“Do? We’re going to keep on trying to find out who wants you dead. That’s the only thing that’s important … now.” His voice was cold as he walked out. “Good night, Jennette.”
After he had gone, she sat for a long time thinking over what he’d said. In spite of everything, he still seemed willing to help her and she knew that what he had said was true. Finding the killer was all that mattered now. If she survived, there would be time for regrets. Laying her head back against the chair, she sighed. So many lies.
* * *
The next morning at SailingStar, Mort came into her office. “Have you got some time to look over the papers I’ve prepared?”
“Yes, of course. Close the door and pull up a chair.”
They sat at the conference table as Mort laid out the documents. “The change of residual beneficiary in the trust is ready for your signature, but I have only a draft of the new will. I wanted you to look it over before I finalized it.”
They spent several minutes talking about the changes, then with determination and a flourish, Jen signed her name to the trust alteration. “Mort, I’d appreciate it if you would personally make a copy and then return it and the original to me. When do you think you’ll have the will ready for signing?”
“No later than the end of the day. Do you want me to have witnesses ready for you?”
She hesitated. “I want to sleep on it because the changes are significant. I’ll take it with me when you’ve finished.”
When he had returned the page that she’d signed and its copy, she called Colleen and asked her to arrange for a messenger to pick up an envelope for delivery to Brad’s law office.
She had no idea what kind of explanation to give him and deciding that no explanation at all would be more effective, she merely added a cover letter instructing him to file the signed alteration with the original documents. She added a brief explanation of the intended changes to her will. When he asked her, as she knew he would, she would simply claim a woman’s prerogative to change her mind as she pleased. If he was guilty of trying to harm Anna, he’d recognize the significance of the alteration that she had made. She would have checked his king, but the game wasn’t over yet.
She spent the rest of the morning on the phone, making lists and working up a budget, then called Aaron to ask him to meet with her.
When he had taken the chair across from her, she began. “I have a new project. Last week at the Museum benefit, I met the chairman of a philanthropic foundation.”
“Saul Goldstein?” said Aaron. “I had the opportunity of speaking with him for a while, and he mentioned meeting you.”
Jen nodded. “On behalf of SailingStar, I have agreed to produce a series of films for his foundation. Several of the organizations that they support need a visual and informative way to present their activities to potential contributors who attend their fundraisers. We’ll begin with the outreach program for inner-city kids and with the need for more hospice facilities and support in rural areas. Additional films can be planned after we see how effective the first two are. We will be doing the work at four percent above cost –”
“Four per cent!” Aaron interrupted.
“– the time that I contribute to the project will not be billed in those costs –”
“Jennette –”
“– and any time that you spend as financial advisor to the project will also not be billed.”
“If my hours aren’t billed, SailingStar will lose money.”
“Then it would be best if you assign your duties to one of your lesser-paid assistants.”
His face was stiff. “You’re pushing me out.”
“Your financial skill level is too expensive for these organizations, Aaron, please understand.”
And his voice was bitter. “Oh, I understand perfectly.”
“But as a new and untried director, your creative talents will suit their budgets, and their needs.”
His mouth opened, no words came out, and Jen hid her smile as he struggled to hide his delight. He lost the battle with decorum and grinned like a kid. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say that your staff can cover for you while you’re otherwise occupied, because if they can’t …?”
“Without a doubt, they’re the best team in the city. They’re educated, experienced, completely familiar with the company’s complexities. And they can’t wait to be able to work without my hovering over them.”
“Excellent.” She buzzed the intercom. “Colleen, please find Tony and the two of you join us.” She stood up. “Let’s move from here so we can all sit together. I’ve worked up a few ideas and budget figures, but it’s all still very sketchy.”
“Jennette, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me until you’ve seen the problems that I’m dumping on you. Just sit at the head of the table,” she pointed with a laugh, “because you’re in charge of this can of worms.”
* * *
She’d stayed late at the office again and both dinner and coffee were finished by the time she got home. When the delivery from the art shop had arrived, Betsy had put it in her bedroom as she’d requested that morning. She carried it into the other wing to knock on the door to Adelia’s suite. Hearing her sharp response, she went in.
“May I have a few moments, Adelia? I’d like to talk with you.”
“What do you want?” Adelia was sitting in her chair by the fire and spoke without turning.
Jen walked to the other chair but before she sat, she held out the package. “To begin with, I’ve brought you a peace offering.”
The older woman eyed her suspiciously. “What is it?”
“Please.”
Adelia waited a moment, then set her cane aside to take it. “It’s obviously a picture and if it’s one of you, you’ve a strange idea of the term peace offering.”
Jen just sat and relaxed, looking into the fire. She knew now that Adelia had a human side, and very few people can resist a wrapped package. After a long silence, she heard the paper rustle and, from the corner of her eye, saw it fall to the floor. Adelia was smiling at the pencil sketch of Anna and Mugsy but when Jen turned her head, the smile changed quickly to a scowl.
“Did you draw this?” Her words were curt with intended rejection and Jen was certain that Adelia would find no pleasure in the sketch if she thought it was her daughter-in-law’s work.
“It was drawn from a photograph by one of Danni’s young artists. I had it done as a gift … for you.”
“Why?”
“Because I know how much you love Anna. Children grow so quickly, change so much. When they’ve grown, we only have pictures like this,” she said softly, “and memories.”
“I would not have expected you to be so thoughtful, Jennette.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently.” Jen looked back to the fire. “Family, my family, is more important to me than I’d realized. The boating accident made it clear that nothing can be taken for granted. When I first came back from the hospital, you said it would be better for Anna to live with Roger and Danni –”
“Will you agree?” she interrupted.
“– and I know that she is lonely here at Kenting.” She turned her head to give Adelia a steady look. “I think it’s time that David and I have another child.”
If Jen’s words had surprised her, she hid it beneath sarcasm. “You’ve always said that a baby would interfere with your acting career.”
“Having Anna didn’t, as my success over the last five years demonstrates, and I have SailingStar Productions now. I can work behind the scenes almost as effectively as on screen. I’m still young and there will be plenty of time for acting commitments later if opportunities present themselves. But because I’m young, now is the time for family.”
“Do you want another child?” Sarcasm had been replaced by skepticism.
“Very much.” Her response was simple but sincere and the skeptical look faded.
“Why are you
telling me this, Jennette?” Her eyes slid to the fire. “And shouldn’t you be having this conversation with my son?”
“I will when the time is right, but I don’t know how he’ll react. Does he want another child, Adelia?”
For the first time, David’s mother smiled. “If you gave him a son, he would be pleased but if you filled the house with daughters, he would be just as happy. And so would I.”
Jen nodded as she stood up. “I’d appreciate your not saying anything to him until he and I have had a chance to talk about it, soon I hope.” As she was walking to the door, she heard the older woman sigh.
“Jennette, thank you,” Jen turned as she spoke, “… for the sketch. It is an excellent likeness.”
“You’re welcome, Adelia. Good night.”
Back in her room, Jen pushed the pillows up and stretched out on the bed thinking over her talk with Adelia. The painting on the wall drew her eye and she tried to lose herself in it. It had always given her satisfaction and pleasure – she remembered selecting the frame, choosing just the right color for the matting – but the events of the day pulled her thoughts away and her face was serious.
She’d done what she could to protect herself from Aaron and Adelia and had removed the only motive she knew that existed for possible danger to Anna. She was sure that Brad would discuss her letter with David, so she must be prepared for a possible confrontation with one or both of them.
The important change that she could have made to her new will, but hadn’t, was the disposition of her own stock. If circumstances forced her to sign the document and something did happen to her, she couldn’t will the stock away from David. There must be no question that he would inherit her nine percent.
Splitting the stock between Rob and Rick as she had done in the trust would have given the two of them joint control of Kenting Industries if both she and Anna were to die and she was attempting to eliminate motives, not create them.
* * *
After lunch at the estate on Thursday, she sat for a while at her desk in the office, looking out across the field and waiting. Then she nodded and went to the dressing room to change into jeans and sneakers. Telling Colleen that she wanted some exercise, she walked down the hill in front of the house and into the belt of trees.
The old public road continued on this side of the drive also, but since it hadn’t been needed, its opening at the gate had been planted with large bushes. The lane had grown over but not so thickly that she couldn’t move easily through the grass. With the wall to her left, she walked slowly under the canopy of branches overhead, warmed by sunlight and the soft breeze.
As she had known he would be, Rick was sitting on the old plank bridge that crossed the stream bed below the earthen dam of the pond. With his back to the post at the far end of the bridge, one knee bent, the other dangling above the water, he watched as she stepped onto the planks to sit and lean against the near post. Then he looked away.
She saw a hawk swing lazily across the sky to drop swiftly through the trees beyond the pond toward some small woodland creature and she hoped that its prey had been wary enough to escape. “I know this is a favorite place of yours. I’m sorry if I’m intruding.”
His voice was flat. “I wondered if you’d go on avoiding me.”
“Although you said you were willing to continue helping me, I didn’t think you would want to under the circumstances.”
He turned to look at her across the length of the bridge. “But if the killer succeeds, the world will lose – how did you put it? – an amazingly talented actress. We can’t let that happen, can we, my dear.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“That’s right. You’re not my dear at all. I forgot for a moment. Just temporary amnesia.”
She ignored his jibe. “That’s not what I meant. I’d rather have you swear at me.”
He shrugged. “You may get your wish.”
“At least it would be honest.”
“And you expect honesty from me? You, who wouldn’t know truth if it stood up and bit you?”
Rage would have been infinitely preferable to his tone of cold contempt. “You have every right to be angry, Rick.”
His eyes were hard. “I have very few rights to anything else.”
She felt tears beginning and willed them away. He would just accuse her of using what he’d call a feminine trick. Although she had turned her head, he’d seen.
“Don’t cry, Jennette. This is farce, not tragedy.” The words were bitter, but his voice had softened. “When the curtain comes down, the audience leaves, and the actors simply go on to a different play.”
“But if the play ends with the heroine dead, what then?”
He was silent, his face closed, and she couldn’t read his thoughts. Picking up a pebble, she dropped it into the shallow pool beneath the bridge to watch the ripples running out in circles, slapping against the bank, moving back to cross and disturb the even pattern.
Who was the pebble that had broken the smooth surface of her life into ripples of confusion and fear? Rick could have sent the letters, attempting to push David into divorcing her, but then why try to kill her? And he had had no reason to kill Anna when the trust stock went to David. Now, however? She would tell him what she had gone there to say.
“I’ve altered Anna’s trust so that if something happens to her, her six percent of the stock will be divided between you and Rob.”
“David only controls forty-five per cent. If Anna were to die, Rob and I would have forty-six.”
“If Anna dies, I will vote my shares with David,” she looked at him, “and I will continue to vote with him on any issue that splits the family.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a warning.”
“It is precisely that. Anna must not be an actor in this play. Her safety is more important than my own.”
“Does David know?”
“I haven’t talked with him but I’m sure that by now Brad has told him about the change I made. And neither of them will know how I intend to vote until the meeting.”
“Then Anna should be safe.”
“Yes.”
“What if you die?”
“My stock goes to David and the play ends.”
“With the heroine sacrificed to the god of profit.”
“That may be, but if control of Kenting Industries is the motive, I’ve protected Anna and myself as much as I can. David cannot gain from her death, and mine won’t benefit you or Rob.”
He was silent for a moment. His shoulders relaxed a little, but his face was serious as he considered what she had told him. “Control of the company could be the motive, or not. It might be something else entirely. You’re still in danger, Jennette.”
“I know. I’ve already done almost everything in my power to remove reasons to kill me but if David simply wants me dead, or Nikki does, or you …”
“I want you very much alive.”
“And free –” She wouldn’t talk about the letters. If he’d written them, he already knew. “– but I’m not. How does the old melodrama line go? If I can’t have her, no one shall.”
“That’s not a part I’d care to play.”
“Nor a play I’d care to have a part in.”
She picked up another pebble, then stood to drop it into the water. Its ripples ran out and back as it dropped to the bottom of the pool. Even pebbles die, washed down the old hills and into the ancient sea. But her hour upon this stage wasn’t finished and she would not willingly give her life, short as it was meant to be, into the hands of a killer. “Do you have a reason, any reason, for wanting me dead?”
He didn’t hesitate. “No, Jen,” he said quietly. “Even though you are David’s Jennette, I wouldn’t want that to happen.”
She studied his face carefully, then nodded. “I’ve got to get back to the office. If you still want to help, spend some time with Nikki tonight after dinner. She resents me and is envious of my success. She’ll talk more freely to you
than to me.”
Chapter Twenty
Judge Leveritt arrived at six, driving behind Tony and Colleen through the gate and up the hill. Jen walked down to the parking area in front of the house to hug Colleen and Tony as they got out of their car.
“Jen, this is Bill Leveritt, neighbor, friend and Judge of the great State of California. Bill, this is Jennette.”
He was a man in his early seventies with intelligent eyes set in a network of crinkled laugh-lines. “Retired judge, Tony, and Miss Colson and I have already met although it was only briefly quite a while ago.” He and Jen shook hands. “You were on location in my town up near San Francisco and were forced to spend a dreary evening entertaining our mayor and some of his even drearier acquaintances, myself included.”
“San Francisco? That would have been Chase the Storm and as I recall, it was a charming evening with even more charming guests,” she smiled, “yourself included. What brought you here from the Bay Area?”
“I’ve been retired for several years, but my wife and I moved back not long ago. I grew up in Santa Barbara.”
“He plays a mean game of poker, Jen. If his friends and him invite you to one of their games, you’ll be making a mistake if you accept.”
“And you know this …?”
“From poverty-stricken experience.” Tony nodded with a sigh.
The judge chuckled. “You’ve brought an interesting dimension to our games, Tony. They have been more enjoyable since you joined us.”
“Yeah, financially enjoyable,” he laughed, then threw his arm around Colleen’s shoulders. “No, Daisy, I haven’t lost my shirt yet so don’t start scolding.”
“Well, I’d rather you didn’t play,” she smiled, “but I’m very happy that Bill will be marrying us.”
“Let’s go in.” Jen walked with them up the steps. “You’ll stay for dinner, won’t you?”
“I’m on my way to Santa Barbara for the evening.”
“A glass of sherry then. We’ll have to wait until Aaron gets here to do the walk-through of the ceremony.”
David was handing around glasses of sherry when Jen ushered them into the living room. She was about to introduce Bill to the family when Adelia looked up.
A Dizzying Balance Page 23