Page 49 of Long Gone

“Ask?” he countered. “I thought you were here to give me an update about the fraud case against Hugo.”

“You still haven’t heard anything about the case?” I asked in surprise.

He leaned back in his chair, the seat hitting the wall. “The last I heard, they couldn’t bring charges against Hugo unless he turned up somewhere, and I couldn’t get my investment from the bank after the property was foreclosed on.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” I said, “but I don’t know anything about the fraud case.”

He sat up straighter in his seat. “Then why are you here?”

“To ask you questions about Hugo and Sunny Point.”

He groaned. “I already told you all everything I know.”

“Mr. Martin, I’m not sure who you think I’m with, but I’m a private investigator who was hired to find Hugo Burton.”

Disbelief covered his face, followed by irritation. “Who hired you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said in a casual tone. “If I find Hugo Burton, then the state will arrest him for fraud, and while I doubt he’d have any money to repay you, you’d at least have the satisfaction of knowing he’d rot in prison for a while.” I shrugged. “Then again, maybe he made more money, and he does have enough to repay you. Either way, it’s in your best interest to tell me what you know.”

His lips pressed together. “Okay. I’ll tell you what I can, but I doubt it’ll help you find the bastard.”

“Why don’t we start with how you knew Hugo?”

“I met him about fifteen years ago at some charity function. He was a land developer, doing small stuff. We were friendly when we saw each other, but we weren’t buddies or anything.”

I nodded.

“But then about ten years ago, he asked me out to lunch. I was surprised since we weren’t close, but then he told me about a neighborhood he was working on—Sunny Point. I was intrigued, not to mention I wanted to build a house out there myself. So I gave him money…and waited. Then I gave him more money. And waited. He hit me up the third time right before he left town. I was pissed he was asking for more, even though there was so little progress out there.”

“But you gave him a check anyway.”

“It’s the damn cost sunk fallacy, only I was too stupid to see it. Hugo convinced me by offering me a better payout than before. He told me he had a big-time investor interested. Hugo was going to take a smaller cut so we could get a bigger one. I know it sounds stupid, but I’d already put in so much already. I really wanted to get it back.” He released a bitter laugh. “I not only lost what I’d put in but twenty thousand more.”

“Hugo didn’t tell you that he needed the money because his son was sick?”

“Anton?” He shook his head. “No. Was Anton sick?”

“No, but Brett Colter told me that he and some other investors gave Hugo more money because he needed it for Anton, who was sick.”

Skip shook his head. “Hugo was a bastard for running off with our money, but I can’t see him lying like that about his kid. Wolford’s not all that big. It would have come out sooner rather than later.”

“But likely not until after Hugo left,” I said.

He pushed out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He was silent for a moment. “Honestly, I still find it hard to believe he ran off and left his kids. They were his life.”

“Several people have told me that. Do you think that there’s a possibility he didn’t run?”

“You mean someone killed him?”

“Maybe.”

He was quiet for several seconds. “Yeah, I considered it, but the detective who was looking into it was so sure he ran off that I took his word for it.”

“Surely the other investors were just as pissed at him as you were. Could one of them have been angry enough to confront him?”

“Bill O’Murphy was fit to be tied, but he wasn’t the murdering type. He was more the praying them straight type.”

“What about the other three investors?”

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