Four Dog's Sake by Lia Farrell

Author:Lia Farrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th century
Publisher: Camel Press

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sheriff Ben Bradley

Ben ushered the Willis’ family attorney into his office.

“Thanks for coming in, Shane,” he said, noting that the man was more casually dressed today than he had been when they met before. He was wearing khakis and a light-blue collared shirt with the sleeves rolled.

“Not a problem, Sheriff. I’m taking a day off to run some errands—dental appointment, things like that.”

Ben gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Please, call me Ben. And have a seat. How did the reading go?” Shane Connor sat down and Ben pulled his office door shut and went to his own chair. He pulled out a legal pad and pen from his top drawer and looked at Shane expectantly. “Any reactions that surprised you?”

The attorney squinted, looking up for a moment. He seemed to be considering his answer. “Well, let me tell you about the bequests first, okay?” Ben nodded and Shane continued, “The house and contents went to Rick, with the exception of Corinne Willis’ jewelry.” He raised his eyebrows, giving Ben a meaningful look. “All the jewelry went to Brooke Piper. There were some small bequests—ten thousand to the housekeeper, some amounts to various charities and such. The remainder was split fifty/fifty between Brooke and Rick.”

Ten thousand is a small bequest? Ben thought as he wrote down what Shane had told him so far. “What was the total value of Leonard Willis’ estate?”

“Just over three million.” Shane shook his head. “I’d say half of that constitutes quite a motive.”

“It does if you’re aware of it,” Ben answered thoughtfully. “What changes did Leonard make to his will after Chester’s death?”

“In the original will, the house and its contents would have gone to Chester, except for the cars and some of the artwork. That went to Rick.” He smiled. “Chester never cared much about the trappings of wealth, not like Rick. But Leonard wanted Chester to have a nice home, and Rick had his condo already. As I said, the jewelry went to Brooke.” He paused. “In that version, Leonard’s major assets would have been divided three ways between Chester and Rick, with Brooke receiving just the jewelry.

“In the will he wrote after Chester’s death, the division was half and half between Rick and Brooke, except Rick got the house and contents other than jewelry.”

“So both Brooke and Rick gained a substantial amount because of Chester’s death. Who was there for the reading, besides Brooke and Rick?”

“Meredith Flynn and the housekeeper, Marina Hernandez. Four people.”

Now they were getting to the body language of the people in the room. Ben put his pen down and focused on Shane. “How would you characterize Rick’s reaction to the news that Brooke Piper was getting so much of the estate?”

“He was angry. Meredith kept squeezing his hand. He started to say something—sounded like ‘gold digger’—and she actually bent one of Rick’s fingers back a little bit. It was kind of funny. She never said a word, and her face was expressionless.” He paused. “No, I almost forgot; she frowned after I read that the jewelry went to Brooke.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.