Gracie Greene Mystery Box Set

by Jack Parker

  Gracie spoke up, pretending to know more about the legal issues than she really did. "If the Trust isn't legally funded then she not only loses control, but she won't get her monthly fee anymore."

  "Oh, pooh, what's a hundred and fifty dollars to someone who used to be a fancy lawyer?" Charlie said derisively.

  "No one turns down money," Gracie said. "Especially when all she's had to do to earn it so far is deposit one check every month."

  Charlie couldn't help grinning. "Good work, if you can get it."

  "But if the Trust is invalid, wouldn't she have to re-pay all those back fees?" Cindy asked.

  "I'd think so," Gracie replied, though she really had no idea. "If I may ask, how much are we talking about?"

  "Roughly 6K," Ashley said. "I wouldn't want to have to give that much money back!"

  "Mrs. Redmond," Gracie said. "Have you spoken to her about drawing out any of the Trust funds?"

  Robbie eyed Gracie as if she were some species of repugnant toad. "Let's just say I haven't got any money yet."

  "That's because she's taken it all," Loretta said with certainty.

  "So there are three possibilities here," Gracie told the group.

  "Three?" Cindy asked.

  "Three," Gracie assured her. "Number one, she's embezzling and doesn't want to get caught. Easy enough to understand! Number two, there is no assignment of the mortgage and she stands to lose an easy hundred and fifty bucks a month, plus back fees. Not to mention the professional embarrassment when it comes out that she's screwed it up. Number three, what if she invested the money in some bad stocks and it's seriously lost value?"

  "I hadn't considered that," Cindy said thoughtfully. "I can see that she wouldn't want Robbie to know about that, even if it was an honest mistake."

  Everyone nodded their heads, but said nothing. Gracie realized that in spite of Ashley's office as Personal Representative she herself had become the default leader of this disparate group. She could understand that Meredith would neither want the job nor be accepted while Jason and Charlie didn't seem to have the nerve. Loretta was so flighty that her siblings probably wouldn't allow her to run the show. What puzzled her was why Robbie would sit back and let a perfect stranger lead them. "So the question is, what do you do if the judge rules in favor of Ms. Canardi?" she asked.

  "We sue her!" Loretta cried.

  "We try again, with some different legal thing," Ashley suggested.

  "We talk to our lawyers and see what they suggest," Meredith said.

  Gracie looked from one to another of the assembled faces. "What do you think, Mrs. Redmond? After all, it's your money."

  "That's exactly right," Robbie said. "It's my money. I don't know what everyone's so worried about; either way I'll get it. It just remains to be seen whether it comes from the Trust or the Estate. And I really would like to get that figured out because I could use more money." She picked up her cup to find it empty. "Loretta, get me another one."

  Loretta jumped up like a trained dog to take Robbie's empty cup.

  Gracie sighed loudly. "But Mrs. Redmond, if you'll pardon me, there must be some reason she hasn't released any funds to you yet. It's been nearly six months!"

  "It's just a matter of paperwork, young lady," Robbie said. "I, ah…achoo!" She grabbed another tissue to blow her nose. "Oh, I hope I don't get pneumonia! I just haven't filled out all the papers yet. You'll see, it'll all turn out okay one way or another."

  "But Mother, what if it doesn't?" Charlie inquired.

  "We just want to see you happy," Jason told her. "You don't need to be worrying about all this."

  Robbie shrugged and accepted her coffee from Loretta without a word of thanks.

  "Well, it sounds to me like you should wait and see what happens tomorrow at the hearing," Gracie told them. "We could sit here all night discussing possibilities, and still not figure it out. After all, the woman can't sit on that Trust forever! At some point she's got to do something with it."

  "Well, thank you for that good advice," Charlie sneered. "Golly gee, we couldn't have figured that one out on our own. You're just hoping the money goes to the Estate so your friend will get some."

  Gracie repressed another sigh with an effort. "I'd like to see this family start acting like one! I'm sorry my friend wasted her time here tonight because quite frankly I don't see what there was to discuss. It's a legal issue, and none of us here are lawyers. Mrs. Redmond – who is the only beneficiary to the Trust – seems more concerned about when she'll get the money than where it actually comes from. So I repeat: wait and see what the judge says tomorrow. Then if you don't like it, talk to your lawyers; that's what you pay them for."

  Meredith rose from her chair and set her cup on the table. "I think Gracie has put it quite nicely. Although she did get one thing wrong; I didn't waste my time because I finally got a few of John's things. What little you haven't already given away, sold on CraigsList, or just plain thrown away. I thank you for that. Robbie, I hope you get over your cold soon. Guess I'll see everybody in court tomorrow."

  Meredith walked out, leaving Gracie to hurriedly mumble 'good night' and follow.

  Loretta jumped up and caught up with them at the front door. "I'll see you to your car."

  As soon as the door closed behind them Loretta's attitude changed. "Meredith, I'm sorry things didn't go so well. Mother's being a real bitch over this."

  "And I should've maybe expected something different?" inquired Meredith.

  "Obviously she didn't want you to know this, but I don't think she's really had any contact with Ms. Canardi," Loretta said. "She told me that her calls always go straight to voice mail, and the woman never returns them. She's written letters, too, and still hasn't heard from her."

  "Then why would she say it's just a matter of filling out the right papers?" Meredith asked.

  "Oh, you know Mother, she's just bluffing. She wouldn't know the truth if it bit her in the backside." Loretta actually giggled at the slightly rude metaphor.

  "Well, it'll all come out in the wash," Meredith said. "Thanks for inviting me, it was interesting."

  "Just like that ancient Chinese curse 'May you live in interesting times'," Loretta said as they got in the car.

  * * * *

  Gracie helped Meredith carry in the paper bags and the pizza they'd picked up on the way back to the teacher's house. Meredith had been quiet on the way home and Gracie had respected that. Gracie laid slices of pizza on paper towels and Meredith came in with drinks – water for Gracie and a beer for herself.

  "So, what'd you think, Gracie?" Meredith asked.

  "Highly dysfunctional family," Gracie mumbled around a mouthful of pizza.

  "You got that right," Meredith agreed.

  Gracie waved in the general direction of the paper bags sitting on a spare chair at the dining table. "Is that really the only things of your brother's that you've gotten?"

  Meredith took a long pull of her beer. "The only things from the house," she replied. "Don't tell any of them, but a family friend, Fred Matheson, has given me several big boxes of things that came out of John's office."

  "But I thought your brother sold the business," Gracie said in confusion.

  "He did. But he didn't know what to do with the things he'd kept at the office, and I don't think he wanted Robbie to get her hands on any of it, so he packed it all up and dumped it in Fred's garage. Fred said John spent hours going through it all, though he didn't throw much of it away. Apparently he just wanted an excuse to get out of the house and away from Robbie."

  "Makes you wonder why he stayed married to her," Gracie mused.

  "Does, doesn't it? John was always a work-a-holic, and I think he just wanted a wife for company and maid service. It really bothers me that he couldn't stand up to her so in a way he got what he deserved, sad to say. Besides, I think he was always happier at least pretending to be at work."

  "If he couldn't tell her that she should respect his sister I'd guess there were lots of
other things she got away with, too," Gracie said.

  "The big one was the clothes. She always dressed well and kept her appearance up, and that doesn't come cheap. From little things John said I suspected Robbie might have a problem, but it was Loretta who told me the true extent of it."

  "But you said she quit her job, so where'd she get the money to shop with?" Gracie asked.

  "John gave her some," Meredith replied. "She wanted to go to New York City for their honeymoon, and he gave her $500 to blow. She ran through that like water and asked for more."

  Gracie's laugh had an ironic tone. "Of course he gave it to her. They were on their honeymoon and he wanted her to enjoy herself."

  "Yup. She threw away a grand total of two grand on that trip. Periodically John would get angry with her and take her name off the bank accounts. But she'd whine and pout and promise to be a good little girl and sweet-talk him into putting her name back on again. She borrowed money from the neighbors, no doubt giving them some hard-luck story; when she'd spent it all she resorted to taking them to the grocery store and on other errands, telling John it was her Christian duty to help the elderly or some such."

  "I wonder how much she spent all told," Gracie commented.

  "Who knows?" Meredith asked rhetorically. "Fred mentioned that a few years ago John was trying to put together a large sum of money, but he didn't know why. I suspected it had something to do with Robbie so I asked Loretta about Robbie's debts in general and she filled in the blanks. Robbie owed $20K to somebody – more likely several shady somebodies with money to loan at usurious interest rates – who naturally wanted their money back. They were unsecured IOUs so all they could really do was harass them about it."

  "Don't tell me your brother paid that debt!" Gracie said, shocked.

  "He decided he didn't want his wife's name besmirched and paid in full."

  "I bet that was one of the times he'd cut her off the bank account."

  "I hope so. But I do know that after that she racked up another $20K worth of bad checks - and I'll bet you money they were all written to stores at the mall!" Meredith said.

  "And I suppose he meekly paid that debt, too."

  "No, this time apparently he'd had enough," Meredith told her. "The bank account had been in her name and the District Attorney's office duly sued her and won, but she'll never repay it."

  Gracie shook her head rapidly at the large sums of money. "It's a wonder there's anything left in his Estate."

  "That's exactly why he put the money from the mortgage into a Trust. He knew she would spend it all otherwise, and wanted to be sure she had money to live on after he was gone. And that damn Canardi lied to me about the Trust."

  CHAPTER 61

  Thursday

  "Lied?" Gracie asked. "You said she refused to give you a copy, so how do you know she lied?"

  "First of all she told me I had no right to a copy because I wasn't a beneficiary. When I insisted she put the onus on John," Meredith said. "She had the gall to tell me 'John said not to let you see the Trust agreement'. Eventually it came out in the court documents on-line and I discovered I'm a residual beneficiary; when Robbie dies four of her five kids and I split the remainder equally."

  "So why did she say you weren't a beneficiary?" Gracie wanted to know.

  "And why would John tell her not to let me see the document?" Meredith asked, with pain in her voice. "If he'd decided to cut me out, how much more could it hurt? Of course that's what I thought at the time, based on what that shyster said."

  Gracie furrowed her brow in thought for a moment. "Do you really think Ms. Canardi is embezzling?"

  "It's entirely possible," Meredith said. "But the points you made are equally possible. We just won't know until we get all the papers and go through them. And honestly I was surprised there was anything left in the bank. Not because of the debts because I didn't know about them until after John died. It was something Canardi said to me."

  "What?"

  "I'm sorry, Gracie, I know this is a lot to absorb all at once. This is another long story."

  Gracie grabbed another piece of pizza and said, "Go ahead."

  "John did well with his business, but he was always investing in things. Mind you, they had nothing to do with his business; he wasn't one to put all his eggs in one basket. But he always thought he'd made the deal of the century and would make a killing when he sold."

  "Why do I get the idea that it never quite worked that way?" Gracie asked, giggling.

  "Because it wouldn't be much of a story if it had really worked!" Meredith replied with a wry grin. "Not everything bombed, but on the other hand he never made the fortune he thought he would. In the early 80's he bought a prop model of the Millennium Falcon from 'Star Wars' for a thousand dollars. I saw it; it came in a Plexiglas case and had a Certificate of Authenticity. The movies were really big at that time, but he waited too long to try to sell it. And when he did he found out that it was a fake!"

  "You mean he didn't check it out before he paid that much money?" Gracie asked.

  "He was a trusting soul, didn't think he needed to," Meredith explained. "He never gave up, though. Right after he married Robbie he bought her a race horse!"

  "Because he thought she'd like to be part of the racing set society? Gracie hazarded a guess.

  "I guess so. Maybe he thought the prize money would cover the cost of her clothes though of course he didn't tell me that, only claimed that she liked horses," Meredith said. "'Daddy's Girl' was a pretty filly, but she had four left feet. She never won a single race, though he actually made some money when he sold her because she came from a good breeding line."

  "Was there anything your brother wouldn't buy?" Gracie asked, laughing.

  "I don't think so!" Meredith answered. "But I've gotten off-track (pun intended). About 20 years ago John decided to invest in real estate."

  Gracie snickered at the pun. "You mean houses?"

  "No, he only sold houses when he changed wives. Said he couldn't stand to live in a place full of memories. He started out looking for unimproved land. I remember he quoted Mark Twain as saying, 'Buy land, they don't make it anymore.'"

  Gracie laughed convulsively, and quickly covered her mouth to avoid spraying pizza everywhere.

  "But he couldn't find anything he thought would be profitable so he turned his attention to an old warehouse. It looked like a good deal. It had paying tenants and was only being sold because of a probate case."

  "Hah! How appropriate," Gracie remarked.

  "Now, maybe. The owner had died and his kids lived out of state. They couldn't really run the place and probably didn't even want to try," Meredith explained. "But it was an old place, it needed so many repairs that it wasn't long before the rent didn't cover them. John offered to lower the rent if the tenants would stay on with minimal repairs, but they cancelled the contract."

  "Couldn't he get new tenants at the lower rate?" Gracie asked.

  "He tried, but no one rented it; so he decided to sell it. Except he did it himself; he said he didn't believe in realtors, they took your money and didn't do anything for you."

  "But they do!" Gracie insisted. "They advertise and look for buyers, and they take care of inspections and forms and make sure everything's done legally. Jennifer told me how much work they did for her when she sold Dad's house."

  "Exactly. But John didn't see it that way. He thought he could do it all on a handshake basis and sign a preformatted deed. Part of that 'trusting soul' thing. It took him awhile but he did finally unload it, though he barely got his original purchase price. Which brings us to the Jags."

  "Jags?" Gracie asked.

  "Jaguar XKEs," Meredith explained. "Foreign sports cars. Sex on wheels! They look like they're doing 150 mph just sitting in the driveway. John bought a 'matched pair'; a coupe and a roadster, both British Racing Green."

  "Did you get to drive one?"

  "Better than that, I owned one! John put the roadster in my name, though he cauti
oned me not to drive it too much. The plan was to keep them a few years and sell them at a huge profit."

  "Can you do that with old cars?" Gracie asked uncertainly.

  "You can if you know what you're doing," Meredith replied. "You have to take good care of them, keep them in good running condition, keep 'em in the garage. He told me he'd pay for any repairs or checkups as long as I didn't wreck the car."

  Gracie laughed. "Didn't that make you nervous driving it?"

  "Not at first. I was younger, I thought I was a great driver." Meredith eyed Gracie hesitantly. "I hate to sound like an old lady, but I think all young people believe they're good drivers. It's the other guys that can't drive! It's only after we've been driving awhile that we realize just how easy it is to let your concentration lapse or assume that truck won't suddenly whip into your lane."

  Gracie winced, but didn't say anything. She did think she was a good driver; perhaps she should think about what the teacher had just said.

  "Besides, my part of the deal was to pay for the insurance. I had to, really, since the title was in my name. But when expensive foreign sports cars, especially convertibles, age to the point of becoming 'classics' the insurance goes up. At some point you actually buy insurance by the mile."

  "Huh? How does that work?" Gracie asked.

  "You pay your premium for a certain amount of miles," Meredith explained. "It doesn't matter how long it takes you to use the mileage, but when you do you pay another premium. The 'new' had long since worn off driving the car, and it was getting expensive so I left it in the garage most of the time. Oh, I'd take it out on a pretty day and drive around the lake, because letting an old car sit isn't good for them either."

  Gracie frowned in thought. "It sounds like you had the car a long time. Why didn't you sell it before it got to that point?"

  Meredith rolled her eyes. "Because John assured me he was actively trying to sell the cars. But, like the warehouse, he was trying to do it himself and he didn't have any connections with car buffs. Plus he was trying to sell them as a pair, and most car guys can't afford to buy more than one. Every few years he'd call me saying there was someone interested, but somehow the deal always evaporated; no one even came to look at mine."