Sea Change (The Nina Bannister Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free

time.   Nina, do you know the Robinson mansion?”
    “Of course I know the Robinson mansion.   Everybody does.”
    “It’s in disrepair.”
    “Yes.”
    “I’d like to buy it.   I think we could…well, fix it up?”
    “The Robinson mansion?”
    “Yes.   It’s a wonderful location.”
    “Fix it up for what?”
    “A hotel.   Or, if you will, a truly sumptuous bed and breakfast. It looks out on the beach; it’s got those wonderful Doric columns, the magnificent balconies…and we could run it together.   It would be great fun.”
    “You would actually like to run a larger hotel?   Deal with the guests, make meals, clean rooms, hear their complaints, all that sort of thing?”
    “No, silly, that would be your job.”
    “Oh, wonderful.”
    “I would simply invest the money.”
    “Margot, it’s a wonderful idea, except…”
    “Except what?”
    “I just…I keep forgetting what a short time you’ve been here.”
    “It’s a little over a year now; so how long does one have to live in a city before one is allowed to buy property?”
    “It’s not that; it’s just a question of what property.”
    “I don’t follow you.”
    “You don’t know about the Robinson mansion?”
    “What is there to know?”
    “No one has told you?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Margot, you can’t buy the Robinson mansion.”
    “And why not?”
    Incredulous that there would be an actual inhabitant of Bay St. Lucy who did not know, and who could actually ask ‘and why not?’…Nina sat and stared until she realized that she was being rude.
    Then, gaining as much composure as she could, she said:
    “You can’t buy the Robinson mansion, Margot, because it’s haunted.”

    This pronouncement produced the effect of shock and awe that Nina expected, but the expression of complete disbelief on Margot Gavin’s face seemed to have been caused by something more than the realization that supernatural forces might render impossible a business deal that she, only a few seconds before, had thought feasible.
    And in fact, such was the case.
    For Margot, her mouth open and her eyes wide and glazed, was looking not at Nina at all but through the small window in the door that led into the shop.
    “Margot, are you all right?”
    “No.”
    “What’s the matter?   Is it the Robinson place?”
    “What?”
    “The Robinson place.”
    “What about it?”
    “It’s haunted.”
    “I don’t care.   That’s the least of our problems.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Allana Delafosse has just arrived.”
    Nina turned, peered through the same window Margot was gazing at, and confirmed the fact.
    Allana Delafosse was in fact making her way regally through the pottery section, the spectacle of her appearance extinguishing the possible existence of supernatural beings in the Robinson mansion just as completely as the sun’s brilliance extinguishes minor constellations.
    Margot’s garden had become, in the last months, a kind of gathering place for the town’s culturally elite.
    Nina would never have described herself in just that way.
    But Allana certainly would have.
    And it was true—and becoming known throughout the village:
    If you wanted to know everything, you came and sat for a while at Margot’s place.
    “Ok,” said Nina, turning back, “so it’s Allana Delafosse.   Maybe she wants to buy something.   Offer her coffee.”
    “Are you mad?”
    “Why would I be mad?”
    “Nina, Allana Delafosse doesn’t drink coffee; she drinks tea. And I always seem to offer her the wrong kind.   I try to have the best teas in the world here.   But when I offer most of them to her, it’s as though I’ve kicked her dog.”
    “Well, Allana Delafosse is the de facto leader of the city, at least as far as culture is concerned.  
    “But that doesn’t give her the right to…”
    At that moment, the door exploded open and Allana herself, dressed entirely in red, save for black leather gloves, a shining and