his car turned up abandoned somewhere in McKees Rocks, looking like it had been stolen and dumped several times over. When the investigators found no sign that Marconi had recently drawn out any cash and that he wasn’t using any of his credit cards, it began to look more like foul play.”
    Maura tapped the file with a finger. “The case got assigned to homicide, but it never went anywhere. The detective in charge found zippo and eventually it went on ice.” Her expression turned wistful. “I always wanted to take a crack at it. I could see that Doomas was tunneling the thing.”
    Leigh shifted uncomfortably in the recliner. She preferred the story she thought she knew. “What’s tunneling?”
    Maura’s reverie continued a moment before she answered. “Tunnel vision. You’ve got a guy named Marconi who’s into strip clubs and adult retail, and who owes a lot of money, and he mysteriously goes missing. What does that say to you?”
    Leigh shrugged. “Loan sharks? Mob hit?”
    “Exactly,” Maura proclaimed, smiling crookedly. “That’s what the detective went looking for. And those things are possible, sure. But what if his name was Steinmetz and he sold organic potpourri and scented candles?”
    Leigh’s forehead creased. “Not following.”
    “Just because a guy has an Italian name and sells sleaze doesn’t mean he’s connected,” Maura explained. “Nothing in Marconi’s file points to that. And he owed a lot of money, yes, but he owed it to legitimate lenders and he wasn’t in any immediate crisis. So his name might as well have been Steinmetz and he might as well have sold candles. And if that was the case — then what do you think might have happened to him?”
    Leigh considered. “Lover’s spat? Mental breakdown? Random mugging gone wrong?”
    “Assault by a crazed community organizer wearing orange lipstick and carrying a giant handbag?” Maura smirked. “You get my point. The detective spent almost no time looking at the other possibilities. He was too focused on what the stereotype dictated. Tunnel vision.”
    Leigh got antsy. She rose from the recliner and began to pace. She’d never met Andrew Marconi and couldn’t pretend to care about him personally, but whenever the M word came into play her feet itched — and justifiably so — to run