Ferris' Bluff by Fred Limberg

Author:Fred Limberg [Limberg, Fred]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Fred Limberg
Published: 2011-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Ace hoped Annie didn’t recognize the deer in the headlights look he surely had on his face. “Arleigh Evenson?”

Annie held up the sheaf of papers. “The last will and testament of Master Chief Granville Tubbs, USN, retired, of Garland County, Arkansas.”

“I told you I thought there was a copy in the safe,” Val said from the floor.

Ace remembered. Truth was he’d wanted to get some time alone in the office to look it over on his own, but between Annie and Val virtually living in the office, Lowell Mercer, Sheriff Davis, Reena Tremont, and half of Ferris’ Bluff calling about broken crap he hadn’t had a chance.

“I know you did.” He handed Val a Coke and set Annie’s on the desk before taking a seat across from her. “So what’s it say?”

“Once I get through the legalese it looks pretty simple. Tubbs is leaving all his earthly possessions to someone named Arleigh Chester Evenson, except for a ten acre mineral deed to a property in Saline County, which he leaves to Valerie Travers.” Annie looked over and smiled at her daughter.

Ace took on a thoughtful pose. “So all we have to do is find this Argyle Evanston.”

“Arleigh Evenson,” Annie corrected him. “Okay, this has to be the same will Tremont has, and there’s no mention of him anywhere in it. You’ve known Granny forever. Haven’t you ever met this guy or heard about him?”

Ace pretended to be searching his memory and shook his head. “Nope,” he said and quickly tried to steer the conversation in a safer direction. “Didn’t Tremont draw it up?”

“Nope.” Annie shook her head and rifled through the pages. “It looks like it was drawn up twenty-five years ago. The part about Valerie was written in pen, in longhand at the bottom of the last page, signed and dated…let’s see, just over a year ago, and witnessed by Delmon Leets.” She looked over at Ace. “No Tremont anywhere.”

Val was struggling with her wheelchair. Ace stepped over and lifted her into it easily, earning a thank you and a smile. She’d been doing that more lately.

“We need to talk to Mordy Steenman.”

Annie patted the phone on the desk. “I’ve already got a call into him. If the State Police are calling Charlie’s death a murder now, it might make a difference with the insurance. We can ask him about this too.”

Ace nodded. “Good thinking.”

“But why is Harlan Tremont keeping a vigil over Tubbs?” Annie mused, almost to herself.

“If I wasn’t so broke I’d bet you a hundred dollars there’s a spanking new will in Tremont’s briefcase,” Ace said, the thoughtful look back. “It will be easier for him. If Tubbs wakes up, and Frenchy says he keeps getting better, by the way, Tremont will have a pen in the old guy’s hand before he even calls a nurse.”

“Easier?”

“If Tubbs dies without waking up, Tremont’s some kind of distant kin, according to Leets.”

Val raised her hand like she was in class. “But what about this Evenson guy? I mean, Mister Tubbs left everything to him.

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