Chapter 24

Doreen sat here, petting the animals for a long moment, while she tried to figure out what her next move was, but she didn't even get a chance to because Nan phoned right away.

"Are you coming?" Nan asked briskly.

"Things have changed a bit since we spoke, Nan," Doreen muttered.

"Okay, you need to explain that."

Groaning, Doreen repeated her conversation with Nick.

"Oh, my word. Could this get even more confusing? That Robin was quite the little minx. Mathew certainly got what he deserved where she was concerned. Considering what she may have just done, I find myself liking her a little bit more every day. She was clearly a wicked woman, and she certainly screwed you over, but it appears she tried to do right by you in the end."

"Assuming that's really what she did, and, as far as Nick can tell, these properties are in my name right now. That's most likely why Mathew was coming up, to try and convince me to sign them back to his name, so he could sell them and get out of trouble. These properties were probably slated for certain developments, and now those people he's been stringing along have figured out that he's just screwed them over."

"Which essentially he did," Nan stated gleefully.

Doreen groaned. "You know I wouldn't have wanted that."

"No, you wouldn't have, but a lot of people would have gladly done it to him. But the bad news is that now there's a ton of money coming your way—the money that a lot of people would do almost anything to get their hands on. You can't trust anybody until this is all settled, and you need to make that will, deciding who and what you'll give money to," Nan reiterated.

"Nick's working on that," Doreen whispered, "and now I've got a pounding headache."

"Of course you do. Don't worry about coffee, as I've already got the kettle on."

"Nick also warned me that the murders were done as a setup, so that I look guilty for them. Also the bad guys will probably try to get me to sign these properties over by threatening those I love."

"Oh, dear. That's inconvenient."

"By the way, I've made sure that, no matter what happens to me, I want you and the animals to be taken care of."

"Of course you do," Nan replied, with a gentle tone.

"But now I'm worried because I don't know who they will target. The last thing you should have to do is suffer between now and the end of your life."

"Don't worry about me, dear. Keep yourself safe. If somebody did take you out, that money would be of absolutely no help for the pain I would be in."

Doreen felt the tears gathering in her eyes. "Ditto," she murmured. "Okay,… let me get my shoes on, and I'm coming down."

"You be careful on the way and bring the animals."

"Oh, everybody's coming, no doubt. Nick even suggested the bad guys could use one of the animals to send me a message. Can you imagine? I'll be there in a few minutes." She ended the call, grabbed her shoes, and, while she was putting them on, Nick phoned again.

"Okay, I've got a simple will ready. I'll bring it over later. However, when this is over, we'll sit down, and we'll set up a proper will and a proper disbursement for those people you want looked after. There's a ton of money coming at you, and that's just from your divorce."

"Divorce? He's dead. Do I even get divorced?"

"No, because it wasn't legally signed, so it wasn't completed. You'll be considered a widow, not a divorcée."

"Great, and does that mean I get anything?'

"We haven't had the reading of course, but, according to what I can see, you're likely to get 99 percent of Mathew's assets, plus all these properties that you apparently already own."

"Do you really think that's fair though?"

"Seeing how Mathew's dead and legally you're still his wife and are getting everything, it's totally fair. He made the choices that put all this in motion."

"Is it fair that he died trying to get these back after Robin screwed him over?"

"Probably not, but considering all the people he has no doubt screwed over throughout all the years, I think it's totally fair."

She groaned. "Is there anything that can come back to bite us in the butt?"

He laughed. "Yeah, probably, to some degree. But you'll have plenty of assets with which to straighten things out, so you have lots of good things coming as well." And, with that, he asked, "So, what are you doing now?"

"We're heading down to Nan's for a cup of tea. As she reminded me, I haven't eaten, and I'm fairly stressed."

"You think? I am too. I'll call my brother again and bring him up to speed. You take care. Ensure you keep things locked up, put on the security, and keep the animals close." Reiterating that same warning for a second time made her doubly nervous, and she almost ran down to Nan's.

As she stepped onto her grandmother's little patio, Nan looked up, smiled, then hopped to her feet and gave her a big hug. "You don't look so good."

"I'm seeing boogeymen everywhere right now," Doreen murmured, as she plunked her butt down on a chair. "It's a scary time."

"It is, but I've got plenty of food, including croissants and bite-size quiches. We'll spend the next hour or so talking about everything but all this trouble."

Doreen smiled, and, for the next hour and a half, they laughed at the animals, fed them little bits and pieces, and cherished them for being the characters they were. Richie stopped in, as did several others who lived at the senior facility.

Nan checked her watch and said, "Oh, it's almost four. Time for lawn bowling."

Doreen stared at her, shaking her head. "I think your life is busier now than it ever was."

Nan chuckled. "Agreed. That's okay, and, when I can't do much or don't want to, I'm perfectly capable of just telling them that I'm sitting it out, maybe staying in my room to rest, or, as in this case, having a visit with my granddaughter."

Doreen waved her hand. "You don't need to babysit me, Nan. I'll head on home and see if I can dream up something complicated to cook for a distraction. And by complicated, I mean, maybe a simple pasta with… whatever I have."

"Store-bought pasta, I suppose," Nan guessed.

Doreen rolled her eyes at her grandmother. "Of course. I haven't the guts to make that from scratch yet."

"You'll get there," Nan declared, "but you might want to bake another batch of cookies soon."

"Why is that?"

"Because they were lovely." And then Nan winked at her. "Now go on home, find a good book, and settle in. Do something that's just fun and relaxing."

"I could try," she muttered, getting ready to go. Then she stopped, looked at Nan, and asked, "Has that new detective stopped by to see you?"

Nan nodded. "Yes, she seems to be a lovely lady."

Doreen stared at her. "Lovely? Are you kidding? She was mean to me, told me that she thinks I murdered Mathew, and I don't like her one bit."

Nan got a mysterious look in her eyes and nodded. "Ah, that's a whole different story."

Doreen glared at Nan. "What do you mean by that?"

Nan chuckled. "Oh no, you'll have to figure that one out on your own."

Doreen shook her head. "You too? Mack already gave me one suggestion so ludicrous that I got mad at him."

Nan's eyebrows rose. "What was his suggestion?"

"That maybe I didn't like her because she was doing the job I wanted to do."

Nan pursed her lips. "That was very astute of him. I'll have to remember he has that in him."

"He is very astute at times," Doreen admitted, "but, wow, that would make me feel very small if that's what it is."

Nan's lips twitched. "I wouldn't worry about that, but you do need to take a few moments and figure out why you feel the way you do."

"It's not that hard to sort out," Doreen declared. "She thinks I'm a murderer. She's not doing her job. She's taking the first suspect and running with it. So I don't like her. She rubs me the wrong way."

"But the question is why she rubs you the wrong way?" Nan pointed out and then patted her hand. "Go on home, and we'll sort it all out."

"You're sure you won't tell me what you think it is?"

"Absolutely not," Nan declared. "Trust me. You'll thank me for it later," she added, looking at her with a twinkling gaze. "This is one you need to figure out for yourself."

And sending one last glare in her grandmother's direction, Doreen started walking to the river. She hated it when people seemed to know something she didn't. Not only did it get her curiosity going but it made her feel stupid, as if she didn't know something really important, yet everybody else around her did.

It was that mocking child thing from school all over again. Plus her husband had always treated her that way too. She certainly knew that Nan didn't intend for it to come across that way, but it still stung.

As she slowly walked home, she stopped at the river and played with Mugs in the water. She didn't want to go into the house; she didn't want to go anywhere really. She waded in the water in her shoes, finding the water a little cool, but not too bad considering their unseasonal warm weather. Her shoes would get waterlogged and probably ruined but whatever. It made her feel better at the moment, and right now that was all that mattered.

After playing with Mugs, while Goliath looked on in complete boredom, she smiled. "Okay, Thaddeus. How about you? Do you want to play in the water?"

Thaddeus was sitting on a rock, basking in the sun. He looked up at her and cried out, "Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here."

"Glad to hear that, buddy," she said. "I was wondering where you were."

"Thaddeus is thinking," he stated.

She reeled back and looked at him. "What?"

"Thaddeus is thinking," he repeated.

She just stared at him. "Wow," she muttered. "That's a new one. Where did you get that one from?"

"I'm thinking." Then he repeated it. "I'm thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking."

She wasn't sure where he'd heard that, although Mack said that quite often, as did she, but it was a whole new phrase that she hadn't expected to come from Thaddeus. She shook her head. "I'm glad you're thinking, buddy. When you get it figured out, let me know, will you?"

"Will do. Will do."

She stopped and stared at him. "Can you really talk and understand what you're saying?"

He glared at her. "I'm thinking."

Closing her eyes, she nodded. "Yes, of course you're thinking."

She was the one going nuts, and these animals were driving her nuts. She loved them to bits, but they could be hard to take sometimes. Thaddeus had been so quiet all day. Ever since they'd found the Jaguar with the second dead body inside, she'd been worried about him. And there was good reason for that. It had been distressing for everybody. But today, since visiting Nan and now getting home, he'd been really quiet and was busy thinking, apparently. She snorted at that, then quickly sent Mack a text, explaining Thaddeus's new words.

He phoned her not long afterward. "You apparently seem to be doing just that."

"I don't know about that," she replied. "I've spoken to Reggie and Nick a couple times, then Nan of course," she murmured, "I'm not really sure what to think at this point."

"At least we've got a better idea of what's probably happening."

"Yeah, but we're still missing one person," she stated, "the one behind all this."

"Correct, and it's hard when we don't know quite what we're looking for. We don't have much of a description either."

"Why is that?"

"We had a description from the kid, but it fit the guy in the trunk, so we figured the driver was the Vancouver PI. Now Tony's waffling on whether the guy that was with Mathew when they got the car was the same guy found in the trunk or possibly somebody else."

She groaned.

He laughed. "The kid mentioned how the one man had a bit of scar, like he recently cut himself shaving, and that's all he could really say. However, if it was from shaving, it's probably healed over by now. The guy in the trunk had no such mark."

"In other words, we really don't know what to believe from Tony's description."

"He was tall and skinny and didn't have much hair."

"Right," she muttered. "So who knows then?" She sighed. "I'll just stay here, while you guys figure it out."

"Oh, wow, that's generous of you," Mack teased.

"Oh no, I'm not listening to that today either," she muttered. "I'm pretty stressed and tired, and I just want to take a time-out."

"That's fine," Mack replied, his tone gentle. "Take a time-out but do so in a smart way, please."

"Yeah, I'll stay home. Will you be here later?"

"I hope so, but it's hard to say at the moment. Things are really starting to break, and that's what we need."

"Good," she murmured. "What about Mathew's will?"

"Yeah, there's a reading apparently. Oh, I was supposed to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"That you're supposed to be there."

"Can we do it virtually? I did hear from Reggie that he and I are in it, but I was told to wait for the lawyer to contact me."

"Yeah, I told him that I would tell you."

"That seems unprofessional of him. Shall I contact him?"

"Yeah, why don't you, and find out if you can do it virtually. Tell him you're too tired and worn out from all this to travel."

She liked his excuse, even though it wasn't quite true. Doreen quickly picked up the phone and called Roger. When she explained who she was, he perked up.

"Oh, good, thanks for calling. I should have called you directly. I'm sorry, but I wasn't sure. When the detective said he would let you know, I wasn't sure whether that was appropriate or not."

"No, that's fine. He did tell me, but I wanted to hear it from you."

"Good, good," he replied in relief. "That's smart. Yes, you are named in the will, and we need you as part of the reading."

"That's part of the reason I'm calling. Can I attend the reading virtually?"

"Yes, absolutely. And the others are—"

"No thanks," she interrupted him. "I don't need to know who else is in the will."

"Wills are public documents anyway, so, after this initial reading is completed, you can see everything about it, and you'll get a copy."

"Okay, that's fine," she said. "I don't need to know anything else for now."

"All right then. Hold on, and I'll get you the details for calling in."

They set up a time for tomorrow morning, and she ended the call. It helped to know it was in the works, but not enough. She would have to wait for the reading to see just how much she may have gotten and whether Mathew had provided for Reggie or not. She was really worried about that aspect. But what was she supposed to do about it? Just another one of Mathew's little games. She wasn't fond of that sort of thing and wanted to stay as far away from it as possible.

Finally, with the day turning slightly chilly, as the clouds moved overhead, she came inside and made up a simple pasta dish. As she sat down to eat, she smiled. "Not very highbrow or classy, but I did it by myself," she muttered.

As she sat here, she noted a message on her phone. She'd shut it off when she was down at the river, not wanting to be disturbed. As she checked the ID, it read Private Number. She frowned and tried to call it back, but it wouldn't go through.

It rang again, just when she was checking her voice mail, as a Private Number again. She answered, but nobody replied on the other end. She frowned. "This is the second call," she muttered. "Stop calling me." But there was nothing in response. Just a click as they disconnected.

It was pretty disconcerting, and she quickly sent Mack a text message, saying she'd had two hang-ups from a Private Number. She wasn't sure if that was something to bother him with, knowing it was one of those days, but at least he had the opportunity to know, and he could decide if it warranted a follow-up.

Happy at taking decisive action that put the ball in somebody else's court, she finished up her pasta and decided on an early night. She grabbed the book she hadn't been able to get into all day, then went up and had a shower, got into cozy pajamas, and curled up in bed. It was only seven, but, with the book, she could read for a few hours, and it felt like a gift to be here in bed and to relax.

The animals didn't appear to argue and seemed totally okay with it. When Mugs wanted outside to go to the bathroom at nine-thirty, she realized that was the downside to going to bed early. She had to get up out of a warm and cozy bed and let them out.

With a groan she got up, and, with Goliath now protesting, she led the way downstairs and shut off the alarm and opened the door for Mugs to go outside. As she stepped out on the deck, a hand wrapped around behind her, and Mugs took a blow to the side of the head, knocking him down. She fought as she realized the animals were being attacked right in front of her, only to have another blow come down out of nowhere and hit her on the side of the head too.

The last thing she remembered was seeing stars.