Without her stilettos and full face of makeup, Mosley’s secretary was hard to place, but as soon as she spoke, Grace knew it was the Gum Snapper.
“Miss Reagan, I’m sorry to bother you. Do you remember me?”
“From Cyrus’ office, right? I’m afraid I don’t remember your name, though.”
“Lily Travers. I know this is a bad time, but I wonder if you could talk to me for a few minutes?”
“It’s not a good —”
Avril poked Grace in the ribs and called out, “Of course she can, dear.” Lowering her voice, she said, “Go see what she wants. This could be news about Cyrus.”
After another sharp jab from Avril’s supposedly arthritic finger, Grace got out of the car and followed Lily Travers to the footbridge.
“I’m sorry,” Lily said. “This is so inappropriate, but I don’t think it’s good for either of us to be seen talking. Mr. Mosley was close to Miss Avril, so I had an excuse to come today.”
Grace didn’t need to ask why Lily was behaving so secretly. She had tried to visit Mosley in the nursing home and had been met with a polite but firm refusal. The management had a written order from Paul Kastner to keep her away from his business partner.
Lily said, “I know how fond Mr. Mosley is of you, and I know he would want you with him. It’s wrong what Mr. Kastner is doing, but it’s not my place to contradict him, so this is hard.” Without her makeup, Lily appeared both older and more vulnerable. Grace realized she was very pretty, even with dark circles under her worried eyes. She glanced over her shoulder to see Avril walking away from them toward the foundation of the old house.
“I was Mr. Mosley’s personal secretary.”
Grace turned to Lily, who was hesitating, appearing to reconsider her next words.
“I’m sure it was a shock,” Grace offered. She cast about for something else to say. “Will you be reassigned to another attorney?”
“I doubt it. I think the firm is winding down. The only reason I still have a job is because Mr. Mosley insisted I stay. I heard them arguing, Mr. Mosley and Mr. Kastner, I mean. Mr. Kastner wanted to keep a more senior secretary, but Mr. Mosley said he didn’t like her. Said I was more personable.” She smiled. “He likes short skirts and high heels, and that’s how I got the job to begin with. He likes a certain look in a girl.”
Grace tried not to picture her mother in the Gum Snapper’s clothes.
“I make sure I’m the best secretary they have. Mr. Mosley was, is, the senior partner, so Mr. Kastner gave in. But now, well, I’ve started looking for another job. Even if he lives —” her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, God! That sounds awful. I only meant even if Mr. Kastner doesn’t fire me right away, he doesn’t want me there, and I deserve better than that.”
“I understand,” Grace said. “All too well.”
“I know you do.” Lily’s hand dipped into the pocket of her jacket. She was silent for a moment, then said, “There is a strip mall on Kent Island. On the right, just before you go over the Bay bridge. You know the area?”
Grace nodded.
Lily took her hand out of her pocket, her fingers closed around something. “Go to Daily’s Office Supply. They rent mailboxes. You want Box 419. I put it in both our names. I have a key here for you, but you’ll need a driver’s license for identification. Take everything in the box.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
“I’m not comfortable with this. Why can’t you just tell me what it is?” As much as she wanted to fly straight to whatever it was Lily Travers had left in the post office box, none of this made sense. Grace desperately wanted something, just one thing, to make sense.
“I know this is weird.” Lily looked miserable. “But I think we have to be careful. A few days after Mr. Mosley’s heart attack, I was looking through his desk for a file Mr. Kastner wanted and I found a package with your mother’s name on it. I didn’t want to leave it there, and I didn’t feel right keeping it. It’s been hard to decide what to do. So I put it where it would be safe.”
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know. It’s sealed.” Her tone said Grace should know better than to think she’d looked. “Your uncle came into the office the last day Mr. Mosley worked. I could hear them arguing even though the door was shut. He isn’t a client, so I’m not breaking confidentiality. Your uncle kept saying he wanted it.”
Grace shook her head. “Wanted what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the package I found, but I’m not sure. Mr. Delaney has been to the office several times in the past year. Usually with his wife, but this time, he was alone. I’ve heard him accuse Mr. Mosley of altering your grandmother’s will. That didn’t happen. I was a witness to both of her wills. The one she made about three years ago and the one she did last year. I filed the final version with the Register of Wills after she died, and I saw it was the same will I witnessed last year.”
“Do you know what changed?”
“No. That was between Mrs. Delaney and Mr. Mosley.” She hesitated and then said, “If I could, I’d give the package to your mother, but Mr. Mosley told me you inherited everything she had, so I think you should get this, too.”
“Why aren’t you giving it to Mr. Kastner?” Grace asked.
“I saw the package once before. Mr. Mosley took it with him when he went to Washington last spring. He brought it back again and told me to put it in his personal safe. I was surprised to find it in his desk. He must have planned to do something with it but didn’t get around to it. Since he didn’t give it to your uncle, I think he’d want you to have it.”
Grace could see there was more, but Lily was struggling. And she still had the key.
As if she heard Grace’s thoughts, Lily reached over and clasped Grace’s right hand. “Mr. and Mrs. Delaney have been very angry with Mr. Mosley, and he had his stroke while he was with them. If I leave the package in his desk, they might be able to get it.” With a gentle squeeze, Lily released her hand, leaving the key behind. “Your grandmother was special to Mr. Mosley. I saw them together a lot over the years. I believe he loved her.”
Grace’s hand burned where the little piece of metal pressed into her palm.
Grace dropped Avril at home, promised to stop by later in the evening and tried not to gun the engine as she peeled away from the curb, headed for Kent Island.
Surprisingly, Avril bought Grace’s story that Lily wanted to talk about Cyrus but had no real news. The old woman seemed lost in her own thoughts when she returned from walking around the ruins of her family’s ancient homestead. She agreed a nap was in order and didn’t ask Grace in when they reached her house. Less than an hour after Lily gave her the key, Grace was back in the BMW with a small package wrapped in brown paper and a large white envelope. Both were addressed to her mother.
The spidery handwriting on the package was an arthritic version of the one that penned the letters she’d found in the secret room. Emma. The envelope was Mosley and Kastner stationary. Cyrus. She set the package on the seat beside her, opened the envelope and withdrew two thick documents. Wills. Emma’s and Mosley’s. She turned to the last page of each document. Both were executed and both had been notarized by Lily Travers.
Grace hesitated. The parking lot of a strip mall didn’t feel like the right place to go through the documents, which might hold the answers to all of her questions. Still, she let herself skim over Cyrus’ will before refolding it. She found what she was looking for at the end of three pages of detailed bequests.
All my remaining property, possessions and assets of any kind I leave to Emma Fiona Anders Delaney. Should she predecease me, Julia Fiona Reagan and Grace Fiona Reagan, in equal shares, shall inherit in her stead.
She leaned forward and rested her head on the steering wheel. Mosley had said plenty in his last will and testament, but he hadn’t said she was his daughter.
A shadow fell across the dashboard. She looked up to find Bryce Cutter peering into the passenger side window. As she instincti
vely reached for the lock, he opened the door and leaned in.
“Now, Grace, don’t be that way. I only want to talk.”
She opened her door and jumped out. As Bryce rounded the front of the car she yelled, “Stop or I’ll scream.”
He hesitated. She backed up, putting another five feet between them and yelled, “Get away from me!”
He gave her one of his lazy smiles. She couldn’t believe she’d ever found them appealing, even his dimples seemed menacing now. He said, “I feel bad about how things ended and I want to finish the house for you.”
“How things ended?” She hated that her voice cracked. “You tried to rape me!”
His smile grew. “Is that what you call it? We were having fun and then you got too drunk.” He raised his voice, “But no need for everyone to know. I can be a gentleman. Let me finish the job, Grace. Material costs only. That sounds good, doesn’t it? Get rid of Benny’s group of yahoos and I’ll bring a professional crew in to wrap everything up right.”
Despite her fear and racing heart, curiosity won out. “Why? You’ve spread so many lies about me, why would you want to do that?”
“I told you, I feel bad. You need me. I’ll be in and out in a week and you can get the house on the market. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To be away? Out of here with a lot of money from the sale? I can make it happen fast.”
Grace glanced around again. No one was close enough to hear them.
“Say yes, Gracie,” Bryce wheedled. He took a tentative step toward her. “This is a good deal. I’ll come by this afternoon and bring some materials. You don’t even have to be there, just leave the back door and basement unlocked.”
“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it?” Now she knew what he wanted. She’d changed the locks and he couldn’t get in the house.
He yanked the bill of his ball cap lower on his forehead and studied her before finally saying, “I’m trying to make up for bringing your crazy-assed cousin back into the picture when you didn’t want him. You were right. Is that what you want to hear? You were right about Winnie and I was wrong to try to keep him on the job.”
“And everything was his fault?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I don’t know what you thought you heard while you were passed out, but Winnie and I were fighting about work, okay? Nothing to do with you.”
“You told everyone you and Winston called 911.”
“I did! I saved your life! The ambulance took a long time. It felt like forever.”
What little control she had disintegrated. “I heard you tell Winston if anyone was going to do me it would be you! You even hit him! And now he’s in rehab and you don’t have access to the house and you need to get in there.” She knew she was right; she could see it on his face. What had he left behind?
“You’re crazy!” Here was the angry man who’d taunted her while she lay immobilized in the basement. I would have made you happy. “Get in the car. Now.” He jammed his hand into his jacket pocket and pointed his covered fist - and whatever it held - at her. “I said now!”
She turned and ran.
Chapter Fifty
Dodging and weaving around and behind vehicles, Grace put as much metal as possible between them. She ran inside a grocery store before finally slowing and risking a look over her shoulder. After ten minutes of scanning the parking lot, she was calmer. There was no sign of Bryce Cutter.
Only the realization she’d left Cyrus’ package and her tote in the front seat of her unlocked car sent her back outside, but she took the store’s security clerk with her. The nervous young man, whose name tag said he did double duty as a shift manager, wanted to call the police but finally agreed to escort her.
“You know, ma’am, domestic problems can be serious. You should get some help,” he said as he followed Grace, providing about as much intimidating bulk as a Golden Retriever.
“I’ll do that,” she promised, wondering just what kind of help might be available to protect her against a man she couldn’t prove was dangerous. She kept coming back to the expression on Bryce’s face when she’d asked what he’d left in the house. She felt sure she’d hit on the crux of the entire Bryce/Winston mystery. But try as she might, she couldn’t guess what it was he wanted.
Her hands still shook and Bryce’s face appeared everywhere she looked. His patronizing grin filled her side view mirror. ‘Come on, Gracie’ echoed in her ears. Bryce’s ability to turn her insides to water scared her more than his physical threat.
She drove past the exit for Mallard Bay and on to Easton. At Tred Avon Bank and Trust, it took a half hour to arrange for immediate access to a safe deposit box. At last she was alone in the small, windowless room allocated for customers who wanted to pack and unpack their valuables in private. She took Emma’s package from her tote, peeled the strip of tape away from the top, and then found herself hesitating.
Get on with it!
More letters. Ten envelopes, some thicker than others, but none holding more than a few pages of paper. A few were worn and had obviously been read and reread many times. Others, while opened, were in better shape. Unlike the ones she’d found at Delaney House, all but one were addressed to Emma. A single unopened letter was addressed to Julia in Emma’s shaky handwriting. Grace tried not to tear the paper inside in her eagerness to get it open.
February 1, 2015
My beautiful child - My Julia,
I hope you were kind to poor Cyrus. Even after all these years, I wouldn’t have sent him to you if I’d had anyone else.
Are you still angry? Of course you are, but I hope you’ve also grown wiser and stronger. It’s time for you and Grace to come home. We need to make peace, darling. I’ve sold Delaney House. As long as Cyrus and I breathe, we will never be free of it, but it no longer seems so important to maintain its secrets. We’ve paid the price for our vanity, Cy and I. I hope you’ll agree and come home, if only to say goodbye.
These letters I’m sending will explain some of the choices I’ve made over the years and, I hope, will help you understand I never meant to hurt you. Cyrus will fill in the blanks. Please let him get a word in edgewise, and listen to what he tells you. Forget what you think you know and listen. Please.
You have always thought I put myself and my desires before yours and you were right. I took a vow long before you were born and, for better or worse, I’ve honored it. Now that it’s too late, I see there were other paths I could have chosen, but who is to say they would have turned out any better?
I will not blame your father, or his father, or whichever Delaney produced the twist of personality that ruined my poor Ford. We each had a part to play in this tragedy and we all carry some of the blame. Why do you think I let you go? Because I didn’t love you enough to come after you? Because I was happy to have you and Grace out of my life? Did you really believe any of the horrible things you said? You couldn’t possibly.
I let you go because Washington is close enough that I could check on you and our Grace from time to time. I could help if you needed me and you would be out of the line of fire when the truth finally came out. I stood guard all of these years, sacrificed a life with you and Grace and watched Stark turn into a bitter caricature of the sweet boy he once was. I’ve allowed our family name to become tarnished because, while I could protect your father’s honor, I couldn’t quite manage to hold on to my own.
You’ll have to be strong when you come back. Stark won’t make it easy. Once he could have handled a reconciliation honorably, but not now. Connie has always fueled his anger. That’s how she keeps him all to herself. She’s been very successful, but not, I think, very happy.
I tried to protect Stark, too. I realize now I should have just trusted him. He was too much like me. I loved him too much, demanded too much of him and, deep down, expected him to fail. After all, I did.
Love without trust is a prison. Remember that, Julia. Stark has been in a prison of my making. I asked too much of him and too littl
e of your father. I didn’t demand anything at all of Tony or Winston. Look what happened to the golden Delaney boys.
Whether you admit it or not, I helped you escape. Now I’m begging you to come and let me say goodbye.
Here is the apology you have been waiting for: I never thought the truth would stay hidden. I was sure every day would be the day I would have to account for what happened, and when I did, we would all be stained. Forever. I thought I could keep it from touching you and Grace. I was willing to let you hate me to keep you away from home until the storm passed. Only there was no storm, just a vicious erosion of our lives. The truth is still buried and now I’ve waited too long. My time has come and gone.
It’s up to you. Try to forgive me.
All my love and my trust.
Mother
If the clerk thought it odd that Grace entered the vault dry-eyed and emerged in tears, she didn’t show it. Grace decided a lot of people must store their personal bombs in safe-deposit boxes. By the time she’d paid for copies of the letters and the wills, and had seen the originals locked safely away, she was calmer and had a rudimentary plan.
Back in Delaney House, she was grateful Benny’s crew was gone for the day. She couldn’t have talked to anyone if she’d had to. Ignoring her desk on the third floor, she took her usual spot on the staircase. She spread the copies of the new letters out over the steps, carefully placing them in the order in which Emma had bundled them. The last letter wasn’t in an envelope but was folded into thirds as if ready to be mailed. Grace thought of the empty envelope she’d found in Emma’ secret room. If you have this, I am gone. Turning the letter over, she saw a note on the top of the first page: Found and opened November 8, 1973 - E.A.D.
She itched to read the last letter first, but honored Emma’s wishes and started at the beginning - 1952 and 1953 - letters from Emma’s father. Each brief note referenced a check he’d enclosed. Robert Anders told his daughter to treat herself to something pretty and to stop complaining. ‘Your mother has her hands full and you know how busy I am. You wanted Ford, and now you are a married woman. It’s time you acted like it. Treat your husband well and you’ll be fine.’ And later, ‘Pull yourself up, girl. You’re upsetting your mother and I won’t have it.’
Squatter's Rights Page 26