“In that case, I’m up to it.”
“Do you have the final audit report?”
“I haven’t seen it, but I’ll have Morty camp out at the auditor’s office until he gets it.”
“Great. See you in a bit.”
“Not fair,” said Emma when Jake ended the call.
“What?”
“I don’t want to wait. I want to hear it now.”
“It may have bearing on the case. I’m not sure, but it’s not a story I want to say over and over. I just hope for the Hills’ sakes that it doesn’t go public during the election. There’s nothing illegal, but it would light up the gossips all over town, especially now.”
“I forgot all about the election! How could I do that? I’m sorry. I’m a terrible politician’s wife.”
“You’re a perfect wife and I’m not a politician, no matter how many elections I’m in. Frankly, I’m not paying attention to it myself. Ron assured me he’d take care of everything and just let me know if I needed to show up somewhere. So far, he’s been meeting with potential backers, which he says is best done without me there anyway, so people don’t get the idea that I’m promising to trade favors.”
“Did get a chance to talk to Clint Taylor?”
“He offered me his job once he gets elected.”
Emma laughed. “At least he’s humble.”
“Don’t laugh him off. He could easily win.”
“He’s a snake.”
“A snake you invited to our home in order to introduce him to your best friend before she started seeing Matt.”
Emma blushed. “He seemed like a nice guy at the time.”
“And he’ll seem like a nice guy to the voters. Heck, maybe he actually is a nice guy. He’s a little too ambitious for my taste, but I can’t fault the guy for any of his work with juveniles. He’s tough, but he’s fair with them.”
“That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say about him. Maybe I’ll have to vote for him.” She laughed at the look her husband gave her as he pulled off the highway and started up the dirt road.
***
Jeb, who lived on the other side of Casper Mountain, had the furthest to travel and so was the last to arrive. Grace and Emma had thrown together a pickup dinner and were thankful that Jeb had stopped to pick up two bottles of wine. Matt had called Brugnick, who was doing his week of swing shift. The detective had gladly abandoned DUI detail to join the impromptu conference.
Emma threw her arms around the surprised young man when she saw the bakery box he carried. “Morty! How did you know I didn’t have a single thing I could serve for dessert?”
Brugnick blushed, and handed her the box. “My Mamma woulda skinned me alive if I’d shown up for dinner empty-handed.”
“Well thank God for southern mothers,” said Emma. “Kristy’s influenced her to bring salad so we have a regular feast of fine things to lay before you.”
“Hey Matt, you’ll be interested to know. It turns out that the impound clerk had a bench warrant for unpaid child support so he’s cooling his heels in jail.”
“I hope he won’t lose his job over it,” said Grace. “How will he pay his child support if there are no wages to garnish?”
“From what Child Support Enforcement says, he quits his job every time the garnishment order shows up,” explained Brugnick.
“I assume Valerie’s prints were in the car?” asked Jake.
“There were prints from quite a few people but none have shown up in the database. The Feds are running them now, but you know how long that takes. Miss Kristy, this is the best potato salad I’ve had in years.”
Kristy smiled. “My mother’s recipe. I thought you’d like a taste of home. I was just finishing up a batch for the Greeters potluck, but they can settle for store bought.”
“Much obliged.”
“So Jake, what’s the big mystery?” asked Matt. “You called, we’re here. Out with it.”
“Let me start with what happened after Roger’s funeral first.” Jake spoke methodically, not embellishing, but not skipping any pertinent facts.
“Hoo doggies!” whistled Brugnick. Everyone but Kristy snickered.
“Don’ you pay them no mind, Morty,” she soothed, slipping into her own accent. She turned to Matt, “You might should look into what Pam said.” When Matt simply stared at her, biting his lip, she said. “Don’ you be lookin’ at me like that. I got half a mind to smack you!”
“I caint help it, Miz Kristy,” said Matt in a horrible drawl. “You’s da purtiest ting I ever did see.”
“That dog don’t hunt here, mister.” Accent forgotten, she continued. “Pick your silly chin up off the floor and tell me what you think of Pam’s accusations.”
“I don’t know. Morty, when the heck are we going to get that audit? Wasn’t he saying yesterday, at the latest?”
“I called on my way over. His service laughed at me and reminded me that it’s Saturday.”
“I’m in the wrong business. I ought to be the only game in town. Then I can tell paying customers that I’ll get around to their job whenever I darn well feel like it.”
Brugnick raised his hand in surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’ll head over Monday and pick it up even if I have to sit in the lobby.”
“Send over a uniform,” suggested Jake. “Nothing gets faster attention from a business than to have a uniformed police officer cooling his or her heels in their reception area.”
Matt laughed. “You are going to be my kind of County Attorney, Jake. Devious, but on the right side of the law.”
“Well, it would be nice if I could take a look at that report before I meet with Pam tomorrow,” said Jake.
“I think you’d better hold off, Jake. Pam accused Steven, Maddie accused Pam. I think we want all our ducks in a row before we confront either of them.”
“I already told her I’d meet with her. What if I just hear her out, see if she can back up any of her accusations? Then once we get the audit, we can see if she was telling us the truth.”
“I doubt she can back it up or she would have done it already. Now, what’s the big news? I assume it’s bigger than a cat fight?”
“Why do men dismiss arguments between women as cat fights?” asked Emma.
“I take it back. Jake, save me here, buddy. What’s the big news?”
“I’m not stepping into that one, but I do have something that you all need to hear. I don’t know if it has any bearing on the case, but if it doesn’t, I would appreciate if this went no further.”
“I can live with that,” said Matt. “Let’s hear it.”
“Some of this I only know secondhand. Roger Hill was my father’s client and he handled most of the work on this. In fact, until Steven died, it had been years since Roger and I discussed it.
“The whole thing started fifty-two years ago, before Roger and Della married. As you may know, it’s common in the LDS church for young people to do missionary work. Roger served in the military, which doubled as his mission work. Della’s father insisted she complete a mission before he agreed to the marriage.”
“I didn’t know women went out as missionaries back then,” said Emma.
“Most missionaries are men, even now, but Della’s father was quite devout. When Roger came home from his tour in Vietnam, Della went off to do humanitarian work for eighteen months.”
“It sounds like he just didn’t want her to marry Roger and hoped distance would make her lose interest,” said Grace.
“Four years is a lifetime when you’re young,” agreed Emma.
“While Della was gone, Roger started working as a roustabout, traveling all over the state, learning the oil and gas business from the ground up. When he was ready to start his own company, he knew everything there was to know about drilling. He scraped together enough money to buy his first lease and Hill Energy was born.
“During this time, Roger met Trudy Klingman and let’s just say that nine months later, Trudy gave
birth to a baby boy. By that time, Roger had moved on to other job sites. Since she didn’t know where to find him, Trudy contacted his parents. They asked my father to meet with her and negotiate a settlement agreement.”
“They paid her off?” asked Emma. “And your father let them do that?”
“Dad told me that Trudy was more than happy to accept financial assistance. She wanted to move to California and the Hills made that possible.”
“Did Roger even know about it?”
“Of course. He told me he felt horrible about it and terrified that Della would find out and not want to marry him.”
“And that’s what Della said Roger told her about after you two met last week,” said Emma.
“That’s right.”
“So what’s your role in all of this? Why were you concerned it would come out during the election?”
“My father forwarded payments from the Hills to Trudy for years. When I took over the practice, I took over making the payments.”
“But Roger’s son would have been an adult by then,” Grace pointed out. “Why would he still be paying child support?”
“Because that’s the kind of man he was. It wasn’t in the agreement. Roger just told Dad to keep making the payments until Trudy didn’t want them anymore. I made them every month until Trudy died.”
“Nobody’s that nice. Was she blackmailing him?” asked Matt.
“I asked Roger about it after Dad died, but he told me he felt called to help her. He’d never heard from her. He didn’t even know his son’s name and said he didn’t want to know. He loved Della and while he wanted to do the right thing by Trudy, he wanted his heart to be focused on Della.”
“Then he shouldn’t have slept with Trudy,” said Kristy, her voice caustic.
“It was one weekend during the height of the sexual revolution. He was twenty-three and the woman he loved wasn’t even allowed to write to him during her mission. Complete silence for eighteen months, not knowing if she would come back with changed feelings. He shouldn’t have done it, but he did and he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it.”
“So what happened after Trudy died?” asked Jeb.
“At Roger’s suggestion, I tracked down her son and sent the payments to him. When they all came back unopened, Roger told me to drop it. If his son didn’t want the money, he wasn’t going to press him to take it.”
“What was the son’s name?” asked Matt.
“Walter Winters.”
Brugnick nudged Matt. “And you think my name’s bad.”
“It’s still bad.”
“Hey, it’s a family name. It goes back five generations.”
“And hopefully stops with you,” Matt teased.
“Boys,” said Grace, giving them a look that Emma remembered from her days in clinical supervision. The two men looked sheepish. “Continue, Jacob.”
“There’s nothing else to say. This all happened years ago. As I said, I don’t know that it has any bearing on the case, but if we’re going to have to start digging into Hill family secrets, I thought it was best I tell you this one.”
“Did Roger make any mention of this son in his will?” asked Grace.
“The only son he names is Steven.”
“And since Steven predeceased his father?”
“Wouldn’t his share go to Maddie or Steven’s children?” asked Emma.
“Unfortunately not. He didn’t think it was worth putting in a provision because he never expected to outlive either of his children. That was one of the things we discussed when I met with him last week. He was going to make some changes in the will, but said he didn’t even want to think about it until the police arrested Steven’s killer.”
“So what happens now? Won’t it all go to Della anyway?” asked Matt.
“He and Della set up a living trust years ago. The trust is more than enough to support Della in comfort. He’d settled Steven’s share of the business on him when he retired. Since he never had a chance to change the ‘male only’ ownership clause in Hill Energy, the rest will bypass Pam and go to Ryan. Pam will inherit everything else.”
“How much is that?” asked Matt.
“Rough estimate?”
“That’ll do.”
“You’d have to consult his financial advisor, but I’d guess Roger’s estate, not including Hill Energy, is valued at around ten million dollars.”
“Which Pam gets to keep for herself instead of having to split it with a brother she hated. You didn’t think that was something you should have told me? That sounds like a whopping good motive for murder.” Matt’s voice betrayed his frustration.
“It’s only been seventeen days since Steven died Matt,” argued Jake. “I assumed Roger would change the will. How could I have known he would have a heart attack and die before he could do that?”
“What if Pam Young killed her father so he couldn’t change the will? Did you think of that?” Matt was fast moving beyond frustration and into anger.
“Roger Hill was murdered? Now who’s holding out?” asked Jeb.
“I don’t know. I asked the Coroner to look into it but she hasn’t issued a cause of death yet.”
“I’m sorry, Matt. It never occurred to me that Pam might have killed Steven or that she might kill her own father. I really hope that isn’t what happened.” His honest regret deflated Matt’s anger. “I had no idea it might be connected.”
Matt took a deep breath and spoke slowly. “People think it’s easy being a detective. If a little old lady in a mid-century English village can do it, how hard can it be, right? Only in real life, there’s no author in the background making sure I stumble across the right clues at the right time. If I miss something, a real killer goes free. Maybe he kills someone else before I get to him.”
“Did Pamela even know about the terms of the will?” Grace interrupted. “Don’t most people put a clause in their will addressing the possibility that a beneficiary may predecease them? I know I have that in my will. My attorney told me it was standard practice.”
“It is standard practice. Roger was superstitious and he thought putting that in would be bad luck.”
“Could she have seen the will?”
“I have the official copy. I know she hasn’t seen it.”
“Wouldn’t Roger have had a copy?”
“He did. He would have kept it in his…” Jake’s voice trailed off and his face went white.
“In his safe.” Matt finished Jake’s sentence. “The safe that was cleaned out the day before Steven Hill was murdered? That safe?”
“I don’t know for certain he kept it there. He may have had a safe deposit box.”
“Steven Hill told me his father didn’t believe in them. He also told me that his sister was one of the few people who had the combination.”
“Pam could have gone in anytime and she would have used her own code. No one would question why she was there any more than they’d question Steven being there,” Emma pointed out. “If she wanted to see the will, why not just sit there and read it? Why stage a burglary?”
“But why would she murder Steven? That gets her nothing unless she also kills her father. If she were going to commit a double homicide, wouldn’t she take time to carefully plan it out? Steven was killed with his own gun. That sounds like a spur of the moment thing to me.”
“Do you want me to bring Mrs. Young in for questioning?” asked Brugnick.
“Not yet. We need the coroner to tell us whether Roger’s death was a homicide and, if it was, we need to know how Pam would be able to make it look like a heart attack. If he died of natural causes, Grace is right. It makes no sense for her to kill her brother and hope her father will die before he can change the will. We need some answers before we put pressure on a woman who’s sure to lawyer-up.”
“I could to talk to Pam,” offered Emma. “It would make sense for me to stop by to check on her after the spectacle she made of herself.”
“I don’t
want any more amateur assistance. I know you mean well, Emma, but this was a bad idea from the start. I may not be one hundred percent yet, but I’m strong enough to get back in the saddle. At least part-time. For the rest, I’ve got Morty. You’re up to it, right?”
“Just point me in the right direction. I’ll be your Hastings while you sit back and exercise the little gray cells.” Matt rolled his eyes. “Hey, you’re the one who started tossing out Agatha Christie references.”
“C’mon woman!” Matt got up, looking exhausted. “Take me home while I still have my sanity.”
“Let me get my coat and purse,” she told him.
“I’ll show you where I hid them.” The two women disappeared down the hall, leaving Matt and Jake standing awkwardly, neither willing to break the silence. When Kristy returned, she gave Grace a hug and said goodbye to Jeb and Jake. Brugnick, who had ridden with them, trailed along behind.
“I guess that’s my cue,” said Jeb.
“I’ll walk you out,” offered Grace.
Emma started to clean up the dinner dishes, packing away leftovers and tucking dirty dishes into the dishwasher. “I am such an idiot,” said Jake, leaning against the kitchen counter.
“You made a mistake, that’s all Jake.”
“A stupid one. That may have cost Roger his life.”
“Roger died of a heart attack.”
“You don’t know that.” Jake started to leave the kitchen but Emma stopped him. She tossed her dishtowel onto the counter and forced him to look her in the eyes.
“You’re a smart man, Jake. You even have flashes of brilliance, but you’re only human and that’s what’s killing you right now.” Jake tried to pull away, but Emma stood her ground. “You made an honest mistake and frankly, I think Matt made way too big a deal about it because he’s feeling frustrated at not being out there interviewing witnesses himself.”
“But…”
“But nothing. We lost a few days, that’s all. Besides, I don’t believe Pam killed Steven. So she’ll get an extra five million dollars. She was already going to inherit more money than she can possibly spend.”
“You’d be surprised how much money someone can spend.”
“No doubt, Jacob, but for what it’s worth, I agree with Emma.” Grace had come inside so quietly they hadn’t heard her. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but now that I have, allow me to say one thing more. Then I will go to bed and get out of your way.”
Death Changes Everything Page 14