Addie seemed to be a different person since she had been freed of the presence of Vicki Dane. For sixteen years her daughter had not been just herself, Addie Martin. She had shared her mind, her memory with Julian Dane’s other daughter, Vicki, and Della was sure it had influenced Addie’s personality and behavior. And Della still had guilty feelings every time she thought of it – that she had not known of Vicki’s presence. But, thank the Lord, she was free now just to be herself.
Come on, Addie, she silently begged, before this car overheats sitting here idling. Della watched in surprise as Addie reached over and lightly hugged the girl. Well! She certainly had never seen her do that before. Finally, Addie turned and headed for the car.
The motor died.
“Oh, No!” Della moaned aloud, slapping the steering wheel with both hands. She turned the key. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. Shaking her head of shoulder length, honey blond hair, “No such luck!” she muttered. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t call Ben. He had his hands full getting his old truck ready for the trip.
“Mrs. Martin,” a familiar voice spoke at her open window, “did it stop on you again?” Donnie Whitefield asked.
“Yes, and I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m glad you’re still here. A Johnson’s truck pulled into the driveway this morning and dropped three boxes on the front porch. They didn’t even knock. The boxes were too heavy for me to lift, and it looked like rain, so I tucked an old shower curtain over them. You can put them just inside the laundry room door when you come in. You know, right in front of the water heater.”
“Yes, ma’am, and I’m sorry. I’ll attend to it as soon as I get through with my deliveries. So far as I know, I should be there by supper time.”
“We’re eating early because Ben wants to leave out about five in the morning. I hope you have some clothes in those boxes for the trip. I’ve been wondering how you were going to make it with one change of clothes.”
“Yeah, me too,” the boy said, then let out a screeching whistle, and yelled, “Mooney!” He waved his arms, and moments later, the strangest car Della had ever seen pulled up beside Donnie’s bike.
“You rang?” Della heard a boy’s voice say from inside the small, shiny, black vehicle.
“Mrs. Martin’s car has stopped on her. It has a habit of stopping on her. Will you see if you can start it?” Donnie said.
“No trouble,” the voice answered.
Addie slid into the passenger seat. “Oh, Mama, not today!”
Della looked in her rear view mirror to make sure she was not holding up any traffic, as the strange little car pulled quietly around Donnie and his bike to park in front of the Plymouth. Across the back of the car, which resembled an antique car’s hump for a trunk, was printed in gold lettering ‘Junk Yard Dog’. A thin boy, a little taller than Addie, jumped out of the car. His brown hair was long and tied back with a leather shoelace. He leaned to open her hood. Donnie was right beside him saying something Della couldn’t hear.
To Addie, she said, “This is the third time today. I can’t tell Ben. He’s got so much to do to get ready for the trip. I’ve managed to get it to start the other times, but not this time. We probably should ...”
“Don’t say postpone the meeting, Mama, please. It’s been postponed enough.”
“Now, try it,” Donnie said with a pleased smile.
“The car started immediately. Della and Addie both said, “Thank the Lord.”
“It was just a loose battery cable,” Donnie said. He and the other boy stood side by side at her window.
“Mrs. Martin, this is Mooney, the best mechanic in town. If he can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed.”
“Only on older cars like this,” Mooney declared, and I’m pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
“I’m very happy to meet you, Mooney, and very grateful. I want to pay you something,” she said opening her purse.
“No, ma’am. It was my pleasure, but I’m thinking your motor could use a tune up and a general going over,” he said, snapping down the hood with his left hand. “I’d be glad to do that for you anytime, even this week if you like. School will be out.”
“Thanks, Mooney,” Addie said, leaning across her mother. “But I think daddy’s going to be buying her a new car soon.”
When the two boys were on their way, Della said, “Addie!” reproachfully.
I didn’t say anything – like you told me not to,” Addie said as soon as they were on their way out of the school drive. “Not even to Deena,” she added. “I just told her not to worry, that I thought I’d be able to help her and her mom soon. I had to tell her something. They have so many problems, Mama.”
“Is Deena the girl you were talking to at the bike rack?”
“Yes, Deena Castle. She’s about the closest girl I have for a friend. Now that I don’t have to be afraid of Vicki messing up my life, I feel like I can be free to make friends. And Deena sure needs a friend. Her daddy didn’t come home from work one Friday, payday, of course, several weeks ago. Her granddaddy, his father, is bed ridden, and Deena and her mother have to care for him. They learned that her daddy hadn’t paid the rent on their house in three months, and they have to move by next Friday. They’ve been living on her granddaddy’s social security check and what little her mother makes sitting with another bed ridden man each day, five blocks away. She stays with him from four to about six – from the time his daughter leaves for work until her husband comes home. They pay her five dollars an hour. Deena has to rush home each day so her mother can have the bike to get to the Watson’s house. Deena is going to have to quit school and get a job. But she won’t be able to find a job in this town. And even if she could, it would take more money than she could earn to get them a place to live. And she just can’t quit school, Mama. She’s a junior. She’ll graduate next year.”
“I’m sorry, honey, and I’m proud of you for wanting to help them.”
“That’s what we’re going to do with this money, Mama – help people who need it. Aren’t you excited?”
“Addie, let’s wait and see what this is all about. I know Mr. Cutler said you’d be one of the richest women in this county, but, well, I just don’t have as good a feeling about it as I thought I would.”
Addie looked at her mother, surprised. After a few moments, “That’s odd, Mama. I thought it was just me not being able to believe it.” She and her mother were so much alike they shared each other’s feelings and thoughts many times. “Oh, there’s Mr. Cutler’s office, the old post office building.”
“Yes. I see it, but I don’t see Ben’s truck. He promised he’d be here at three-thirty. It’s three-twenty-five. Oh, I’m sure he’ll get here,” she hastily added.
Addie looked at her mother. She didn’t sound sure.
A tall, well built man with close cropped black and gray hair, that stood up less than an inch high all over his head, came out of the door marked ‘Grant Cutler, Attorney at Law’ and under that, ‘B. J. Ryker, CPA’. He was dressed in a black turtleneck shirt and black suit, and was carrying a black briefcase. He kept his hand on the brass doorknob as he watched Addie and Della get out of their car. He had a sneering grin on his face. Addie broke out in goose bumps as his steel gray eyes seemed to bore holes in the two of them.
They looked at each other. “I don’t believe that man likes us,” Addie whispered as he walked past them. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’d say he must be the ‘Ryker’ on that door.”
“Why did he look at us so ugly? We don’t even know him.”
“I don’t know, honey,” Della said as she continued to stand on the sidewalk.
“Are we waiting for daddy?”
“I suppose he’ll come on in when he gets here. I hope he won’t be too late. Let’s go on inside.”
They were just opening the heavy door with its frosted, oval glass insert, when the man they knew as Grant Cutler came rushing toward them. “Mrs. Martin,
Addie, I’m so glad you’re here.”
He wasn’t smiling, and Della thought he didn’t look very glad. He looked more like he was deeply troubled about something, and she was not surprised. Now he’ll tell us it was all a big mistake. Dear Addie – how would she console her?
“At last we’re finally going to get to this matter of Addie’s inheritance,” Cutler said. “I just wish Ben could be here too. He called a few minutes ago and said he couldn’t be here because of a trip he’s making in the morning. Something about getting his truck ready for it. He asked me to tell you, Mrs. Martin, not to wait supper for him, and that you could sign any papers that needed signing for Addie’s guardianship. He thinks you should be sole guardian.” He had led them into his office as he spoke and now seated them in two black leather chairs facing his desk.
Addie looked questioningly at her mother, who said, “I see.” It was as though this was something that she expected. Addie didn’t like it. She wasn’t quite sure that she hadn’t expected her daddy’s actions. He had been rather distant to her lately, and very quiet. Was this why she felt like she did about the inheritance?
“Mrs. Martin, does Ben have a problem with this inheritance of Addie’s? From the way he sounded, it made me wonder.”
Addie wondered also. She waited for her mother’s answer. He had been calling her Addie instead of princess, now that she thought of it.
“Ben has a lot on his mind right now,” Della answered after a few moments. “After very little work this winter, he’s now backed up with it, but he’s taking off about four days. He’s taking Donnie Whitefield to Florida to bring his mother back here. She was in a very serious car accident and is in the hospital. Her new husband just walked off and left her when he learned the extent of her injuries.”
“Oh. That’s awfully good of Ben. Is this Whitefield boy a relative?”
“No. Donnie is Mel Johnson’s nephew, but we are greatly indebted to him, and we fulfill our obligations.” She paused. “This inheritance is so unbelievable for Ben. I think he’s just having a hard time taking it in.”
“So am I. It’s like I told you at your house. I know Wilhelmina Stone wrote that will just before she died. It was witnessed, by Chief Bugg, Dr. Bradley, Helen Springer, his nurse, and me. Still, I can’t help wondering what relationship Wilhelmina and Addie have that would prompt her to do this. I think I also mentioned that only the signature was Wilhelmina’s hand writing. The handwriting of the will itself was very much like the very distinctive handwriting of her half brother, Julian Dane. And he’s been dead some fifty years. And let’s face it, Mrs. Martin, Addie looks exactly like the portrait of Julian Dane, which Wilhelmina had me deliver to her the night of the accident.” He paused and waited, looking directly at Della.
She knew he was waiting for an explanation. Well, he wasn’t going to get one. She could just imagine telling Grant Cutler that the spirit of that same Julian Dane was Addie’s father. Addie had a right to look like him. He’d call in the little men in white coats and have her hauled off to the funny farm. She might as well make her stand in the beginning. She took a deep breath. “Mr. Cutler, if Addie’s receiving this inheritance is dependent upon an explanation of Addie’s relationship to Wilhelmina Stone or Julian Dane, or his son, Nickelos, then I’m afraid we’ve taken up your time needlessly.” She arose from her chair. “Come on, Addie.”
“Oh, No! No! No!” He exclaimed as he too arose. “Mrs. Martin, I apologize if I sounded in any way like that was necessary. It most certainly is not. I just hoped that, as your attorney, we might start off on a clear footing, you might say. Won’t you please be seated?”
Della hesitated, then slowly sat back down. Addie had remained seated, looking from one to the other of them, a much concerned look on her face.
“And of course, after the will is settled, you may choose to hire another attorney. That’s up to you. You have every right to.”
“Mr. Cutler, if I told you what you want to know, you’d never believe me. If you remain Addie’s attorney, maybe one day we’ll know each other well enough that you will believe what we would have to tell you.”
“As you wish, Mrs. Martin. And I want to thank you both for coming to the funeral and sitting in the family section. But as you said, it would have people asking why. They have, and I’ve skirted the issue as best that I could. I also want to apologize again for having to put our appointment off ‘til now. What am I, a week late? But believe me, if there is anything to Murphy’s law, it has been in full force since the funeral. Anything that could go wrong certainly has,” he said shaking his head.
“When we got back from the funeral Thursday morning, Hayes, the Stonegate butler, had a cousin waiting for him. Emmett Hayes lives in Florida. He and his family are the only relatives that Hayes has. He always spends his vacations with them. Well, Emmett demanded that Hayes receive everything that was due him right then and there, so they could get on their way to Florida. So I had to contact everyone necessary and have a reading of Wilhelmina’s will.
“She had left Hayes, Miss Mattie, her housekeeper and chef, and old Anson, the gatekeeper a tidy sum. She also remembered the woman and daughter who come in to clean and do laundry. Afterwards, we had an early supper at Stonegate, and I took Anson back to the gate cottage as I left.
“Well, when Mattie took him his lunch and supper on Friday morning, she found he had suffered a stroke. Not a really bad one, but bad enough. We had to locate his granddaughter. It took most of the day. She had moved from the address on the scrap of paper that Anson had stuck in his dresser mirror. We got him out of the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Then his granddaughter wanted him taken straight to her house in Nashville. She had to get back to her three children.
“All this time I was trying to locate Ryker. All that Hayes and Mattie knew was that Wilhelmina had sent him on a trip. I never did find him. Then he had the nerve to stroll in here yesterday morning demanding to know why I didn’t get in touch with him.”
“Mr. Cutler, was that Mr. Ryker who was just leaving here as we drove up?”
“Yes, Addie. He was Wilhelmina’s financial advisor and accountant, and I hope I never see him again. I’ve never quite trusted him, and I find I have had a very good reason not to. But he was a very close confidant of hers. In fact, they had a very close relationship. He had his own bedroom at Stonegate. I tell you all this in confidence, because I know you will learn it anyway. And I think you need to understand the situation.”
“He gave us a sneering grin. I don’t think I’d like him. I hope we never have to have anything to do with him.”
“There is no reason that you should, Addie. He gave me his keys, and this box of keys to unoccupied properties that you own. “You recall that I told you, you’d be one of the wealthiest women in this county. Well, some of the things I’ve learned from Ryker might alter that. I don’t know just yet.”
Addie and Della looked at each other crestfallen.
“Oh, you’ll still be a wealthy person,” Cutler was quick to add. “But it seems that Ryker and Wilhelmina had been up to some very serious planning while I was in England visiting my family during the holidays. And whereas, I thought there would be plenty of cash for you immediately, it seems the only thing you have plenty of is real estate that’s going no where. It’s not selling, renting or leasing. Still you have to pay taxes and insurance on it, and keep it up. And all that has to come out of the income from the properties that are producing income.” And seeing the disturbed look on their faces, he said, “I have to confide in you a bit further,” he said, looking down at some papers.
He looked up. “According to Ryker, last October, Dr. Bradley informed Wilhelmina that Nickelos Dane wouldn’t live out another year. So she began making her plans. Ryker said she was going to end her hermit like existence, and the two of them were going to get married. She had given him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to put down on a Villa that they planned to retire to. That’s where he was, but he wouldn’
t tell me the location. You see, she didn’t leave him anything in her will, so he figured that money was his. Since it was a cash deal, there’s nothing that can be done about it.” He took a deep breath, and Addie and Della sat spellbound as he continued.
“According to their wills, Wilhelmina inherited Dane’s estate when he died. Of course, if she died first her estate went to him. But her estate wasn’t much to inherit.”
“But, she was a very rich woman,” Della declared. “Wasn’t she?”
“No, Mrs. Martin, she wasn’t. Everybody thought she was. It was Dane’s money she was using to be so benevolent to the town, its people, churches, and what have you. You see, when her mother, Victoria, brought her son to America and turned everything she had over to him, she apparently assumed that Hiram Stone was a wealthy man and would leave everything he owned to Wilhelmina. What she didn’t know was Stone had very little except the bank stock that Eli Gates had given him when he married her, and a good salary as president of the bank. And the upkeep on Stonegate must have taken most of his salary after she died.
“Oh, Victoria left Wilhelmina a little money and her jewelry, even a few properties that brought in some income, but Wilhelmina was practically broke when Hiram Stone’s car slid off that icy hill, flew across River Road and into the river. This happened only a couple of years after Victoria’s death, according to my father’s files. Dad also noted that the Stonegate help had told him that Stone was in a fit of anger at Wilhelmina and was driving like a maniac.”
Della looked at Addie knowing exactly what she was thinking – that Wilhelmina was also indirectly responsible for Hiram Stone’s death. What more? She wondered as Cutler continued.
“Wilhelmina was a very intelligent woman and she liked having plenty of money. So she took over the management of Nickelos Dane’s fortune, and she did real well at it for both of them. She took a hefty percentage of any increase she made in his investments. And she could have been comfortably fixed, except that she had very expensive tastes. Granted, she lived a recluse life at Stonegate, but her decorating, and redecorating, and additions, and her love of jewelry and good food kept her spending most of her income from Dane’s estate. She may have lived a solitary life, but she lived a good one.”
The Daughters of Julian Dane Page 26