by Bobbi Holmes
“I suppose I have to.” Darlene sighed. “I heard some man tried to kill you and Joe Morelli. Do you know who hired him?”
“Not yet. But I imagine the police will figure it out.” Danielle was tempted to ask, did you hire him? But then she took a second look at Darlene and noticed the tears in the widow’s eyes. Darlene had lost her husband, and according to Stoddard, was pregnant. Danielle felt a surge of sympathy for the widow.
“I’m sorry about your husband. I had my issues with him, but never wanted to see him dead,” Danielle said seriously.
Darlene, her expression devoid of emotion, studied Danielle for a moment. Finally, she said, “Thank you for that.”
“How are you feeling?” Danielle asked.
“I suppose as well as can be expected. I’m taking one day at a time. It is all so overwhelming.”
“I imagine it has been very stressful. But it’s important to take care of yourself—for the baby and all.”
“Baby?” Darlene scowled.
“I heard about the baby—you being pregnant.”
“I’m not pregnant,” Darlene snapped. She glanced down at her cotton blouse and sat up straighter. “Are you saying I look fat?” She ran her palm over her belly.
“Fat?” Danielle frowned in confusion. “No. But I heard you were pregnant.”
“Who told you that?”
“I…someone mentioned it…I can’t remember who,” Danielle lied.
“They were wrong. Stupid rumors.”
“So you’ve never been pregnant?” The question just popped out of Danielle’s mouth. She instantly regretted it.
“No, I haven’t. Although, I really don’t see how that is any of your business.” Darlene sat rigidly on the bench, her hands folded primly on her lap.
“You’re right. It isn’t any of my business.” Danielle gave the leash a little tug. “Come on Sadie, let’s go.” As she walked away, she told Darlene, “Have a nice day.”
Danielle could feel Darlene’s stare at her back as she walked back down the boardwalk toward Marlow House. She paused a moment and glanced back. Darlene continued to look in her direction.
Turning her back to Darlene again, Danielle suddenly recalled something Stoddard had reportedly said with his last breath. She didn’t doubt Stoddard had said it, since he told her the same thing. According to Stoddard, his killer had threatened to kill Darlene after she finished with him. However, from what she could tell, Darlene never seemed particularly fearful of the threat—or had she been? What would I do if I thought someone was going to kill me?
Danielle pulled her cellphone out of her back pocket and dialed Chief MacDonald. She continued to walk down the boardwalk, holding the phone by her ear.
“Hi Chief, I have a quick question for you,” Danielle said after he answered the call.
“I’ll see if I have a quick answer.”
“When I was released on bail, did Darlene ever ask for protection?”
“Not really. I did tell her you were wearing an ankle monitor.”
“But afterwards, when Joe came forward and she still thought I killed her husband, did she demand any protection?”
“No, why?”
“Do you know if she hired any security guards?”
“You mean someone to protect her from you?”
“Yes. According to Stoddard, I was coming after her next. Brian and Darlene heard him say it before he died. And I don’t doubt it, because Stoddard said the same thing to me.”
“I don’t think she hired anyone. Why?”
“Don’t you think it’s odd? If I felt someone I knew planned to kill me, and the police didn’t believe it, I would hire someone to protect me. After all, I can afford it. And so can Darlene. If she didn’t hire someone to keep me from killing her, why didn’t she?”
“You think Darlene killed her husband?”
“Someone killed Stoddard, and the only thing I do know, it wasn’t me. There’s something else odd about Darlene.”
“What’s that?”
“According to Stoddard, Darlene was pregnant.”
“Darlene’s pregnant?”
“According to her she isn’t.”
“You talked to her?”
“I’m down at the beach right now, taking Sadie for a walk. I ran into Darlene and I stopped to talk to her. She told me she no longer believes I killed Stoddard.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Well, if she killed him, then she knew all along.”
“But what about this supposed baby?”
“I sorta mentioned something about her being pregnant. Kinda pissed her off. She made it clear I was misinformed.”
“Maybe she lost the baby.”
“No. According to her, she was never pregnant. Which I can believe, since Adam mentioned he saw Darlene at a bar not long ago, doing some serious drinking. Not really something I’d expect a pregnant woman to do. But why would she let Stoddard think she was pregnant?”
“Did Stoddard say how far along he thought she was?”
“No. But I assume he thought she was in the early stages, considering she wasn’t showing.”
“Hmmm…I can think of one reason.”
“What’s that?”
“He insisted on seeing me days before his death. Wanted to make a sworn statement.”
“Sworn statement?”
“He was emphatic Darlene was not involved with Lily’s abduction. Gave a sworn affidavit that his wife was completely innocent, insisted Darlene believed Lily was Isabella.”
“You think he did it because he thought she was pregnant?”
“He might have done it anyway. But considering how adamant he was at the time, wanted to put it on record; insisted he did not want her subjected to any questioning—”
“Because of the baby.”
“Exactly.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Where’s Will?” Ian asked Danielle and Lily when he arrived at Marlow House on Wednesday morning. He and Sadie had come through the side gate and entered the house through the kitchen door. He found Danielle and Lily sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Sadie raced through the kitchen, into the hallway, and up the stairs to find Walt.
“He told us he was driving into Portland for the afternoon, would be back later this evening,” Lily told Ian as he kissed her cheek on his way over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee.
“I saw your nurse leaving. Figured it was safe to come over with this.” Ian waved a large envelope in the air.
Danielle hadn’t noticed he was carrying anything when he first walked into the house. “What is it?”
“Copies of Isabella’s two wills. Very interesting.” Ian tossed the envelope on the table and sat down.
Danielle picked up the envelope. “Where did you get them?”
“The magic of the Internet.” Ian sipped his coffee. “So why did Will go to Portland?”
“He didn’t say, and we didn’t ask,” Lily said.
“He seems like a nice guy, even though I’m not big on cowboy hats.” Ian grinned.
“That’s only because they don’t make Cubs cowboy hats,” Lily teased.
“They don’t?” Grabbing the bill of his Cubs baseball cap, Ian removed it from his head and tossed it on the empty chair next to him.
Danielle sat quietly thinking of Will. Hiring someone to look for a connection between Will and Stoddard no longer seemed critical. She was fairly certain Samantha was the one who had taken her cellphone. Will was a respected businessman who hadn’t been to Frederickport in years. She suspected MacDonald was correct; Stoddard was confused about Will. It was entirely possible; after all, Stoddard had been confused about her.
She had planned to hire the investigator she had used to look for Lily, yet changed her mind when she realized he was probably not the ideal choice for digging into Stoddard and Darlene’s past, considering his locale and expertise. She wondered if Ian might have a recommendation.
/> “What did you find that was interesting?” Danielle asked as she removed the documents from the envelope.
“By just looking at them, one would assume they are both Isabella’s wills—with the Earthbound Spirits’ will being an older version and Stoddard’s the newer, revised one. By appearances, they were both prepared by Renton.”
Danielle shuffled through the pages. “You have three wills here.”
“Yes. I ran off a copy of Isabella’s two wills and Stoddard’s will, the one Darlene filed.”
“I assume Darlene gets everything,” Lily said.
“That one had an interesting provision,” Ian said as he took Stoddard’s will from the pile of papers in Danielle’s hands.
“How so?” Lily asked.
“Stoddard has a provision in his will that if Darlene ever cheated on him during their marriage, she is disinherited.”
Danielle looked up from the papers. “You’re kidding me?”
“Nope.” Ian found the section on the will with the infidelity clause and showed it to Danielle.
“That’s interesting, because Darlene cheated on Stoddard during their marriage,” Danielle said.
“How do you know?” Ian asked.
“Adam told me. I guess Isabella caught Darlene meeting some guy on the sly in Astoria. But she never told Stoddard or let Darlene know she knew.”
“Did you tell MacDonald this?” Ian asked.
“No. It happened over a year ago.”
“It gives Darlene a motive to kill her husband,” Lily suggested.
“Why, because she once had a lover? Like I said, it was over a year ago, and according to Adam, Isabella told him Darlene ended the affair and seemed even more committed to the relationship afterwards,” Danielle argued.
“Maybe it’s a flimsy motive for murder after all this time, but even if she ended the affair, she would lose her inheritance if it was proven to the courts she’d been unfaithful to Stoddard during their marriage,” Ian said.
“I doubt that will happen after all this time.” Danielle said.
“If she is disinherited, where would the money go?” Lily asked. “I understood Isabella was his only family, and with her gone, who’d inherit after Darlene?”
“Another thing I learned, Darlene isn’t Stoddard’s sole beneficiary. He leaves a portion of his estate to something called KS Trust. But if Darlene is disinherited due to infidelity, then his entire estate goes to KS Trust,” Ian told them.
“What is that?” Danielle asked.
“I don’t know. I need to do more digging,” Ian said.
“Any more surprises with Stoddard’s will?” Lily asked.
“Not really. Basically he leaves everything to Darlene and the trust, with the lion’s share going to Darlene.”
“I imagine whoever is behind KS Trust would be interested in learning about Darlene’s indiscretion,” Lily said. “And considering what she tried to do to me, I’d be happy to tell them.”
“Telling them about the affair wouldn’t get her disinherited,” Ian said. “You’d have to have some sort of proof.” He looked at Danielle. “Do you know who she had an affair with?”
“No. Adam didn’t know either. Isabella never told him.”
“So what about Isabella’s wills? Learn anything interesting there?” Lily asked.
“In the will, where she leaves everything to her uncle, she named a second beneficiary, should Stoddard predecease her.”
“Who did she name?” Lily asked.
“Her father.”
“Her father? Didn’t you once tell me he skipped out on her mother before she was ever born?” Danielle asked.
“Yes. I always assumed he was dead, since he never came forward after Isabella’s mother died. Figured he might try and get his hands on some of the Gusarov money, through Isabella. It’s interesting; it doesn’t actually give his name. In the will it simply refers to the alternate beneficiary as Isabella’s biological father.”
“Isn’t that a little odd to state it that way?” Lily asked.
“What I find odd, if that will is forged, as Darlene claims, why would Stoddard stick something in the will like that? Obviously there was no love between Isabella’s father and the Gusarov family, so what was the point of putting that in the will?”
“I told you, I don’t believe the will is fake,” Danielle said.
“Maybe Isabella’s father is the one who killed Stoddard,” Lily suggested.
“And the motive?” Ian asked.
“Let’s assume the will isn’t a fake. If he knew Isabella named him as a beneficiary in the will after Stoddard, maybe he bumped off Stoddard so he could inherit Isabella’s estate,” Lily suggested.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Danielle said.
“What do you mean?” Lily frowned.
“Danielle’s right. Assuming the will Stoddard filed isn’t fake, then the only way Isabella’s father would have inherited her estate would be if Stoddard died before Isabella—not after.”
“Ahh…that’s right,” Lily said with a sigh. “Because it hadn’t gone through probate yet, my brain was looking at it as if Stoddard died after Isabella. That was stupid of me.”
“Maybe it doesn’t give us an extra suspect, but it does give me more reason to question Darlene’s story that the will was fake,” Ian said.
“I imagine the only one who can straighten this out would be Clarence Renton. But I sure don’t want to talk to him, considering the man killed my cousin and tried to kill me.” Danielle downed the rest of her coffee.
“I’ll talk to him. They sent him to Oregon State Penitentiary, didn’t they?” Ian asked.
“If that’s the one in Salem, yes,” Danielle said.
“That’s about two hours from here. I could drive down there and talk to him. See what he has to say,” Ian said.
Lily picked up her iPhone and began surfing the web.
“What are you looking for?” Ian asked.
“Visiting hours.” Lily glanced up at Ian, and then looked back at her phone. “According to this site, you can visit inmates daily, from 7:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. and then again from 12:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.”
“If I left now, I could get there in time to make the afternoon visiting hours. I’d have to leave Sadie here.”
“You should probably call first, just to make sure. Who knows, maybe Clarence got into some mischief, and they threw him into the hole,” Danielle suggested.
“Do they still do that?” Lily asked.
“In his case, I hope so,” Danielle grumbled.
“I wish I could go with you,” Lily said.
“Sorry babe. By the time I get in to see Renton you’ll probably be hooked up to the IV again.”
“I lead an exciting life,” Lily sighed.
“I hope you understand why I don’t want to go,” Danielle asked.
“Absolutely. I wouldn’t even suggest it.”
“Do you think Renton will even talk to you?” Lily asked.
“All I can do is try.”
* * *
Ian arrived in Salem a few minutes past two in the afternoon. By the time he was brought to the waiting area, it was almost three.
It had been almost two months since he had seen Danielle’s ex-attorney, Clarence Renton—the man who embezzled from Brianna Boatman’s estate, murdered Danielle’s cousin Cheryl, and tried to murder Danielle. When they brought Renton into the visiting area, Ian’s first thought was that the man had lost weight, something he could afford to do.
Danielle had once described Renton as a clean-shaven Santa Claus. Later, she retracted her description, insisting that comparing a man of Clarence Renton’s caliber to Saint Nick was blasphemy. Ian thought he looked like a short, stout, defeated man.
“When they said you were here to see me, I was surprised. What would the famous Jon Altar want with me? To write a story on me perhaps?”
“I just want to ask you a few questions. About one of your clients.”
“You know I can’t talk to you about my clients. Client confidentiality and all.” Clarence smiled.
“It’s Isabella Strickland. She’s dead, so I don’t think it will be an issue.”
“Ahh…Isabella. I heard about her death.” Clarence leaned back in the chair. “All that money, and she never appreciated what she had.”
“I wanted to ask you about her will. I know you prepared it for her.”
“I prepared several wills for Isabella. She kept changing her mind.” Clarence laughed. Ian wondered what Clarence thought was so funny.
“I need to know, which is her most current will?”
“The wills are dated. The one with the most current date, of course.”
“That’s not what I mean. Stoddard put a will into probate and so did Earthbound Spirits. I wanted to know if you prepared the will Stoddard put into probate.”
“I prepared hundreds of wills for various clients. You can’t expect me to remember them all.”
Ian removed a document from an envelope and handed it to Clarence. “This is the will Stoddard put into probate.”
Clarence took the document and flipped through its pages. “Looks like one of mine.” He handed it back to Ian.
“Stoddard’s widow is saying her husband forged the will. That it’s fake. I need you to verify it isn’t forged. That you wrote it for Isabella.”
“Well, if she says Stoddard forged the will, he must have. I can’t really remember every will I prepared. And this is only a photocopy.”
“Please try and remember. In one will, Isabella left her estate to Earthbound Spirits. But about six months ago, she went to you and had you prepare a new will, leaving everything to her uncle.”
Clarence smiled. “Earthbound Spirits gives me a lot comfort.”
“Excuse me?” Ian frowned.
“They’ve showed me I’m on this earth to learn, improve my soul. I’ve made mistakes, but I no longer have to return and continue making the same ones.”
“What are you talking about?”
Clarence stood up. “I’m glad Isabella left her estate to Earthbound Spirits.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“So what does this mean? Is Renton lying for Earthbound Spirits?” Lily asked when Ian returned to Marlow House that evening. He shared a pizza with Danielle and Lily, while Walt sat with them at the kitchen table, and Sadie napped nearby.