Chapter 12 #2
He sighed. “Okay, fine. I can see you’re having a grand old time with this.”
She snorted. “It’s not so much that I’m having fun with it, but I think that local estate lawyer has multiple things to discuss with you. Things definitely feel dodgy, and I’m beginning to have my doubts about him.” She asked, “Could he have something to do with this? I mean, think about it.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Would he have had any idea of all the treasure here for the taking?” she asked.
Nick replied, “Sure. The probate attorney prepares an inventory of the assets to be distributed. Now it’s not detailed.
Instead of noting ten bedroom sets on the second floor, it will just list household furniture.
It may even specify antique. It’s not a robber’s list of every expensive item within the house or the garage. ”
Doreen frowned. “I think that’s the biggest issue for me. With so much of this just literally being cash, anybody could have come in here and just taken it all.”
“Right there,” Nick noted, “is the crux of the matter. A generic entry of cash could include the green stuff as well as the bonds that represent cash. Still, I wouldn’t think that would be clarified on the inventory that is a matter of record with the court.”
“Which means,” Mack shared, “someone couldn’t really tell from the court’s inventory. They would have to know about it firsthand or from someone else who had seen it themselves.”
Doreen nodded. “Exactly, and that is possible, given how much is here. I mean, I know that his right-hand man is in jail, but could Mathew have done all this stashing of getaway cash over time without anybody else knowing?”
“It’s possible, given how paranoid he was,” Nick offered. “There again, most people don’t notice when the cleaning ladies are around or when the gardener is outside the window.” The two brothers shared a look. “Or the caretaker.” Nick shrugged. “I need to talk to the estate attorney, don’t I?”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Do I need to come with you?”
“Nope, you sure don’t,” he stated, with a stern look. “Better in this case that it’s lawyer to lawyer.”
“Good enough,” she conceded. “I really didn’t want to have anything to do with him anyway.”
Nick burst out laughing at that and nodded.
“I can see that’s most likely the case. …
Let me just add in, Mathew’s probate attorney was his estate planner for purposes of the will and related documents.
However, the same guy was his personal attorney for some business-related matters too.
He was the guy Mathew shared things with that he wouldn’t tell his usual business attorney. ”
Doreen sighed. “So what’s new?” she scoffed. “That’s just Mathew being Mathew. Secretive.”
Nick nodded. “So I get tidbits of insight into Mathew from the probate guy. Just saying that I trust him. He’s got info we can’t get from just anybody.”
Doreen nodded. “I get it.”
Nick smiled. “That’s all I’m saying. Besides, you’ve got enough going on here to keep you busy.”
“More than busy,” she grumbled, as she glanced around. “It’s definitely a little on the hairy side right now. Particularly with this additional death.”
“Agreed,” Nick replied.
They all returned to the kitchen, taking a break before another round of police and the coroner and forensics came to Mathew’s house.
The front doorbell rang, sending Mugs into a barking fit again. Mugs would really struggle with that each time. In comparison Thaddeus and Goliath stayed close to Doreen but out of the way.
Doreen found Daniel at the front door, a sneer on his face.
“Another dead body?” he snapped. “You know you will be my usual suspect, right?”
“I didn’t kill anybody, Daniel. Just do your job.”
“I am doing my job, and you are the most likely suspect,” he snapped.
“You haven’t even taken a look at the crime scene, so how can you say that?” Doreen asked, frowning.
“The usual motive for murder is money.” Daniel stared at Doreen.
“Doreen has no greed in her,” Mack stated.
Daniel snorted. “I hear you say that, but a lot of money is involved here.”
Doreen laughed. “I keep telling you, Daniel, that I didn’t kill anybody, that Mathew left me in his will.
So Mathew left me this money. So killing Pete Singer, and now Butch Weldon, didn’t land Mathew’s estate in my name.
Seems you are more taken by Mathew’s money than I ever was.
Regardless, why are you discussing Mathew’s murder, which has already been solved, done, and dusted?
” she asked, staring at him. “That has nothing to do with what happened here.”
“And maybe you did have something to do with that, and maybe the detectives up there closed it very quickly because you were a friend of the police.”
Mack stiffened at that and turned around, looking far less patient and slightly ferocious.
Daniel held up his hand. “Of course I have to look at everything.”
That did not appease Mack. “As will we,” Mack declared.
Smiling, Doreen looked over at Daniel and asked, “Are you done?”
“Why? Will you kick me out?”
“As soon as you’re done, sure,” she declared. “I have seen enough police procedures to understand when someone … oversteps the line.”
“I have every right to be here. We now have two dead men on your property. For the first one, you supposedly weren’t here, but, for the second, you were sleeping right next door.”
Doreen studied him for a long minute, noting how uneasy Daniel was.
“First, you said you were heading up this investigation. We’ve been here for two days now.
Yet you haven’t found who murdered Pete Singer?
You haven’t narrowed down any suspects, other than us, notably me?
Seems slow response times are to be expected in this city.
” Daniel spat out a retort, which she ignored.
“Second, you told us you have cleared us all. Yet you continue to just focus on us as suspects. Why is that, Daniel?”
“Detective Sherwood,” he snapped.
“Three, Daniel, Mack’s captain confirms he nor anyone else in the department was contacted by anyone at all to confirm Mack’s alibi for Pete’s death.
Same with the Merrit restaurant where we had brunch.
Same with the gas station where both Mack and Nick filled up their vehicles.
Same with Rosemoor, where Nan lives, confirming my daily or more visits there. Care to explain to us, Daniel?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he spat.
“But you will to your captain. We’ll give him a call.”
When he huffed but didn’t reply otherwise, she added, with a knowing smile, “I note that you didn’t check any of us—our hands or our clothing—for gunshot residue when investigating Pete Singer’s death.
Didn’t mention it now when investigating Butch Weldon’s death. So is this just police harassment?”
Mack silently moved to stand behind Doreen. Nick soon took his position with them as well.
“My final point,” she added, “is that the servants’ quarters might as well have been a house away, and you know very well that it is a separate structure from the main house.
” Daniel blinked at that, and she nodded.
“You can see for yourself how far that apartment is from where we were sleeping, so to suggest otherwise is just you being testy and trying to get a rise out of me. What bothers me most, yet apparently has gone unnoticed or doesn’t bother you in the least, is the fact that whoever killed him may have had a key to the garage apartment. ”
He stared at her and then asked, “How do you figure?”
“Short of Butch not locking his door at night, the logical question becomes, how did the killer get inside the garage apartment? There is no other way to get up there but through that one door. That door has its own key. It is not a key that works elsewhere on this property.”
“Any idea who might have a key to the apartment?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know anything about this house or that garage apartment anymore. The sooner I am free and clear of this place, the better. Yet, in the meantime, you should be checking Mathew’s former employees. Why haven’t you shared that info with us yet, Daniel? Nick has asked you twice.”
“You are not a part of this investigation,” he snapped.
“No worries,” she quipped, with a smirk. “We’ll get it directly from Mathew’s probate attorney.”
“You can’t just call up a lawyer and demand things,” Daniel snapped.
“I can, as Mathew’s executor of his estate and his sole heir.” She beamed at Daniel, enjoying his discomfort. “Plus Nick is my probate attorney, so he too can ask this of Mathew’s probate attorney.”
“Sure, waste his time,” Daniel muttered, glaring daggers at her. “But, as you said, you have lots of money.”
“I have never said that. This is Mathew’s money.
You keep saying that I have lots of money, enamored as you are by just money,” she clarified.
“As for my payday from Mathew’s estate, that hasn’t happened yet.
So I can’t spend money I don’t even have.
However, the probate attorney will charge the estate for his time and costs involved as this would be deemed a necessary expense, since we can’t get any cooperation out of you. ”
Daniel didn’t say anything at all, just studied her closely. “The dog didn’t wake you up in the night, huh?”
“No, Mugs didn’t, and I would expect that he would wake me up if needed.
However, everyone is exhausted right now, including the animals,” she explained.
“And whether you choose to believe it or not, these animals generally are very good watch animals, but everybody is entitled to a holiday, which is what we thought this would be, by the way. Not necessarily a fun one, more of a working holiday, but it’s turned out to be incredibly stressful instead. ”
“It sounds to me as if you’re doing very well out of it.”
“Wow. You just cannot get your focus off Mathew’s money. Jealous much?”