Chapter 12 #3
He looked at her, questioning. She frowned, and he knew she was thinking something over.
“It’s really not the time to hold back anything.
” She stared at him, but there was a stiffness in her gaze.
He added, “I understand that you’re worried about what’s going to happen to you in the future.
” She winced at that, and he nodded. “Because you were promised a place here until the end of your days, weren’t you? ”
“Yes,” she replied, “although Johanna hasn’t mentioned it lately.”
“That’s because she sold it,” he snapped. “And, no, you and me and Crystal and Grandpa didn’t come into that equation.”
Jenny’s gaze hardened, and she nodded. “Right, so just because Alexander made that promise, and Johanna was right there with him, doesn’t mean she’ll honor it. And, if he passes on, she doesn’t have to.”
Ashton added, “But I do.”
“Yes, but you didn’t make that original promise,” she pointed out, her gaze searching.
He smiled because he knew this fierce-eyed lady so well.
“No, but, as long as I keep this place, you have a home here,” he told her, with a smile, “which will be a challenge because of everything that’s happened.
I can’t guarantee you that I’ll hang on to the property.
That’s obviously the next issue. If we get sued for all the crap that Grandma has done, and she can’t pay Oliver back, then it’s pretty well a slam dunk that everything we have put into this property is gone,” he explained.
“So, as much as I would like to say you absolutely have a home here, I cannot because I may not have a home here either.”
She stared at him hard, her jaw slacking. “Good God,” she whispered, “the tangled web we weave.”
“Well, some of us,” he muttered. “Some of us apparently thought this was just a big joke, an endless bank account to pull money from. And that is the issue for all of us now because Grandma wasn’t thinking of anybody else but herself, just her and her gambling issues.”
“And is it even gambling at this point?” Jenny asked.
He frowned at her and asked, “What else could it be?”
“Well, if she sold the place, she’ll need running money and a new place.
So, I’m not sure how much of it’s even about gambling anymore as much as it’s the need to have something to leave with and to live on.
I don’t know how far she thinks half-a-million dollars would get her or how far she thinks she can run with that.
But most people would recognize that it’s not really enough to do a whole lot with, not in this day and age. ”
“It also says,” he pointed out, “that she has no idea how much money it takes to look after a property like this.”
Jenny nodded. “It’s been one of the constant arguments between Johanna and Alexander.
The fact that he always put the money into the property and not into her pocket, which has been one of their biggest issues throughout all the time I’ve been here,” she shared.
“If there’s been an argument I have listened to a thousand times, it’s that one. ”
He nodded, then asked, “What about the twins? What have they been up to?”
She looked at him and frowned. “Honestly, I’m not sure. … They come in, they eat, and then they leave, but I don’t know that they necessarily do anything. They consider themselves gamers.”
“It figures,” he muttered. “Are they gaming for entertainment, stress relief, or what?”
“I don’t know, but it’s all they talk about.”
“Let me put it this way. Gaming is a lifestyle for those who make huge money, as some gamers do. Gaming to avoid having to get a job and to do other responsible things in life is not cool.”
She smiled. “I think that was your grandfather’s point of view as well. He was also very much of the thinking that they needed to find a way to support themselves. I know that was a discussion they had recently, but it didn’t go all that well, and your grandpa was left kind of upset about it.”
He looked at her and asked, “And when you say, kind of upset …” She winced, and he stressed again, “Come on, Jenny. I know you don’t want to say anything bad. However, we are way past that point now.”
She sighed. “It feels like, no matter what I say, it’ll sound like I’m turning on them.
I’m not. I don’t think they’re criminal, just lazy.
The twins have never educated themselves as to the world around them, and Alexander and Johanna let that happen.
The twins had all these plans, which Alexander tried to help fund for a time, until he gave up on that too. ”
“I don’t think I heard about any of that,” Ashton said, turning to her.
“They had all kinds of ideas. They wanted to set up a bunch of online stores, you know, things that could be run from home without them having to put out too much work.”
“So, they did have some intention somewhere along the line?”
She nodded. “I think so.”
He walked over to the coffeepot, poured himself a cup, and headed into the office. With his grandfather alive and safely out of harm’s way, recuperating in the hospital, he needed to connect with the lawyer and the bank to see what the next steps should be. Not to mention the sheriff.
Richard already knew, even if his worthless deputies didn’t.
As soon as Ashton sat down in the home office, he picked up the phone to call his lawyer.
Ashton felt everything moved in slow motion, while he went into heavy damage control as he informed everybody about his grandfather being found and alive.
Anderson was not only shocked, he was stunned. “He’s alive?”
“Yes, but he’s in the hospital now. We are cautiously optimistic at this point, but it’s a bit early to tell.
I’m really hoping that he’ll pull out of this, and we’ll get a lot more years,” he added.
“But he also doesn’t know the ins and outs of what has happened to him.
And so he must recover from that as well. ”
“Jesus Christ,” Anderson murmured.
“What’s happening on your end?”
“So, the freeze is on your grandmother’s newest account. And another account has been accessed, and we aren’t exactly sure by whom.”
“And?” Ashton was afraid to hear the answer.
“Another chunk of money missing.”
He sat back and closed his eyes. “What the hell?”
“Yeah, that appears to be the common thing at the moment,” Anderson noted. “So, I don’t know that your grandmother did this one, but, of course, that’s what we’re assuming.”
Just the way Anderson put that had Ashton opening his eyes and staring around the office. “When you say that, what does that mean?”
“While we don’t think anybody else is involved, we have to consider that somebody else could be.”
“I don’t even want to think about any more involvement by others. We still have to figure out who kidnapped my grandfather.”
“And you don’t think it was the neighbor?”
“No, I don’t think it was Oliver. I think Grandma saw him for easy cash, but somebody was trying to set him up to take the fall for holding Grandpa.
But what do I know?” He groaned. “It appears something is still messed up, and we need to sort that out,” he admitted.
“Unfortunately, until my grandfather is fully awake, we won’t get an update from him on any of this.
I haven’t had a chance to talk to him beyond letting him know that he was alive and that we were looking after him,” he added.
“So, talking to my grandfather would be paramount, yet he was drugged, probably snuck up on from behind. He may have absolutely no information for us. Now the deputies did take Oliver in for questioning, but I really don’t feel that he had anything to do with it, though it’s pretty amazing that somebody could have gotten to his property and could have done this without Oliver knowing. ”
“Yeah, that does sound a little sketchy,” Anderson agreed.
“I know, and I think that’s why the deputies aren’t sure they’re buying Oliver’s story.
At the same time, I think he’s quite panicked because he obviously knows they aren’t taking his words seriously.
” Ashton sighed. “So that’s another entirely different challenge we’re facing.
The sheriff is keeping Oliver at the moment while they try to sort it all out, but I don’t know what that will entail.
” Ashton added, “He also has animals on his place, and I don’t know if he has anybody to look after them. ”
Anderson snorted. “So you’ll go over there and take care of them?”
“The animals aren’t responsible for any of this,” Ashton stated. “And that’s not how we do things here.”
There was silence, and then Anderson replied, “I know you haven’t been here for a long time. Do you think the neighborhood is still the same? Because it seems to me that whatever the hell is going on in your world here now, something uglier has moved in.”
“I don’t know whether something uglier has moved in, or it’s always been here, and I just didn’t see it. And, yes, I am fully aware that’s a possibility.”
Anderson laughed. “You and the rest of us,” he muttered. “Let’s find out what we need to know, and then we can start cleaning this up. Meanwhile, we do need to get some of this money sorted. We can’t keep a lid on it for long.”
“No, and we need that money back ASAP. We do have insurance, but I don’t know that they’ll cover all these losses.”
“No, I’m not sure they will,” Anderson agreed. “Somewhere along the line, somebody felt they would lose out.”
“You mean, outside of my grandmother?” he asked, with a groan. “Because she definitely falls into that category.”
“I always think of grandmothers as these tiny little ladies baking apple pies,” his lawyer shared. “But yours seems to have blown that image completely out of the water.”
“Because she is an anomaly in many ways,” he noted. “And we’ve certainly seen her in both good times and bad, but, man, it’s really bad times right now. That’s also something I’ll have to deal with when my grandpa is cognizant again. Right now though I’ll phone Oliver and see if he can talk.”
“What if he can’t?”
“If he can’t, I’ll call Richard and see if I can set up a phone call with Oliver. Then I need to figure out what needs to be done at Oliver’s place until he can get back home and can look after his own damn animals.” And, with that, he disconnected and tried calling Oliver.
When Ashton got no answer, he called Richard.
When the sheriff came on the line, the man sounded exhausted. “He’s still here and hasn’t changed his story at all,” Richard shared. “We haven’t decided if we’re keeping him.”
“Well, you may not have decided if you’re keeping him, but he has animals, and I need to know what chores I need to do.”
“You’re going to do them?” Richard asked.
Ashton replied in a resigned tone, “Look. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’ve never had a problem with Oliver before.
And, yes, there’s a possibility that he might be behind this, but his animals don’t need to suffer because of it.
That’s not the way we do things. Not to mention that my grandma ripped him off for half a mil. ”
There was a quiet sigh on the other end.
“Well, there’s that too. Hang on a second.
” Apparently he walked into a different room.
And then he called out, “Oliver, I have Ashton on the phone here. He wants to know what animals need to be looked after at your place, since we haven’t decided whether we’re releasing you or not. ”
Ashton could barely hear the other side of the discussion going on.
Then Richard came back online strong. “Ashton, I’m putting you on Speakerphone.”
Ashton began, “Oliver, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know how long they’re keeping you, but do you have animals that need to be fed and watered tonight?”
“Yes,” Oliver replied. They discussed which animals and what they needed.
Ashton confirmed, “Okay, I’ll head over there now.”
There was a pause, and then Oliver, his voice awkward, said, “Thank you.”
“Look. I don’t think you had anything to do with my grandfather’s kidnapping and incarceration, and I don’t even know what the hell to say about my grandma at this point.
But, all of that aside, your animals didn’t have anything to do with anything.
So let me go see that they’re doing okay, alright. ”
And, with that, the call ended. Ashton headed out, determined to make sure that his neighbor’s animals were at least doing okay, even if the rest of his family was falling apart.