by Jack Parker
"No, we haven't," Cindy answered.
"Jason, you told me you had it, but now you claim you don't," Charlie said accusatorily.
Loretta casually stood up and walked to the buffet with plate in hand.
"I thought I knew just where it was," Jason defended himself. "It was supposed to be in the safety deposit box. I saw it in there not too long ago."
"Did you look for it?" Charlie demanded.
"Of course I looked. That's why I told you I had it, because I was sure it would be there. Mom didn't happen to give you a copy of the key did she?"
Gracie noticed that Jason hadn't said the Will wasn't in the box. She also noticed that Loretta had quietly left the room.
"No, she did not," Charlie insisted. "You're the only one who ever had the key."
"Charlie couldn't have gotten in that box, Jason; it takes two keys," Karen spoke up.
"And we all know what happens to an Estate if there's no Will, don't we?" Meredith added maliciously.
The siblings stopped arguing to look daggers at Meredith.
"Well, don't look at me." Meredith said calmly. "I sure as Hell didn't take it."
Gracie got up and walked to the doorway, peering around it to see where Loretta had gone. There was no one in sight. Frantically she motioned to Cheryl. "Quick! Bring your laptop!"
Robbie's daughter, step-daughter, two sons, and daughters-in-law sat where they were, looking extremely confused as Gracie dashed out of the room. Cheryl grabbed the laptop from the shelf and ran after Gracie, carefully holding the machine so its camera could record what was ahead of her. Shawna followed.
Up ahead they heard Gracie yell "Don't do it! Drop it!"
Robbie's kids heard it, too. As if they'd rehearsed the maneuver they all stood up together and ran after the girls. The group skidded to a collective halt in the doorway of Loretta's bathroom.
Loretta was holding something over the bathtub – and that something was on fire.
CHAPTER 84
Wednesday
"What the Hell?" Charlie asked of no one in particular.
"Your mother's Will," Meredith replied.
"You mean she stole it?" Jason was outraged.
"Of course she did," Ashley said calmly.
"I told you to leave it at the bank," Cindy said sotto voce.
"Then you did have it?" Karen asked.
Loretta spread her thumb and forefinger, releasing the last flaming shred of paper. It hissed as it hit the small puddle of water she'd run before applying the match. "Now you'll never know what it said," she said triumphantly.
A silence of disbelief reigned until Gracie remarked, "You can stop recording now, Cheryl."
Loretta looked at Cheryl as if she hadn't previously noticed her presence. With a smirk she said, "So you recorded my little show, so what? All you can see is me burning a piece of paper. That doesn't prove anything." She dusted her hands off and pushed her way through the crowd at the door.
Gracie bent down to retrieve a bit of un-burnt paper floating in the water. "But it does, Loretta. "The water put out the fire before all the pieces burned up. A hand-writing expert can prove this is Robbie's writing."
Loretta stopped and turned to face everyone. "It could be a grocery list."
"It could be," Cheryl agreed amiably. "Except that the words will match the picture Gracie took of your mother's Will a few days ago. You know, the Will you'd hidden in your nightstand drawer?"
"What?" Loretta squeaked.
Cheryl felt vindicated; this more than made up for the woman's crude racial remark. "Let me explain. Jason did indeed get the Will from the safety deposit box. Loretta snooped around his house and found it wherever he'd put it. I don't know if she was looking especially for the Will or just being generally nosy. But having found it, she stole it. Gracie suspected as much and did some snooping herself; she took a picture when she could easily have just taken the Will."
"Why?" Charlie asked plaintively. "What's it say?"
Loretta merely shrugged.
"Robbie left everything to Jason," Gracie told them.
"Figures," Charlie said gruffly.
Ashley closed her eyes and nodded in acceptance, happy that her step-mother had done right by Jason even though it made no difference now that the Will was destroyed.
"You meddling busy-body, why'd you have to destroy it? Don't you have enough money, you wanted more?" Jason inquired of his half-sister.
Loretta remained silent.
"She's her mother's daughter," Shawna said. "She did it out of pure meanness. Look at her! Her eyes are twinkling and she's breathing hard. She's enjoying "her little show" as she calls it."
"Mother would never do anything like that!" Charlie exclaimed. It was unclear whether he was referring to cutting him out of her Will or destroying it.
"So what happens now?" Karen asked. "Can the police put enough scraps together to compare it to the picture?" Her attitude was one of defeat, as if she knew it was an impossibility and her husband would be left without an inheritance.
"I guess you can ask your lawyer," Gracie ventured.
Cindy strode into the bathroom and, before anyone could stop her, scooped up the soggy charred remnants of the Will. She tossed them into the toilet and calmly pressed the lever.
"What'd you do that for?" her husband wailed over the whoosh of the water.
She turned to face him. "Because it's the right thing to do. Loretta and Ashley may not need the money, but Charlie and Karen sure as Hell do. We'll still have enough to pay off most of the bills, and maybe you'll learn to live within your paycheck since you won't be getting any more money from your mother. Gracie?"
"You want me to delete the picture?" Gracie anticipated the question. She looked around to see that everyone, including both Loretta and Meredith, nodded agreement. "I e-mailed it to Cheryl for safekeeping," she said, nodding her acceptance.
Cheryl turned to her laptop on the counter; she opened the picture and, with a suitably dramatic pause, tapped the delete button. "Congratulations. Your mother just died intestate."
"So, Gracie," Loretta began, her tone syrupy. "How'd you figure it all out? Not just this…" She waved her hand airily at the sooty ashes in the tub. "The whole murder and everything?"
"Yeah! Do an Agatha and tell us all about it," Karen demanded expectantly.
"Okay, but let's go back to the living room. I'm suddenly hungry." Gracie had intended it as an excuse to sit down after the excitement, but realized it was true. She might cry herself to sleep tonight, but she knew life would go on and she wanted something to eat.
Once everyone was again seated Gracie began. "The murder weapon was clearly a chocolate-chip cookie, and the murderer was clever enough to dose only one cookie out of the bunch. There was no way to know exactly when Mrs. Redmond would eat that one particular cookie but she would be dead very shortly after doing so. Any remaining cookies would test negative for poison."
"For a while we toyed with the idea that it was just an accident, that somehow a cookie with nuts had gotten mixed in with those that didn't have nuts," Shawna added.
"But its being murder depended on the fact that Mrs. Redmond had a bad cold and couldn't taste or smell the poison," Cheryl said. She let her extended index finger travel around the circle as she continued. "Each and every one of you knew she had the cold."
"So did your friend," Charlie said, pointing to Gracie.
"You didn't really think I'd kill my own mother, did you?" Jason asked indignantly.
"That's where we got a bit off-track," Gracie admitted between bites of a roll. "We didn't want to believe that, so we looked for some other explanation. When Karen told us that both she and Jason were also allergic to nuts we thought maybe someone was trying to kill one of them instead."
Karen busied herself with her food, glad that Gracie hadn't mentioned that terrified phone call.
"I suppose you thought that Jason was a prime target because of Robbie's Will," Cindy said, nodding under
standing.
"Only after I found the Will," Gracie replied. "There was so much talk about how Robbie threatened to change her Will all the time that it was hard to know what to think. If Jason were the sole beneficiary, that would give Charlie, Karen, Loretta, and Ashley motive." She paused a moment, and then added, "No one had any reason to want to kill Karen."
"I really don't understand why you'd think I had the silly Will," Loretta sniffed.
"Oh, like you've never taken anything from my house before!" Jason said testily.
"Or Mother's," Charlie added.
"Chill out," Shawna commanded. "We thought Jason might be hiding it if he really was the only beneficiary because Lt. Freeman might think it gave him a good motive."
"Everyone knew Robbie would be coming into some money after John's death," Cheryl clarified. "And everyone knew she'd probably spend it all shopping. Easy enough to think that one of you wanted to keep her from getting that chance."
"Meredith knew all that, too," Loretta pointed out harshly.
"Sure I did," Meredith replied calmly. "And when I showed up at the house for the first time in a long time I'd have made the perfect patsy. Kill Robbie and blame it on me. And you…" She pointed at Loretta. "…were the only one that knew in advance I'd be there." She sat back with a satisfied smile on her lips.
"We're getting off topic," Gracie told the group. "The point is that Robbie's Will could've been an important clue, whatever it said. Jason first told Charlie that he had it, then changed his story. I didn't know that Loretta had taken it but it was a possibility and I thought it would be easier to come up with a story that would give me a chance to look for it here."
"Okay," Cindy said. "So the Will showed that Jason could've been either killer or intended victim." She glowered at her sister-in-law. "And Loretta could've set up Meredith. But no one saw any cookies there that night; is that what tipped you off?"
"Good question!" Gracie complimented her.
"I thought maybe the killer backed out when Meredith and Gracie showed up," Cheryl said. "They threw the cookies away and Robbie found 'em."
A frown slowly formed on Charlie's face. "Am I the only one who's confused here? Jason might've done it – or he might've been the one they tried to kill. Meredith was set up. The killer got cold feet and Mother ended up dead anyway. I don't get it."
Gracie nodded in agreement. "Don't feel bad, Charlie; neither did we. At first we thought the court hearing was important, but no one – even Ken! – could tie that in. The outcome of the hearing wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to anyone."
"Yes, it would!" Jason exclaimed fervently.
"Well, okay, it would mean more money for some and less for others, but killing Robbie wouldn't have changed that," Gracie amended. "Clearly there was something we were overlooking." She paused, waiting for someone to ask the question.
"Okay, I'll bite," Charlie said affably. "What was it?"
"Remember those bags of John's things you gave me that night?" Meredith inquired of Loretta.
"It was in there?" Loretta said, her voice squeaking in excitement.
"Yes, but we don't know how it got there," Meredith said.
Charlie opened his mouth to ask what they were talking about, but Jason beat him to the punch. "What was in the bags?"
"A cassette tape," Gracie told them. "It wasn't labeled but when we played it it was an obviously secret recording of your mother talking to Connie Canardi. Robbie was trying to blackmail her into turning John's Trust over to his Estate."
"I thought that was just a matter of her coming up with that assignment thing," Charlie said.
"If she really had John sign one," Loretta said archly. Then she frowned in thought. "You know, I remember picking up that stack of papers from John's desk and putting them in the bag. I thought they might be something important and you should have them instead of Robbie." She smiled sweetly at Meredith, who wasn't fooled for a moment. "But there was something funny about them; they were too thick, or heavy or something. I bet they were wrapped around that tape!"
"You're right!" Gracie and Shawna chorused.
"I bet the tape slipped out and fell to the bottom of the bag," Meredith surmised. "By the way, the papers were copies of the same letter your mother was sending to Connie Canardi, asking for access to John's Trust. Our best guess is that she was trying to make it look as if the Trustee wasn't talking to her."
"So it wouldn't look like they were in cahoots," Loretta agreed. "See? If I hadn't given you the tape, we'd have never figured out who killed Mother!"
CHAPTER 85
Wednesday
Before the siblings could protest Gracie continued. "Ms. Canardi said she had the properly-signed assignment of the Mortgage, and the Trust was valid. But Robbie knew the Trustee would dole out the money as slowly as possible and she was willing to take half of it now instead of being patient and getting all of it eventually."
"Absotively, posilutely," Ashley agreed with that assessment.
"Why didn't Ms. Canardi just give the assignment to the other lawyers in the first place?" Karen asked. "Then there wouldn't have been any problem."
"Lack of organization, I'd think," Cindy replied. "She probably misfiled it and couldn't find it, then got pissy when they asked for it."
"She should have recorded the assignment and the Mortgage with the County Clerk, then there wouldn't have been a problem at all," Loretta said with conviction.
"Yes, she should have," Gracie agreed. "But that would make them public documents and I think she had another plan."
"Like what?" Charlie asked in a voice that said he didn't believe Gracie.
"I can't prove a word of this; it's all speculation," Gracie told him. "Trusts may be filed with the County Clerk too, but most people don't do it because they don't want their heirs to know what they're getting. But with nothing made public, Ms. Canardi had all the info, and that gave her power."
"Nothing a lawyer loves more!" Cindy quipped. "Uh, even a used-to-be lawyer."
"No one else had a copy of the Trust agreement until it came out in the Estate proceedings. Everyone 'knew' that Robbie was the beneficiary, but what happened to any money left over after her death?"
Charlie tipped his head in agreement. "Now we know that the five of us split it."
"It would've been really easy for the Trustee to play the two sides against each other," Gracie went on. "John told her you didn't talk. She would tell you…" Here she pointed at Jason, Loretta, Ashley, and Charlie in turn. "…that John left the money to his only sister, Meredith."
"And of course she'd tell me that John had cut me out completely, leaving everything to you four," Meredith finished. "Or five if he had included the daughter in New Zealand."
"We'd challenge that!" Charlie said angrily, referring to Gracie's statement.
"Neither of us would," Meredith said, shaking her head sadly. "Why would we spend money to prove we got nothing? We'd all have been upset, yet in our hearts we'd know it was true. You'd believe that blood won out in the end, regardless of the problems John and I had; and I'd believe he'd really turned against me."
"Besides," Cindy said. "Creating one faked page among many would've been simple. She'd mail us each doctored copies and we'd never know. Meredith's right, none of us would've challenged that."
"I still think Connie Canardi had her hand in the till," Loretta sniffed.
"Nope," Meredith said. "Lt. Freeman said the police checked the balance in the Trust account and all the money seems to be there. But who knows what would've happened to the money in the future."
"So did Robbie get the assignment?" Karen wanted to know.
"Got it and tore it up," Gracie nodded.
"You can hear her rip it into shreds on the tape," Shawna explained. "She said she'd take it home and burn it."
Heads turned to stare at Loretta. The target of the visual daggers shrugged nonchalantly. "Coincidence," she said.
"What ace-in-the-hole did she use for the
blackmail?" Ashley asked.
"As it turned out, John had had Ms. Canardi write up a new Will for him," Meredith said. "He left everything to his church."
"No!" Robbie's kids gasped in unison. "He didn't!"
"That's what they both said on the tape," Gracie said, nodding. "Here's where it gets good. While John was still in the hospital dying Robbie went to Canardi for the Will. She was understandably angry to find out that her husband had made a new one that didn't include her. "
"Ms. Canardi wasn't stupid," Meredith continued. "She knew what would happen if that Will were to disappear and she tried to hang onto it out of loyalty to her client's wishes. She probably wanted to look honest about this even if she might still be planning to steal the Trust funds. But Robbie was desperate and offered to split the Trust with her in exchange. Since Canardi had a file copy of the previous Will they agreed to say that was what was turned over."
"Clearly Mother never intended to live up to that bargain," Loretta said. "Especially after she learned that she'd have to split the Estate with you." She nodded toward Meredith.
Meredith nodded back in acceptance of that statement. "We'll never know when she decided on blackmail as her way out. She might well have intended to have Connie Canardi removed as Trustee and found out it would cost a lot of money and take time."
"Blackmail would be a lot easier and quicker," Gracie agreed. "Robbie knew if she used the original of John's new Will for blackmail she would risk losing her share of his Estate if it ever came out. So she destroyed the original document but kept a copy – having already learned the hard way that copies of Wills don't count!"
"But the Trustee just said she'd given Robbie a copy of a Will. Couldn't she simply claim the newer Will was the copy she'd turned over in the first place? And that she didn't know where Robbie had gotten the other copy?" Cindy asked.
"Ms. Canardi could claim she'd given the original to John, and let the implication hang that Robbie had destroyed it," Meredith said.