Chapter 44 #2
“Harper and Spencer buried Milt out in the garden, and claimed he survived,” Jules confirmed. “Yeah. The DNA report is back—your father was one of three bodies that were found there.
“According to Harper, Milton died unexpectedly and instantly from natural causes,” Jules continued. “It’s hard to confirm that for sure, but there’s no obvious trauma to the remains that imply otherwise.”
“After three years, can they really tell?” Mick asked.
“To some degree, yes. For example, there were no broken bones, no obvious injury to the skull,” Jules explained. “But, you’re right, something like death from... being smothered or... drowned is nearly impossible to prove from an autopsy on skeletal remains, so really who knows.”
“Got it,” Mick said.
“According to Harper,” Jules said, “Spencer came up with the idea to find an elderly homeless man to put into a hospital bed here in the library, to replace Milton—which gave them both access to his—your—money. Rinse and repeat, three different times.”
“That’s crazy,” Mick said.
“It really is. Harper—pressured by Spencer, or so he says, and we should all take that with a giant grain of salt... He made sure that no one who knew Milton—including Mick here—was allowed into the house,” Jules continued.
“Because obviously the old man in the hospital bed was not Milton Devonshire. This subterfuge got more and more complicated, each time Milton—” he made air quotes “—died.”
“Think about it this way,” Sam interjected, adding a quick, “May I?” to Jules, who nodded, giving him the floor.
“The role of Milton was played by the original Milton—your father—and three different actors. Easy role—lie in a bed and be silent. Not that anyone signed on willingly. We’re pretty sure they were extensively drugged if they weren’t properly incapacitated.
But imagine the headache this created for Harper, who had to make sure that a nurse who cared for Fake Milton Number One wasn’t brought in to care for Fake Milton Number Two, and so on.
All Harper and Spencer needed was for one nurse to say, Hey, this isn’t the Milton Devonshire I know—this is a different man. ”
“Harper jumped through hoops to make sure that didn’t happen,” Jules told them. “But it was those very hoops—his inane-seeming rules of employment and other odd things like removing all of Milton’s files from the house—that made us realize something fishy was going on.”
“Why did they remove all of the files and papers from the house?” Robin asked.
“Spencer—who claims Harper was the mastermind behind all of this, because of course he does... He said they wanted to make sure there were no legal documents among Milton’s belongings that Harper didn’t know about,” Jules explained.
“And in the end, there was one in Harper’s own files—the will that Milton changed, that named Emily as his heir.
I have no doubt that, had Harper been alone in the room when that latest Devonshire will was pulled from the file, he would’ve shredded it.
He was not above forgery, either. The police found a notarized document in his office that granted him power of attorney for you, too, Mick. ”
“Yeah,” Mick said. “That was disturbing to hear. I would never, not in a million years agree to—”
“Everyone knows that,” Jules reassured him.
“It’s a forgery, that’s very clear. But apparently after Fake Milton Number Three died and Rene the housekeeper screwed up their plan by calling 9-1-1, where the paramedics pronounced him officially dead, Harper or Spencer or Harper-and-Spencer made a new plan to remain in control of the Devonshire fortune by similarly incapacitating Mick, whom they believed to be the sole heir. ”
“Via some kind of brain injury,” Mick repeated a bit of the conversation he’d overheard from Harper while locked in the trunk of the lawyer’s car.
“No one’s admitted that,” Jules reported, “but you heard what you heard. Plus the housekeeper, Rene, really disliked Harper, and she... expounded at some length about the fact that he wanted—against her outspoken advice—to hold on to the hospital bed and other medical supplies that were in the library. Why would he do that, unless he expected to need it in the very near future? Which goes hand-in-hand with Harper’s uncharacteristic desire for Mick to inherit the bulk of the family fortune instead of Emily as per Milton’s will.
It was pretty clear that Harper was hoping Emily wouldn’t be found. ”
“But then we showed up,” Sam pointed out. “And everyone started to panic.”
“Harper insists that the plan to kill Emily—if we found her—was Spencer’s,” Jules said. “But yes, the panic went to Defcon One when it became apparent that our search for Emily was going to uncover their earlier fraud.”
“Harper claims Spencer was attempting to remove anyone who knew anything,” Sam interjected. “He started with Gavin LaCrosse, but he was coming for Emily, and for Jules and me, too. They really were trying to kill us when they shot up Emily’s house—they just were incompetent.”
“And you were lucky,” Robin interjected quietly, and yeah, the look Emily sent him was heartfelt.
“We all were,” she said.
“I think I might be the luckiest of all,” Mick murmured.
“So there it is,” Jules said. “Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Mick said. “What the fuck?”
Sam laughed. “I feel you deeply.”
“We do expect more details to surface,” Jules said, “as more of Spencer’s hired guns make plea deals.
For example, we just found out this morning that Spencer had a little side business going at Devonshire Place.
He was charging his associates rent to bunk here at the estate.
They were using this place as a safe house or a hideout or.
.. just cheap LA housing, who knows. It was pretty small change, a hundred bucks a week per man, but their rent included the requirement for them to play security guard and even grave-digger when Spencer’s needs arose.
Anyway, we’ve got a contact over at the LAPD, so we’ll keep you posted as new information arises.
And if anything else comes up on your end, you know how to reach us. ”
“I will be sending you a bonus,” Mick said as they all stood up and shook hands again.
“That’s not necessary,” Jules said.
“Just say thank you,” Sam murmured to him, even as Mick countered with, “Oh, I think it is.”
“I’m so sorry this became so dangerous for you,” Mick continued, “and that I wasn’t completely upfront with you at the start. I’m kicking myself about that now, and... I’m just really grateful for everything you’ve done.”
“Well, you’re welcome,” Jules told him quietly.
“Can we give you a tour of the house?” Emily asked Robin.
“I would love that,” he said. “It really is a freaking work of art.”
She laughed. “Right? Although I honestly don’t know what I’m gonna do with it...”
“We’ll meet you out front,” Jules told Robin with a smile as he gathered up his things and put them back into his computer case.
“It really does help me to see this place through Emily’s eyes,” Mick was saying as they headed for the library door and out into the main hallway of the estate.
“You ready for lunch?” Robin heard Jules ask Sam, who’d moved over to the fireplace to look at the photo hanging there—that gorgeous aerial shot of Devonshire Place, with the backdrop of a magnificent Southern California sunset.
“I’m always ready for lunch,” Sam said, adding. “Hey, Cassidy. C’mere and look at this.” Robin glanced back to see him pointing at the bottom of the photo.
Jules leaned in to look more closely and burst out laughing.
Robin had noticed it, first thing, when they’d arrived for this meeting.
Emily Johnson Photography was stamped right there at the bottom of that giant photo, clear as day, complete with her web address.
Of course, he did have the benefit of knowing that she was a photographer, which was way more than Jules and Sam knew when they’d first walked in.
“Found her,” Sam announced now.
And Jules laughed again. “Yeah,” he said. “We did.”