Page 35 of Long Gone

“The verbal agreement was only with Hugo, and besides, around these parts, a man’s word used to mean something.”

I gave him an incredulous look, but quickly tried to hide it. I was ready to move on to my next question and I was interested in his response. “Do you know what happened to the two properties that Hugo was trying to develop?”

He didn’t appear all that surprised by my line of questioning. “I make no secret of the fact I bought the smaller property Hugo intended for the car maker from the bank, but before you start thinking I did something sketchy to acquire it, I’ll have you know the bank had it up for sale for two years before I made an offer. If I was gonna kill Hugo to get it, seems to me I would have purchased it sooner.”

I lifted a brow. “I never accused you of murder, Mr. Colter.”

“It doesn’t take a fool to see that you’re turning over rocks hoping to find something crawl out, so I figured I’d face this head on. I didn’t kill Hugo, and I wasn’t interested in that piece of property until about three years after his disappearance.”

“Fair enough. What about Sunny Point?”

“I heard some corporation bought it, but nothing ever came of it. As far as I know, it’s still sitting down there, just the way Hugo left it.”

It was hard to believe he’d purchase the property intended for the Japanese car company under his own corporation, then use a secret one to purchase Sunny Point. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t know more than he was pretending.

“Do you know anything about the corporation who bought it?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“It’s called Larkspur Limited. Ring any bells? They were incorporated in New Mexico.” I paused a beat. “It seems strange they didn’t do anything with it.”

He shook his head, showing no reaction at the corporation’s name. “Never heard of it, but it’s not so strange that they bought the land and did nothing to it. Sometimes property takes time to develop. That was Hugo’s first mistake—telling his investors they’d see a return in a couple of years. He should have pushed that date out and happily surprised them by delivering sooner.”

That made sense and made me question Hugo’s business sense. Then again, maybe that was exactly what Brett Colter was trying to do. I had to admit that Malcolm’s prejudice against Colter might be clouding my opinion. “Hugo was supposed to have a business meeting the day his disappeared,” I said. “He had a business lunch, then he was supposed to go to the meeting, followed by his son’s basketball game. Only he never showed up at the game, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he said in a tight voice.

I decided to try a bluff. The worst he could do was accuse me of having erroneous information. “I know you met with him for lunch. Did he happen to mention his afternoon business meeting?”

Colter’s face paled. “How do you know we met for lunch?”

“It was in his calendar.”

“I thought his planner was lost.”

“The police had his planner,” I lied. “I saw a copy.”

He swallowed. “I met with Hugo to tell him that the other investors and I wanted him out of Colter Group. That we were worried his name was going to hurt us.”

“How did he take it?”

“How do you think he took it? He was pissed, then he started to cry. I told him to man up.” He shook his head in disgust. “He told me that he had a meeting that afternoon with a potential new investor. He asked if I’d bring him back on board if the deal went through. I told him I’d consider it, but I had no intention of bringing him back, and I was considering demanding my investment back. I was one of the original investors in Sunny Point, and according to the contract, I could have demanded my initial hundred thousand investment back at the six-year mark.”

That had to freak Hugo out. Especially since it looked like he didn’t have a hundred grand to pay Colter back. Still, part of this didn’t make sense. “If you were going to call in your marker, then why did you give him a check for fifty thousand dollars a week or so before?”

His mouth pressed tight, and his eyes flashed with irritation. “That was a moment of weakness. At lunch, I confronted Hugo about Anton’s health and asked how he could be a starting basketball player if he was so ill.”

“I suppose he didn’t take that well.”

“He tried backtracking, but there was no denying he’d lied. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why he left town. If the truth was that obvious to me, then everyone else was going to find out.”

I had to admit, it was a pretty compelling reason for Hugo to run. “Do you know who Hugo’s afternoon meeting was with?”

“No idea. He refused to tell me, but he said it was an outside investor.”

“What does an outside investor mean exactly?”

“I took it to mean someone outside the county.”

---