Gone Crazy by Terry Korth Fischer

Author:Terry Korth Fischer [Fischer, Terry Korth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC022000 FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2024-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

“I want to sort Phoebe’s papers,” Esther said. “The lawyer says I need to find her important documents. I brought boxes if you’ll bring them in from the car.”

After retrieving plastic bins from her trunk, Rory stopped in the kitchen. “Can I make a suggestion?” She nodded. “Thacker and Nina can finish going through the books on the library shelves. They will be more respectful than James, and you can ask them to organize those on the floor. Meanwhile, you and I will check the other rooms on this floor.”

She agreed. “I warn you, there are countless rooms, including a formal dining room, pantry, sunroom, casual day room, and a formal living room.”

He sighed. “I suppose every room is stuffed with paper.” He gazed around. “Where do you want to begin?”

“Here in the kitchen,” she said. “If Thacker and Nina finish the library, I think I can tackle the kitchen. But I’ll be the first to admit I can’t work under these conditions. It’s no wonder Phoebe sent her tax papers to me. If I’d seen this mess before I took her on as a client, I wouldn’t have.”

“Are you thinking twice about handling the estate?”

“Nephew James has my dander up. I would tackle this job just to keep him from gloating.”

“Important papers, huh? So how do we sort it out?”

“Separate the wheat from the chaff. Trash, receipts, papers.” After glancing at a few, she picked up a handful and said, “Better make that trash, legal documents, requests, unopened mail, and correspondence. Just toss like items in the same bin. I’ll sort them out later.”

“I think I can manage unopened, legal, and advertising.”

“It’s a place to start.”

Rory found a dolly in the mud room and moved the boxes from the kitchen into the hallway. It helped but not much. Luckily, Esther had coffee ready.

After an hour, they had cleared the table and moved to the serving cart.

Handing the original will to Esther, he said, “This needs to go to Krebs before he can file for probate. If there’s a safe in this house, don’t you think she would have kept this there?”

“Grandma kept her will in the kitchen. She always said that if it were in a safe box, no one would have the key to open it. She got so many questions about the envelope she’d marked “when I’m gone” that she threatened to keep it in the freezer. Naturally, she pooh-poohed the idea that there was anything worth leaving.”

“Freezer, huh?” He stood and crossed to the freezer, opened the door, and rummaged through the contents. It was surprisingly empty, with a few frosted-over ice-cube trays and a package containing Dixie-cup-sized vanilla ice cream. “Is there a deep freeze?”

“Look in the mud room.”

The deep freeze was buried under blankets and old coats. He had to wrestle the lid up. Then leaning in, he worked his way through the freezer-wrapped parcels to the bottom. Knocking the ice off a six-by-nine-inch plastic container that looked odd, he pulled it free. With a thud, the freezer’s lid dropped back to seal the contents in its icy cocoon.

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