Read Elizabeth Zelvin - Bruce Kohler 04 - Death Will Save Your Life for Free Online

better run, or he will be mad at me. Thanks a million for being so nice.”
    Barbara watched Feather scurry up the hill to the dining hall. Madhouse had made it clear what he wanted: enough money to follow his spiritual path. How far would he go to get it? What would it take to make Feather doubt him? Madhouse needed Feather’s inheritance. To benefit, he had to remain her husband. But once she got the money, how safe would Feather be?

    We drove into town that afternoon so Jimmy could get online, Barbara could shop, and we could all eat ice cream. The sun lit up the mountains with late-afternoon gold as we started back. Barbara insisted on driving.
    “Don’t get distracted,” Jimmy cautioned.
    “No back seat driving, please.”
    She meant that figuratively. Jimmy had the death seat, and I sat in back, zipping the lip.
    “I’m perfectly capable of driving and participating in a conversation at the same time,” she said.
    “It’s not the conversation itself that concerns me,” Jimmy said, “it’s the way you talk with your hands when you do it. Don’t you want to hear about my search? You don’t have to look at me while I tell you.”
    “So tell us.”
    “I looked up everybody’s credentials. Lorenzo the chiropractor is legit. He’s got a degree, teaches, belongs to professional organizations.”
    “The Farm is known for getting the best people it can,” Barbara said. “If he’s big in his field, it might make him even more vulnerable to bad publicity if a client sued him. How about Jojo? How much did he need Melvin to keep laying those golden eggs?”
    “He had sales last year, and he’s got forty or fifty clients. That means he’s well established.”
    “What about Annabel?”
    “Now, Annabel is interesting. Did you know she’s a psychologist too? She and Melvin got matching PhDs along the way.”
    “Feather said they married young,” said Barbara. “At least Annabel didn’t go to work in an office to keep him in graduate school and then type his dissertation.”
    “She did a study of families with what she called lost parents,” Jimmy said, “where an older child takes on parenting responsibilities.”
    “I bet she used Melvin’s family as material,” Barbara said. “Does she publish?”
    “Journal articles,” Jimmy said, “but no books of her own. Scuttlebutt says she wrote a lot of Melvin’s. She’s considered a pretty good writer and a talking head, too. Melvin was being considered as host for a reality show about couples, and some of Annabel’s fans thought she would do a better job than he would.”
    “Fans? How do you know?”
    “Blogs,” Jimmy said. “Bloggers know everything.”
    “Intellectual property,” Barbara said. “If Annabel really wrote Melvin’s books, and he made a lot of money from them, could she sue him?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “What if she’s going around saying she wrote his books?” Barbara said. “Maybe he could sue her.”
    “He’s still the one who published,” Jimmy said. “The copyright says he wrote it. Barbara, don’t you think you should slow down?”
    “I said no back seat driving. Melvin was litigious. Nobody likes to be sued. Even if Annabel wrote Melvin’s books, claiming it now, when it’s far too late, and getting sued for it would make her look like a fool.”
    “I googled Feather and Madhouse too,” Jimmy said. “Last summer, they had a violent fight. It got into the local paper because Melvin brought in his lawyer from the city and got her to press charges. She withdrew them, but not till Madhouse had spent a night in jail. Barbara, slow down.”
    “I can tell you the outcome of that story: Madhouse hated Melvin, if he didn’t already, and Feather had a harder time than ever in her marriage. She has no backbone at all where Madhouse is concerned.” Barbara bounced up and down in her seat. “Wow, this is getting exciting! We’ve got a whole batch of suspects with great reasons to be mad at