Chapter 19
The Victorian on Whitehead Street had been a private house once, a boarding house twice and, eventually, a law office with a brass plaque beside the door and a pineapple flag over the porch.
Yolanda was at the front desk when Emma came in. She looked up, wished her good morning and pointed toward the back with her chin.
“She’s got everything laid out. Coffee’s fresh. Don’t touch the middle stack because it’s still in order.”
“I won’t touch the middle stack.”
Rachel’s office was small and orderly, with one tall window overlooking the side garden and a fig tree. Three neat piles of paper covered most of the desk. The middle one was the tallest and had a yellow note on top with DO NOT TOUCH written in Yolanda’s blocky handwriting.
Rachel sat behind the desk with reading glasses low on her nose. She motioned Emma toward the chair across from her.
“Sit down. Coffee’s on the side table if you want it. I’m going to walk you through everything I’ve put together this week, and there’s a lot.”
Emma poured herself a cup before sitting. She had learned enough about Rachel to know that when the woman told her to sit down before beginning a conversation, she probably should.
Rachel removed her glasses and folded her hands on the desk.
“I’m going to start with the estate because that’s where the picture gets bigger. Then we’ll go through the rental income and talk about what we may be able to recover. Are you with me?”
“I’m with you.”
“Your grandmother’s estate at the time of her death was worth roughly one point four million dollars.
That includes the cottage, the Miami condo, her brokerage account, personal property and the cash she had in checking.
Under the will we brought back from Miami, most of that estate goes to you.
Arthur receives specific bequests. Some jewelry from your grandfather’s side, a set of china that belonged to Gloria’s mother and whatever remained in checking after her medical expenses were paid.
It isn’t nothing, but it isn’t the estate. ”
Emma held the coffee in both hands.
“And under the will Arthur filed?”
“He receives everything. That’s the will the probate court admitted after Gloria died, and he’s been acting as personal representative under it for the last year. The estate is still open, which matters a great deal for us.”
“So he wasn’t only trying to take the cottage.”
“No. The cottage was simply the last major asset he hadn’t finished dealing with when Samantha Larson called you.”
Emma set the coffee down.
“Walk me through what he did.”
Rachel put her glasses back on and pulled one of the stacks toward her.
“The Miami condo was listed four months after your grandmother died and sold six months ago for six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. After the closing costs and other expenses, roughly five hundred eighty thousand remained. The records show that money eventually went into an account Arthur controls at a bank in Marathon.”
Emma said nothing.
“Then there’s the brokerage account. Approximately one hundred eighty thousand dollars was liquidated. I also found records showing that two pieces of jewelry were sold through an estate broker in Miami for about twenty-two thousand.”
“And that money?”
“The same Marathon account, according to the records I have so far.”
Emma looked at the papers spread across Rachel’s desk. She had known Arthur’s actions were larger than the cottage, but hearing each asset reduced to a sale date and a dollar amount made the betrayal feel more deliberate.
“How did you get all of this?”
“Most of it was already in the probate court record, and I obtained the supporting filings and account information this week. Arthur had reporting obligations as personal representative. The useful thing about paperwork is that people frequently create the record you later need against them.”
Emma couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“So, he was going to sell the cottage next.”
“For six hundred thousand dollars. If Samantha hadn’t called, he might have completed that sale before anyone questioned what he was doing.”
Emma looked past Rachel toward the wall.
“He had to have planned this before Gloria died.”
“I think he had a plan before he filed the probate case. How far back that plan goes is something I’m still working on. He moved quickly after her death, and some of the paperwork appears to have been prepared in advance.”
Emma thought about Gloria sitting at the kitchen table two years before she died, writing the will Emma had read in Miami.
Her grandmother had known enough to protect the cottage twice, once with the original will in the safe deposit box and again with the copy she had made certain would exist somewhere else.
Emma had assumed Gloria’s fear began and ended with the little pink house.
Now she wondered how much Gloria had understood about her son.
“Do you think she knew he might try to take everything?”
Rachel leaned back in her chair.
“I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t know, Emma. My sense is that the cottage was the thing she was most worried about because it meant something to her that the other assets didn’t. She may have believed the rest would be handled according to her will once she was gone.”
“She was still trying to be fair to him.”
“I think she was.”
Emma looked down at her coffee. Gloria had known what Arthur was capable of and had still left him things that mattered to the family. Even after everything, she had found a way to make room for her son.
“She never stopped being his mother,” Emma said.
“No. I don’t think she did.”
Rachel let the thought sit between them before reaching for another stack.
“Now we need to talk about the cottage income.”
Emma straightened in the chair.
“I’ve reconstructed about ten years so far.
Two long-term tenants before Jake, roughly six years between them, at around eighteen hundred a month.
Jake has paid twenty-two hundred a month for three years.
There were also vacation rentals during some of the gaps.
Based on the records I have, the total rental income may be in the neighborhood of two hundred fifty-nine thousand dollars. ”
Emma stared at her.
“Two hundred fifty-nine thousand?”
“That’s my conservative estimate. It may change as we get more records.”
“And Gloria never saw any of it.”
“I haven’t found anything showing that she did. I also haven’t found anything showing that the income was properly accounted for to her or, later, to the estate.”
Emma sat back.
All she had cared about when she came to Key West was stopping the sale of the cottage.
She had been angry that Arthur had rented it without Gloria’s knowledge and furious that he had kept her grandmother away from a place she loved.
Until now, Emma hadn’t understood how much money had been involved or how long he had been doing it.
Rachel watched her.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know what I am. I thought this was about the cottage. I knew it was messy, but I didn’t know it was this.”
“I think the cottage was the part Gloria knew she could protect most clearly. It was also the part tied to your father and to you.”
Emma thought about her father’s initials beneath the porch railing. Gloria had held on to that house for years, protecting it for a granddaughter who hadn’t understood what it meant to her.
Then she thought about Jake. For three years, he had paid Arthur twenty-two hundred dollars a month without knowing the cottage belonged to Gloria. There was no reason he should have known. Arthur had presented himself as the owner, collected the rent and apparently kept every dollar.
“So what happens to all that rent?”
Rachel folded her hands on the desk. “If we establish that Arthur had no authority to rent the cottage and keep the income, the estate may have a claim for it. The same is true of other money we can trace.”
“Meaning Arthur could have to pay it back.”
“Potentially, yes. I’m not going to promise what a judge will order, but we can ask for an accounting and pursue whatever remedies are available.”
Emma looked at the figures Rachel had written down. Ten years of rent was a great deal of money, but strangely, she found that she didn’t care about it as much as she thought she should.
“What happens to the rest of Gloria’s estate if the court accepts her later will?”
“Then we work through what should have happened under that will from the beginning. We trace what was sold, determine what remains and ask the court to restore what belongs to the estate. The condo can’t be unsold if it went to an innocent buyer, but the proceeds can be traced.
The same is true of the brokerage account and the jewelry. ”
“And after that?”
“After that, the estate is distributed according to Gloria’s will. There may also be claims arising from Arthur’s conduct as personal representative. Some of those decisions belong to the court, and some may eventually be yours to make.”
“What if I don’t want to pursue him for every dollar?”
Rachel studied her. “You don’t have to decide that today, and I don’t want you giving anything away before we know exactly what happened. My job right now is to protect the estate and make sure Arthur can’t dispose of anything else.”
“I understand.”
Emma looked down at the papers covering Rachel’s desk. A week ago, the numbers might have overwhelmed her. Now they seemed less important than the reason she was sitting there in the first place.
Gloria had been angry with Arthur and frightened by what he was doing, but she had still loved him. Even after everything, she had left him things that mattered to their family. Emma couldn’t believe her grandmother had done that by accident.
“I want the cottage protected,” Emma said. “All I’ve wanted was to stop Arthur from selling it, and I want the court to recognize Gloria’s will. Beyond that, I don’t know if I want to spend the next year trying to take everything from him.”
“There may be consequences that aren’t yours to decide.”