“That’s very nice of you,” Gloria said. “I’ll see if Margaret has another bag you can use to put them in.” She hurried back inside the house where Lucy and Margaret were still sitting at the kitchen table. “The boys are picking up some shredded paper. It looks like it blew out of your recycle bin.”
Margaret frowned. “I didn’t shred anything.” She hurried to her pantry, grabbed a couple empty plastic bags and headed out the back door where the boys were still scrambling around, picking up the pieces.
She handed each of them an empty bag. “Thank you Ryan and Tyler. Don must have shredded something the other day and stuck the bag in the recycle bin.”
Lucy and Gloria trailed behind and stood next to Margaret.
“Don always left a shred pile for me to take care of,” Margaret said. “I’m surprised he knew how to use the shredder.”
After they finished picking up the bits of paper, Gloria’s grandsons tied the bags shut and handed them to Margaret, who tucked them under a stack of bundled newspapers so they wouldn’t blow away again.
Gloria glanced at her watch. “We better get going. I’m sure Paul is beginning to wonder if we ran away with the circus.” The boys raced each other to the car and climbed in the backseat.
Gloria hugged her friend. “Let me know if you need anything Margaret.”
Margaret embraced Gloria and then took a step back. “I will. I’ll feel much better once Chad gets here.”
“I’ll stay a little longer and then head out to start the visits to the shut-ins,” Lucy said.
“It’s been so hectic, I almost forgot. I’ll handle next Sunday’s visits.” Gloria promised as she reached for the car door handle. “I’ll call you in the morning,” she told Margaret before shutting the door and backing out of the drive.
By the time they reached the farm, the boys were hungry again so she threw a frozen pizza in the oven and made her way to the workshop to check on Paul. He had recently begun refurbishing her dining room hutch. The hutch was an heirloom piece passed on to her by her mother. The top and front had become battered and scuffed after decades of use.
Paul was doing a wonderful job restoring the hutch and it was starting to look like new. “I’m back,” she hollered through the open door.
Paul dropped the piece of sandpaper in his hand on top of the hutch. “I was beginning to think I needed to call out a search party.”
Gloria wandered over to the workbench and ran a light hand across the top of the hutch’s smooth surface. “I stopped by Margaret’s house after the circus to check on her.”
“How is she doing?”
“Okay. The investigator showed up while I was there. Judging by the conversation and questions, Detective Givens doesn’t think Don’s death was an accident and Margaret isn’t off the hook. Her son, Chad, will be here later today.”
Paul nodded. “How was the circus? I take it you kept Ryan safe from being attacked by the elephants.”
Gloria rolled her eyes. “Yes, but the clown is another story.” She told her husband how the clown had scared Ryan and how he had yanked off his wig and kicked him between the legs.
“Ouch.” Paul grimaced. “There’s never a dull moment when those two are around.”
“You’ve got that right. Speaking of which, I threw a frozen pizza in the oven. Despite the fact I bought them goodies at the circus, they’re both starving.”
Paul followed his wife out of the workshop. He shut off the light and closed the door behind them. “I’m not hungry right now, but I thought since you’ve been busy this weekend with the boys, I might be able to entice you into letting me take you out for a romantic dinner this evening at Garfield’s instead of Dot’s.”
Garfield’s was a bed and breakfast/restaurant located on the shores of Lake Harmony. It was in nearby Rapid Creek. Paul had taken Gloria there for dinner a few months back. It was a lovely Victorian home with an elegant period interior that reminded Gloria of days gone by.
“It sounds lovely. Hopefully Jill picks them up before it gets too late.”
“If not, we can do it later in the week,” he promised.
The boys, who had been playing upstairs, bounded down the stairs just as Gloria pulled the pizza from the oven. Between the two of them, they ate the entire pizza and were heading outdoors when Lucy pulled in the drive.
“I wonder what Lucy’s doing here,” Gloria mumbled under her breath as she stepped onto the porch.
The skies had turned overcast and a stiff breeze whipped Gloria’s bangs into her eyes. She smoothed them off to the side and headed down the steps. Her first thought was something had happened to Margaret.
Her second thought was perhaps something had happened to one of the shut-ins Lucy planned to visit. Eleanor Whittaker, an elderly woman who lived in a rambling house overlooking Lake Terrace, was one of the area residents the Garden Girls now visited weekly.
Eleanor had had a string of mishaps and taken several spills. The previous week, she’d almost set her house on fire. Gloria was concerned for her friend and worried that living alone was becoming dangerous.
Gloria’s fears were confirmed when Eleanor admitted she forgot she’d lit a small candle on the kitchen counter when she opened her kitchen window. A roll of paper towels had somehow managed to unravel and the tip caught fire since the candle was directly beneath the roll.
Thankfully, Eleanor had wandered back into the kitchen to make a cup of tea when she discovered the burning paper towels and had managed to extinguish the fire.
Gloria was on the fence about contacting Eleanor’s family to voice her concerns since she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries and be blamed if Eleanor was forced to move from the only home she’d ever known, but she also didn’t want to see anything happen to the sweet lady.
She finally decided if there was one more incident, she would have no choice but to contact Eleanor’s children.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. I thought maybe you would be running the boys home,” Lucy said.
“No. I’m waiting for Jill to pick them up. She usually calls me when she’s on the way but I haven’t heard from her yet. Is everything okay? Is Eleanor okay?”
“Eleanor is fine,” Lucy said. “In fact, she asked where you were. I told her Ryan and Tyler were visiting so you couldn’t make it.”
“I’ll stop by her place this week,” Gloria said. “Maybe I can bring her down to Dot’s for coffee and donuts. I’m sure she would like to get out of the house.”
“I agree.” Lucy nodded. “I wanted to tell you before I left Margaret’s house, I ran outside to gather her mail because she didn’t want to go out. After I brought the mail in the house, I stayed for a few more minutes and Margaret began sorting through it.”
“That was thoughtful of you Lucy,” Gloria said.
“Thanks. I started to leave when Margaret got this funny look on her face. I asked her if everything was okay and she handed one of the pieces of mail she’d opened to me.”
“What was it?”
“It was a notice from Margaret’s bank, telling her that her checking account was overdrawn.”
Chapter 8
“Overdrawn?” Gloria stared at Lucy blankly. “How is that possible?” Don, a former bank vice president, was a stickler for numbers, for making sure he and his wife were in pristine financial shape. He’d spent his entire career making sure that once he retired, Margaret and he would be set for the rest of their lives.
Margaret had once confided in Gloria they had numerous retirement accounts, IRA’s, Roth IRA’s, CDs, a 401k as well as regular savings accounts. “Maybe Don was getting ready to cash in one of the retirement accounts and forgot to take care of it.”
“I don’t know.” Lucy shook her head. “All I know is Margaret was rattled. She kept saying she couldn’t believe it and as soon as I left, she was going to log onto the internet and check the accounts to see what was going on.”
“You don’t think…” Gloria’s voice trailed
off. What if Don had wiped out their life savings? What if there wasn’t any money? It would give someone reason to contemplate taking their own life. She hoped it wasn’t the case. “I’m sure she’ll get it straightened out.”
“I hope so. She was shook up.” Lucy left after telling Gloria she needed to head home to let Jasper out.
While Gloria walked back to the house, she mulled over Margaret’s situation. She hoped Don hadn’t squandered all of their retirement money. He would have to do a lot of squandering.
She thought about the money Margaret and she, along with her sister, Liz, had gotten after selling the valuable coins they’d found in the mountains at “Aunt Ethel’s” place.
Gloria tidied the kitchen and bathroom, keeping one eye on the clock. With every minute that passed, she grew more concerned about her daughter and finally decided to give Jill a jingle to make sure everything was all right.
She picked up her cell phone only to realize she’d turned the volume down. There was a missed call from her daughter, telling her Greg and she had run into some car problems on their drive home and had just gotten back. She told her mother she was on the way.
Gloria erased the message and turned the volume up before she glanced at the clock. It was too late to dine at Garfield’s. It was already after six.
Paul stepped into the kitchen. “Any news from Jill?”
“She’s on her way. I don’t have the details but she said they had car problems on the drive home. I’m afraid it will be too late to go out to dinner by the time she leaves.”
Paul pulled his wife into his arms. “We’ll do it later this week or next weekend,” he promised. “Why don’t we run down to Dot’s instead? You can kill two birds with one stone…you won’t have to cook dinner and you can maybe find out if anyone has heard anything else on Margaret’s situation.”
“Oh. Lucy stopped by. You’ll never guess what happened.” Gloria told Paul about the notice from the bank that Margaret’s checking account was overdrawn.
Paul released his grip. “Poor Margaret.” He shook his head. “Why don’t I take the boys down to the creek to see if it’s come up yet? By the time we get back, Jill will be here.”
Paul leaned into the dining room. “Hey boys. Do you want to go back to the creek to check on the water level?”
Muffled feet stampeded across the floor and a breathless Ryan and Tyler raced into the kitchen. “Sure.”
They slid their feet into their shoes and slipped their windbreakers on.
“Don’t get wet or muddy,” Gloria warned them before they darted out the door.
“I’ll try my best to keep them clean,” Paul promised before he kissed his wife and followed them out.
She watched through the window as the trio strode across the yard and disappeared from sight.
Her eyes were drawn to her cell phone and she picked it up, dialing Margaret’s home phone before she could change her mind.
Margaret answered on the first ring.
“Hi Margaret. It’s me, Gloria. Has Chad arrived yet?”
“His plane landed already and he is on his way to pick up his rental car. He’ll be here within the hour.”
“I’m glad to hear he’s on his way,” Gloria said. “How are you doing?” She didn’t dare mention Lucy had stopped by to tell her about the overdrawn bank account. She didn’t want her friend to think they were gossiping about her.
“Not good.” Margaret told her what Lucy had already said, how the bank had sent a notice in the mail about her overdrawn checking account.
“Oh my goodness. Did you get it straightened out?”
“No,” Margaret said. “I tried to pull up our accounts on line and every single password has been changed. The only one I could get into was my own, the one I opened last year. It’s where I put the money we got from the coins.”
Gloria’s scalp tingled. Perhaps Don had taken all the money…and done what? “Maybe Don recently changed the account numbers. Did you try checking the box you forgot your password so you could reset them?”
“I did. I tried to log into Don’s email account and that password has been changed, too.”
Something was wrong…terribly wrong. Gloria had a sinking feeling whatever had happened to Don was somehow tied to their finances. Margaret voiced Gloria’s thoughts.
“What if Don cleaned out our accounts, somehow lost all of our retirement and savings and instead of confess what had happened, he became despondent and killed himself?”
Gloria’s head spun. It was a thought. Money made people do crazy things. “But what would he have done with all of the money? It doesn’t make sense. He was so meticulous about making sure you two had enough to comfortably live out the rest of your years.”
“I know, but I’m beginning to wonder,” Margaret said. “Remember how the boys found those shredded bits of paper in the recycle bin? Don never shredded anything. He always left if for me to take care of. Maybe he was trying to hide something.”
“So now what?”
“I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to sort this out. The only problem is our accounts were all over the place, not just our bank. We had investment accounts through a variety of sources. It’s going to take some time to untangle.”
“Do you need money to get by?” Gloria asked. “We can help out.”
“I appreciate the offer, Gloria. I haven’t touched the money we got from the coins. It will tide me over for a very long time. I only have my living expenses. The house, the SUV, everything is owned free and clear.”
Gloria opened her mouth to reply and quickly closed it. What if Don had mortgaged the house? Margaret would have had to co-sign if the house was in both their names.
“I hate to be nosy, but is the house in your name, too?” Gloria asked.
“Yes, thankfully. If Don were up to funny business, he wouldn’t have been able to take a loan out on the place without my signature. Oh, Chad just pulled in the drive. I’ll call you back.”
“Okay, Margaret. Keep me posted.” Gloria told her friend good-bye and disconnected the line. She set the phone down and closed her eyes to pray. She prayed there was some misunderstanding, that Don hadn’t squandered all of their retirement money and for some reason, he had changed the accounts around and forgot to tell his wife.
Gloria headed to the porch and settled into one of the rocking chairs to wait for her daughter and for Paul and her grandsons to return. The sun had set and there was a pink-purple tinge to the skyline. It was a beautiful late summer evening.
Soon, it would be fall and time for festivals, pumpkin patches, hayrides and apple cider. It was one of Gloria’s favorite times of the year. Winter was her least favorite and it seemed the older she got the less she liked it.
Paul and she had tossed around the idea of becoming part-time snowbirds. Liz, Gloria’s sister, who lived in Florida, had been bugging her to come down and visit.
Gloria nudged the floor with her foot and rocked back as she stared at the barn. Maybe it was time. There was nothing to stop them from going. The thought of sunny winter days and balmy winter nights was tempting.
She remembered the honeymoon Paul and she had taken to Florida. They’d had a lovely time, although it had been somewhat stressful and Gloria had ended up breaking her leg.
Paul loved to fish. If they spent a few months near the ocean, he could fish to his heart’s content. Gloria could take in some local flea markets. Maybe they could even try a new hobby like golf. Florida was full of golf courses.
It sounded more appealing than staying cooped up inside the house for months on end.
The sound of tires on her gravel drive pulled Gloria from her musings and she smiled as she saw Jill, who was driving her husband’s pick-up truck, pull into the drive.
Gloria slid out of the rocker and made her way down the steps. She met Jill in the drive and hugged her daughter. “I’m sorry to hear of your car problems. Did you get them fixed?”
“Yes,” Jill groaned. “We g
ot a flat on the highway. We must’ve picked up a nail or screw somewhere along the way. Greg put the spare, the donut tire on the front and we limped home. He’s going to take it to the auto place first thing in the morning to get a new tire and check the others to make sure we didn’t pick up anything else along the way.”
Jill followed her mother to the porch. “How are the boys? Did they behave themselves? How was Andrea’s wedding?”
Gloria told her the wedding was lovely, the boys were fine and then she told her about the clown incident.
“Oh my gosh.” Jill clamped a hand over her mouth to hide her grin. “I can’t believe you convinced Ryan to go to the circus in the first place. You can blame Tyler for his paranoia. He let his brother watch one of those scary clown/nightmare movies and now Ryan is convinced a clown is going to attack him.”
“Or an elephant,” Gloria added.
“Yes, or an elephant.”
“Mom!” Ryan, Tyler and Paul emerged from the field and Ryan raced across the yard and drive to where the women stood chatting. “Grandpa Paul said next time we come over he’s going to take us fishing. We get to catch them and clean them and everything.”
Jill hugged her young son. “That sounds like lots of fun.” She ruffled Tyler’s hair when he got close. “I heard your brother had a run in with a clown.”
Tyler grunted. “Yeah. He gave him a swift kick between the legs and ripped his wig off.”
“I thought he was going to attack me,” Ryan said.
“Go grab your stuff. Your dad is home fixing dinner,” Jill said.
The boys raced inside the house.
While they were gone, Gloria briefly told Jill about Don’s death. The boys returned before Gloria could go into detail.
Ryan tugged on Gloria’s hand. “Thanks for letting us stay Grams. Maybe next time we can sleep in the tree fort.”
“Of course.” Gloria kissed her grandsons and she and Paul waited until they were in the truck and on the road before heading back inside.
“Those two are go, go, go.” Paul shook his head. “I wish I could bottle a quarter of their energy.”
Greed with Envy (Garden Girls Christian Cozy Mystery Series Book 15) Page 5
