Purple Knot

by Raquel Byrnes

  I groaned and pulled away. Seeing Mona after such a blissful morning seemed almost rude. Then something occurred to me.

  “Wait, are you giving a deposition also?”

  “We all are.”

  I froze. He didn’t mean…

  “We?”

  “Me, Dr. Banfield, and…Mona.” Jimmy ran the palms of his hands down my shoulders and pulled me close.

  “Ugh!”

  “What?”

  “I thought the worst thing about this was that Parker would be there. No one said anything about Mona!”

  “She’s scheduled later in the day tomorrow.”

  A little hope crept into the situation.

  “How much later?”

  “Late enough for us to be gone by the time it’s her turn.”

  That helped a little. Maybe I could avoid seeing her at all while I was here. Washington is a pretty big state if you factor in all the islands.

  We took the ferry back across the Sound, took a cab to Hill House, and Jimmy ran inside to grab his stuff. Although it didn’t appear that Mona was home, I opted to stay in the car with Rocko, our cab driver. We had a nice conversation about how fanatical Seattle residents are about water conservation. Being that it was one of the wettest states, it seemed a little weird to both of us.

  Jimmy drove out of the back garage in his SUV and parked next to the cab. He paid Rocko, thanked him, and we set out toward city central. Jimmy hummed while he drove. I hooked my dead phone up to his car charger and waited for it to have enough juice to turn on. I left a message on Salem’s voicemail for him to call me and checked my own messages. I had fifteen. I decided to listen to them later.

  Traffic was heavy on this beautiful Monday morning, so we dropped his SUV off at a pay lot and walked the sidewalks. Jimmy said he thought he’d seen a coffee shop with computers last time he was in the city. He took my hand and we strolled and window shopped. We found the coffee shop on the corner and I paid cash for an hour on the computer by the window. Jimmy went to order lattes and I got to work.

  I logged onto my office email account and checked my inbox. Sure enough, there was an email from Chuy. Jimmy sat down and handed me a frothy-chocolate coffee concoction. It was delicious.

  “So, anything good?”

  “I got an email from my guy. He said he’ll fax the info to my office. I’ll have Salem fax it out here to me.”

  “Why won’t the guy email it to you?”

  I shook my head and closed out my email account.

  “It’s a security thing. My guy is good, but he only deals with hardcopy.”

  “Hardcopy?”

  “Paper. He mails in the real mailbox or he’ll fax. That’s it.”

  “That seems kind of paranoid.”

  It seemed pretty smart, actually. Jimmy jumped and then handed me the phone he’d been sitting on. It buzzed again. It was a text from Salem.

  A fax from Chuy just came in. Good stuff. Will you be in the office today? Do you want me to go in?

  I frowned at the screen. Salem was obviously checking email from home or he’d have mentioned the damage to the door from the break in. He didn’t know that I wasn’t in California anymore. Another text came in before I’d decided how to answer the first.

  Just got some information from our search of public records. Does Primus Insurance mean anything to you? It seems there’s a recent court filing on Parker’s behalf against Primus Insurance. I uploaded it to the office server so you can read it if you’re out of the office today.

  “Where’d you get that insurance name?” Jimmy pointed to my cell phone’s screen.

  “It just came back on a court records search, why?”

  “Primus carries my family’s insurance policies.”

  That caught me off guard and my heart sped up. What kind of beef would Parker have with the Corbeau insurance holders?

  “What kind of insurance policies does Primus carry?”

  “Everything, really. Primus covers our homes, our vehicles, and jewelry. Mona even has a racehorse policy from them. They’re a full service company.”

  “Racehorse?”

  Jimmy shook his head and rolled his eyes. Mona went through hobbies faster than she went through a bottle of bourbon.

  I dialed Salem and he picked up on the first ring.

  “I knew you were awake.” Salem said.

  I logged back into the office email account. Sure enough, another email popped up.

  “Hey Salem, you’re at home, right?”

  “Yeah, why? Are we doing something today?”

  “No. Uh, I have to talk to you about something but I don’t want you to worry.” I hesitated. I needed to tell him about the break in before he went into the office.

  I heard Salem talking to someone and then a woman’s tinkling laugh chimed in the background. His girlfriend was there. He sounded distracted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch that last part.”

  “Just…don’t go into the office today, OK?” I decided to tell him later.

  “Uh, sure.” He sounded suspicious. I heard more laughter from his girlfriend.

  “There’s been some damage and I need to get a guy there to fix it. Just take the day off, OK?”

  “Like flood damage?”

  “Just work from home today, OK?” I didn’t correct his assumption.

  “OK.”

  I hung up and opened the email. I had twenty minutes left. I scanned the court records report stopping on a word. I pointed it out to Jimmy, who was reading over my shoulder.

  “What is this?”

  “Codicil, that’s an amendment to a will.” Jimmy read it and scratched his chin stubble.

  “This is a court record of Parker’s petition to challenge a codicil in a will.”

  “It can only be about Summer’s will, but his report doesn’t give me much.” A darkness pooled behind Jimmy’s eyes. He read the court filing report silently.

  I closed the email. The best place to get all the facts on this filing was at the courthouse. I’d worked there for four years. I knew more than most of the lawyers there. I turned to Jimmy.

  He gave me a quizzical look.

  “Let’s take a trip to one of my old stomping grounds.”

  Purple Knot

  17

  The Justice Center was twelve floors of silver steel and glass along the six-hundred block of Seattle’s Fifth avenue. Monuments to sustainable, renewable, recycled wonders, the justice buildings loomed over the crowded downtown street. I ate lunch under the shadow of the giant metal lawn sculpture on the occasional sunny day. The trees still shed on the sidewalks making permanent leaf-shaped stains.

  Jimmy and I wandered through the windowed lobby and over to the series of public use computers set up near the elevators. I eyed the bizarre wood totem pole art installation next to the computers before speaking. “So a challenge like that would be in the superior court cases, right?”

  Jimmy nodded.

  “Since we don’t have the case number, I’m just going to try a name search.” I logged onto the superior court website and navigated to the case records link.

  Jimmy’s silence was starting to make me worry. I typed in Parker’s full name and chewed on my thumbnail until the records came back. I rooted in my purse for paper and jotted down the case number, case type, and filing attorney’s name. Then I did a search of the building’s map to make sure they hadn’t moved the clerk’s office.

  We walked down the hall and caught the elevator to the third floor. The County Clerk’s office was the same as it had been before I left. Jimmy nudged my shoulder and pointed to the bank of SCOMIS database computers against the far wall. Once settled, I looked up any cases involving Parker by name. Only one came up. Satisfied I wasn’t overlooking anything, I called up the case and hit print.

  “I’ll go get it.” Jimmy got up and fished out his wallet. He had a dark brooding look to his eyes again and it worried me.

  The whole endeavor cost us seven bucks and an aft
ernoon. Once we had the case we headed back to the SUV.

  Jimmy didn’t talk much on the way back, so I didn’t either. This was taking a huge toll on him. Summer had been not only his sister, but his twin. They’d been so close. When her relationship with Parker had pulled her away from everyone, I’d seen an almost desperate panic in Jimmy. He’d known something was wrong from the start, but the more he tried to reach out to her and help the more she’d retreated. And now this. Parker was up to something and it couldn’t be good.

  We popped into Pike Place Market and sat at the sandwich shop that overlooked the waterfront. I scanned the case file, and wished I had paid more attention in pre-law.

  “What did you find out so far?”Jimmy placed our order and sat down next to me.

  I shrugged and slid the papers over to Jimmy. He’d gone to law school after all.

  The waitress brought our turkey clubs and I nibbled on the pickle spear.

  “Parker is challenging the codicil on Summer’s will. He is asserting that he has proof of a situation that may nullify the terms of the amendment.” He looked up at me and tapped the papers.

  “Does it say what the codicil is?”

  “No, but my guess would be that Summer changed her will to include provisions for their child’s share of her estate. Parker would get 50% of everything they purchased together, but there are ways to move money so that it doesn’t fall under the spousal inheritance laws.”

  “Could she have disinherited Parker?”

  “Not entirely, no. I know their prenuptial agreement keeps her wealth before they met intact, her trust, and any interest or dividends she accrues from pre-marriage holdings. So basically, any money or other assets she enters the marriage with, is hers to leave with. But, if she uses her money to purchase something like a house with Parker, then it becomes community property, and they’d have to sell it and split the proceeds, or divide it up in the event of a divorce. Also, Parker would have gotten alimony for three years after they divorced equal to the allowance he got from Summer during their marriage but that’s it. Parker wouldn’t get any big money from Summer if they divorced.”

  “She paid him an allowance?”

  I had no idea. I thought Parker was just as loaded as Jimmy’s family.

  “He was rich, just not wealthy.”

  “Uh, there’s a difference?”

  Jimmy snorted and took a sip of his coffee.

  “Parker’s family, the Evans, they’re a holdover from the timber baron families from the turn of the century. They were wealthy, but more importantly, they were influential in the forming of the Pacific Northwest as we know it. But bad investments and their inability to move beyond what had always worked for them left the Evans family with an important name, but not much money. Grayson Evans is still up to his neck in politics, but Parker is just an executive.”

  “Well, he’s a pretty important guy out here, though, right? I mean he and Summer were always going to art openings and stuff.”

  “Like I said, the Evans name still commands respect, but if it wasn’t for the Corbeau money that Summer brought in over the past eight years, they’d be goners.”

  “So, all the art scholarships and museum donations were from Summer?”

  Jimmy nodded. “Parker works for his money. He makes five million a year as an executive for Veno Pharmaceuticals. That doesn’t include stock options, bonuses, and benefits. And he’s been with them for a good ten years.”

  “That sounds wealthy to me.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “Summer’s interest alone, on her trust fund is eight million a year. That’s more than Parker will ever see at Veno, even with a bonus and stock. And that’s just what her money earns while sitting in the bank. Let alone the actual amount of her trust.”

  I looked at Jimmy with shock. I knew the Corbeaus had money, but…really? Holy cow! I cringed every time I bought a plane ticket. I mean, I had the money. My business was doing well, and I had my cabins, but wow!

  Jimmy never seemed like he was wealthy. He lived in the dorms at college. He drove all terrain vehicles. Other than last night’s boat extravaganza, Jimmy didn’t really flash money around. Not really. I know his family had other homes but, I’d only ever been to Hill House and the one on the beach where he’d proposed. I was happy to hang out with Jimmy at my apartment, when I’d lived here. I shook my head, not believing I’d never actually asked how much he was worth. Not even when we’d been engaged. It never came up because he’d never asked for a pre-nup. That had never occurred to me before. I looked at him and he smiled at me with a questioning look.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. So Parker would not have been happy with a divorce. But now that he stands to inherit…what?”

  “I can’t be sure, but I think….” Jimmy was re-reading the court case papers and frowning. He scanned the last page. When he read it, Jimmy’s face lost its color. He looked sick.

  “What? What is it?” I asked.

  “Estate law is very…specific. If there is a codicil in Summer’s will, it probably allows for all of her wealth protected by the prenuptial agreement to go directly to her child in the event of her death. It wouldn’t be considered in the spousal inheritance because it technically would be like a trust with an executor. Autumn would inherit the bulk of Summer’s estate.”

  “OK, so what’s the problem?”

  Jimmy ground his jaw.

  “If I’m right, the codicil went into effect only after Autumn was born. But if Summer died before the baby was born, then Parker could argue that the codicil did not go into effect and he was due 100% of the assets upon her death.”

  “Can he do that? I mean the filing stated evidence that will nullify the codicil. What could he mean by that?” My stomach lurched. What was Parker thinking? I worried about what he’d do with all that money. Would he be able to keep Autumn from Mona, from Jimmy?

  “I don’t know, actually, but I know someone who would know.” Jimmy pulled his phone out and punched in a number.

  “You can’t tell Bennet! I don’t want anyone to know that we’ve found out about this filing.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going to call a friend of mine from law school. He does probate court and family law.”

  “Is he bound to be, I don’t know, discreet?”

  Jimmy nodded and walked outside the café to have his conversation. I stared at the court filing and chewed on my pinkie nail. I scribbled down some thoughts in my notebook. I read a note from two days ago and remembered we still didn’t know why Parker was supposedly in Colorado. My phone chirped. It was Salem. I answered without thinking.

  “When were you going to tell me about the attack?” He was not happy.

  “How…?”

  “Apparently Kyle, your cellist neighbor, called the police and reported a break in at your condo last night. Me, being your emergency contact, got a super pleasant call ten minutes ago from the police.”

  I groaned and rubbed my eyes. I should have said something earlier.

  “Then I get a call from the office building manager wanting to know what kind of door you want to replace the one the attacker tried to break through. Thanks for letting me know you’d been attacked twice!” He was practically yelling now. Where was the distracting girlfriend when I needed her?

  “I know I should have said something, Salem, but this morning you seemed busy.”

  I watched Jimmy talk on his cell to whomever he had called. He balled his fists and ground his jaw. Not good news apparently.

  I realized Salem was still talking and interrupted him. “I wasn’t at home when they broke in there, Salem. So technically I was in danger only once last night. And you’re right. I should have called, but my cell phone…”

  “Yeah, yeah. It was dead, right? Too bad Seattle doesn’t have any other phones.”

  “I’m sorry, Salem. Last night was just so crazy. Jimmy picked me up and…”

  “Wait, what? You didn’t fly over on the flight I booked you?”r />
  “Uhm, no.”

  “I got insurance on that ticket. I can get a refund.” It was his fussbudget voice, which I figured was a few notches up from angry.

  I eyed Jimmy. He was pacing the sidewalk now. “I need you to work the Colorado angle. Do the travel agent ruse I told you about.”

  “I will first thing tomorrow morning. Oh, and I ordered a steel core security door.”

  “OK, thanks. And I am sorry about not telling you.” I could literally feel the dollar bills flying out of my bank account.

  “Nothing says I’m sorry like a bonus,” Salem said and I could hear humor in his voice again. “Anything else?”

  “No. I’m doing some research up here at the courthouse. I might have an interesting lead on Parker’s activities lately. Jimmy’s calling in a friend we need to get to the bottom of it.”

  “So you’re with Jimmy, huh?”

  He said it in a way that made me think of his eyebrows bobbing up and down. I didn’t want to get into it. “Call me as soon as you talk with the Human Resources department at Parker’s company.”

  “I will.”

  Jimmy walked back in so I rang off with Salem. He’d made me promise to keep my cell phone charged and on.

  “Did you get in touch with your friend?”

  “If you’re all done here, we should go.” Jimmy nodded.

  “Did you get some bad news?”

  “Parker might have a case.”

  Purple Knot

  18

  I remember that the pain had been unbearable. The pulling, twisting pain in my lower abdomen made lights flash behind my eyes every time it hit me. It was worse than my leg, or my arm and I struggled to move away from the smell of smoke, only to reignite a fresh round of agony. All around I could hear people yelling and I tried to talk but the only thing that came out was a groan. The steering wheel was angled weird. It was wedged down on my stomach and I felt burning on my face. The airbag hung ragged and limp on the steering wheel.