Chapter 19 #2
“That’s good,” she noted, “because we should bring it home for you.” When he looked at her, she shrugged. “Remember that we don’t have any furniture at my home.”
“And you had Scott keep it aside for me?” he asked in shock.
“Sure. Scott pointed it out, to be honest. You are a big man, and these chairs were built for you.”
At that, Nick walked over and ousted his brother, and stated, “I want a chance to sit in a real chair.”
When he also collapsed into the chair, the groan and the expression of peace on his face made Doreen smile. “There are two of these chairs. So maybe Nick should have one of them.” He opened his eyes, looked at her hopefully, and she nodded. “I mean, they’re just chairs, right?”
“They are just chairs,” Scott repeated, with a mix of envy in his tone, “but that pair is worth twenty thousand at least.”
Nick hopped out, looked down at the chair, then back at her. “What? Ten thousand for one easy chair?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, that would be Mathew, and frankly they are probably some of the least expensive ones here.”
“Is there a reason why you didn’t take them with the rest of it?” Mack asked Scott.
“They’re starting to show a little bit of wear,” he admitted, “and the style isn’t as over-the-top as a lot of it. So, when I mentioned to Doreen that they were about your size, she wanted to keep them.”
Mack leaned over, kissed her with a loud buss on the cheek, and declared, “Thank you. This I will happily accept.”
“And what about me?” Nick asked, his gaze going from one to the other in mock horror.
“The matching chair is already in the foyer, which I’m saving for Doreen,” Scott shared. “So there will be one for each of you.”
The brothers just beamed.
“See? Now the chairs, the booze, and the TVs all made it worthwhile to come down with me, didn’t it?” she teased. The two men just stared at her, and she added, “Pack up the booze that you two will drink because I sure won’t.”
They walked over and got into a discussion about that. “We’ll need boxes for these,” Mack said, rubbing his hands together.
She laughed. “There might be a box or two left around here. I don’t know. Otherwise we’ll have to go out and get some.” When the doorbell rang, she groaned. “With our luck, that’ll be the detective.”
“Probably,” Mack agreed. “At least it won’t be Daniel coming here.”
She told Scott, “You can leave the man cave using this lever on the side. I’ll close it as we leave. Somehow it makes me happy to think of keeping the detective’s nose out of at least some of my business.”
And, with that, the three of them stepped out, leaving Scott still chuckling in the man cave. She headed to the front door, and, sure enough, it was Detective Clark.
“Sorry,” she shrugged. “It’s a huge house, and we are working in here. Thus it can take a while to get to the front door.”
He shrugged and stepped inside.
“I presume you have more questions,” she stated, standing in his way, so he couldn’t just walk through the house.
“It’s not that I have more questions but more observations. We’ve been canvassing the neighbors.”
She looked at him with interest. “And?”
“Apparently, one of the neighbors saw a man and a woman around the house in the last couple days.”
“That could well have been us,” she stated, with a steady look.
“She also saw them here well before the timeline you provided.”
She nodded. “Speak to Jefferson, the personal security guard for the Smithsons next door. He met us the first moment we arrived, telling us about a man and a woman seen trespassing on Mathew’s property.”
Clark made a notation of that.
Mack stepped up behind her and asked, “I know that Daniel didn’t confirm our alibis, but have you had a chance to do so?”
Clark nodded. “Yes, we have. I’ll follow up with Jefferson and the Smithsons.”
Doreen nodded. “Thank you. After all it would make sense that these two dead guys have wives or girlfriends or moms or sisters. They might be in town, wondering how the investigation is going as well.”
Clark nodded.
Nick interjected, “I spoke with the probate lawyer who’s been handling Mathew’s affairs.
He did say a woman contacted him, asking when the estate would be settled.
He told her it already was settled and if they hadn’t been contacted, there was nothing for them.
He shared with me that she appeared to be shocked and angry about it.
” He turned to Doreen. “That was a great idea of yours to check. Sorry, I got distracted and didn’t fill you guys in. ”
“That’s okay,” she said. “At least you asked, and at least now we know somebody out there expected to be in the will.”
“I’ll need the name of that probate attorney, to get the name of that woman.” Nick immediately handed him a card for the local one. “Any chance Mathew’s will could be contested then?” Clark asked.
“Oh no, there won’t be any contesting it,” Nick declared. “We have a very locked-down case.”
“But I understand Doreen and Mathew were separated and in the middle of a divorce.”
“It was not a legal separation, and the divorce hadn’t been finalized,” Doreen cheerfully told him.
He frowned at that, and she nodded. “Everything goes to me per Mathew’s latest will.
After the will was drafted, he never made any changes, not months later, not even replacing my name with Robin’s, which surprised me. ”
“Who’s Robin?” Detective Clark asked.
Doreen sighed. “She was my husband’s girlfriend, the woman he hooked up with even before dumping me,” she shared, “and thereafter they broke up in a very ugly way.”
“Of course they did. Money seems to do that to people,” he said, glancing around, frowning.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“You already got everything moved out?”
“We sure did,” she confirmed. “How am I supposed to sell the place when it’s overstuffed with all that massive furniture?”
He didn’t say anything, but his gaze sharpened. It seemed he didn’t quite know what else to ask.
“Not to mention we did find a dead guy in the onion patch.”
“Onion patch?” He now stared at her.
She nodded. “Yeah, the Vidalias in the greenhouse.”
He stared at her suspiciously. “I know you lived here and all, but how do you know it’s onions?”
“Because I planted that garden bed, and I specifically chose Vidalias,” she explained to the newest detective assigned to investigate these two murders.
“I was married to Mathew for well over a decade, where we both lived in this house, his house. I enjoyed gardening, so the greenhouse was my happy place.”
Mack instantly corrected her, “It is your house now.”
“Right,” she agreed, “thanks for the reminder.” She smiled sweetly at Mack.
“What happened to the girlfriend?” Clark asked.
“She’s dead,” Doreen noted. “We explained it all to Daniel, but maybe we haven’t mentioned it to you.
Both my estranged husband and his girlfriend were killed, separately.
Mathew was murdered in Kelowna. His murderer has been found and is in prison.
I thought Daniel had requested those files, as additional insights into his investigation into these two latest murders? ” Doreen asked, frowning.
Detective Clark shook his head. “No, … he did not.” Clark noted, “An awful lot of dead people are found around you.”
“Yeah, it goes with the territory.” When he frowned at that, she sighed. “Oh, you probably don’t know that either. I help the Kelowna police by solving cold cases. Thus I’m always dealing with people and murderers and dead bodies.”
Clark’s eyes widened in shock, and he turned to Mack for confirmation, who nodded.