Read Murder by Chance (Betty Chance Mystery) for Free Online Page A

Besides, she’s the only client who calls me.”
    “She’s called before?” Betty said exasperated.
    “I didn’t want to bother you about it; there was no need to.” Lori said confidently.
    “Actually,” she said, her tone changing, “I think it’s kind of funny. At the beginning of every trip, usually after she tallies up her first day losses, she calls and asks for a refund. But, after the trip is over, she never brings it up again.” Lori laughed. “Until next time!”
    “You should’ve told me that she …”
    Lori interrupted her. “ …No, I shouldn’t have. You hear enough complaints on the job as it is. I can bat a few of them for you. As your accountant, my job is to keep the business end of the company going. I figure Hannah’s always going to be griping.”
    “Unless she’s ahead,” quipped Betty, some of the tension disappearing from her voice.
    “Probably even then,” countered Lori.
    That’s true,” Betty conceded. “But this time, she might deserve a refund.”
    “Maybe,” said Lori.
    “Maybe they all do,” Betty added, sounding defeated.
    “Not if we call it a Murder Mystery Tour,” Lori joked and then gasped. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I said that. I’m sorry. It’s too early to make jokes, isn’t it?”
    “Probably,” Betty answered.
    She reached over and turned on her laptop that was sitting on the table next to her.
    “Do you think there’s a chance it will affect Take A Chance?” Lori asked.
    Betty decided to downplay her response. “If anything else happens as a result of this trip, like a lawsuit …”
    “Or more bad publicity,” Lori injected.
    “We could lose the business,” Betty added solemnly. For the first time, Betty regretted letting Lori invest in Take A Chance Tours. When Lori’s mother, Betty’s sister, died, Lori had inherited $200,000.00.  She told her aunt she wanted in on the action. She immediately invested $50,000.00 in Betty’s new enterprise, in exchange for becoming an equal partner. When she turned over the check to her aunt, she’d jokingly used the phrase “Let it ride”. Yet Lori insisted it wasn’t a gamble at all. She was convinced the two of them could turn the fifty grand into a travel company that would be worth millions within a decade.
    Betty knew Lori had always felt the two of them could accomplish anything, even capture lightning bugs on the moon, if need be. Or at least that’s what Betty began to tell her niece when Lori was only two-years old. From the first time Betty laid eyes on her as an infant, Lori captured her heart. She’d kept it prisoner ever since. All Lori had to do was smile at her aunt, and Betty’s heart would melt.
    Betty made sure she did everything she could to make her niece a part of her life. She treated her as lovingly as she did her son, Codey. If possible, she always included Lori in their family activities. When she and Larry took their son to Disneyworld, they insisted that Lori come along as well. Every weekend, Betty made sure that Lori spent some “you and me” time with her. From simply sitting at the kitchen table playing the board game Chutes and Ladders, to later in life when they shopped for Lori’s prom dress, the moments together shined.
    Betty was there for her in the bad times as well. She wiped away Lori’s tears when her father walked off. She let her niece rage in anger in her kitchen while tossing cups and plates as she screamed at the unfairness of her mother’s cancer. Later, when Betty’s sister died, she held the 15 year-old disturbingly silent Lori in her arms for hours, telling her she would be okay. That her mom was watching over both of them.
    Lori moved in with her aunt. There was never any question that Lori would do anything else. After college she moved out knowing she could move back at any time. Betty’s home had become Lori’s home. It always would be. It only made sense that Betty’s new business would be a family business, if Lori wanted it