Chapter 23

When Doreen got a call from Nan a couple of hours later, she was brisk and businesslike right off the bat.

"News?"

"Not a whole lot," Doreen murmured. Then realizing there was something to tell her, she filled her in about Reggie.

"I've spoken to him a time or two over the years," Nan shared, "but Richard's right. You shouldn't trust him."

"I want to trust him," Doreen said.

"Why would you? He was there the whole time throughout your marriage. He knew what Mathew was up to. He knew the man was hitting you."

"He told me how he tried to defend me, and Mathew threatened to fire him if he interfered."

Nan was quiet for a few moments. "And that's quite possible. But then it could also just be a good story."

"He's also an older man," Doreen reminded her. "He'll have a hard time finding employment now."

"No, he won't, and maybe that's why he threw his lot in with Mathew, on a promise of better times."

She didn't like anything about what Nan was saying. Yet everybody was looking for options and theories.

"I do like the idea of Robin screwing over Mathew though," Nan said, with a chuckle.

"Oh, that would be fine with me too," Doreen murmured, "except for the fact that I'm the one who'll pay the price."

"You didn't though. Mathew paid the price."

"Sure, but it's not over yet."

At that, Nan gasped. "Now that's true. Did you ever get a will in place?"

"No, just one more thing on my plate to do."

"Well, you should write down your handmade will and sign it and email a copy to Nick right away."

"We talked about it the other day, and Nick and I were supposed to get together and sign one," she replied.

"You've got to get that finalized. The fact of the matter is, you now have an awful lot of money in limbo, and, regardless of when that money comes through, it's still coming through to your estate. We don't want anybody greedily deciding you might be somebody they can get money from by writing up a fake will and simply killing you off."

"Great," she muttered. Her hands shaky, she quickly sat down, while she still talked to Nan, and wrote out a simple will by hand, signed it—even while discussing coming down for a cup of tea with Nan. Then Doreen scanned it in and emailed it off to Nick. "I'll be down there in about twenty minutes."

"Good. Have you had breakfast?"

Doreen frowned. "I don't think I've eaten all day."

"In that case, you get here as soon as you can. I'll get us some food." And Nan was gone.

It wasn't long after, Doreen hadn't even gotten her shoes back on when Nick called her.

"I got your draft will, but eventually we need to do a proper one," he noted in a flat tone.

"Nan ordered me to," she stated, raising her free hand. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but apparently I'm next on the hit list."

His breath caught. "That sucks. I really don't like to think of that."

"And yet according to Nan, I'm worth a pile of money, even though nothing is necessarily settled."

"That's true," Nick agreed. "Everything to Nan, huh?"

"Yes, of course. I want to ensure she has everything she needs for the rest of her life."

"Fine. I'll draft up a proper will, but it'll only be temporary."

"Why is that?"

"You'll see soon enough—although that part might take a day, a week, or even a month or two."

Such a note of humor filled his tone that she stared down at her phone. "I'm not really in the mood for games. Did you get the title search back or something?"

"Yeah, I sure did. I've got a call in to Mack about it."

"So, you won't tell me?"

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

She groaned. "I don't know, do I?"

"Not sure, but you'll have to know eventually. What I found was that several pieces of property were put into your name, and they were done so with your signature and Robin's. The only thing I can surmise is that, somewhere along the line, when you were signing another document, Robin slipped this in, and you signed it, but she didn't register it right away."

"Why would she not register it?"

"Honestly I'm thinking she probably registered them just before she died, as a way to get back at your ex."

"Oh my God. Was this a one-off to use just in case or what?"

"It's a theory, and really we don't need to know about that, but the fact remains that you signed it. They probably had it all ready in case they needed to do it for tax purposes, in order to transfer everything into your name, to lower the taxes they paid, then sell it and blame you for the taxes. Because that would be something she could do with the same signatures. I don't know whether the forms were even around or not, but she could have transferred the forms right back out again."

"Great, like into her name?"

"We need to find out, and we're still doing a lot of that with her estate, sorting out her relationships and the murders, remember?"

"Right, all that property and piles of promises of big scores."

"I suspect it got transferred into your name, and then Robin was using that as blackmail with Mathew. However, realizing what all that was additionally happening in Mathew's life, Robin ended up registering all these so they titled to your name. That would explain why Mathew started to panic all of a sudden because these are worth millions and millions of dollars."

"Great, so he really was probably coming up to ask me to sign these things back to him."

"If you had understood what was going on, what would you have done?"

She shrugged. "I would have given them back to him, of course."

Nick sighed. "And that's why he was trying to talk to you and brought up papers for you to sign."

"So, why would somebody stop it from happening then? Why would somebody kill him in order to make it not happen?"

"Well, who will benefit?"

"Me, it sounds like."

"Exactly, which could make you prime suspect number one in his murder alone," he replied.

"But I didn't even know about this," she argued.

"True. But, on the flip side, if all these properties were in your name, and Mathew was supposed to pay off a divorce settlement or pay off disgruntled investors or whatnot, then Mathew was surely looking to get you to sign them over."

"But that makes no sense. It's already in my name. What threat could he use to make me sign them?"

"But you didn't need a threat, did you?"

"No, but other people apparently think that way," she pointed out. "Just consider how everybody else will assume that I would refuse. He was being a pain about the divorce already, and these properties are already in my name, so why would I transfer them out of my name? That's just what most people would think. However, I don't care how much money they're worth."

"Exactly, so what leverage could they use on you?"

"Only hurting my animals, Nan—and Mack."

"Right, and remember that you still have all that property in your name. So, there's a good chance that whoever has the upper hand in this whole nightmare has documents all ready for you to sign them over."

"Or else?"

"Exactly. Or else they go after the people you love."

"Meaning Nan and Mack."

"Exactly. Keep the animals close too because the bad guys might try to use one of them as a message." And with that and a warning to stay out of trouble, Nick signed off.

She gathered all the animals close to her and whispered, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh."