“Once or twice, a sad woman, widowed, no children. She came to care for her ailing father. Then she took in Jeremiah after his parents were killed in a train wreck. There was no other family. The old man died several years later and… Myra, that was her name… she inherited everything. And then left it all to Jeremiah.”
“How old was he when she died?”
“Eighteen or nineteen. He was set for life if he’d managed it right.”
“Any idea what happened to him?”
Bingo shook his head. “He was skittish. Might have annoyed one of his associates and ended up as shark bait. Or perhaps went into hiding in some god-forsaken part of the world. But I’ve heard that his ghost still haunts the estate.”
Harry rubbed his chin. “What happened to the caretaker and gardeners?”
Bingo laughed. “Took off shortly after he was declared missing, like rats leaving a sinking ship.”
“Guess I’ll have to take a look around the place,” Harry said, as he stood up.
“Take a good flashlight with you,” Bingo advised. “Power was probably cut years ago.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Bingo.”
When Harry got back to the office, Bertie had the boys’ memories of Isaacs entered on both computers, along with a summary of the main points. He got a cup of coffee and sat down to read it.
Jeremiah mostly kept to himself, especially after his aunt died and he inherited everything. There were different stories about his disappearance:
* He used up most of his fortune to pay off some shady debts and then went underground;
* He transferred his money to offshore accounts and was living somewhere as a total recluse because there was a price on his head;
* In the years since his disappearance, many people had seen his ghost walking about the estate;
* Commonly called the Garden Party Ghost due to the timing of his disappearance;
* Transport truck drivers had reportedly seen him more frequently in the past few years;
* One driver told Spence he’d seen Isaacs’ ghost nearly every night he’d come through there in the past year, and… if there was no traffic, he drove on the wrong side of the road.
When he finished reading, Bertie said, “Most of this was what they heard after he disappeared. Did Bingo have anything different?”
“According to him, Isaacs changed after getting his inheritance, especially in the weeks before he disappeared. I’ll do a report later and you can add it to this.” He rubbed his chin. “I think the next step is to check out the estate.”
“I had a feeling you would.” She shut down her computer and picked up her jacket. “See you in the morning.”
“Okay,” he said, staring absently at the computer. Who had the keys?
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