Westmoreland's Way - Brenda Jackson [51]
“Fletcher, this is Pamela. I’ll make sure everything’s set for our wedding on Friday evening.”
Dillon had caught a plane early Monday morning to Laramie and went straight to Gloversville Bank from the airport. There he met with the bank president.
“Mr. Westmoreland, I recognized your name immediately,” the man said, smiling from ear to ear. “Are you looking to do business in Gloversville?” he asked, offering Dillon a chair the moment he’d walked into the man’s office.
Dillon was glad he had recognized Roland Byers as someone he’d once done business with a few years ago when the man had worked at a bank in Denver. “No, but I would like some information on one of your customers.”
Byers raised a brow as he took the seat behind his desk. “Who?”
“Sam Novak. He passed last year and I’m helping his daughter close out his affairs. We were wondering why his loan wasn’t paid off when he died. The balance was over a million dollars.”
Confusion touched the man’s face. “Umm, I don’t see how that’s possible. We require life insurance on all loans for that amount. Hold on a moment while I check. I can’t give you any specifics of the loan due to privacy laws, but I can tell you whether it’s still active.”
Dillon watched as Byers called his secretary on the intercom and provided her with the information needed to look up the file. In less than five minutes the woman walked into the office carrying a folder, which she handed to Byers.
It took Byers less than a minute to glance through the papers, look over at Dillon and say, “There must be some mistake because our records are showing the loan is paid in full. That information, along with the appropriate papers, were given to Mr. Novak’s attorney, Lester Gadling, almost a year ago.”
“I can’t believe you’re actually going to go ahead and marry the guy,” Iris said in a disappointed voice. “What about Dillon?”
Just hearing his name nearly brought tears to Pam’s eyes. “There’s nothing about Dillon. It was a fling, nothing more.”
“But I thought he said he would—”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Iris. Now, can you make it here by Friday?”
“Of course I can make it, although I prefer not to. But if you’re determined to make a huge mistake, the least I can do is to be there and watch you make it.”
The moment Dillon walked out of the bank and was seated in his rental car, his cell phone went off. He answered it immediately. “Hello?”
“Bane’s in trouble. We need you home.”
Dillon drew in a deep breath, released it as he shook his head and snapped in his seat belt. “Okay, Ramsey. What has Bane done now?”
“Eloped.”
“What the hell!” Dillon nearly exploded. “And please, whatever you do, don’t tell me it’s with Crystal Newsome.”
“Okay, I won’t. But I will tell you that Carl Newsome is going to make sure he goes to jail this time for sure.”
Nothing like a death threat to get the Westmorelands together under one roof for something other than to eat or to party. Dillon glanced across the room and stared at his baby brother and wondered if Bane would ever outgrow his bad-boy mentality. You couldn’t help but love him even when you wanted to smash his head in for not having a lick of sense.
Luckily, they had found him before Carl had, although it had taken nearly two full days to do so, and had included traveling to five different states. It had been obvious that he and Crystal hadn’t wanted to be found. It had also been quite obvious they’d been having so much fun that they hadn’t taken the time to swing by Vegas for a quick wedding after all.
That had made Carl Newsome somewhat happier. He hadn’t needed to put out the expense for a quick divorce. Something had happened years before to make the Newsomes and Westmorelands modern-day Hatfields and McCoys. Something about a dispute over land ownership. As a result, Newsome would never allow his daughter to marry a Westmoreland.
Now they were all at the police station where Bane had been charged with kidnapping,