Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery)

by Sara M. Barton

  Chapter Eight --

  Steve bristled at that, his bitterness clear. It seems he had already put the house on the market, planning to move to Florida, but the probate judge put a stop to that. “You will, in the meantime, vacate the property until this case is decided. I will have a sheriff accompany you now to retrieve your belongings. And if Jennifer would like to go to the house and also collect her belongings, she can do so.”

  “What?” Steve seemed rather baffled by how things were turning out. His attorney was more than a little stunned. It seemed that his client had been less than truthful with him. “She can’t go there!”

  “Why not?” the judge demanded.

  “It’s not her house!”

  “I’ll decide whose house it is. Make arrangements with the sheriff’s office to go into the home and take what is yours, Jennifer. I’ll determine ownership of your mother’s belongings when I’ve had a chance to go through all the records.”

  “You can’t do that!” Steve screamed at the probate judge, even as his own lawyer admonished him. Turns out Steve had moved his long-time girlfriend in the day after Jenny moved out. That was the game he played on an unwitting, vulnerable teenager.

  Kenny and I drove Jenny to her mother’s house, accompanied by a sheriff and three deputies, who were expecting trouble from Steve’s girlfriend. It turned out that she worked at the hospital and had tipped him off to Vivian’s deteriorating health. It was a deliberate con from the start.

  Kathy answered the doorbell, and when she saw all the uniforms standing there, she had a meltdown. All of Jenny and Vivian’s possessions had been moved to the one-car garage at the back of the property, at least that’s what she claimed. No one was buying that. There were boxes in the basement, a few in the attic.

  The trip to that one-car garage yielded a treasure trove for the teenager, including family albums, framed photos, and even her mother’s costume jewelry. The sheriff informed Kathy that she would have to surrender Vivian’s jewelry, so that the judge could decide ownership. The items included Jenny’s grandmother’s pearls.

  When someone asked Steve’s girlfriend why the couple held onto everything, she told him Steve was worried Jenny would come back and challenge his right to the house. As soon as the happy couple were packed up and the house was sold, Steve planned to hire a company to take Jenny and Vivian’s belongings to the dump. That was supposed to be the end of it.

  The trip back to Cheswick was subdued. No doubt Jenny was thinking things over. She hadn’t realized that her relatives had been misled. The big question at the probate hearing had been how did Steve pull off such a scam? Sadly, we learned the answer while we were sitting with the lawyer over lunch. It turned out to be fairly easy for him. Chasing relatives and friends away from the home meant Steve could manipulate her finances and property. The papers, signed in a tentative hand, were dubious at best. In two instances, John Vignone uncovered misspellings of Vivian’s own name, suggesting she was mentally challenged by the cancer that was consuming her body, and therefore not in her right mind, or Steve forged the paperwork.

  The Googins girls were horrified to learn the details upon our return. They went out of their way to nurture Jenny, fussing over her like she was a twelve-year-old. I thought about stepping in, but when I saw how hungry the teen was for that attention, I decided to let the ladies have their way. After all, Jenny had found out some shocking information in the course of the probate hearing, and she needed time to adjust.

  Kenny took off right after dinner, claiming he had to be at work early in the morning. As I walked him to his car, Jenny hurried out after us.

  “Wait!” Her face was tense as we turned toward her. “I just...I just wanted to thank you for...everything.”

  She was clutching the framed photo of her mother, the one we found in the bottom of a box of clothes at the back of the garage. Kenny scooped her up in a bear hug.

  “Not every guy’s a bastard. Just remember that.”

  “I will, Captain Peacock,” she smiled up at the man. I had to laugh at her use of Kenny’s nickname. Jenny was becoming part of the Four Acorns family.

  When Bur found out what had happened up in New Hampshire, he speculated on the possible outcome. He was full of advice for the teen and even wanted to discuss how she should invest her inheritance and manage her money portfolio.

  “You have enough to get you through school if you conserve it,” he insisted. “Always remember money doesn’t grow on trees, so spend it wisely and make it work for you.”

  “How about we cross that bridge when the probate judge makes his decision?” I suggested. “We can’t actually count those chickens quite yet. You never know what will happen between now and when the judge issues his final decision.”

  I was feeling very confident that Jenny’s life was back on track, and it would be smooth sailing from that point on, but secrets have a way of biting you in the ass or kissing you on the cheek. It’s hard to know the kind of greeting you’ll get from them until they’re standing right in front of you.

  The first clue that things were going south came when Kenny called me on Wednesday, just after breakfast. We normally spoke after dinner.

  “Hey,” he said, his voice sounding tight. “Got a minute?”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Is Jenny there?”

  “No, she’s upstairs, making beds. Let me call....”

  “Don’t. I need to tell you something and I don’t want her to know about it till we get it straightened out.”

  “Oh, okay.” I was cleaning the dining room, hanging around while Laurel was out on the porch, getting a workout with her physical therapist, just in case they needed me. I stepped into the kitchen for a little privacy, sat myself at the counter, and waited for that other shoe to drop. “I’m all ears.”

  “Jenny is not Vivian’s daughter.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Jenny’s mother was Vivian’s younger sister.”

  “No!”

  “That’s not the least of it, Scar. A copy of Jenny’s birth certificate was found in a box recovered by the sheriff’s department.”

  “Why do I think there’s more news?”

  “Because there is more. On that birth certificate is the name of Jenny’s father.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  “Let’s hope so. I’m calling you now, Scarlet, because I want you to start thinking about how we’re going to break the news to Jenny. She can’t get her driver’s license without a birth certificate and she’s just about ready to take the test.”

  “We’ll handle it,” I decided. “Do you think you can find her real mother?”

  “Already have. Remember how Jenny said she was born in Boston? She was. Her mother died when she was two weeks old. Vivian collected her after her mother took an overdose and brought her up to Maine.”

  “Crap. That stinks. Why did she do it?”

  “There were a few more papers in that box. As best I can tell, Jenny’s father went out to California to see his family. Maybe he was planning to tell them he had a wife and child. I don’t think he had the chance. The bus he was on flipped over and he was one of three people who died.”

  “Dear Lord,” I sighed. “What a mess.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Poor kid. Father dead, mother dead, aunt dead, grandparents dead. She’s really an orphan.”

  “Not quite, Miz Scarlet.”

  “No?”

  “Her father’s parents are still alive out in California.”

  “They are?” A little piece of me flickered inside, hope springing eternal. Was it possible this could all turn around? “Do you think they might want to meet Jenny?”

  “Honestly?” He paused. “I don’t know. It’s complicated. Maybe their son had the chance to tell them and they don’t want anything to do with Jenny. Maybe they have no clue they even have a granddaughter. I won’t know until I have a chance to talk with them. The bad news is that Steve might a
ctually have more of a leg to stand on now that we know Vivian wasn’t Jenny’s real mother. At least now he can’t totally blind-side us in court.”

  “But surely the basic facts of the case still remain, Kenny. Vivian still wasn’t of sound mind when she married him, and that shouldn’t change the fact that she set aside money for Jenny’s education. Jenny’s still a relative.”

  “The thing is Steve is claiming that Vivian changed her will after he married her. The case isn’t cut and dried any more.”

  “Damn.” I thought long and hard about it. In my book, nothing had really changed. I still planned to help Jenny get through college. It might take a little longer, but it was doable.

  “Babe, I’ve got to go. I’ll be up this weekend and we’ll sit down with her and go over things.”

  “Okay.” It was hard to keep the disappointment out of my voice. Kenny picked up on it immediately.

  “Scarlet, don’t worry. We’ll figure this thing out. We made a promise to her and we’re going to keep it. Bye.”

  “Bye.” We made a promise to her and we’re going to keep it. That almost sounded like a commitment. It did, didn’t it?

  “What’s up?” said a voice behind me. I jumped at the unexpected sound of Jenny’s arrival, as she came through the butler’s pantry. For a moment, I studied her. She had changed so much in the last few weeks. It was now the middle of August. Next week, we would sign her up for her first college class. She’d take the SATs when she was ready to matriculate. Already far more confident, her hair was cut short, in a spiky little pixie cut, slightly tom boyish. She wore shorts and a sleeveless tee shirt. She had put on five pounds and it looked good on her.

  “Nothing much.” I forced a smile onto my face and turned to get busy with the bread for sandwiches. “Tennis lesson this morning?”

  “Yup. And then I’m going out for lunch with Meanie.”

  “Meanie? Who’s Meanie?”

  “That’s just his nickname. They call him Amino Acid, because he’s studying biochemistry. He’s one of the tennis instructors.”

  “Wow, a tennis player who’s going to be a scientist? Grab him up!” She laughed as I said that.

  “He’s kind of geeky,” she acknowledged. “And a little shy.”

  “In other words, he’s a nice guy.”

  “Mmm....”

  “I’m glad. Go have fun.”

  Bur wandered into the kitchen just before noon. He was looking for Laurel because he lost a button on his shirt and needed it sewn on.

  “She’s finishing her physical therapy session on the porch.”

  “I’ll just wait.”

  I was about to say something to him about Jenny when Huck and January started making a ruckus in the front hall. Bur and I hurried out to the hallway in time to see the teenager desperately trying to shut the front door on a hand.

  “What in God’s name is going on?” I demanded. The look on Jenny’s face gave me the answer. She was terrified of whoever was on the other side of that door. Bur moved fast, pulled the girl out of the way, and yanked open the door.

  “What the f-f-f...” Bur was stunned by what he found. A masked man burst through the door, knife in hand, and reached for Jenny. It happened so fast, my brother just stood there, unable to fathom what he saw.

  “Don’t you dare!” I screamed. “Don’t you freaking dare!”

  I had already picked up the golf club Bur left in the corner by the door, and I was ready to swing at the masked man’s head. For a moment, he seemed to hesitate, but something almost imperceptible changed in his eyes. What was it? Ah, he knew I really would clobber him with the club.

  “Leave!” I bellowed, my voice guttural, gritty. “Get out of this house right now!”

  Even as I said those words, I could hear a siren fast approaching. Bur moved forward, extending his hand to Jenny, who gratefully took it with a whimper, even as he pulled her hard in his direction, away from the intruder’s reach. She stumbled, nearly losing her footing. Now I had a clear path to swing at the knife-wielding miscreant, and it was enough to make him run. Following him to the front door, the three of us stood open-mouthed as the man in black headed down the lane, towards a black sedan parked in the distance. As he got behind the wheel and started the engine, I noticed the right tail light was broken. With any luck, the cops would pull him over for trying to snatch Jenny. And if not, maybe they’d get him for that traffic violation. I made a mental note to let the cops know about it.

  Two police cruisers arrived almost simultaneously. Bur rushed out to the driveway to spit out the details. I grabbed Jenny and held her trembling body in my arms. As I did, I saw Laurel wheel herself into the foyer. Her face was troubled, pale, and her lips were firmly set in a grimace.

  “What in God’s name was that all about?” she demanded. “Who in heaven’s name was that? And what did he want with our Jenny?” Our Jenny.

  My mother was mad. Spitting mad. Next thing I knew, she held out her arms to the teenager and the girl flew across the room, flinging herself in my mother’s lap with a sob of pure misery.

  For one teeny little moment, I felt a pang of jealousy as my mother comforted the motherless child. And then I realized something about Laurel Googins that I had never understood before -- she was fiercely protective of this waif, this orphan who had found her way to our doorstep. She already thought of Jenny as the granddaughter I had never given her, and nobody messes with Laurel’s peeps. Lord help you if you try. My mother might be wheelchair-bound, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from mowing down anyone who posed a threat to someone she loves. That motorized scooter of hers has some power and a determined driver behind the hand gears.

  It turned out that Laurel had just bid her physical therapist, Lori, farewell when she spied the masked man creeping through the bushes at the front of the house and dialed 911 on her cell phone. The police dispatcher warned her to stay in the library until the police arrived.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Jenny cried, kneeling on the floor before my mother.

  “Oh, child!” exclaimed the fearless Googins girl, patting the trembling shoulder kindly. “There’s nothing to thank me for -- you would have done the same thing in my shoes.”

  It was true. Jenny would have. I think it helped her to realize the truth of that statement.

  I caught Kenny at the office a short time later and filled him in. “Aw, geez. Not good.”

  “No kidding.”

  “No, I mean not good, Scarlet. The New York cops just obtained a search warrant and served it on the assistant manager of the jewelry store that was robbed. He was the inside man.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?”

  “Sort of. He only knew two of the guys, one of whom was Richie.”

  “Two is better than one.”

  “Except the assistant manager was just found dead in his jail cell at Rikers Island. Apparently, he mouthed off to another inmate and got himself strangled. The cops are trying to put together the clues so they can round up the second guy. Let’s hope that goes well.”