The Widow and the Will

by J. Thomas-Like

  Hooking up with Tess wasn’t something that could lead anywhere, and Hudson would know that as well as Ford did. He knew his brother’s counsel would be to stay away from her, that she’d been hurt enough in life. She didn’t need some worthless biker guy coming into her life. Not when she could have the upstanding lawyer, he thought peevishly. Ford knew damn well Hudson had a little thing for Tess. He smiled sadly, thinking how sibling rivalry was always present, no matter what the circumstance.

  Ford climbed off his motorcycle and hung the helmet on the back, cutting off his internal monologue about Tess and Hudson. Shaking his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he ambled to the doc’s door and went inside. The waiting room was empty of patients and he was glad for that. At his last visit, he’d gotten quite a few ornery looks from what appeared to be a mostly geriatric patient pool.

  Walking to the window, he didn’t even have to rap on the glass before the receptionist opened it. “Hi. Ms. Moore is waiting for you. I’ll bring you right back.”

  Ford nodded and within a moment, a door leading into the belly of the office opened and the pretty young girl motioned him forward. He followed her back to Daphne Moore’s office. She sat waiting behind her desk, hands folded on the top. She looked grim and displeased. He wasn’t prepared for the defensive look in her eyes and hoped he wasn’t in for trouble.

  “Good afternoon.” He greeted her with a firm handshake and strong eye contact which she returned, but there was no warmth in it. He sensed a distinct change in attitude from the day before.

  “Yes, well, it was. I’m afraid I can’t let you speak with anyone else in the office. Dr. Guildford got in touch with his lawyer and he’s concerned about liability.” Ford’s exhale of frustration was not lost on Ms. Moore. She glowered at him and placed her palms flat on the desk. “I’m sorry this doesn’t please you.”

  “No, it doesn’t. What kind of liability?” Ford demanded.

  “He didn’t tell me.” Ford could see the lie in her eyes on that one. “And I’m not at liberty to say more to you than that. The bottom line is you’re not allowed to interview any more employees.”

  “Just to be clear, this was supposed to be for Tess’s benefit. Character witnesses, not interviews. What liability could there possibly be?” Ford folded his arms across his chest. “I think I need to speak with the doctor. Now.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, either. Dr. Guildford left early this morning for a medical conference in Tahiti. He doesn’t return for a week.”

  Ford wanted to growl, but settled for a disgusted sigh instead. Glancing around the office in frustration, he noticed a picture on the credenza behind Ms. Moore’s desk. It was a photograph of the staff taken at Christmas time. Everyone was crowded together and smiling for the camera, but the only person not looking directly at the lens was Daphne Moore. Her eyes were firmly fixed on Thomas Guildford.

  “That’s a nice picture,” Ford said, as he leaned across the desk to get a better look.

  “Uh, thank you,” she said, shifting in her seat, and clearing her throat. She played with the pearl necklace around her neck. “It was taken this past Christmas.”

  “Tell me, is Dr. Guildford married?” he asked. He watched her drop the necklace with a jolt and then she folded her hands together and squeezed. He could see her fingers getting whiter as the color was choked off from the pressure.

  Sitting up straighter, her eyes narrowed with annoyance. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business, but yes he is.”

  Ford cocked his head to the side and stepped closer to the desk. “Yeah? How long has he been married?”

  “I don’t have to answer your questions.”

  Ford didn’t have to be a psychiatrist to see the pain in Ms. Moore’s eyes. Softening his demeanor, he took a seat and lounged in the chair, which flustered her even more. It was evident she wanted nothing more than for him to leave immediately. “Well, if the doc took his bride with him to Tahiti, then how much of a medical conference could it be? But if the missus stayed home, then I’m more inclined to believe it was a business trip.”

  Ms. Moore’s eyebrows knitted together in thought, and she slowly nodded. “I see your point. I also realize how unsettling it must be that the doctor changed his mind about being cooperative in less than twenty-four hours.” Ms. Moore’s eyes clouded over with a veil of peevishness. “Yes, Mrs. Guildford accompanied Doctor on the trip.”

  Ford almost laughed out loud as she spat the words, jealousy practically dripping off her tongue. It was obvious that she carried a torch for the doc and probably had for a long time. Reaching across the desk, he patted her hands. “It’s okay. Like I said, this was just to find people to speak on Tess’s behalf. There’s nothing for anyone to worry about. They’ve all been talking already, right?”

  Ms. Moore sighed and relaxed a little. She unclenched her hands and shook out her fingers. “Yes. There was no way to stop it, once you questioned Parker Lockwood. She’s the office gossip. I wish now I’d left her for last.”

  Ford smiled. “No worries. You can tell the doc I’m through here.”

  “Please tell Tess we’re so sorry about all this.”

  “Will do.”

  Ford gave her a two-fingered salute and then left the office while Ms. Moore sat back down and returned to her computer screen. The angle of her doorway prevented her from seeing him take the wrong turn at the end of the hall. Moving in a stealthy manner, he poked his nose here and there into offices and empty patient examination rooms, taking note of how he was received, if anyone saw him. He was counting on the usual looks of surprise, but was hoping he would see something more from Mike the nurse or the other woman he hadn’t spoken to, if he happened across them.

  When he finally did come upon the one large room where several desks and cubicles were located, he knew he hit pay dirt. It was where the nurses sat to finish their notes and paperwork, the billers had their workstations, and most of the patient records were housed.

  Ford leaned his head in the room and immediately almost all eyes were on him. He recognized most of the faces, except for the lady with the grey hair who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Ford felt around in his brain for his alarm beacon but it didn’t go off for her. It shrieked for the one guy in the room refusing to look his way. Mike the nurse was sitting at this desk, typing into a laptop. Not once did he look up to see what had caught everyone else’s attention.

  “Hi there! Just wanted to thank you all for talking with me yesterday. I left my card with Ms. Moore, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to give me a ring.”

  Ford waited for the nods of recognition and polite smiles, which came within seconds. And still, Mike Andrews never met his eye.

  Chapter 43

  Sitting on her patio with a glass of iced tea, Tess had more time on her hands than she knew what to do with, not having a steady job to work. She took Hudson’s calls on the first ring so she could help in any way, but other than remembering the brownies, she wasn’t doing much good in that department. She tried to keep living like a normal person, even though a huge pile of cash was sitting in her checking account. She hadn’t even bothered to make an appointment with the finance guy because she was pretty sure it was all going to be taken away when she got arrested for murder. She talked to her parents and sister multiple times a day, but beyond cleaning the apartment and answering the phone, Tess spent her time bored to the teeth or filled with anxiety as she fantasized about prison life.

  In a small way, she knew the time away from most of the world was doing her a little bit of good. As she sipped her tea and watched the cats roam around the grass, firmly harnessed and leashed, she thought about writing in her journal but didn’t feel like it right then. She usually did write in it a few times a day, though. She kept making lists and notes about things to do. She wrote about Jack constantly. The day after her hookup with Ford, Tess wrote a five-page entry apologizing to him. She knew technically that she hadn’t cheate
d, but her conscience bothered her just the same. When she read the pages a couple of days later, it made her cry for both Jack and herself. She tore them out of the book and sealed them in an envelope, calling it the last love letter she would write to Jack. Then she put the envelope in the bottom of her jewelry box.

  In the days while she prayed and waited for Hudson to find a way out of the mess, Tess talked out loud to Jack, like he was really still there. She never did it in front of anyone, or else everyone would really think she was off her nut, but the sound of her own voice in the empty apartment was comforting. She wasn’t crazy enough to believe he would answer, but sometimes she got a sense of what she knew he would say. Not only had he been her boyfriend, fiancé and briefly her husband, he’d been her very best friend in life. Thinking she could still bounce her ideas off of him made her feel better. Those conversations also made her feel less guilty about Ford.

  And she did think about Ford. A lot. Probably more than she should. She talked to Lilly about him, too, but her sister was being more of a pain in the ass where that subject was concerned. Lilly kept insisting that she should go for it with Ford, but Tess insisted he had too much of a backstory. She had kind of admitted that she wished it wasn’t the case, but she wanted to be realistic about it all. Like her sister. Lilly always looked at things honestly and Tess wanted to be more like that. Ford had walls built up around him to keep people out. It was pretty obvious that his crappy childhood had really messed him up where women were concerned and Tess didn’t want to fall into the trap of thinking she could fix him. She had enough shit to deal with, she didn’t need a project guy. Sure, he had come clean and told her about his background and that was a point in his favor, but what else was he not telling her, how much more to the story was there?

  Tess contented herself with the rolling movie in her head of their passionate night together and nothing more. But every once in a while, Lilly’s voice would pop into her head. “Go for more,” it would say. “Take a chance.” Tess kept pushing those thoughts away. Ford had been a buoy in her ocean of grief. She reached for him and he pulled her in. He had mountains of baggage in his past and she was in no position to help anyone sort through their suitcases. She had her own to unpack.

  The cats were finished with the explorations and were now winding themselves around the legs of her chair. Tess finished the last of her tea and went to the door to slide it open. Timothy and Spencer tried to race inside, but scared the hell out of themselves when the patio chair tried to follow them. Tess laughed and set the glass on the table. “Come here, you goofuses.” She grabbed Timmy and hooked her fingers into one of the loops of his harness and unclasped the leash, then did the same to Spencer. She carried them inside and set them down. Off they went to bathe the outdoors off themselves.

  From the kitchen, she heard her phone begin to ring. Law & Order strikes again. “Hello, good lawyer,” she said, after swiping to accept the call.

  “Good afternoon. You sound chipper.”

  “Doing my best. What’s up?”

  “Ford thinks he’s onto something.”

  Tess’s heart skipped a beat. “Really? What?”

  “The male nurse at Dr. Guildford’s office seemed suspicious. What can you tell me about him?”

  Gnawing on her thumbnail, Tess thought for a moment. “Not much. I never really saw him. Whenever I’d bring work into the office or come to pick up my check, he was with patients or at lunch or sometimes not there at all. I saw him at office parties or meetings and he seemed fine. You don’t think he put the poison in the brownies do you?”

  “We don’t know,” Hudson admitted. “But Ford thought he was off and I trust my brother’s instincts.”

  “Me too.”

  “Do you think he might have had a secret thing for you? A crush maybe? If he was the one who did the poisoning, could it have been because he wanted Jack out of the way?”

  “No!” Tess shook her head and frowned. “Not at all. Like I said, we never had that much contact. Plus, he would talk about his girlfriend all the time to the other girls in the office. I only know that because they would tell me. He doted on her and all the other girls always wished their spouses would fawn over them that way.”

  “Damn,” Hudson muttered. “That would have been a good path to take. Well, Ford is going to try and catch him outside the office to question him because Dr. Guildford had a sudden change of heart. Apparently, he’s worried and he won’t let us talk to anyone else on the premises.”

  Tess frowned. “That’s weird. Doc’s known me for years. That seems more suspicious to me than anything else.”

  “I’ll make a note of it for Ford. Unfortunately, he’s left for some medical conference this morning and won’t be back for a week.”

  “Let me guess. Tahiti, right?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “He goes there every year right about this time. Calls it a medical conference so he can write it off. He takes a couple of classes online so he can sorta make it legit.” Tess snorted.

  Hudson chuckled. “Well, I know lawyers who do the same thing, so I won’t judge. But if he does this every year, I’m not sure we have anything to worry about with him. He’s only freaked out because he thinks he might get sued by one of his employees. Don’t let your fear get the best of you, okay?”

  “All right.” Tess sighed. “Is Ford there?”

  “No, he’s out following Mike.”

  “Okay. Tell him I said thanks when you see him again.”

  “I will.”

  Hudson was silent for a moment and Tess asked if he was still there.

  “Yeah, I’m still here. Look, I need to ask you something.”

  Tess tensed up. The tone of Hudson’s voice changed and he no longer sounded… lawyerly to her. “Yes?”

  “I think something’s going on with Ford. He’s been different lately and I’m worried about him. He hasn’t said anything to you has he? I mean, not that he would, but he’s funny like that.”

  Tess was scared to answer too quickly or not fast enough. “No, he hasn’t spoken to me about anything except the case.”

  “Okay. It’s just me then. The whole brother thing, I guess.”

  “Yeah, it must be. I don’t know him very well…” Tess trailed off, hoping the conversation would come to an end. The last thing she wanted to discuss with Hudson was his brother. Ugh, please be the end of the call!

  “I’ll give you a call when I know more.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Tess ended the call and put her phone back on the charger. She retrieved her glass from outside and refilled it, all the time racking her brain for any information about Mike. Everything she’d told Hudson was true. She hardly ever saw him and he wouldn’t have been on her radar, anyway. The first time they met, he’d shaken her hand and been polite. Tess had thought he was okay. Not too tall, not too short. Plain brown hair and eyes. He was unremarkable then and left no real imprint on her memories now.

  She sure was thinking about Mike Andrews now, though. Ford was out following him around and that worried her. What if Mike was the one who put the poison in the brownies? What if he went after Ford?

  Chapter 44

  Ford sat in Hudson’s truck about a block away from Dr. Guildford’s office, waiting for the staff to close up shop for the day. Closing in on six o’clock, he counted heads as employees emptied out of the building like rats off a sinking ship. He was lying in wait for one particular rodent.

  Mike Andrews was the second to last person to exit, followed by Daphne Moore. He stood beside the office manager as she locked the door and set the alarm. They walked side by side to cars in the parking lot. He waved goodbye to several others and then got into a red Prius. Ford watched as he pulled out his cell phone and called someone. The conversation seemed animated and from his vantage point, Ford thought Mike looked irritated. There was a lot of talking with his hands, a couple of smacks to the steering wheel and then one massive fist slam on
the dashboard.

  When he finally began to pull out of the lot, Ford put the truck in gear, preparing to follow him. Mike putted his way through St. Clair Shores, then into Roseville, ending up in the south end of Warren. He parked in the driveway of a fairly run down house and got out. He unlocked the door and went inside.

  Once he was gone, Ford pulled the tuck up in front of the house, leaving the tinted windows up to hide his face. Using his phone, he took pictures of the Prius and the front of the house, including the address. He waited a while before getting out of the truck and sneaking up to the Prius, where he placed a sensor underneath the driver’s side back wheel well so he could track the car if necessary. Then he drove back to the office.

  As Ford downloaded the photos to the computer and texted the license plate information to his contact at the police department to research, he closed his eyes and rubbed his face. He was exhausted from running constantly and not sleeping at night. Never having been much of a dreamer in the past, he sure was having nightmares now. Some involved Tess in prison. Some were about his brother and Tess in bed together. But the worst of them involved Jack’s killer going after her. It was driving him crazy to the point where he was beginning to regret ever having spent the night with Tess. Ford hated the idea of regretting it because he had needed a release just as much as she had. But the aftermath was draining him emotionally and mentally. He was struggling to keep focus. He found himself losing his patience and control when people didn’t give him what he wanted, all because he was feeling more concern for his client than he should.

  When all the photos were uploaded, Ford scrolled through them. The folder contained all of the photos he had taken since the case began. A splash of yellow caught his eye from one photo to another. Clicking to look at the previous shot, it was Roger and Emily’s home. In the front of the house, the flowerbeds were in full bloom with some kind of exotic looking yellow plants. That was nothing out of the ordinary. What was unusual was that Mike Andrews’s house had the exact same blooms surrounding the front of his home.