Chapter 3 #4
Jenny stared off in the distance, then looking down at her hands, still nursing the cup, she nodded. “I heard some of that today.”
“I figured the deputy would speak to you to ask about Johanna’s mental capacity.”
“No, he didn’t talk to me, but she’s not well. I’ll be honest about that. And, since your grandfather’s gone missing, everything’s kind of unhinged in a way. I know that’s not a fair thing to say, but that’s how I feel.”
“You are entitled to how you feel,” he said, eating at a fast pace.
“And we need the truth. Grandma’s been pulling way too many tricks here, and I don’t know how much of that is her supposed health or mental condition and how much of it is panic, with Grandpa gone, that she won’t have the money to keep up her gambling. I just don’t know.”
Jenny nodded. “She’s won some big amounts but then just loses it again. Win or lose, she never seems to stop. It’s always about chasing after this big score, that big score.”
He nodded. “And the trouble with the big scores is that she’s taken the money out of other people’s accounts.” He looked at Jenny, and she stared at him in shock, and he nodded. “She’s been stealing from Grandpa’s client accounts.”
She sat back and shook her head, dumbfounded.
“I’ve tried to keep a lid on it, so a part of me gives some weight to her comment about somebody expecting her to pay that money back before they’ll let Grandpa go.”
“That can’t be possible,” Jenny whispered. “Surely she wouldn’t do something so …”
“Criminal? That’s the word for it,” he declared.
“She’s been doing it a long time, and that’s one of the reasons Grandpa and I have had all kinds of set-tos about her because he wouldn’t or couldn’t curtail her.
When I came back six years ago, I just wanted to confirm that everything was signed, sealed, and secure.
So Grandma wouldn’t have access to anybody’s money.
Plus she agreed to continue to pay it back, which she has been trying to do,” he conceded.
“But, in six years, you can only hope that people don’t need their money. ”
“And of course they did.” Jenny sighed.
“Some people needed it rather quickly, and I am pretty broke myself at this point from trying to keep everything afloat.”
She stared at him and asked, “You’re paying her debts?”
“Well, I had a cash inheritance from my great-grandfather,” he shared, “which was supposed to bypass Grandma and Grandpa because of her gambling and his inability to control her. Yet I’m still using that money to pay off her gambling loss and her outright theft from Grandpa’s investment clients.
He’s paid me back by transferring over his part of the land and homes here—into my name only. ”
“But it’s yours already, or it will be. Why would you do that?”
“Sure, but, as I explained to Crystal, you only inherit if something is left to inherit. I didn’t want some stranger swooping in to buy up this place, especially with Grandma’s gambling becoming more and more public.
Yet Grandma sure seems hell-bent on making sure nothing is left for anybody, even herself,” he muttered.
“So, yeah, I’ve lost a fair bit of money on this place, which is part of why I came in the way I did, more than a little irate that Grandma was trying to steal even more money from the household account. ”
“So, that’s what she was doing at the bank?”
“Yes, that’s what she was doing.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I am so sorry.”
“Me too,” he replied. “I’ve spent the last however-many years shuffling around as much of the money as I could to keep this place afloat, while Grandma’s out there stealing, then trying to pay back as much as she could, only to then turn right around and take more.
Because, of course, once a gambler has a win, she’s just emboldened to gamble some more, hoping the lucky streak never ends. ”
Jenny nodded. “She kept coming to me for money, but I didn’t have any more to give her.”
He just stared at her and groaned. “Don’t tell me that she’s into you for money too?”
She smiled. “Well, I didn’t give her much. I don’t have much. It was a couple hundred bucks.” He snorted at that. Then she winced and added, “Does that mean you’re paying my wages too?”
He nodded. “I’ve been paying for all this. Some of my inheritance money I still have invested, and I’m hoping I’ll be allowed to keep some at the end of the day, but the reality is, we may lose it all. That’s not being dramatic about it. It’s just a hard fact of life.”
“Good God,” she whispered, as she stared around the kitchen.
“Yeah, I know,” he muttered. “That’s what happens when you have an addict in the family.” She turned to him and winced. “So, how has her attitude been toward Crystal?”
Jenny frowned and stared down at the table.
“I already heard some pretty disturbing things,” he shared, “so the unvarnished truth from you would help a lot.”
“Somewhere along the line, she decided that Crystal should pay rent, and it should go directly to her. Oh, and that the twins should be doing more around the place.”
“Well, that’s true. The twins should be pulling their weight.” Ashton snorted. “I don’t know what they’re doing or not doing, so that’s a conversation for tomorrow.” He shook his head. “How did the whole rent discussion with Crystal go over?”
“I think she was okay to pay rent. It was the way it was done. It’s like Johanna has lost all her filters, and she’s just making life hellish for people,” Jenny told Ashton. “She’s changed a lot, and your grandfather disappearing has made her even worse.”
“Do you really think it’s been worse since my grandfather’s gone missing?”
“Yes,” she replied, “I would say so. There’s been the odd occasion otherwise where she’s said something completely unwarranted, but, for the most part, I think it’s been somewhat okay, until Alexander went missing. But that’s just me talking. You’ll have to ask Crystal yourself.”
“Maybe I will.” He sighed. “I talked with her earlier this evening, and she also went to the bank with me, so she certainly found out what some of the problems are, but she doesn’t know all of them.”
“I don’t think anybody does,” Jenny pointed out, “because your grandpa’s been trying to keep a lid on things for a long time.”
“Yeah, he has, and not very successfully,” Ashton grumbled.
“At least not the part about keeping her spending reined in. If his going missing has something to do with her gambling, that will be a whole different ball game. And honestly, once this all blows up, I don’t know if anybody out there can save the business or the property.
I’m in danger of losing everything too.”
When she stared at him in shock, he nodded. “That’s what happens when you end up with criminals in the family who don’t care,” he stated. “They destroy it for everybody.”
She swallowed hard. “Look. You don’t have to pay me wages for the next while.” She had a look of fear in her eyes. “Obviously you don’t have the money for it.”
He smiled, understanding where she was coming from. “Everybody deserves to be paid for the work they do,” he told her, “but thank you for the offer. It’s not that bad right now.”
“You sure about that?”
“For the moment anyway. I do need to speak to the lawyer and see how much exposure we have with all of Grandma’s stealing.
That’s something I’m still not sure of,” he noted, “and I’m working my way through it.
That’ll be yet another tomorrow headache.
I’m hoping to find something than might keep our heads above water for now. ”
She winced and nodded. “What do you want me to do about Johanna? How can I help?”
“I don’t want you to spy on her per se, but, if you could keep me abreast of any weird behavior, for example, if you hear her talking to anybody or things like that?
She’s not in a space that I recognize at all, and, since I don’t know quite what she’s up to, if you can keep an eye on her, it could help. ”
“I heard her on the phone earlier,” Jenny shared hesitantly. “She was talking to somebody, saying that she just needed a little more time.”
He looked at her. “And how did she sound? Anxious or afraid?”
“She sounded very anxious, almost panicked. So, fear had to be a part of it. When I asked her if she was okay, she was pretty ugly about it. She told me how I shouldn’t be listening in on conversations. And, let’s just say, she had more to say about it all.”
He sighed as he stared at her. “This family has been quite a trial to you, hasn’t it?”
She smiled. “I have been part of this trial, as you put it, for a very long time. I just hope that Alexander is okay and that his absence has nothing to do with her … shenanigans. I’ve always known she had a problem,” she shared, as she shook her head, “but I didn’t realize the extent of it.”
“Yeah, me too,” he admitted. “Nobody ever really wants to know the extent of it either. Everybody here just wants life to continue as it is. The cousins and Grandma have enjoyed a free ride and get to just take care of their own stuff without any consequences or contribution to the place.” He looked around, then focused back on her.
“However, there are consequences now, and an awful lot will change. That’s another problem for tomorrow.
” He smiled and, with a shrug, added, “I’m also supposed to find a missing dog. ”
She blinked.
He laughed. “I know. In a way, it’s something a little more normal for me to stay focused on, although I recognize that everybody else thinks it’ll send me one step over the brink when I even mention it.
But I’m doing this as a favor to friends of mine who helped me so much in this last little while, after Grandma told me how I shouldn’t come home if I wasn’t whole. ”
Jenny stared at him in shock.
He nodded. “Grandpa told me to come here, to my house, my home, back where I belong, but Grandma had a whole different opinion about that one. So, I didn’t come home, when apparently I should have.”
She stared at him. “She said that to you?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that happened again more recently. Looking at it now, she probably thought my being here would cramp her style where the gambling money was concerned. But I’m home now, and I’m working on all kinds of things, one of which is this missing dog.
It’s a K9 War Dog, … a dog who spent the better part of his life saving soldiers like me,” he explained.
“So, if he needs a hand, I’m here to provide it. ”
“But how will you find it?”
“That’s the question. Do you know a guy by the name of Sean Keaton?”
She frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“He’s an older vet, disabled, reported the dog missing from his home to the locals, but the deputies didn’t believe him.
Yet he wants Khan back. So my friends who follow up on missing War Dogs sent me to help him find Khan.
So, now I’m here to deal with it. And again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll deal with that tomorrow. ”
She looked at him with a silent acknowledgment. “Sounds like your tomorrow is going to be a hell of a lot like your today.”
“I hope not,” he muttered, “because the last thing I want is to go back to the bank and haul my grandmother out again. I still have to deal with that fallout.” He sighed. “But I had a great meal, and I appreciate that. And, if you come up with anything on the dog, I would appreciate hearing it.”
She looked at him, a twinkle in her eye, and asked, “What’s that now? You sound like you almost think the hired help knows things?”
“Oh, the hired help always knows things,” he confirmed, with a smile. “That’s not a mistake I’ve ever made.”
She chuckled. “No, you never did. However, it’s a lesson Johanna never seemed to learn.” Then she sighed and added, “I should be a better Christian than that.”
He looked at her and chuckled. “All you are is human, Jenny. Just like the rest of us.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll just say that I hope she gets a come-uppance,” she declared smartly, “after everybody has been saving her sorry butt all this time. And now poor Alexander,” she muttered, with a headshake. “I sure hope we can get him home again. He’s always been kind to all of us here.”
“I hope to get him home soon,” Ashton stated. “That’s the goal.” And, with that, he got up. “I’m going to head off to bed because, as you know, tomorrow—”
“Is looking like one hell of a day,” she added, laughing.
He smiled, headed up to his room, and crashed.