by Jack Parker
"She certainly had him wrapped around her little finger," Gracie agreed.
"And she began a deliberate campaign to drive a wedge between my brother and me."
"How did she do that?"
"She is an astute judge of people," Meredith said. "She picked up on the tension between us, saw that he was disappointed with me whenever I refused to knuckle under and do things his way and she used that knowledge to her advantage."
"You mean like telling him he was right and you were wrong?" Gracie asked.
"Yup. It wouldn't have taken too long for her to stoke his unconscious feelings of resentment until he truly believed I didn't treat him right and probably didn't love him. She let me know I wasn't welcome in their home. I tried to fight it for a while, but eventually it was just too much for me." Meredith looked into Gracie's eyes. "Gracie, what hurts the most is that he let her do it.
"And he expected you to accept that?" Gracie asked incredulously.
"What really made me distance myself is when he asked me to choose between him and my children." Meredith's face clearly showed the pain of that decision, still raw after all those years.
Gracie simply couldn't believe that anyone would do that. "Do you mean that he asked you in so many words?"
"Of course not," Meredith replied. "Not only did I never do anything to his liking but neither did Jonathan and Marianne. Whenever I'd visit John would always ask about them and then make snide comments about their actions – and especially their inactions. One day I mentioned something Jonathan had done that irritated me, and Robbie began lecturing me on how I should not only tell him he wasn't welcome in my home but I should change the locks. I could not believe she was saying this in front of my brother and fully expected him to tell her she was way out of line. When he didn't say anything I turned to look at him and he was sitting there nodding his head in agreement with her."
Gracie sat there with her cup halfway to her mouth, staring in total disbelief.
Meredith calmly went on. "I'd had enough and started withdrawing from him, not calling or visiting nearly as often. I did keep in touch, calling and seeing him at his office; just not very often. Then there was the Thanksgiving dinner the next year; I was still making some effort to get along with them. I'd brought Marianne and her family – they had two babies by then – because after all, they were his family too. The very next day John called to tell me that he wished I hadn't brought "those babies" because they wore him out."
Gracie set her cup down, untouched. "His own grand-nieces or -nephews weren't welcome in his home," she said as if the statement didn't make any sense.
"I'm sure Robbie was behind it," Meredith said. "He changed when he married her. It's like my brother died then, and not a few months ago."
Gracie glanced at the clock and realized they'd need to be going soon. "So your brother passed away last spring and what – what's this family meeting tonight about? The Will must be in probate, is there some problem with it?"
Meredith sighed. "It's kind of a long story; I'll see if I can hit the highlights. I had to hire a lawyer to get the probate started because Robbie claimed she couldn't find anything but a copy of a Will."
Gracie's eyes bugged in surprise. "A copy? You have to have an original, signed Will, don't you?"
"Absolutely! She sat up there on the witness stand, trying to look old and pathetic, and whined that she'd looked everywhere but just couldn't find an original. She tried to give the judge the copy, but he refused to even look at it. It made a big difference, too. Under the Will Robbie got two-thirds of the Estate and I got one-third. Once John was declared as having died intestate the law says we split it fifty-fifty."
"You've seen the copy of the Will?" At Meredith's nod Gracie continued. "I bet Robbie didn't like that one little bit!" Gracie said, laughing. Um, I don't mean to be nosy, but are you talking about a lot of money?" she asked, clearly hesitant to pry.
"I'm asking for your help, so ask anything you want to. The best I can gather is that there's about $200,000 in the Estate. I won't be able to retire on half of that, but it ain't peanuts either."
"Well, yeah, she lost some money without the real Will," Gracie remarked. "But I'd think a gold-digger would still be pretty happy to get $100K."
"You don't know Robbie," Meredith stated. "First of all she's addicted to shopping. She's got a closet full of clothes, all with accessories and jewelry to match. But she's also got pretentions to be a part of the social set. She keeps joining all these society groups, charities and whatnot. The latest is a bridge club; I think they play for money rather than points and she can always find a use for money. John hated that stuff but I think she assumed his money might buy her way in. It hasn't worked for her yet. Anyway, she applied to the court to be appointed Personal Representative. I wanted the job myself, but my attorney said it wouldn't be worth objecting. And there's a wrinkle."
"Of course," Gracie said.
"John sold his business and put the money in a Trust. Except that apparently his attorney didn't write up the Trust agreement correctly and there's a big question of whether it's valid. If it's not, then the money belongs to the Estate. And that's a cool half-mil."
"And that's what tomorrow's hearing is about?" Gracie asked.
"Yes. In a bizarre twist of fate Robbie and I are on the same side in this. Our attorneys issued a subpoena duces tecum for all the Trust paperwork to Connie Canardi, John's lawyer and - not incidentally - the Trustee. Actually she's not the lawyer that originally wrote the Trust or John's Will, and I'm not even sure she's still practicing. She's fighting it by filing a Motion to Quash. Seems like a funny word for a legal document, 'quash'."
Gracie nodded. "Sounds like she thinks she's got something to lose, all right. So she's got to show up tomorrow and testify?"
Meredith chuckled ruefully. "All those years of watching 'Perry Mason' reruns and I never realized there are two kinds of subpoena. But I was curious and looked it up. 'Subpoena' literally means 'under penalty'. If you don't appear in court then you're in contempt and can go to jail. The 'duces tecum' part is Latin for 'bring it with you'; meaning the item or items listed in the subpoena. In this case, the Trust paperwork."
Gracie frowned in concentration. "But I don't understand," she said. "Why does the family think they need to be there? It sounds like it's something the lawyers and judge need to hash out."
"Well, I'm not so sure of that myself," Meredith admitted. "But Robbie's daughter, Loretta, called me this afternoon to tell me about the family meeting and suggested that I should be there. She indicated it's some kind of strategy session; maybe the attorneys will need their input or approval or something."
"If we're supposed to be there at 5:30 we'd better get going," Gracie said.
Meredith looked at the clock and said, "Oh, you're right! There are complicated legal issues, but I can explain them in the car on the way over."
I'm not a lawyer," Gracie said as she buckled her seatbelt. "I doubt I'll be of any help with the legal stuff."
Meredith smiled at her. "Of course not, that's not why I asked for your help," she said. "There's definitely something not right about all this, and I'm hoping you might pick up on something that could shed some light on it."
"So you'll know better how to handle it," Gracie said.
"Exactly. Let me explain about the problems with the Trust. Robbie is the sole beneficiary. John offered to hold the Note and Mortgage for the man that bought his business. I'm sure he could've gotten a bank loan and paid John in full, but John liked to hold his own notes and I'm guessing that he had the Trust in mind and would rather get payments just in case Robbie found some way to break the Trust. That way she couldn't get her hands on the whole enchilada at once. It's actually the income from the Mortgage that goes into the Trust, and it's got another 20 years to go. After the Trustee's taken her $150 a month fee there should be about $115,000 in the Trust."
"So each monthly payment goes into the Trust," Gracie said. "What's wro
ng with that?"
"On the surface, nothing," Meredith replied. "It's just that as greedy as she is I'm afraid she'll try to claim she owns the whole thing".
"How would she do that?"
Meredith sighed. "I'm not sure. She rarely set foot in his office; she seemed to regard it as a way to get him out of the house as well as a means of providing more money for her. Maybe she could somehow claim some sort of marital rights. I don't know!"
"Have you asked your lawyer about the possibility?" Gracie asked.
"I have, and he said not to worry about it," Meredith told her. For all I know I'm making it up out of whole cloth, but I don't trust her any further than I can throw her. So it's a big hairy mess and we can't get it cleared up until we get all the paperwork and that's why tomorrow's hearing is so important."
Gracie's face took on a thoughtful look. "But if she's the only beneficiary wouldn't she be better off if the Trust is valid?"
"On the surface, yes," Meredith agreed. "To help you understand, I need to give you a little more family history. Robbie has five grown children. Jason Wheeler is her son from her second marriage. He's 30ish and married to Cindy, no children yet. Jason is the kind that perpetually lives beyond his means and is thus always behind on his bills."
"Sounds like my Aunt Jeanine," Gracie muttered.
Meredith, intent on filling Gracie in on the family skeletons, ignored the comment. "Robbie had two children from her first marriage, Charlie Stubblefield and Loretta Logan. Charlie's in his early fifties, married to Karen and they have a daughter with a drug problem. Anyway, Charlie seems to be a nice enough fellow but he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. I don't think he makes a very good living, and it can't be cheap to constantly bail a grown child out of a jam."
Gracie nodded, mentally picturing the family tree.
"Then she inherited two step-children with her second marriage. Ashley Kamp is divorced with two kids; she apparently doesn't have much to do with the family, though she lives here in town and seems to do all right money-wise. Robbie had Ashley appointed Personal Representative in her stead; I don't think any of the others wanted the job. The other step-child Theresa doesn't have anything to do with them. She moved out of the country years ago and I don't think they've heard from her since."
"Okay," Gracie said thoughtfully. "I'm starting to get lost with all the marriages, but I get the picture that both sons could definitely use more money. What about the other daughter? She's the one that told you about the meeting?"
"Yes. Loretta claims she's my friend," Meredith said. "But I don't trust her and try to be very careful what I tell her. It wouldn't surprise me one little bit if she repeated my every word to her mother."
"You think she's a spy?" Gracie asked, laughing a bit.
"Possibly," Meredith said seriously. "She says a lot of horrible things about her mother, even says 'mother' like it's a dirty word. She's the one who's told me most of what I just related about her brothers and sisters. I don't know any of them very well. She seems to be trying to paint a picture of taking my side over Robbie's, and it almost seems over-done if you know what I mean."
"A lot of kids don't like mother's new husband," Gracie commented. "I didn't like Jennifer until I got to know her better after Dad died. Maybe she thinks it'll be some kind of revenge if you get money Robbie wants."
"The only thing that makes me wonder if she's on the level is that she'd told me some of that stuff several years ago," Meredith told her. "But. For all that she says she wants nothing to do with Robbie she seems to have learned her mother's ugly ways."
"Like what?" Gracie asked.
Not long after John married Robbie Loretta began claiming she was tired all the time, couldn't clean the house, didn't feel like going anywhere, that sort of thing. She said was sick, but she never said sick of what. Personally, I think she just wanted attention; maybe her husband wasn't giving her enough. Whatever, she got lots of sympathy with each new activity she couldn't manage. She spent a lot of time in bed and gained quite a bit of weight, claiming it was a side-effect of the meds she took."
"That's a real possibility," Gracie said. "There are some meds that make you gain weight."
"True," Meredith admitted readily. "But then her husband was killed in a car crash, leaving her with not only their son but two children from his previous marriage."
"I am really lost now!" Gracie said, shaking her head back and forth rapidly to indicate confusion.
"Oh, don't worry about them. Loretta's step-kids were bright enough to disown the family and her son apparently only grudgingly accepts Robbie as his grandmother. I don't think any of the grandkids – Jonathan and Marianne included – really care about any of this except that it's important to their parents. The amusing thing was that Loretta suddenly crawled out of that bed, lost the extra weight, and went out and found herself another husband."
Gracie laughed gaily. "Like Mother, like Daughter," she said. "I'll bet the new hubby has money, too."
"Yes, she plays the game better than Robbie does, though he keeled over of a stroke a few years later. Bob was a doctor, he made good money. And Loretta claims that she inherited a million dollars from the previous husband." Meredith's eyes took on a distant look. "I remember John making fun of her when he told me about her second marriage. It's funny, he obviously saw her scheming ways but didn't seem to realize that his own wife had married him for his money."
"Well, that would explain why she's not terribly interested in the money," Gracie commented. "But why are her siblings? Sure they could use it, but it's their mother that will inherit it not them."
"That goes back to the stirring up of shit," Meredith said. "The boys always need money, but it goes deeper than that. Like what she did to my brother and me, she loves to tell one person something to get them all riled up at another person and then sit back and watch the fireworks. I guess it gives her a feeling of being in control in some sick way. Loretta says – and please understand that any time I say that it means I don't necessarily believe it's true – that at various times Robbie has promised each of her kids a chunk of money if they'll do something for her. Therefore the more money Robbie gets out of the Estate, the more money they'll get for doing her bidding. Loretta claims she and Ashley don't accept Robbie's offers, only the boys do. But who knows if that's true."
"Let me guess," Gracie said, eyes twinkling with merriment at the foibles of the 'boys' as the teacher had referred to them. "They haven't yet learned that dear old Mom never comes through on those promises."
"I seriously doubt it! Hope springs eternal, and all that. Though this time the stakes are higher and Robbie actually has the money. Or will have, anyway."
"And the more she gets out of the Estate the more likely she'll actually part with some of it," Gracie finished the thought. "But if Robbie is the sole beneficiary of the Trust why is her attorney fighting to get it declared invalid? She can't be happy about having to split it with you, even if she should try to claim more than her half."
"She'd rather have the cash in hand today than to wait, even if she would've gotten more money in total," Meredith explained. "She's probably drooling at the thought of pissing it all away at the mall. All those new clothes – and maybe a charitable donation– might get her accepted into some social group where a grieving widow just might find a rich widower willing to go to Jared's for a wedding ring."
"Okay, I get it," Gracie said with a smile. "She thinks she can shop her way out of grief and into another marriage and the rest of the Trust funds won't matter until she finds herself still single and broke."
"That's it in a nutshell. Plus the fact that Ms. Canardi, as Trustee, has absolute power to decide how much and when Robbie gets any money. John clearly intended the Trust to provide for the care and feeding of Robbie, knowing she couldn't be trusted with a large sum of money. And Robbie isn't a young woman; she's five years older than John."
"So it's quite possible she won't live long enough to get all the money," G
racie said. Her face took on a thoughtful look. "She's fighting so hard right now to get the Trust thrown out so there are no strings on the money."
"Absolutely," Meredith agreed.
"And her sons are helping her in some way because number one, they think they might actually get some of it and number two, they'll probably eventually inherit their share of the monthly payments if not what's left in the Trust."
"That pretty much sums it up," Meredith said. "And of course it's to my advantage to have the Trust invalidated, because then it'll be ruled Estate property."
Gracie looked thoughtful for a minute. "I've got a Trust," she said. "I can apply to it now for money, but I won't get control until I'm 25. Same for my two brothers. I never thought about a Trust not being valid, what do the lawyers think is the problem?"
"Do you understand that a Trust is a legal entity? Sort of a fictional person?"
"I think so," Gracie said, nodding. "I know it doesn't have anything to do with the Estate."
"And the person who sets up the Trust is a different person, two separate people," Meredith continued.
Again Gracie nodded.
"John signed a mortgage that specified he would get the payments. Now he could endorse the checks over to the Trust or he could cash them and take the cash to the Trustee every month, but who wants to go to all that trouble? But to legally have the checks written to the Trust he would have to assign the mortgage to it. Otherwise the Trust doesn't have the right to take money that belongs to John."
"Ah, and the question is whether he assigned the mortgage or not," Gracie surmised.
It was Meredith's turn to nod. "Well, I timed that right! We're here. I'm not asking you to do anything you feel uncomfortable with, but look around as much as you can and ask just as many questions as you want. I'd prefer this be civil, but they won't be thrilled that I've shown up."
CHAPTER 59
