Finishing Touches

by Patricia Scanlan

  David Williams had been glaring at her throughout the funeral but she had just ignored him. Rather than put her off, his macho behaviour had only increased her interest. Although she was furious with him and hated him, she couldn’t forget the way his eyes blazed with fury the day of the row and how he ordered Ian to let Cassie go. Oh, to have a man act like that for her. And Ian, the wimp, did as he was told and never said boo.

  Barbara didn’t know if it were due to her hormones going awry in the ninth month of her pregnancy, but all she could think about was sex. And not with her husband. Oh no! Ian was a dead duck as far as sex was concerned. When she went to bed at night she had the wildest fantasies of David Williams taking her by force, as she cursed and struggled with him and finally surrendered to his passion. For the first time in her life Barbara was having a wonderful sex life . . . except that, unfortunately, it was all in her mind.

  Aileen and Laura sat in the kitchen they both remembered so well from their schoolgirl days. Cassie was talking to relatives, John was talking to David, and of Barbara and Martin and Jean there was no sign.

  ‘She’s a bad bitch, isn’t she, not to come home on the day of her mother’s funeral!’ Laura said in disgust.

  ‘I wouldn’t expect any better from her. How she survived so long without someone socking her in the jaw, I don’t know!’ Aileen sipped her tea and stretched out her legs. ‘I wish I’d been there to see it! Barbara with a bloody nose would have been a sight for sore eyes.’

  ‘Shhh,’ whispered Laura, ‘Cassie was very upset about it.’

  ‘More fool her! I hope she gave her a kick in the ass, too!’ Aileen muttered.

  ‘Cassie looks awful, doesn’t she? I hope she takes a break before going back to work,’ Laura mused. ‘I’ll miss her when she goes back to Liverpool.’

  ‘Is she going to go back?’ Aileen asked. ‘I didn’t get much time to talk to her. I only got here this morning.’

  ‘I think she will. Her house is there.’

  ‘David’s here,’ Aileen murmured.

  ‘True,’ Laura nodded. ‘I’d forgotten all about that. I wonder what she’ll do.’

  ‘Well, she’ll have to get the will settled and out of the way first, I’d imagine. I hope every t is crossed and i dotted, especially with the likes of Barbara. You know the troubles wills can cause,’ Aileen whispered, as a neighbour came within earshot.

  ‘Tell me about it!’ grimaced Laura. ‘I’m a solicitor!’

  Forty-Seven

  ‘Oh my God! The fat’s in the fire now!’ Cassie muttered in shock, as she read the document in front of her. It was a copy of her mother’s will that had just arrived in the morning’s post. No doubt the rest of the members of the family had got a copy too. Barbara wouldn’t be one bit happy when she read it! Sighing, Cassie went to phone David and tell him the news.

  John came in for his breakfast and saw the letter propped up on the mantelpiece. Karen was dishing up rashers and sausages and John was starving. He’d been in the glasshouses since six o’clock. ‘What’s this?’ he asked cheerfully, planting a kiss on his wife’s cheek.

  ‘I didn’t open it. It’s addressed to you,’ Karen smiled. ‘And if it’s a bill, it’s definitely nothing to do with me!’

  John read the letter and document in silence and a big grin spread across his face. ‘Good girl, Mam! Here, Karen, read this. Barbara will go bananas!’

  Irene was doing her last-minute packing. She was flying back to Washington early the following day and Cassie had been really kind and brought her up her breakfast in bed. There had been a letter on the tray and Cassie had explained that she had received an identical letter. It was a copy of their mother’s will. With tears in her eyes, Irene read Nora’s last will and testament. She felt a bit hurt. She had always thought she was Nora’s pet, but it was Cassie who was being favoured in the will. Well, at least, Cassie would always make sure Irene had a home, so maybe it wasn’t the worst thing to happen. All the same, it wasn’t what she had expected of her mother. Irene felt quite disappointed.

  ‘Well, honestly, Martin, were you expecting this!’ Jean pointed a perfectly manicured finger nail at the section of the document that had been totally unexpected. ‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’ his wife pressed.

  ‘I don’t know. I’ll have to see what the others have to say first,’ Martin growled. He hoped his wife wasn’t going to start nagging. She was three months pregnant and got a bit hyper sometimes. He just had to be careful of her. Jean was a delicate little thing, easily upset, and she had never got over that incident when Cassie had ordered her out of the house during the spat with Barbara.

  ‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to ring Barbara. I bet she’ll have something to say about this!’ Jean declared.

  ‘The sneaky cow!’ Barbara shrieked as she read a copy of the same document in her home in Malahide. Upstairs her new baby son howled, wanting to be fed. Barbara was oblivious of him.

  She waved it under her husband’s nose. ‘Look at the date of that will, February 1985. I remember, that was just after Mam came home from staying with that sly bitch in Liverpool. It’s obvious that she put pressure on Mam to change her will. Well, by God, she’s done it now! She’s not going to diddle the rest of us out of what is rightfully ours. Oh the hypocrite. Miss Goody Bloody Two-Shoes! I knew she’d pull a stunt like this. I just knew it! Well, she’s not getting away with it. If I have to drag her through every court in the land, I will. She got away with assaulting me but she’s gone too far this time!’ Barbara was so overcome with emotion she burst into tears, much to Ian’s dismay. He hated it when women got emotional!

  ‘Mam’s left the house to me, David! She made a new will that nobody knew about after her heart attack. In her old will the house and farm were to be sold and the money was to be divided equally between us all. Now I get a share of the farm and the house. She said it was because I was the one who always took care of her. Oh David—’ Cassie started to cry. When she thought of all the times she had felt so resentful of her mother for being the cause of her having to give up her lovely life. When she thought of the times she had yelled at her during her illness and not been as gentle as she might have been because she was tired and stressed, Cassie felt overcome with guilt. Now, as a reward, her mother had left her the house, which was worth sixty thousand pounds or more.

  She couldn’t quite believe that her mother was dead. At night, Cassie still slept lightly, waking often, listening for her mother and then remembering that she was gone.

  It was strange having time to herself. She had been wired up for so long, looking after Nora, that she didn’t know what to do with herself. So she began a frenzy of housework, much to David’s annoyance; he was trying to get her to relax now that she had the chance.

  She was going through Nora’s personal possessions and they brought back heartbreaking memories. Although Cassie knew that for her mother death was a merciful release, it didn’t stop her grieving. She comforted herself with the memory that at least Nora had known her for that one brief moment to say goodbye. The rest of her siblings had not been so blessed. Nora had thought so much of her that she had left the house to her. Cassie was deeply touched, not at the material gain, but at the thought behind it.

  Knowing the dissent it would cause, she would have been just as happy to go by the original will.

  ‘You’ll do no such thing, Cassie Jordan!’ David exclaimed, when he heard Cassie say that for the sake of peace and family harmony she was proposing to abide by the terms of the original will.

  ‘Your mother must have had some premonition of the sacrifices you were going to have to make and this is her way of making it up to you. Your mother is giving you the chance to reclaim your life. Sell the house, use the money to do something you’ve always wanted to do. Grab this chance with both hands, Cassie, and make her smile in heaven!’ David argued passionately, holding her very close.

  She raised her face to his and said, ‘I love you
so much, David. You’ll never know how much.’

  ‘If you love me, then accept your mother’s will in the spirit it was made. After all, it was what she wanted,’ he advised.

  John said exactly the same, as did Laura and Aileen. Irene told her to do what she thought was best, which was no help. Martin said he wasn’t happy about it and wanted to talk to her and Barbara sent a solicitor’s letter stating her conviction that the will was null and void due to the mental incapacity of her mother and that if Cassie were not prepared to accept the terms of the first will, Barbara would see her in court.

  Forty-Eight

  ‘How would you describe your mother’s state of mind when she came to stay with you after her heart attack?’ The barrister who was questioning Cassie on Barbara’s behalf smiled suavely at her.

  ‘She was tired. She had hated hospital, but once she started getting back on her feet we had some good laughs, and I think she enjoyed her stay with me very much.’ Cassie said quietly, facing her tormentor.

  ‘Did you notice memory loss?’

  Cassie sighed. ‘Well, it wasn’t something I was really aware of at the time, but looking back, yes, my mother’s memory was not as good as it had been. I had to give her a little map when she went down the High Street, and she was cooking a dinner once and forgot about it and burnt the saucepan.’

  ‘So you would agree, Miss Jordan, that your mother had Alzheimer’s disease at that point.’

  ‘I would say,’ said Cassie, ‘that my mother was in the early stages of the disease, yes, but that she was by no means incapacitated.’

  ‘My question was: had your mother got Alzheimer’s disease when she was with you in December 1984 and January 1985. Yes or no!’ he shot back.

  ‘Yes,’ Cassie said, lifting her chin and staring the obnoxious man straight in the eye.

  Facing her, Barbara smiled triumphantly. On the same bench, Jean and Martin stared stonily ahead. Glancing a little to Barbara’s left, she saw John and David sitting together. David gave her an encouraging wink and she knew that whatever happened here, he and John would be waiting for her. It was because of them that she was sitting here today fighting for her mother’s wishes, although, if Nora had known the family was going to be so bitterly divided, maybe she would have left things as they were.

  ‘I will repeat the question!’ the barrister barked, as Cassie forced her thoughts back to the present moment. ‘Would you say your mother was more suggestible than usual during the period when she was staying with you immediately after her heart attack?’

  ‘I wouldn’t ever say Mam was suggestible. She had a mind of her own,’ Cassie retorted. Who did he think he was, talking so knowledgeably about her mother.

  ‘But did she agree to do things she normally wouldn’t agree to? She did spend a long time with you. Was that of her own choice?’

  ‘If you’re implying I kept Mam in Liverpool by force . . .’ Cassie said furiously.

  ‘I am not implying anything. The facts will speak for themselves.’ The barrister was coldly courteous.

  Don’t get rattled; he’ll try to rattle you, her own barrister had warned. Keep your cool. Cassie took a deep breath. ‘It was the middle of winter, my mother had had a heart attack, she needed someone to take care of her. Barbara wouldn’t,’ she glared at her sister, ‘John and Karen weren’t in a position to, Irene and Martin were abroad, so that left me. Mam agreed to come to Liverpool with me. By the end of January she was feeling much better and anxious to get home, although I would have preferred for her to stay a little longer.’

  ‘I see!’ Barbara’s barrister drawled. ‘I put it to you, Miss Jordan, that in the time she was in your . . .’ he paused and glanced around the court, ‘care,’ he paused again and looked at the judge, ‘you persuaded your mother to make a new will leaving her house to you, a house, I may add, that was recently valued at seventy thousand pounds.’

  ‘That is not true!’ Cassie said heatedly.

  ‘Well, how do you explain the fact that your mother changed her will and made a new one within days of coming home after staying with you in Liverpool!’

  ‘I have no explanation for it!’ Cassie said firmly.

  ‘Oh come now, Miss Jordan. You surely don’t expect the court to believe that.’

  ‘It’s the truth!’

  ‘I’d like, if I may, to move on to the period when you were at home in Port Mahon taking care of your mother.’

  Oh must you, Cassie thought wearily, wishing this whole ordeal could end.

  ‘During this time you purchased a tumble-dryer. Is that correct?’

  ‘Yes! My mother needed several changes of clothes and in the winter it wasn’t always possible to get her clothes dry, so I bought the dryer,’ Cassie explained.

  ‘And paid for it out of your mother’s income. Isn’t that the case?’

  ‘I had no income of my own, I had given up my job. So it had to be out of Mam’s money.’

  ‘And did you use this tumble-dryer for your own clothes?’

  Cassie gave the barrister a scathing look. What the hell did he think, that she left her own clothes out in the rain to dry! ‘Of course I did.’

  ‘And you found it convenient?’

  ‘Very!’ she gritted.

  ‘I see!’ Cassie wished he’d stop saying ‘I see’ in that sceptical drawl. He really was a loathsome man, Laura had warned her about him when she heard the name of the barrister Barbara’s solicitor had instructed.

  ‘You installed oil-fired central heating in the house despite the fact that there was a perfectly good back-boiler system in operation already. This was also paid for out of your mother’s income. Why?’

  ‘I was afraid that my mother would get burnt at the fire. She was fascinated by the chimney. She thought people were talking to her down it. I was afraid she would get burnt.’

  ‘Did your sister, my client, Mrs Jordan Murray, not suggest you install a fireguard?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ he probed. ‘Surely it was the obvious solution.’

  ‘I didn’t want to take the chance.’

  ‘And central heating is so much more convenient than having to light a fire every day, isn’t that so?’

  ‘Yes,’ Cassie agreed wearily.

  ‘So it was for the convenience as much as anything else.’

  ‘My mother’s wellbeing was my prime concern,’ Cassie snapped.

  ‘You spent several thousand pounds having aluminium windows and doors installed.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Again paid for out of your mother’s income?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What’s your . . .’ he smiled insincerely, ‘explanation for this?’

  ‘Mam was always wandering. She climbed out the windows a few times. The doors and windows I had fitted had excellent locks.’

  ‘Couldn’t you have changed the locks on the doors and windows? Wouldn’t it have been far cheaper than spending your mother’s income on a whole new set?’

  ‘I could have done that, yes. But the existing doors and windows were quite old. The man who installed the heating told me that in the long run it would be a saving to get double-glazing, as otherwise I was going to lose a lot of the heat because of draughts.’

  ‘Best for you, you mean,’ Barbara’s barrister accused.

  ‘Look, I didn’t know Mam was going to leave me the house. I thought her estate was to be divided equally and therefore whatever improvements I made would increase the value of the house and benefit everybody.’

  ‘Instead it benefited you!’

  ‘I didn’t know it was going to do that!’ protested Cassie, nearly in tears.

  ‘I submit to this court that, having in the most devious way persuaded your mother to make a new will in your favour, you then in the most calculating way set out to improve the value of the property by spending your mother’s income while she was alive, knowing that it would all accrue to you in the end. I submit, Miss Jordan, that you are a
calculating woman, who would swindle your own brothers and sisters out of their just inheritance. And I submit that this will was made while your mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was mentally incapacitated and is therefore null and void.’

  ‘No! No!’ Cassie protested.

  ‘Your Honour, I have no further questions for this witness.’ The barrister swept away. Barbara was over the moon with his performance.

  ‘Look, calm down, Cassie,’ John comforted her. ‘Doctor Tyne has to give his evidence and Mam’s solicitor, and the witness to her will. You know that Mr Kenny has told us that Mam was perfectly clear about what she wanted to do the day she made her will and that in his view it’s legal. So stop worrying.’

  ‘Did you hear the way that man twisted everything I said and made it look as though I were out to line my own pocket. I’m sure the judge will believe him. The way that barrister put it the evidence is overwhelming. He doesn’t know me. I’m sure things like this do happen and people are manipulated to change wills. He probably thinks I’m one of those manipulators, especially since Martin is siding with Barbara. I can’t believe Martin would think I’d do a thing like that to Mam and the family!’

  ‘It’s that Jean. She and Barbara are as thick as thieves!’ John said in disgust.

  ‘Come on, Cassie, eat a bit of something,’ David urged as he noticed her pushing her plate away without touching her food. They were having lunch at a hotel near the court. It was the final day of the hearing.

  Cassie smiled at him. ‘I’m sorry, David, I’m not hungry. Maybe when it’s over.’

  ‘It will be over soon,’ David promised, squeezing her hand.

  Barbara tucked into a plateful of mussels in garlic on a bed of pasta. She was starving. And very hopeful. Miles Regan had crucified Cassie on the witness stand. No-one in their right senses could fail to doubt that her sister had indeed persuaded their poor addled mother to change her will. God, she hadn’t even shed a tear at the funeral, while she and Irene had been in floods. Oh, Cassie was as cute as they come despite her saintly demeanour. And she was not the only one who thought, so; Martin and Jean were firmly committed to proving the same point. Jean had proven herself a gem in this case. She had been as angry at Martin’s being done out of his inheritance as Barbara had been on her own account.