“I had the privilege of being your uncle and aunt’s attorney for over thirty years,” Walter said. “Her reasons are, of course, privileged information between client and attorney, but I can tell you she was in complete control of her faculties, and her decision was made after considerable thought using a sound mind.”
“I see,” Chip said. “Well, I guess the reason will just have to remain a mystery. Who knows why people do what they do? I was afraid Jillian had done something to offend her; which wouldn’t be that unusual. Jillian can be very outspoken, and Aunt Gigi could be sensitive. Claire, you’ve got your work cut out for you; I have to admit I’m a little relieved. Eugene can be a handful, and if what the police are thinking is true …”
“The police chief I know is keeping an open mind,” Claire said. “I don’t think Eugene has anything to worry about.”
Chip gave Claire an irritated look, which he quickly covered with a concerned frown.
“It’s certainly a sad situation,” he said. “I hear Eugene’s made good progress here, but he’s still very angry. He didn’t want to see me and I honored his wishes. I’m not sure my being here today is a good idea, but he’s my cousin and I feel responsible for him. He’s welcome to live with us, of course, though I doubt he’ll want to.”
“You weren’t close growing up?” Walter asked.
Claire was surprised. She was certain Walter knew all the family business, financial and personal. She realized then, with amusement, that Walter was doing some investigating.
“I was close with my aunt and uncle, of course, because they raised me,” Chip said. “I wouldn’t have anything if it weren’t for them. Uncle Eugene was like a father to me, and Aunt Gigi was very supportive. Now, with both of them gone, I feel like an orphan.”
“I take it you’re not close with your own father,” Walter said.
“No,” Chip said. “We haven’t been on speaking terms for a long time. My father’s what they call a colorful character. He was never interested in being a parent.”
“And Eugene Junior?” Walter asked. “Was he like a brother to you?”
“Sure, sure,” Chip said. “It was just hard to communicate with him because of his mental and physical problems. He didn’t like me, he resented his parents’ affection for me, and frankly, I think he was so jealous he couldn’t see beyond that.”
“I see,” Walter said. “Well, if that’s the case, maybe you shouldn’t be here, Chip. I appreciate the effort, I recognize that you feel a certain responsibility, and I’ll be sure to let Eugene know that you stopped by.”
“Oh,” Chip said. “You don’t think I should stay?”
“No,” Walter said. “In fact, I think it would be detrimental if you did. I know you want what’s best for him, so let’s make this transition as stress-free as possible.”
“Oh, okay,” Chip said with a shrug. “Well, then, I’ll just go, I guess. It was good to see both of you.”
He shook hands with Walter and gave Claire another quick hug.
“Tell your mom I said hi,” he told her. “I miss seeing her at church.”
After he left the room and closed the door, Claire looked at Walter.
“What was that all about?”
“I’m going to read the will tomorrow after the funeral and he’s not going to be happy about what it says,” Walter said. “He thinks he’s getting everything, or close to everything, when in reality he’s not getting one thin dime.”
“Really?”
“The day you signed the papers making you a guardian to Eugene Junior, you also witnessed her signature on a new will that cut him and Jillian completely out,” he said. “Everything goes into a trust for Eugene Junior.”
“Was it Jillian she was mad at?”
“Jillian irritated Gigi, that’s all,” Walter said. “She once said Jillian reminded her of a younger version of herself. The social striving, the ambition … Gigi came from a very underprivileged background; she worked her way up from nothing to something, and she recognized that hunger in Jillian. She didn’t resent that, she just didn’t like the way Jillian treated Chip, like he was her servant.
“Gigi waited on her husband hand and foot. She saw that as his reward for rescuing her, for marrying her. She never made him regret it. I think Chip probably regrets marrying Jillian. Gigi said she embarrasses him, even emasculates him, quite publicly and frequently. They both make good salaries here but their lifestyle is still way beyond their means. He may anticipate an inheritance will enable him to escape the marriage.”
“You don’t think he would have killed Gigi to get the money?”
“Money is often a motive,” Walter said. “And the previous will would have made him a rich man. He has just as much motive as his wife, maybe more.”
“If Eugene inherits everything, he would have to be eliminated for Chip to inherit.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Walter said. “I’m working on a will for Eugene that would remove that possibility.”
“Let’s get him to sign that straight away.”
“Easy, now,” Walter said. “Let’s get him somewhere safe and settled first. Once the will is read, I’ll meet with him to talk about his own estate plans.”
“Did Gigi tell you what she was so mad at Chip about?”
“She did,” he said.
“Doesn’t privilege end at death?”
“It does.”
“So, spill it,” Claire said and Walter laughed.
“I’m going to enjoy being on Eugene’s team with you,” he said. “Privilege may have expired, but discretion is still the better part of valor. I can’t have my living clients thinking I’ll gossip about them after they’re gone.”
“Nonsense,” Claire said. “The other day at lunch you told me story after story about your dead clients.”
“You’re a bad influence on me,” he said.
“Just give me a hint,” she said. “I’m swearing before you and God that I will not tell who told me.”
Walter smiled, looking greatly amused. He lowered his voice and leaned in.
“Just over the county line, out by the highway, there is an establishment that goes by the provocative name Tiger Tails.”
“Yes, and …”
“That’s it, really,” he said. “You drive by there some night and see if you don’t find Chip’s newest BMW parked behind the building, where he thinks no one can see it.”
“Oooooh, does Jillian know?”
“I can’t imagine he’d still be married to her if she did.”
The door opened and Dr. Schweitzer came in. He shook Walter’s hand and then Claire’s, and he blushed when he did so. Making a psychiatrist blush was no mean feat, and Claire wondered what Hannah had been saying to him. Her diminutive cousin was an unrepentant matchmaker, and Claire had often found herself in awkward situations due to her romantic meddling.
“So,” Dr. Schweitzer said. “Let’s talk about Eugene. Shall we sit?”
Later that evening, Claire was sitting at Hannah’s kitchen table while Sam was giving Sammy a bath in the upstairs bathroom. Everyone else had dispersed after attempting to make Eugene feel welcome. It had just been the three cousins, their significant others, Sammy, and Eugene at dinner, but their good intentions seemed to have had the opposite effect, unfortunately, making him withdraw into himself, uncomfortable with all the attention. Eugene was now tucked up in his barn studio apartment, where they were giving him some space, some time alone.
“You were supposed to wait for me to go see Cheat,” Claire said.
“I got tired of waiting,” Hannah said.
“When we were down at the hospital talking to Chip,” Claire said, “I don’t think he knew Cheat was dead.”
“I found Cheat about the time you picked up Eugene.”
“At least he has an alibi,” Claire said. “And so does Chip, for that matter.”
“Depending on how long Cheat had been dead and what killed him,” Hannah said. �
�The ambulance driver said the body was still warm.”
“What do you think killed him?”
Hannah shrugged.
“Death by teenage floozy, I guess,” she said.
“Could have been a heart attack or a stroke.”
“Or poison.”
“And the girl?”
“She looked familiar to me, but I can’t think where I’ve seen her.”
“You think she killed him?”
“She was acting so weird, I think if she didn’t kill him she found him dead and wanted me to think she hadn’t been in the house.”
“Did you get her tag number?”
“Of course I did. What do you think I am, an amateur?”
“She said she cleaned houses for him?”
“He managed all those rentals.”
“It was someone who still thinks Chip will inherit, and wants all other potential heirs out of the way.”
“Or someone Cheat saw up at the house that day. Someone who didn’t want him to tell.”
“Someone he was blackmailing, maybe?”
“Wouldn’t put it past him.”
“Jillian.”
“Maybe Cheat saw Jillian up at Gigi’s earlier in the day, when she put something Gigi was allergic to in her food or drink …”
“Or injected her with something; she was a nurse.”
“But why would Gigi let her inject something, anything?” Claire asked. “Was she a diabetic? Did she regularly inject something?”
“Gail Goodwin cleans the house and has known Gigi since they were girls in grade school,” Hannah said. “She says Gigi was as healthy as a horse, and was only allergic to penicillin.”
“What did Gail say about the cup?”
“All present and accounted for. They let her back in this morning.”
“How many ways could you get penicillin into someone? Food, drink, injection?”
“There are antibiotics in some meat,” Hannah said. “Maybe one bite of hamburger and, boom, she’s dead.”
“I don’t know if that’s enough to kill someone.”
“I’ll call Elvis and get him to look into it for me,” Hannah said. “He’ll report back and I’ll let you know.”
“Elvis, as in the twelve-year-old who’s going to college at Stanford?”
“He’s a genius,” Hannah said. “He told me that if you can smell poop, you’re actually inhaling poop particles.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Makes you think, though, doesn’t it, about public restrooms?”
“Gross, Hannah.”
“He’s one of my best resources. He doesn’t care what time I call and he loves to do research.”
“Someone who knew she had a penicillin allergy makes sure she gets enough to kill her,” Claire said. “That would explain the swelling and the hives.”
“Jillian would know.”
“So would Chip,” Claire said. “Even if she didn’t tell him, he has access to all the medical records at the hospital.”
“Are you going to the funeral?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
They walked outside and looked up toward the barn.
“Is it weird I kind of want to sit out here all night to make sure nobody messes with him?” Claire asked.
“Sam has motion detectors set up everywhere. Nobody is going to get anywhere near him.”
“I’m so glad,” Claire said. “I need Sam to put a GPS on my dad.”
“He could do it,” Hannah said. “In his watch or on his belt. Just say the word.”
“We’re lucky if he remembers to wear pants,” Claire said. “I’ll meet you at the funeral home tomorrow, say about fifteen minutes before?”
“No way,” Hannah said. “We get there at least an hour beforehand and stake out the best seats. We have to observe everyone as they arrive and see who acts the guiltiest. Or who acts the fakest, anyhow.”
“Sorry, rookie mistake.”
“Stick with me, kid, I’ll turn you into a junior detective in no time.”
“What are the scanner grannies saying?”
The scanner grannies were a group of Rose Hill senior citizens who used illegal scanners to listen in on cordless and cell phone calls.
“Nine out of ten scanner grannies think Jillian did it,” Hannah said. “The tenth one thinks it was aliens.”
“Are they often correct?”
“Nine times out of ten,” Hannah said. “These crimes have a distinctly Jillian sneakiness to them. Whoever did this is resourceful, cunning, and has a pathological talent for acting.”
“A sociopath, in other words.”
“If he’s hanging out in strip clubs and doesn’t think Jillian will find out, Chip certainly isn’t bright enough to have pulled this off.”
“I could swear he didn’t know his real dad was dead,” Claire said. “If he knew, he’s a scary psychopath.”
“Watch your back,” Hannah said. “You’re an obstacle now, too, you know.”
Claire stopped by the newspaper office and found Ed there, talking to a couple of very attractive young women. Very young and dressed in the latest body-baring fashions, they were flirting with him, she could tell, all soft girlishness and big round eyes, laughing at his bad jokes, no doubt.
When Claire walked in, they looked her up and down and exchanged amused glances. Claire walked up to Ed, who was gratifyingly glad to see her, and kissed him on the cheek.
“Hi, Honey,” she said. “You about ready to quit working?”
“Sure,” he said. “Hilly and Posy just happened to be passing and saw me working. They’re in one of my classes. Girls, this is Claire.”
They smirked at Claire and smiled brightly at Ed.
“We better be going,” Hilly said.
“See you tomorrow, Professor Harrison,” Posy said.
As soon as the door shut behind them, Claire bent him back over the work table and laid one on him, just in case they were still looking.
“Whoa,” he said, as soon as she let him up. “What was that about?”
“Just marking my territory,” she said. “I may pee a circle around your house later.”
“Mark me anytime,” he said. “I thought maybe it was the new beard.”
“Oh, it is,” Claire said.
“Did Eugene get settled?” Ed asked her. “I felt so sorry for him this evening. It was way too much. I warned Hannah about that, but she said it would mean more to him later, when he looked back, and that was what was important. She said his first instinct is to freeze, it takes him a while to process things, and then he decides how he feels about them.”
“I was just relieved he didn’t vomit and faint.”
“The medication seems to be working,” Ed said. “I couldn’t believe how much better he can speak.”
“Dr. Schweitzer said chronic stuttering is related to too much dopamine in the system, kind of like Tourette syndrome. I didn’t understand everything he said, but he’s got Eugene on a dopamine-blocking antipsychotic medication, and it’s smoothed things out somewhat. Eugene’s also going to keep visiting a psychologist and a speech therapist, and the doctor’s hoping things will improve even further.”
“He still stuttered, but it wasn’t the paralyzing kind of lock up he used to have. Now he stutters but keeps going.”
“He will still stutter, especially when stressed,” Claire said. “At least now there’s some hope for him. That may help his self-esteem.”
“What about side effects?”
“It’s a list as long as your arm. Basically, if it doesn’t kill him, he’ll do fine.”
“Did Dr. Schweitzer say if he thought Eugene could harm someone?”
“He said Eugene gave no indication he had harmed his mother. On the contrary, he’s grieving very deeply. He’s confused as to why someone would kill her, and he’s having a hard time accepting she’s gone.”
“It will take a while,” Ed said. “I hope that he’s strong enough to get t
hrough it.”
Claire was feeling Laurie’s presence, and was telling him to go away.
“Are you okay?” Ed asked her. “You’ve seemed preoccupied and sort of down lately. Is everything all right?”
“I’m okay,” Claire said, and embraced him. “I’m just kind of lost, and looking for the path out of whatever this funk is.”
“Let me show you the way,” Ed said, as he switched off the lights in the office, and locked the door.
“Professor Harrison,” Claire said. “I didn’t see this on the syllabus.”
“It’s for extra credit,” he said. “And only for you.”
Ed’s son, Tommy, was home when they got there, watching TV on the couch. He greeted them with the usual, “’Sup?”
Claire asked him about Jillian and Chip’s son.
“He’s an ass-hat,” Tommy said.
“Language,” Ed said.
“He’s the head covering for a human posterior,” Tommy said.
“Much better,” Ed said.
“How so?” Claire asked him.
“One of those spoiled rich kids,” Tommy said. “Has a convertible sports car, pops his collars, you know the type.”
“Ew,” Claire said. “I do.”
“He’s always bragging about their vacations and all the stuff they buy for him,” Tommy said. “He’s obnoxious, but he’s, like, boy-band-pretty so all the girls swoon when he walks down the hall.”
“Like?” Ed said.
“Sorry,” Tommy said. “I’m working on it.”
“Does he have a steady girlfriend?”
“Nah,” Tommy said. “Apparently, nobody’s good enough for him. He says he’s going to be a sports agent and only date models.”
“Is he good at sports?” Ed asked him.
“He’s good at looking in every mirror he passes,” Tommy said.
“Does he get in fights, or get in trouble at school?” Claire asked him.
“Not that I know of,” Tommy said. “Why?”
Claire told Tommy about the case.
“Wow!” Tommy said. “You think Chip’s dad might have done it?”
“No,” Ed said. “Claire’s just being nosy.”
“You, Hannah, and Maggie should open a detective agency,” Tommy said. “You’re good at it.”
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