High-Stakes Inheritance

by Susan Sleeman

  “One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Proverbs. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. If you can trust that everything will ultimately be good for you and not let your feelings color a situation, life will be a lot simpler. Letting God be in charge of my life makes the living so much easier.”

  “But I like to be in charge so people can’t step all over me ever again.” The vehemence in her tone shocked her. Was she that bitter about her past?

  His lips tipped in a gentle smile meant to comfort. “And how’s that working for you? Are you happy? Everything going your way?”

  His words were harsh, but his face held a sincerity that ate at her doubt. Maybe he had something here. She thought she was happy, but was she really? Didn’t worrying about everything and falling to pieces when things went wrong deny the very thought of happiness? She’d give this some thought. Later.

  When she wasn’t concerned with finding Fuzzy’s killer…

  “I hear what you’re saying—and I’ll think about it—but I’m not ready to jump on your religion bandwagon.” She glanced at the barn. “Right now we need to call Russ.”

  Ryan’s eyes filled with disappointment. She hated causing this reaction, but she couldn’t flip on a religious switch just because he wanted her to believe the same thing he did. After all, she’d said she’d think about it. What more could he expect?

  “Do you have Russ’s cell number?”

  “Yeah. I’ll call him.” Ryan breathed deep and exhaled, likely releasing his frustration with her. “Seems odd that Russ missed the wallet when collecting evidence.”

  Indeed, how could he have missed something so obvious? Maybe he wasn’t such a good cop after all. Or maybe when Russ conducted the search, the wallet wasn’t there.

  She let her gaze rove the area in hopes of finding answers. Bandit lunged at the wallet as if it belonged to him. That’s it!

  Her heart thumped against her chest. “Russ didn’t miss it—it was Bandit. He knew all the time but couldn’t tell us.”

  Bandit thought she was talking to him and bounded to his feet, dancing with excitement. He jumped and yipped with glee. His plastic cone slammed into Mia’s legs and he bounded back.

  “I’m a little lost here.” Ryan quieted Bandit.

  “Don’t you see? This is what Bandit stole from the office last night. He picked up Fuzzy’s scent when he discovered his body, then he found the same scent in the office, but he couldn’t get to the wallet because it was locked up in Verna’s file cabinet.”

  Verna was the murderer.

  The pain in Mia’s face knotted Ryan’s stomach. He’d do anything to take away her hurt. He’d already had a battle in convincing her to leave the barn and come with him to the lodge to wait for Russ’s arrival. She’d wanted to dig through the ruins for additional clues, but they couldn’t rut through the crime scene.

  At the lodge, Ryan had made her a cup of tea, but the cup sat untouched on the counter in front of her as she leaned on her elbows and stared ahead, lost in thought. Maybe she was thinking about what he’d said about God. If only she’d come to trust Him with her life. She’d still be in pain, but it would be so much more bearable.

  Perhaps he should follow up and see if she had any additional questions. “Anything you want to talk about?” he asked in a soft tone so as not to startle her.

  She offered a wan smile. “I keep wondering why Fuzzy was up here, and I can’t figure out a reason at all.”

  “Maybe he came to visit the place where his friend was always so happy.”

  “If it was that simple then why would Verna kill him?”

  Ryan didn’t like how Mia had jumped to this conclusion and stuck with it, but he understood her reasons. The wallet pointed to Verna’s guilt. Still, Ryan thought Verna an unlikely murderer. He was all set to tell Mia as much but he saw the police cruiser pull up outside and jumped to his feet.

  “Here comes Russ. Maybe he’ll have some insight on all of this.” Ryan crossed the room and opened the door.

  Russ took the stairs two at a time. With a grunt as a greeting, he charged past Ryan and over to Mia.

  She sat upright. “Are you going to arrest Verna for killing Fuzzy?”

  His eyes creased in confusion. “Fuzzy?”

  “Franklin Springer’s nickname is Fuzzy,” Ryan explained.

  Mia leaned forward. “Are you going to arrest her or not?”

  “I’ll bring her in for questioning, but I don’t like her for the murder. Would take a much larger person than Verna to inflict the trauma that killed Springer.”

  “So she hired the guy who started the fire to do it.” Mia’s words shot out, colored with desperation. “She’s still guilty of planning the murder.”

  Russ shrugged. “We’ll see. There’re a lot of loose ends that need investigating before I’m ready to charge her.”

  Mia’s mouth dropped open. “Fuzzy’s wallet was in her file cabinet. What more do you need?”

  “As much as you want to think you’ve solved this case, I have no evidence to prove Bandit found the wallet in the file cabinet.”

  “But we s—”

  “No buts, Mia. Charging someone with murder requires real evidence. And we don’t have it. Besides, other things don’t add up. Like the break-in.” He crossed his arms. “Why would Verna hire someone to steal files she could dispose of on her own? And if she did have the wallet in her file cabinet, would she want it exposed in a break-in?”

  “Russ is right, Mia. It doesn’t make sense.” Ryan settled on to the stool next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “And Verna doesn’t have a good motive to kill Fuzzy, either.”

  She shot him a look of displeasure, but he had to make her see Russ spoke the truth.

  She turned to his brother. “Fuzzy was a private investigator. Maybe he was up here investigating her embezzlement, and she killed him when he discovered it.”

  “And how would Springer know to investigate her?”

  “Maybe Wally asked him to do it before he died.”

  “He died over three months ago,” Ryan said. “Wouldn’t Fuzzy have acted sooner, or at least told you about it?”

  Mia gave a halfhearted nod. “We keep coming up empty-handed.”

  “Maybe this will help us move forward.” Russ reached into his pocket and pulled out a small scrap of paper. “We found a cell phone outside the office last night. It’s a prepaid phone so we can’t be sure it’s even related to the break-in. There’s only one text on the phone, which was sent a little more than a week ago to another prepaid phone. Here’s the message. Does this make any sense to either of you?”

  He slid the paper across the counter to Mia. She pulled it close.

  Ryan leaned over to read. 2533 *5. 36605s

  “That’s odd.” Mia shared a confused look with Ryan.

  Ryan chuckled. “Is this some kind of new texting slang teens use to baffle their parents?”

  Russ flashed an irritated glare. “More like a code of some sort, but we haven’t been able to crack it.” He fixed his eyes on Mia. “I want to go through Pinetree’s office again. You can agree to the search, or I can get a warrant.”

  “You have my permission to do whatever you need to do.” She held up the paper. “Can I keep this? In case I can figure it out.”

  “Knock yourself out.” Russ tipped his head at the counter. “But it’d be more helpful if you worked on retrieving a picture from that camera.”

  Ryan had forgotten all about Chuck’s camera sitting where Mia placed it last night.

  She nodded. “I’ll get it to Chuck when you leave.”

  Russ headed to the door and paused. “Where can I find you this afternoon if I need you?”

  Ryan glanced at the clock. “We have sessions with the students all afternoon.”

  “Keep your cells on,” Russ said, his voice drifting off as he exited.

  Ryan listened to the clomping of Russ’s feet fading away in the distance. �
�I guess this is more complicated than we thought.”

  Mia fiddled with the scrap of paper. “Part of me says the case is solved, and Russ just has to find what he needs to arrest Verna. The other part of me can’t believe she’s actually responsible for killing Fuzzy.”

  “Is it easier to believe your father did it?”

  Mia sighed. “No. I now know he didn’t do this. I accused him for nothing.” Her voice broke. “And like David said, I put a rift between us that I’ll never repair.” She looked up, and her eyes telegraphed an ache that ripped at Ryan’s heart.

  He couldn’t handle seeing her suffer without being able to help. He had to do something…even if it was as simple as holding her.

  “It’ll be all right,” he whispered as he pulled her into an embrace. “I’m with you, and we can face whatever happens together.”

  Instead of bursting into tears, or even pushing him away, she relaxed and rested her head on his shoulder as if she really believed he would stay by her side through all of this. Her heart said she trusted him. A huge leap from just a few days ago.

  He tightened his hold, felt the taut muscles in his shoulders relax as her soft breath whispered over his neck. A nearly overpowering urge to move her away and seek her lips in a kiss came over him.

  Not a kiss like the quick peck last night, but a long, heart-felt kiss that conveyed the feelings tumbling inside of him. One like they’d shared years ago when a future together was certain.

  Now that the case was winding down, and she would once again be safe, could he hope there might be a future for them?

  Or was he getting ahead of himself?

  After all, the killer hadn’t been apprehended. And once he was, what then? She could die in a car accident like her mother. Or in so many other ways.

  How was he ever going to let go of his fear of giving his heart to a woman and then losing her? More importantly was he ever willing to do what it took to move forward in the face of such high stakes?

  EIGHTEEN

  Students, dressed in their matching uniforms, sat on the logs and boulders surrounding a smoldering fire with a cast-iron pot centered over the coals. Each tired face frustrated and overwhelmed was like peering into a mirror. The discovery of Fuzzy’s identity had left Mia spinning. So had Ryan’s comments about God.

  Flashes of attending church as a child popped into her mind. The preacher standing on a raised platform declared helping others took focus off your troubles. He spoke the truth. Her counseling practice confirmed that. She would try anything right now to avoid facing the pain of another loss. She was even willing to consider God might be the answer.

  What could it hurt to turn to God? As Ryan said, her life wasn’t going so well on her own. Maybe she should ask God to help her. Maybe He would listen to her. Maybe later.

  When she’d had more time to think it through. Now she’d work on the helping others thing.

  She clutched Chuck’s camera and searched the group to locate him. She found him on the other side of the snapping fire with his face pressed against a video camera. Nikki stood next to him smiling like an adoring groupie.

  Waving wayward smoke from her face, Mia approached him. “I’ve got bad news for you.”

  Chuck looked up from the camera. “Ah, man, my baby. She’s pretty bad off, isn’t she?”

  Mia explained what happened. “I’m really sorry, Chuck.”

  He took the camera and turned it over. “I think I can get the memory card out. Then you might have a picture or two of the jerk who did this.”

  “I would really appreciate that.” Mia nodded at him. “How soon can you get to it?”

  “Should have time tonight,” he said.

  “That would be great.”

  Chuck turned to Nikki. “Hey. kid. Take this to the editing trailer, will ya?”

  Nikki, with hero worship in her eyes, took the camera from Chuck before strolling away.

  “And come right back,” Chuck yelled after her. “Gotta love the enthusiasm of the little newbie.”

  “Thanks again, Chuck.” Mia smiled her gratitude as he moved back behind the camera and Eddie caught her attention.

  Hesitantly, he got up, checked to see if anyone was watching and then sauntered to Chuck in a walk filled with bravado. “Hey, man. Can I look at your camera again?”

  Chuck cast furtive glances around. “I told you before—I’m not supposed to do this.”

  Eddie glowered at Chuck, the strength of his expression giving Mia a moment of discomfort.

  “Fine,” Chuck said. “I’ll give you a few minutes, but this is the last time. Understood?”

  Eddie nodded and went straight to the camera. His sullen mouth parted, the corners of his lips quivering. Color had come to his cheeks, and he radiated happiness. He touched the camera with reverence. As he held it, a soft smile of contentment settled into place. He jabbered about lenses, F-stops, filters and lighting. His knowledge of photography techniques spoke to extensive experience.

  This made her miss the days Uncle Wally spent teaching her how to use a 35mm camera and how to develop pictures in the darkroom. Those were good days.

  Wait! This was it! The connection she needed. Her way to get Eddie to open up and at the same time discover the burglar’s identity. Now all she had to do was find Ryan and convince him to implement her unorthodox idea.

  Ryan peered across the opening and studied an animated Mia. He should be concentrating on what Ian was saying to the trio he was conversing with but despite the fear that kept raising it’s ugly head, he couldn’t help but stare at the radiant expression on her face. He didn’t know what or who put her in such a good mood but he wished it had been him. Wished she would beam at him the same way. Wished they could figure out who was threatening her so he could let go of his fear and explore feelings that continued to surge through him at the mere sight of her.

  She put a hand over her eyes to block the sun and scanned the crowd. She spotted him and motioned for him to join her. This was all the encouragement he needed to leave his group and cross over to her.

  When he reached her, she turned him around by his elbow and held him facing Eddie.

  “Look at Eddie’s face,” she said, her voice as exuberant as her expression. “In our session yesterday I couldn’t get him to open up at all. But this could be the connection I need.”

  Ryan studied Eddie and Chuck. “Chuck shouldn’t be engaging the students in conversation.”

  “Ignore that for a minute.” She tightened her grip on Ryan’s arm. “Chuck said he thought he could get the memory card out of his camera tonight. If you’d let Eddie help work on the camera, I could hang out with them and see what develops.”

  Ryan smiled. “No pun intended there.”

  She laughed. “I could broach the subject of cameras and maybe when he sees we have shared interests he’ll open up to me. We could take some pictures together, and I can see if Uncle Wally’s darkroom equipment is still around here somewhere.”

  “Okay, okay, slow down.” He faced her and rested his hands on her shoulders. “This sounds like a great idea but first we need Chuck to buy into it.”

  “Do you want to talk to him or should I?”

  “I think it’d be best if I did it. Your enthusiasm might scare him off.”

  “So when can you do it?”

  “After our trust exercises this afternoon.” He glanced at his watch. “We’re on schedule so we should be done about the same time your sessions end.”

  “And you’ll come find me to tell me what he says?”

  Was she kidding him? He’d take any excuse to be with her. “Why don’t we meet for coffee after we’re done?”

  With hands still on her shoulders, he drew her closer then let his fingers run down her arms to her hands. “We can catch up on a lot of things.” He let his eyes lock on to hers and hoped he transmitted the emotions shooting through his heart.

  Her face turned crimson, and she glanced around the group as if nervous about o
thers seeing them. “I guess I better get up to the rec center.”

  “I’ll see you later.” He let his tone fill with promise of something special to come when they met again. A promise he hoped he could fulfill.

  Following her last session, Mia headed straight to the lodge to make coffee for her upcoming meeting with Ryan. After the emotion-filled look he gave her at the fire pit, she could hardly concentrate on her afternoon sessions. She had to admit she liked the way he’d locked eyes with her and sent her emotions churning in a way she hadn’t experienced since the two of them had been together. Sure, she’d dated other men over the years and they’d connected, but not with the same intensity as she’d just experienced with Ryan.

  The doorbell chimed, and she jumped. Maybe he’d finished early. She rushed to the door. A quick look through the peephole deflated her excitement. She ran a hand over her hair and took several deep breaths to settle her nervous excitement.

  “Hey, you two,” she said to Reid and Jessie, inserting as much enthusiasm into her words as possible so as to not let them know she’d hoped to see Ryan.

  Reid offered an apologetic smile. “Jessie was wondering if she could spend some time with Bandit.”

  “Sure,” Mia said, stepping back. “I just made coffee. Would you like a cup, Reid?”

  “Sounds good to me.” Reid smiled his thanks and the pair entered the lodge.

  “Bandit,” Jessie called with excitement.

  He sat up with a confused look.

  Jessie studied him with scrunched eyes then looked at Mia. “Why’s he pretending to be a lamp?”

  Mia smiled at the child’s take on his cone and explained the purpose for it. She went to the kitchen to get the coffee. “He was supposed to be taking it easy, but he stayed out all night long. So if you want to play with him, you’ll need to keep it kind of calm.”

  “Aw, no fair. I wanted to be a lamp with him.”

  Mia laughed. “Lamps don’t do much moving around.”

  “That sounds like being in school.” Jessie’s lower lip protruded.