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was just wrong.
 Okay, so you know about the Charlie letter. When it arrived out of the blue I knew
Alistair was back for revenge.
 What for?
 I was in love with his brother Charlie.
Score a correct guess for Mirabelle.
 That can t be it surely? I can understand Alistair wouldn t have been happy to
have found his wife sleeping around with his brother but there has to be more of a
reason for revenge than that. Although if Flynn even looked sideways at another
woman Mirabelle would rethink the whole lovers revenge thing.
 It s that and the money.
 Yes! I knew it! Mirabelle hissed out in triumph. She was on a roll. She could
hardly wait to tell Flynn.
 What? Lila asked in confusion.
 Nothing what money?
 From the bank job the boys pulled twenty-four years ago.
89
Amarinda Jones
Good God! Lila was a gangster moll. It s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
 So Charlie and Alistair were bank robbers? Mirabelle was pleased at how calmly
she was taking all this. It was not every day that someone confessed to knowing about
some major crimes like murder and robbery. This had been a damn interesting vacation
so far.
 So they robbed a bank and undoubtedly scored a large sum of money. The
reasons for revenge were starting to become clearer by the second. Money was a huge
motivator for all things vengeful.
 They robbed several banks actually. They were very good at it.
Bully for them. The pride in Lila s voice made Mirabelle shake her head. She loved
and adored money but other than the elusive dream of a lotto win, Mirabelle knew the
only way to make money was through hard work.
 We split the money three ways.
 Three ways? Was Lila a bank robber as well as a liar?
 I kept my mouth shut so I deserved a cut.
Sweet old lady my ass!
 I can only assume that Alistair is back for the money.
 He s had and spent his share. He now wants mine.
 How much are we talking about?
 I have two hundred thousand dollars left.
 Holy frigging hell! Mirabelle gasped and sat down hard on the floor. She could
pay off her mortgage and her car with that money.
 The money was in the shed, Lila informed her.
Right again. If only Flynn was there so she could gloat.
 Where is it now?
 That s what I wanted to warn you about. The money is close by you.
 What, in the rubble? Is that why everyone is picking around in it? Most of the
rubble had been cleared away from next door. If anyone had found any money no one
was saying.
 No, it wasn t in my house.
 Where then? Even as Mirabelle said the words an uneasy feeling invaded her
bones. Was this an answer she wanted to hear?
 It s under your house.
Mirabelle almost dropped the phone in shock.
 My house! She was sitting on a fortune!
 I had it moved there when I got the  Charlie letter.
 I don t recall seeing it. A huge sum of money stacked in nice neat piles would
naturally be something Mirabelle would have questioned.
90
Mad About Mirabelle
 You have a lot of junk under there, Mirabelle. It was the perfect place to hide it.
That was true. The Hope diamond could be under her house and she would not
know.
 Why my house? Like most neighbors Lila and Mirabelle had swapped house keys
in case of an emergency. However, stashing stolen loot, as far as Mirabelle was
concerned, was not considered one.
 I wanted it close by me. It is my money after all.
Her money? Thieves obviously had a logic all of their own.
 Okay, correct me if am wrong&  A sudden thought had come to Mirabelle.  But if
the bank robbery was twenty-four years ago then the money you would have would be
the old currency when Australia had paper notes. We have had polymer currency since
1988.
 Those paper notes aren t worthless. I have been cashing some in every now and
then in odd places.
 Doesn t anyone wonder about them? It was not like paper notes were part of the
national currency. They would stand out.
 No one ever questions a sweet old lady, Mirabelle, Lila responded slyly.
You re a piece of work.
 So if Alistair was such a vicious man, why didn t he just take your cut of the
money if he intended to leave you anyway? That did not make sense to Mirabelle.
 When I found out he had killed Charlie and was burying him under my house I
blackmailed him.
Shades of Arsenic and Old Lace.
 I told him that I would tell the police unless he left me and my cut of money
alone.
 Do you not feel any guilt about all this? The answer was of course no, Mirabelle
knew that even as she asked it.
 Guilt is overrated, dear.
 And apparently greed is good.
 You wouldn t understand.
 No, I guess not. Mirabelle shook her head.  What about your so-called love
Charlie? How could you have lived all these years knowing what happened to him and
where he was and yet do nothing about it?
 I had to get on with my life, Mirabelle.
 Who the hell are you, Lila?
 I am a woman who had to survive.
 But at what cost? Everything had a price.
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Amarinda Jones
 What I did or did not do in the past is irrelevant. I wanted to warn you about the
money and I have. Alistair is smart. He ll work out where it is sooner is later. He may
be old but he s vicious.
 I have to tell Flynn&  Mirabelle muttered softly to herself as her mind spun out
with all Lila had told her.
 Do you?
 It s what people do, Lila. They share information with the people they love. Okay,
the love word was not really that hard after all.
 I m glad to see you two together. You remind me of Charlie and me.
Mirabelle snorted at the comparison. No way, no how.
 Except, you dodgy old bag, we aren t thieves and I m not screwing around on my
husband.
 Don t judge me, Mirabelle, Lila snapped angrily.
 No, whichever deity you believe in will do that, Lila.
 Move the money.
 I ll call the police and I am sure they will be happy to have it.
 Foolish girl. Lila slammed down the phone.
 What next? Mirabelle murmured to herself.
92
Mad About Mirabelle
Chapter Eleven
Mirabelle left yet another message on Flynn s cell phone. She had missed his earlier
call a couple of hours ago saying he had spoken to the police about the whole Alistair-
Charlie thing and that he was headed up to Toowoomba to talk to his aunt. Mirabelle
could have saved him the trouble. She pretty much knew everything.
After a vain search through the phone book and a fruitless chat with a Directory
Assistance operator, Mirabelle gave up on trying to find Flynn s parents telephone
number. It had to be an unlisted number. Mirabelle was annoyed she hadn t had the
foresight to ask Lila when she rang and confessed her sins for it earlier. But, as they
said, hindsight had twenty-twenty vision. Whoever  they were.
Mirabelle looked at her watch. Flynn should be in Garden City by now and he was
bound to call her soon. While she could have called the police herself, Mirabelle wanted
to give Flynn a heads-up just so he could alert his family to any possible
embarrassment. It was not an everyday occurrence that you discovered a crime ring in
your family. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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