by Jessica Beck
“I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to see what else was in that locked filing cabinet drawer.”
“Let’s start there, then.”
Chapter 13: Pat
“Wow, I had no idea Timothy did anything like this,” Annie said as she pulled the first folder out of the filing cabinet. As she started leafing through it, I leaned over and tried to get a look at what she was talking about.
“What is that?” I asked as I spied a page of handwritten notes.
“Here. See for yourself,” she said as she handed it to me.
Timothy had been taking notes about something on the computer. As I scanned the text, I began to feel an unearthly chill.
“Mick wants more than his share, but he’s not entitled to any of it. Dad’s will says that if Mick challenges me on anything, if he hires an outside attorney, or if he tries to bully me in any way, I’m supposed to cut him off completely. Well, he managed to do all three things at once. Use the attached letter from his attorney to show proof that he doesn’t deserve a dime of Dad’s money.”
“Annie, is there a letter anywhere in that file from Mick’s lawyer to Timothy?” I asked my sister.
She looked through the file in question and came up with something. “Do you mean this?”
“I hope so,” I said as I took it from her.
Wow. Timothy had been right. As I read the inflammatory letter, I realized that it was all the proof Timothy had needed to cancel his brother’s portion of their inheritance. Clearly Mick hadn’t liked the fact that Timothy wouldn’t give him more than his share, so he’d hired a lawyer to try to bully him into forking over more than he was due. I had a feeling that Timothy’s father had known that his elder son would try something, and he’d planned accordingly. That letter was dynamite as far as Mick was concerned. Was that motive enough for murder, though? It most certainly was. If Mick killed Timothy and managed to get that letter back, no one would know that he’d broken the conditions of his father’s will. People had been killed for less. “This is what Mick was really looking for,” I said as I explained it to Annie and let her read the letter for herself. “Now, all we need to do is check the father’s will to make sure it says what Timothy thought it said.”
“I’ve got it right here,” Annie said. She scanned the document, and then she suddenly said, “Here it is. In the event that either son engages an outside attorney to challenge any portion of my last will and testament, or acts in a belligerent or bullying manner in the opinion of the executor, that party will lose any and all rights, bequests, and inheritance from the estate. Pat, is that legal?”
“I’m not sure about the wording, but the intent is clear, isn’t it? I’m not sure how ‘belligerent’ or ‘bullying’ are defined, but the letter from Mick’s attorney to Timothy seems to qualify, wouldn’t you say?”
“I would. So Mick figured if he could find this letter and burn it, he’d get everything.”
“He wasn’t counting on Timothy being smarter than he was, though,” I said. “Hand me that will.”
She did as I asked, and after another few moments, I read aloud, “If one of the beneficiaries should die before the will is probated, the other will receive the full portion of the estate, with the exception of any violation of the challenge provision. If that occurs, any and all moneys will go to the heirs of the beneficiary who did not violate the agreement, and the violating beneficiary will still receive nothing from the estate. He wanted to make sure that one of his sons didn’t kill the other to get all of the inheritance. It sounds kind of gruesome, doesn’t it? How much are we talking about here, Annie? This thing implies that there’s a great deal of money at stake.”
“Hang on. I saw something in his notes about that,” Annie said as she checked the folder. “Here it is. Apparently, their father left an estate, after all of the bills had been paid, of a little over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That’s surely enough for some people to kill for.”
“I can’t imagine it, but I know that you’re right. We need to show this to Kathleen,” I said.
“I agree, but let’s keep looking before we call her back. There’s no telling what else we’re going to find. This is better than a diary.”
“Okay,” I said as I set the handwritten paper, the attorney’s letter, and the will aside in a neat little pile. “What else do you have there?”
“This is kind of sweet, actually,” Annie said as she showed me a typed note. It said, “Robin, just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all that you do for me. It’s great having someone as special as you in my corner. Someday you’ll learn just how appreciative I am, but in the meantime, know that I couldn’t do what I do without you. Timothy.” Below that, written in pen, was a reply. “Thanks, Boss. You are the best, and it’s a real pleasure working with you. Robin.”
“He kept the note,” I said. “I didn’t realize he was that big a fan of his assistant.”
“Timothy had a soft side, too,” she said a little wistfully. “I’m going to give this to Robin. I bet she’d appreciate it.”
“You should, but let’s keep it for now,” I answered. “Kathleen might like to see it as well.”
“Okay, but remind me to give it to her once this mess is all over,” Annie said. After a few moments, she spoke again. “Well, well, well. Would you look at this?”
I tried, but I had trouble reading upside down. “What does it say?”
“It’s a set of typewritten notes about some of his clients,” she explained. “It’s dated a few days before he died.”
“That’s a lucky break for us. Does he mention anything about Viv or Gordon?”
“As a matter of fact, he does,” she said, and then she began to read. “I need to drop Viv Masters as a client. She’s getting tougher to deal with, and I’ve been forced to be pretty abrupt when rejecting her advances. I’m going to try to end her delusions once and for all. If she continues to pursue me, I don’t have much choice. I believe she’s unbalanced, and truthfully, I’m a little afraid of her when she shows her temper. Okay, that’s not good for Viv, is it?”
“No. What does he say about Gordon?”
“Gordon Freeman is up to something, and I’m not going to be a part of it. If he wants to do anything illegal, he’s going to have to do it without my help. I won’t be a party to whatever it is he’s up to. I’m dropping him tomorrow. He’s not going to like it, and I know that I’m going to have an argument with him that could get dangerous, but I can’t risk going to jail. Pat, I had no idea the stress Timothy had been under. Who would have dreamed that being an accountant was such a dangerous occupation?”
“When it comes to money, people do the craziest things. That’s why I’m glad we never had much,” I said.
“Or ever will,” Annie answered with a grin.
“You can’t say that anymore, sis, not with Timothy’s will leaving everything to you. After what we found in his dad’s will, it appears that you’re going to get everything from both estates. You’re going to be rich.”
“I don’t want to be, at least not that way,” she said.
“If that’s the case, you could always just give it away to charity if you’re that uncomfortable about it,” I told her.
“Let’s not do anything premature,” she answered with a shrug.
“Fine, but I hope that no matter how much you’re worth, you keep working with me at the Iron.”
Annie patted my cheek lightly. “Pat, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and having a little money isn’t going to change that.”
“I hope not.”
We dug through more files, and I was about to wrap it up and move on to something else when I heard someone pull up in front. “Hide those,” I told Annie as I closed the file drawer, locked it again, and returned the key to where we’d found it. Annie did a
s I asked without needing further instruction, shoving the papers we’d found back into the folder along with what we’d held out earlier. She looked around for somewhere to stash them and quickly settled on a large manila envelope that had been used for several different documents over time.
Robin came in a minute later, and I glanced around quickly to be sure we hadn’t left anything out in the open. It looked good to me, but I had a feeling that Timothy’s assistant would have a better idea than I did if something might be out of place. “I don’t know what I must have been thinking,” she said as she hung her coat up in a closet. How long was she going to be there? It took her a minute when her coat slid off the hanger and she had to retrieve it, nudging a few file boxes as she did. “We use this mostly for storage, but I like things neat, so it’s a good place for my coat. I’m so sorry. I could have sworn that I locked the place up tight when I left, but I was so distraught, it’s possible that I forgot.”
“Does anyone else have a key?” I asked her.
“No, there were only two. I have one on my ring, and Timothy had one on his.”
Annie asked, “Do we know if they found Timothy’s keys?”
“You’d have to ask your sister about that,” Robin said. She looked around the office and asked, “Who all was here earlier?”
“We found Mick Roberts leaving the building when we got here,” I told her as Annie had a conversation with someone on her phone, most likely our older sister.
“So I was right. He was probably the one I saw lurking in the bushes before. What was he doing here?”
“He was looking for his father’s will, at least according to him,” I said.
Robin frowned. “I had a feeling Mick was involved in this. I told you that earlier, didn’t I?”
Yes, along with half a dozen other accusations. “Why do you think he did it?”
“Like I said before, he’s been arguing a lot with Timothy lately, and the other morning, he came by and tried to get me to let him wait in his brother’s office until he got in. Mick said he wanted to patch things up, but when I refused to allow it, he stormed off. The thing is, I think he was angrier that I wouldn’t leave him alone in Timothy’s office than he was about anything else. Did you happen to find the will in the file cabinet?”
“We did,” I said, not wanting to give her any more details than that.
“Please tell me that Mick doesn’t get everything now. That would have broken Timothy’s heart. He would have rather seen the money go to a home for stray cats than see his brother get a single penny of it.”
“Did you know anything about their father’s will, more specifically about the provisions and conditions of inheritance written in it?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “No, Timothy mostly kept that part of his life private from me. The only reason I knew that he kept his will in that cabinet is because he told me about it one day last week. It was the oddest thing. He said that if anything should happen to him, I should look under the file that was marked Future Plans. Is that where you found his will?”
I remembered seeing that it was a blank folder tab. “No, that wasn’t where we found it.”
“Maybe you didn’t find his latest one, then,” she said, frowning. “He was pretty clear that the most recent version was in that file folder.”
I was about to suggest that we look for it when Annie got off the phone. “Timothy’s key to the office wasn’t on his ring.” Her voice was grim as she conveyed the information to us, and I wondered how much it had taken to get our sister to divulge the information to her.
“So anyone could have had it,” I said.
“No, they couldn’t have. Timothy never went anywhere without that key,” Robin said. “Whoever killed him must have taken it.”
“That makes sense,” I said. “Let’s check that file.”
Annie looked alarmed, maybe because we hadn’t made copies and replaced what we’d found before Robin had showed up. “What file is that?”
“Did you see one titled Future Plans when you were in there digging out Timothy’s will?”
“No, I must have missed that one,” Annie admitted.
“I should have mentioned it when you called earlier,” Robin said, clearly flustered by her omission. “I guess I must still be in shock.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Annie said. “Let’s grab it and see what it says.”
My twin sister retrieved the key as Robin and I watched, and sure enough, she found the file in question. After Annie pulled it out, she locked the door back up and replaced the key as Robin nodded her head in approval. “Here it is.” Annie skipped through the document, and when she finished scanning it, she said, “This one is different from the one we found earlier. It’s dated four days ago, so I can’t imagine we’ll find anything that supersedes this.”
“Let me take a wild guess. You’re not the beneficiary any more, are you?” I asked her.
“I get his cabin and the land it was on, but that’s all,” Annie said.
“Who gets the rest of it?” I asked her.
“Robin does,” my twin sister said, and then the assistant faltered for the second time in twenty-four hours.
Chapter 14: Annie
“Pat, grab her before she faints again,” I yelled at my brother the second I saw Robin begin to sway. He was quick and slid beside her before she lost her footing. It was perfectly understandable. After all, she’d had quite a few shocks to her system lately.
“I’m okay,” she said without ever losing consciousness as Pat helped her sit in Timothy’s chair. “I can’t believe he’d do something that amazing.”
I held the document up and checked out the signature on the last page. After I matched it to the one on the will that had named me sole heir, there was no doubt in my mind. “It’s legit. It looks as though you’re going to inherit the bulk of his estate, Robin.”
“He said he was going to look out for me, but I never imagined that was what he meant. I just assumed he’d leave everything to the historical society. He loved the way they took care of our buildings from the past.”
“That’s who inherits your share if something should befall you,” I said. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen though, okay?”
“I’m all for that,” she said. “Why would he leave so much to me?”
“Most likely you were the closest person to him lately,” Pat said. “He was fighting with Jenna, he and Annie had stopped dating months ago, and we all know what kind of brother he had. Why wouldn’t he leave it to you?” I glanced at Annie. “Sorry about that.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” I said. I hadn’t even gotten all that excited about the prospect of inheriting it all. After all, it meant that Timothy had to die for it to happen, and I refused to celebrate that. It did touch me that he’d thought enough of me to leave me his cabin and his land, even after our breakup. The cabin was gone, but I promised myself to be a good steward of the land he’d left me. Since it abutted my own property, I would put it to good use by doing absolutely nothing to it, letting the woods and the wildlife reclaim it slowly. It was the most fitting tribute I could think of to honor Timothy’s memory.
That, and finding his killer and bringing them to justice.
“I’m not sure what I should do now,” Robin said, clearly baffled by the recent turn of events.
“You need to go home and get some rest,” Pat said.
“I’m not at all sure I’m able to drive at this point,” she said.
I handed my brother my car keys. “You won’t have to. Pat will follow us in my car, and I’ll drive you home. How does that sound?”
I saw that Pat was about to protest that he should be the one who drove her when Robin spoke up. “That would be great. Thank you, both of you.”
“It’s settled, then,” I said. As I handed Pat my keys, I looked down at the folder we needed to take with us, which now included the latest version of Timothy’s will. “Don’t forget to turn out the lights,” I said as I tapped it twice.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said as he put my keys down on the folder in question, making sure that I knew that he’d gotten my message. “I’ll see you two there.”
Robin started for the door, and then she hesitated. “Let me get my coat first.”
“I can do it for you,” I said.
“No, I’ll do it,” she insisted and rushed past me, nearly knocking me aside as she reached for it. “Sorry, but the boxes in there are stacked in a precarious manner, and I would hate for them to tip over on you. Are we ready to go?”
“I’m right behind you,” Pat said as he gestured for me to lead Robin out so he could collect the latest evidence we’d just uncovered.
“Come on, then. Let’s go,” I told Robin as I took her arm. We walked out into the chilly darkness as she handed me her keys.
“Are you sure you don’t mind doing this?” she asked me as I let Pat out and then locked the door behind us. No one would be getting in now without a key unless they broke the door down.
“We’ve got nothing but time,” I said, though that wasn’t anything near the truth.
As I drove her home, I noticed Robin kept staring behind us. “Annie, someone’s following us.”
“That would be my brother, remember?” I reminded her gently.
“Oh, yes. Of course. I guess I’m just a little jumpy.”
“No worries. You have every right to be,” I said as soothingly as I could. “You’ve been through quite a lot lately.”