“I’m not a policeman or a lawyer, but I know there’s enough to arrest you. Identity theft is a crime, so is attempting to obtain money by fraud, or by deception. Is it a risk you want to take? ”
She thought about it for a moment before replying. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’ve prepared an affidavit for you to swear; we’ll need to drive over to Boylston this morning. We will go together to Bill Saunders’ office and you will sign the affidavit in your real name. In the affidavit you will admit that you are not Susan Granger; you will admit to your real name, and state that you renounce any claim to the estate of Gloria Philips. After that you will be free to go.”
“You’re not going to call the police?”
“Not if you co-operate fully.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t. But you know what the alternative is. Everything I’m asking you to admit in the affidavit can easily be independently proved now.”
“How about the attorney? And Mr. Philips?”
“I can give you an assurance about them too. They will not reveal the matter to anyone, and the wording of the affidavit itself will reveal no criminal intent on your part. It’s a bare statement of fact for probate purposes.”
Susan thought about it for a moment, but only for a moment.
“Okay.” She sighed heavily. “I’ll do it.”
“Let’s go,” I said. “You’ll need to bring your true documents of identity with you to be photocopied.”
Susan collected the documents she needed from a drawer in the kitchen, and we walked downstairs. She went over to her car.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to travel with me. You can make your own way back later.”
She shrugged. “Okay, whatever.”
We drove, mainly in silence. After a few miles my curiosity got the better of me.
“You want to tell me your story? Off the record, and just for my own curiosity?”
“You haven’t got one of those secret recording devices, have you?” she said.
“No. Like I said, it’s off the record. For the past couple of weeks you and I have been playing a game. It’s a game you almost won, but for a quirk of fate. For my own curiosity I’d like to know the truth.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled audibly.
“My real name’s Sara Bennett. Susan Granger and I were lovers for a long while. She died last year.”
“An accident?” I said, with a tone of slight skepticism.
“No. She died of cancer, it was horrible. I’ve got her death certificate if you don’t believe me.”
“So you assumed her identity to deceive her mother? How did you get all her documents?”
“It was her idea, Susan’s I mean. She gave them to me. It wasn’t difficult to make the necessary changes. I knew all about her past of course. She blamed her real mother for not trying to be part of her life. She knew all about Gloria’s privileged life and she got pissed about it. She’d had a crap life. For a long time she talked to me about contacting Gloria. It was kind of a mixture of anger and frustration, wanting to show her that you just can’t abandon people like that. Then she got real sick, and she knew she’d never have the chance to see her real mother so she came up with the plan. I would contact Gloria and pretend to be her. She made me promise I’d do it. I had no option; I loved Susan, see?”
She was silent for a minute or two.
“I didn’t really have a plan, except to embarrass Gloria and make her feel guilty about abandoning her daughter. But it didn’t quite work out like we thought. When I met Gloria I couldn’t vent Susan’s anger on her. She was kind, apologetic. She’d been devastated by the loss of her daughter too. She explained to me that she hadn’t meant to abandon me and it was a terrible wrench, but she just wasn’t in a position to care for me. She thought that a clean break was in my interest and that of my adoptive parents, otherwise she thought I would never bond with them. She was just a person – an ordinary person − who thought that she’d done the right thing. She wanted to make amends. So that’s how the game played out. She was in such emotional turmoil; she’d had to bottle it up all those years, and she was sick. She wasn’t so sick when I first met her but I knew from Greg what her condition was. So I became her daughter, and I tried to give her comfort. It was almost like I was her real daughter for a while, because I’d been so close to Susan. I knew that if Susan was still alive it’s what she would have wanted if she’d ever actually met Gloria.”
“You told me you didn’t know about the will until after she died.”
“That was mainly true. She told me she’d take care of me. She said that the time would come when she wouldn’t be able to look after her own affairs and that she would make provision for me in her will. She never told me what kind of provision, and even though she eventually became unable to communicate I didn’t expect her to die so soon. She didn’t tell me about the details of the will; that was a genuine surprise. She was trying to compensate for what Susan had never had. You probably think I’m an evil person, but really I’m not. I developed a genuine affection for Gloria, and I thought that since Gloria was dying it was nice for her to think she’d found her daughter. It gave her peace of mind.”
“And the money?”
“What I did for Susan was never intended to be about money; that’s just the way it turned out. I don’t know really what I’d have done with it. I felt guilty that it was so much, but I couldn’t tell Greg. I couldn’t tell anybody. Probably I would have used some of it to buy a small condo somewhere. I haven’t got anything and I’m not getting any younger; maybe I’d have given some of it back to Gloria’s family if they needed it. I had no reason to want them to suffer.”
“And the plane crash?”
“Oh that?” She gave an embarrassed laugh. “It was stupid, right? I know these things are easy to check these days. The fact is it’s just something that popped into my head. I couldn’t tell you the truth, that Susan’s adoptive parents are still alive. I knew I’d made a mistake as soon as I said it, but afterwards I just hoped you wouldn’t bother to check, you wouldn’t think it was that important. But you did, huh?”
“My assistant did. But you were vague enough about the date and place to cover your slip. Although we didn’t find any news of the crash we couldn’t have disproved it.”
“But you know? A lot of what I told you was true, only it related to me not to Susan.” She gazed at the trees trough the side window and was for a moment lost in thought. Then without turning her head towards me she said: “I was adopted too, you see? What I said about my own experience of growing up with adoptive parents was all true – well, almost all. Maybe that’s why Susan and I had such a close bond. My own adoptive parents really are dead, although they didn’t die in a plane crash. And my father really was a salesman of aircraft parts. The bit about moving around a lot when I was growing up was also true to some extent but I exaggerated it. I knew I had to keep you from pinning me down. So I sort of used some of the things from my own life when you came to meet me first. But Susan’s adoptive parents are still alive; at least they were when she died because they went to visit her in the hospital. But I didn’t really know anything much about them because Susan never wanted to talk about it. I know she didn’t have a close relationship with them. She really wasn’t told about her adoption until she was sixteen and she blamed them as well as Gloria for keeping the truth from her.”
“Did you tell Gloria that your adoptive parents were dead?” I asked her.
“No, that was all stuff I made up for you, to stop you digging around.”
“You were taking a chance,” I said. “Gloria might have contacted the adoptive parents and then your deception would have been exposed.”
“Gloria never doubted that I was her daughter; why would she? She was just happy that she’d found me before she lapsed into dementia. She knew perfectly well what her fate was.”
We rode on in silence for a wh
ile longer.
“Josette doesn’t know. She thinks I’m Susan. I know you talked to her. I suppose I’ll have to tell her the truth now as well.”
I wondered whether what she had just told me was the truth. It was almost an idle thought since it didn’t much matter. I’d been hired to find out if she was Gloria’s daughter, no more no less. Whether she had really known about the will or whether she had manipulated Gloria in some way was something I would never know for sure.
“If you tell it to her the way you’ve told it to me maybe she’ll understand,” I said. “Is it important to you?”
“We’re not in a serious relationship, if that’s what you mean. But I don’t want her to think badly of me.” She sat in silence for a while. “Is it really a crime to pretend to be someone else if they’ve given you permission, or asked you to do it?
“Probably, but I’m not a lawyer.”
Sara looked at me sideways, with a slight smile. “You told me you had good news when you called me this morning,” she said.
“I didn’t say it was good news for you.”
“But it was, in a way,” she said. “In spite of everything, I’ve been fighting with my conscience for the past few weeks. I’d kind of dug a hole for myself. It’s a relief now that it’s all over.”
We were drawing into a parking space near Saunders’ office. I told Susan to sit in the reception and I went upstairs to have a quick word with Saunders. I gave his secretary a handwritten draft affidavit I’d prepared for her and Saunders checked it over after it was typed up. I handed him Sara Bennett’s real documents so that he could fill in the spaces that had so far been left blank.
“The end of the nightmare,” I said wryly, but not so wryly that he’d notice.
“Hmmm, he said.”
“I want you to go easy on her,” I said to Saunders. “There are reasons for that which I may let you know about later, but I am sure that Greg will agree.”
“Whatever you say, Kane, I just want to put this one to bed. Oh, and well done by the way.”
I went downstairs to collect Sara. She signed the completed affidavit and Saunders notarized it. Our little chat in the car had proved fruitful. Sara was able to provide Saunders with a copy of Susan Granger’s death certificate, which would enable him to move rapidly now to wind up Gloria’s estate for probate. The question of Gloria’s mental competence at the time she signed the will was an irrelevance now. I would never know precisely what passed between Sara and Gloria. It didn’t matter anymore.
Less than thirty minutes later we were outside again.
“Will you explain to Greg?” She said. “Tell him I’m sorry. I never meant to cause trouble to him. He’s a nice man. It’s just that things kind of spiraled out of control.”
“I’ll tell him.”
She turned to walk away, then stopped and turned back towards me.
“You’re not so bad yourself, either,” she said, “for a man.”
And then she was gone.
Chapter Thirty One
Grey Areas
It was time to report back to my client, so I headed straight over to Greg’s house. He was expecting me because I’d called ahead from Saunders’ office. I hadn’t told him anything since I’d left him earlier in the week, and I asked Saunders not speak to him about the latest developments until I’d had a chance to tell him myself. I’d given Susan an assurance on behalf of Greg and I wanted to make sure he understood my reasons.
It was early afternoon. The sun was shining as usual as I approached Greg’s house. I felt strangely ambivalent about what was to be our last meeting. In the past few weeks I’d probably got as close to Greg as anyone ever had, barring his own family, and I’d miss our little get-togethers in spite of him being my client rather than my friend.
Greg was pruning roses at the front of the house next to the garage. For the first time since I’d met him he was not dressed like someone about to attend an English cricket match, but then I was calling on short notice. He was wearing a pair of loose-fitting beige corduroy pants and a white T-shirt with paint stains of various colors. He waved cheerily as he came over. He hadn’t been told the result of the DNA test yet and a look of eager anticipation was etched into his face. He’d probably been in the sun all morning because his tanned face was suffused with a pinkish glow. I noticed he was breathing rather heavily as he approached me.
“I’ve been trying to keep myself busy, they say that time passes more quickly that way.”
“They do and it does,” I said. “Shall we go inside?”
We took our usual places in the living room.
“The test was negative,” I told him. “Susan isn’t Gloria’s child, nor any other relative.”
“Well, well,” he said, “extraordinary.”
“Her real name is Sara Bennett. I’m afraid the real Susan Granger died early last year. There’s no doubt about it, Saunders has a copy of the real Susan’s death certificate.”
“So how…”
I related the story that Sara had given me in the car. I told him of our appointment with Saunders, the affidavit and the fact that Saunders was of the opinion that things should be able to proceed now without delay.
“I’m inclined to believe her account,” I said, “or at least I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. It doesn’t excuse her behavior, but it does put it in a different light. She asked me to extend her personal apology to you. I think she got taken over by something that she didn’t know how to deal with. I don’t think she was motivated by greed. Of course, that’s only my opinion.”
Greg thought it over for a while.
“It’s a bit like truth of mood I suppose,” he said. I wonder if you’ve read Forster? It’s a recurring theme in his novels. It’s when the actual truth is superseded by a fiction, but done for a kind or benign motive. Her account shows what I suppose I’ve always suspected. Although the adoption was never mentioned between us for all those years it was something that deeply troubled Gloria. Her belief that she had been reunited with Susan must have been a great comfort to her, as well as her belief that she could help to make some kind of amends by leaving her money. In that sense it was a good thing, no matter it was a deception. Isn’t that odd?”
“Yes,” I said. “Sometimes people do things that are wrong – either legally or morally wrong – with a good intention. They are not necessarily bad people. Life is seldom black and white.”
Greg looked at me. “Yes,” he said, “there are many grey areas.”
“In the circumstances I gave Sara my assurance, on your behalf, that the matter will be taken no further,” I said.
“I quite understand. I agree whole-heartedly.” He stood there shaking his head. “Extraordinary,” he said again, this time mostly to himself.
Greg decided that the news called for a celebration, but for me there was no cause to celebrate. I told him I’d sit with him a while on the patio, where we had enjoyed so many drinks and chats together, but that I couldn’t stay for a drink this time.
Greg opened the glass doors and we sat quietly for a minute or two, drinking in the smells of summer rather than alcohol.
“All’s well that ends well,” I said. “Gloria’s at peace and she died believing that she’d done the right thing by her long-lost daughter. She’d be relieved to know that her sons will be all right now financially, and that you are secure in the family home for as long as you are able to manage it.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. It wasn’t a pleasant way for Gloria to leave us I’m afraid, but it was a blessing that in the end she went quite quickly.”
“A blessing?”
“Well, yes I mean she could have lingered in that dreadful half-house between life and death for years.”
I knew the time had come. I hadn’t been looking forward to it.
“I think I’ve got to know you well enough in the short time we’ve spent together, Greg. I hope I’m right in my assessment of you. I believe you are
an honorable man, so I hope you’re not going to disappoint me.”
Greg looked at me quizzically. “I’m sorry I don’t…”
“I know how Gloria died, Greg. I know about the poison.”
Tears welled up in his eyes and he reached for his handkerchief, but this time it wasn’t there. He put his hand over his eyes and squeezed the tears out with his thumb and forefinger.
“How long have you known?”
“Since the examination was carried out on Gloria’s hair. It showed significant traces of arsenic. How long have I known it was you? Since yesterday evening.”
“It’s a dreadful thing to have to live with. I couldn’t bear to see her like that you see, and I knew she wouldn’t have wanted to live that way. And then there was the burden it was placing on the children. I agonized over it for weeks, but I’m not sorry, except that the children will have to know about it. I don’t care about the public disgrace, or what may happen to me as a result. Gloria’s at peace now. It’s what she would have wanted.”
He paused for a while, gazing down the yard towards the motionless trees, lost in thought. After few minutes he said:
“You see I was the only one who really knew what she would have wanted.” He paused again, briefly. “A few months before that dreadful disease finally got her in its relentless grip we had a short vacation. She told me one day that she was afraid; but she wasn’t afraid of death – she was afraid of the living death that she knew awaited her. I’ll have to live with my conscience, and let God judge me in due course.”
“I think it best to wait until then,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, Greg, we are the only two people who know. I see no reason for that to change. I’m not a policeman and I’m not your moral judge. For better or worse you have to live with what you’ve done. Let that be an end to it.”
Greg was gazing down the lawn towards the arboretum. After a few minutes silence he spoke again, without looking at me and in a voice that sounded a million miles away.
FORGET ME NOT (Mark Kane Mysteries Book One) Page 19
