rolled his shoulders back in a defensive gesture. “You think I know something about that?”
“That’s not what I meant to imply,” Dugan said, using a low voice to calm the man. “But the fact that Ms. Freeport’s little boy wasn’t with him raises questions about where he is. Ms. Freeport asked me to look into his disappearance. Learning who killed Lewis might lead us to that innocent little boy.” Dugan paused. “You do want to help find that child, don’t you?”
His comment seemed to steal the wind out of Bates’s sails. “Well, yes, of course.”
“Then tell me everything you can about Ron Lewis.”
Bates tugged at his suit jacket, then motioned for Dugan to take a seat.
“Lewis came in here with all kinds of plans for the town,” Bates said. “He had sketches of how he wanted to renovate the downtown area, parks that would be added, housing developments, a giant equestrian center and a dude ranch, along with an outlet mall and new storefronts for the downtown area.”
“Did he have backing?” Dugan asked.
Bates scratched his chin. “Well, that was the sketchy part. At first he said he did. Then, when it got down to it, he approached me to invest. I think he may have hit on some others around town. Especially Lloyd Riley and Ken Canter. They own a lot of land in the prime spots for the equestrian center and dude ranch.”
“He made them offers?”
“You’d have to talk to them about it,” Bates said. “Neither one wanted to tell me any specifics. But I think Riley signed something with him and so did Canter.”
So, what had happened to those deals?
“Were most of the people in town in favor of the project?”
“A few of the store owners thought it would be good for business. But some old-timers didn’t want that dude ranch or the mall.”
“When he asked you to invest, did you check out Lewis’s financial background?”
Bates frowned. “I was going to, but then he had that crash and I figured there wasn’t no need.”
“Was he working with a partner? Another contact to deal with on the project?”
“If he was, he didn’t tell me.”
Probably because he was running a scam. Lewis had never had backing and was going to swindle the locals into investing, then run off with their money.
Had one of them discovered Lewis’s plans to cheat him and killed Lewis because of it?
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