AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Why do I get the feeling Travis Weatherly wanted to be asked anything but that? And if that scowl he’s shooting me is any indication, he’s not looking forward to answering any questions that have to do with Julia Edwards.
Too bad, Travis. I’m not traveling to hell and back for nothing.
You’re going to spill everything you know, and come hell or hot lava, you’re going to do it now.
CHAPTER 19
“We’re doing great,” Travis Weatherly says, trying his best to look as if he was nonplussed by my inquiry.
Bess, Nettie—Sparky by proxy—and I have followed Travis out to the brink of oblivion in hopes of garnering a few clues out of him. Currently, we’re traversing the charred rocky grounds of Kilauea’s volcano in the middle of a hellishly hot afternoon right here on the Big Island.
I just asked Travis a seemingly innocent question—how he and the rest of the Cancel Culture Club were holding up after losing one of their own, their fearless leader no less, and he seems a touch irritated by it.
“I take that back.” He lifts a finger. “We’re doing as well as can be expected now that we lost our precious Julia.” He smears the word precious with enough inflection you could slather cream cheese onto a bagel with it.
Phineas and I exchange a look.
“Do I detect a smidge of sarcasm?” The handsome poltergeist lifts a brow my way.
More than a smidge, I’d say.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” I tell the man. “Were you close to the deceased?”
His chest expands a mile if it didn’t expand an inch. “You could say that.” He shrugs as he pauses to inspect the brutal terrain a moment, then promptly walks us to the left where there’s more of this noxious mist seeping from the earth. “We dated. One of us took it a little more seriously than the other—it ended rather abruptly.”
Abruptly? I bet it ended lightning-quick once Julia found out he was fooling around with his assistant. No wonder she shouted his offense from the rooftop. I can’t say I blame her. And I don’t think there’s a jilted wife or girlfriend who was cheated on who would blame her either.
He nods as if he heard my inner musing. “And, of course, we both fell into that Cancel Culture baloney.” His features darken. “I’ve never been a fan of all the woke-us pocus anyway. You look at someone crooked and it can cost you your whole career. My whole life’s work has turned to ash.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t take advantage of anyone. That woman and I had a purely consensual relationship until someone paid her off to say otherwise.”
My mouth falls open. “Did Julia pay her off?”
His lips clamp shut, the whites of his eyes look my way, and I know not to push it.
The night of the party in the Diamond Lounge comes back to me in snatches and a thought stagnates in my mind.
“Travis,” I start. “Just hours before Julia passed away, she said something about being in a financial casket. Do you know what she meant by that?”
“I do,” Sparky interrupts and I shoot Nettie a look.
“It’s not me, kiddo,” she says. “But if we’re smart, we’ll listen to what the little succubus has to say. Go on, Sparky. You have the floor.”
“And hurry, would you?” Bess huffs. “Before the ground opens up and a portal to hell appears—again, a relief in comparison.”
Sparky twitches his head left then right. “A financial casket is what my old handler said we were in. He said my fried chicken burger habit was driving us to the poor house. He threatened to reduce me to matchsticks, so I reduced him to ashes.”
A part of me believes him.
Bess rolls her eyes. “If we stand here any longer, we’re all going to reduce to ashes—including that timberland toy.”
“Go on, Travis,” I tell him. “Did you know anything about Julia’s financial troubles?”
A brief smile comes and goes on his lips. “I did. She wanted to borrow money for that lipstick venture she was diving into. I told her I didn’t have what she wanted, and she flipped a gasket. She threatened to tell the world all of my dirty secrets if I didn’t cough up a cool million.”
“A million?” I ask, stunned.
Sparky straightens his spine. “Isn’t that how much Jane dished out?”
My lips part as I look at the haunted menace.
