Something Wicked Read Online Free PDF

the town, and Deception Bay had recently become the new destination for those with disposable income and wealth. Bancroft Bluff, built south of the bay that Deception Bay was named after, was supposed to have been the first jewel in the crown of successive Bancroft luxury home developments around the area, but the unstable dune had turned that plan to, well, sand. Declan had pushed for Hale and Kristina to build on the spot, but Hale had resisted, and in hindsight it was fortuitous that Hale had decided to build his home closer to the Seaside Bancroft Development offices.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Declan demanded, frowning at Hale as his fingers pressed buttons on his phone.
    â€œSending that text. I want to know what the city said about the Lake Chinook project,” Hale added as he pressed the button that sent the message to Russo and Vledich. Bancroft Development had purchased a section of lake frontage land—three adjoining lots on Lake Chinook, the two-mile-long lake ten miles south of Portland—and the older homes and cabins that had been there had already been demolished, readying the site for new construction. Now the City of Lake Chinook had determined there was a sewer easement that ran under the water, and they’d red tagged the job, stopping construction of the first of the three boathouses that were being erected before the actual houses.
    â€œWe get red tagged when we shouldn’t, and we’re allowed to build on a goddamn dune. I’d like to kill DeWitt!” Declan bit out furiously for about the millionth time. His blue eyes burned with rage at the thought of the engineer who’d green-lighted the Bancroft Bluff project. Hale had just started with the family company when that project was under way, and though he didn’t say it, he still remembered that there was an undercurrent of worry about the dune’s stability even then. That fear had proved founded, but it was too late. Only the fact that his grandfather had made a boatload of money over the past decades was saving the company now from the pending lawsuits. Bancroft Development had bought most of the condemned properties back, settling the first lawsuits, though now some of the home owners were suing for mental anguish and suffering. Not that the lawsuits had merit, the settlements had precluded that. But it didn’t mean it wasn’t more bad publicity, and then, just when things had looked to be settling down, the horror of the Donatella murders had occurred right in their own Bancroft Bluff home.
    Hale had seen the words scrawled in red paint on the wall with his own eyes— blood money— and even now the memory sent a chill down his spine. Worse yet, the Donatellas had been partners with Bancroft Development in Bancroft Bluff, and with that horrific message, it was generally assumed that their deaths had to do with the debacle of the doomed project. One of the prevailing thoughts was the perpetrator was a home owner or investor who’d lost their property to the dune, but since Declan had purchased, or offered to purchase, all the homes back, that theory didn’t make a lot of sense. What was the motive, then?
    Hale wanted to take down all the abandoned houses and let the dune go back to nature, but since Bancroft Development still didn’t own all the homes, there was myriad red tape to untangle before any demolition could happen. He just wished to high heaven that the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Department would figure out who had killed the Donatellas and arrest the bastards.
    As if his grandfather’s thoughts were traveling down the same path, Declan said, “What about that detective? Your sister-in-law.”
    â€œSavannah?”
    â€œYeah, her. What’s she doing? And when’s my great-grandson due?”
    â€œSoon,” Hale said, holding back his impatience. This was another topic Declan brought up again and again. Along with “What’s wrong with