“She’s dead. That’s kind of nice.”
“Shame on you. Are you hungry?”
“No.”
“Yes, you are. You’re always hungry. Come help me.”
He grabbed her arm when she tried to stand. “When is Theo leaving?”
The question came out of nowhere, catching her off guard. “Monday,” she whispered. “He leaves with his friend, Noah, Monday morning.”
Even she could hear the sadness in her voice. She didn’t try to be cavalier or pretend she didn’t care, because she couldn’t fool her brother. John Paul knew her better than anyone in the whole world, and he had always been able to see through her defenses. She never lied or played games with him.
“You were stupid,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“You shouldn’t have allowed yourself to become so vulnerable.”
“I know.”
“Then why didn’t you protect yourself? He’s an outsider.”
“I didn’t see it coming. What can I say? It just . . . happened.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So are you gonna fall apart when he leaves?”
“No,” she whispered. Then she said it again more forcefully. “No.”
“We’ll see.”
Theo wasn’t paying any attention to Michelle or John Paul. He had just turned a page in the album and was looking at a faded photo of a beautiful young woman. She was posed standing under a tree, holding a bouquet of daisies in her hand. The woman wore an ankle-length, light-colored organza dress with a ribbon streaming down from her waist. Her short, curly hair framed an angelic face. The photo was black-and-white, but Theo guessed her hair was red and her eyes were blue. If the clothes and the haircut had been more contemporary, he would have thought he was looking at Michelle.
“That’s my Ellie,” Jake said. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
“Yes, sir, she is.”
“I look at my three, and I see Ellie in all of them. Remy got her laugh, John Paul got her love of the outdoors, and Michelle got her heart.”
Theo nodded. John Paul was following Michelle into the kitchen, but when he heard his father mention his mother, he paused to look over Theo’s shoulder. Then Theo turned the page, and John Paul moved on. There was a photo of Remy and John Paul when they were little boys and a girl standing between them. The boys looked as though they’d been rolling around in mud and were happy about it. Their grins were ornery. The girl wasn’t smiling and had outgrown the dress she was wearing.
“That’s Catherine,” Jake told him. “She always had to wear a dress, no matter what the occasion. That one was one of her favorites because it had lace on it. I remember she would nag her mama to stitch this or that seam back together. Catherine had a healthy appetite.”
Theo kept turning the pages. Catherine’s mother must have sent photos after she’d moved, because there were at least twenty of her daughter. In each photo the girl was wearing a dress, but the quality had improved. In one, the child stood in front of a Christmas tree holding two identical dolls in her arms. He turned another page and saw Catherine in a different dress holding two stuffed bears.
Jake chuckled when he saw the photo. “Catherine always had to have two of everything,” he explained. “Some folks, once they’ve been poor, when they come into money, no matter how young or old they are, well, they just can’t have enough. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“Yes,” Theo answered. “People who lived through the Depression were always storing up for the next one.”
“That’s right. Catherine was just like that. The Depression was just a history lesson to her, but she acted like she’d lived through one. She was worried she’d run out, I suppose, so if she liked a doll or a bear, she made her mama buy her another one just like it in case something happened to the first one. She did the same thing with clothes. Once Junie had money to spend, she made sure her daughter had the finest of everything and she catered to her every whim. Ellie thought Junie was spoiling her out of guilt because she wasn’t married when she had her.
“I thought she’d outgrow the need to hoard things, but she didn’t. Come to find out, it got worse. She started doing some mighty strange things. She even put in a second phone line. When I asked her why, she said it was in case the first line broke. Said she didn’t want to have to wait on the phone repair people.”
Michelle interrupted when she came back to the table. “John Paul’s warming up the gumbo,” she said.
Theo was turning the pages back and forth. He looked at the photo of Catherine dressed in an obvious hand-me-down that was too small for her growing body, then flipped back to the photo of Catherine dressed like a princess, clutching the two identical dolls.
“The poor thing started putting on the weight after she married,” Jake remarked.
“How would you know that?” Michelle asked. “She never let you come and see her.”
“Her housekeeper told me,” he said. “Rosa Vincetti and I would chat every now and again when she answered the phone. She’s a real nice woman. Very timid, but sweet as can be. She gave me a recipe for homemade pasta, but I haven’t tried it out yet. She also told me she was getting alarmed by Catherine’s weight. Worried her heart would blow up on her, she said.”
“Catherine was —” Michelle began.
“Weird,” John Paul shouted from the kitchen.
“And you’re not?” Michelle countered.
“Hell, I’m normal compared to her.”
“Daddy, how did you find out we were getting money?” Michelle asked.
“You still don’t believe me?” Jake asked.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re still not convinced, though, are you?” Jake pushed the chair back and stood. “I got a certified letter to prove it. It came about an hour ago.”
Jake went to the kitchen counter, lifted the lid on the elephant-shaped cookie jar where he kept all his important papers, and pulled out the envelope.
Michelle was sitting next to Theo now, looking through the album. There was a photo of her mother holding a baby in her lap. With the tip of her finger, she touched her mother’s face.
“That’s Remy when he was a baby.”
Two pages later, he was looking at photos of Michelle and laughing. In every photo there was something sticking up or out. Her hair, her shirt, her tongue.
“I was adorable, wasn’t I?”
He laughed. “Definitely adorable.”
Jake dropped the envelope in front of Michelle. “Here’s your proof, Dr. Smarty-pants.”
Michelle just shook her head and smiled. “Daddy has lots of cute nicknames for me.”
Theo was laughing when he glanced over and saw the name of the law firm in the upper left-hand corner of the envelope. “That’s it,” he whispered. “That’s it,” he repeated and slapped the table.
“What’s it?”
“The connection. It’s the same law firm. Son of a . . .” Turning, he grabbed the letter out of Jake’s hand. “Do you mind?”
“Go ahead,” Jake said.
“But you haven’t explained . . .” Michelle started.
Theo put his hand on hers. “In a minute. Okay? Where are my glasses?”
“You’re wearing them.”
“Oh, right. Man, it’s falling into place.”
Jake and Michelle both stared at him while he read the letter. When he finished, he pushed his chair back and stood. “I’ve got to go to New Orleans.”
Michelle picked up the letter and quickly read it. According to Catherine’s instructions, her attorney, Phillip Benchley, was hereby informing each of the beneficiaries of the total sum of the estate and the amount of each bequest. The Renard family was to receive four hundred thousand dollars to be divided equally among Jake and his three children. Rosa Maria Vincetti would receive one hundred fifty thousand dollars for her years of loyal service to Catherine. John Russell, Catherine’s husband, would receive one hundred dollars, and the remainder of the vast estate would be given to the Epston bird sanctuary.
“Her husband gets only a hundred dollars?” she asked, astonished.
“They might not have had a happy marriage,” Jake remarked.
“No kidding,” John Paul offered from the kitchen door.
“Rosa sure didn’t like him,” Jake added. “I think it’s nice that Catherine didn’t forget to leave her housekeeper something. She took good care of her.”
“John must have signed a prenuptial agreement for Catherine to control her own money,” Michelle said.
“He’ll still try to contest it,” Theo said. “What does the man do for a living?”
“He’s a lawyer,” Jake told him. “He works for one of the big banks in New Orleans. I’ve never actually talked to the man, and I think that’s a crying shame. Mike and I didn’t even get a chance to speak to him at the funeral, did we, sugar?”
“No, Daddy, we didn’t. But that was my fault. I had to get back to the hospital, and you had to drive me.”
Theo’s cell phone rang and interrupted the conversation. Noah was on the line.
“Where are you?” Theo asked.
“I just reached St. Claire,” Noah answered.
“Drive to Jake’s house. Do you know the way?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“What did you find out?” Theo walked through the kitchen and onto the screened porch. He pulled the door shut behind him.
Michelle assumed he wanted privacy and decided to set the table. John Paul was leaning against the counter, glaring at her.
“What’s the matter?” she asked as she opened the drawer and got out the place mats.
“You’re gonna let another FBI agent inside this house?”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “Don’t give me attitude, John Paul. I’m not in the mood. You’re going to be polite to Noah.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Daddy? John Paul . . .”
She didn’t have to go any further. Her brother shook his head in exasperation and then smiled. “You’re still telling on me, aren’t you, brat?”
She smiled back. “It still works, doesn’t it? Thank you, John Paul.”
“I didn’t say . . .”
“You didn’t have to. You’re going to try to remember how to be nice.”
She went back to the table and put the place mats down. Weary, she sat down and propped her head on her hands. She kept thinking about the hundred thousand dollars, and her guilt was intensifying. Why would such a mean-spirited woman do such a kind thing? And what else had Catherine sent her that was of such interest to the police and the men who would kill to get hold of it?
Daddy was sitting next to her, going through the album again.
“Poor Catherine,” Michelle said. “She didn’t have many friends.
At the funeral . . . there weren’t many people. The only person who shed a tear was her housekeeper. Remember, Daddy? She was crying for Catherine, but no one else was. I feel bad about that.”
She was remembering the pitiful little procession walking through the cemetery. Rosa was carrying rosary beads and crying. John walked behind the priest and kept glancing back at Daddy and her. Since neither one of them had ever met the man, she assumed he was wondering who they were. Another man looked back too. He was walking beside John, and he . . .
“Oh, my God, that’s the man . . . that was him,” she cried out as she jumped up. In her excitement to tell Theo what she had remembered, she’d knocked the chair over. She impatiently picked it up, then ran through the kitchen. Theo was coming inside. He ended the phone call as she ran into him. Grabbing her, he stepped back onto the porch.
“What’s the matter?”
“I remember where I saw that man before . . . remember, I told you he looked familiar? It’s the same guy.” Her words were tripping over each other.
“Slow down,” he said, “and start over.”
“The delivery man who talked to me at the stadium. I told you he looked familiar, and I thought I must have run into him at the hospital, but that wasn’t it. He was at Catherine’s funeral. He was talking with John, and he walked beside him at the cemetery.”
Daddy hadn’t heard the conversation. He also was thinking about Catherine’s generosity and thinking that Ellie was smiling now because her niece had done such a nice thing for her family. She’d always worried about the selfish streak in Catherine, but now Catherine had redeemed herself.
He heard Michelle mention John’s name and called out, “I’m thinking I ought to get on the phone and ring up Catherine’s husband.”
“Oh, Daddy, don’t do that,” Michelle said.
“No,” Theo ordered sharply at the same time.
“Why not?” Daddy asked. He turned in his chair and looked at Theo. “I ought to tell him thank you for the money. It’s the right thing to do. He was Catherine’s husband, and he had to approve it.”
Michelle was shaking her head as Theo was walking toward her father. “Sir, I don’t want you to call him. Promise me you won’t.”
“Give me a reason, then,” Daddy said. “And I’ll promise. Make it a good one.”
“Okay,” Theo said. His voice was calm as he continued, “He tried to kill your daughter.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Daddy took the news much better than John Paul did. Michelle’s brother wanted to get in the pickup, hunt down the bastard, and blow his head off. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to reason, and he didn’t give a hoot about the law.
“If you know he’s the man behind this, then take him out before he has another chance to kill her,” he demanded.
Theo wasn’t fazed by John Paul’s fury. “I can’t prove it yet. It’s all circumstantial,” he explained. “Which is why I have to go to New Orleans.”
John Paul looked as if he wanted to hit Theo. Michelle got between the two men and tried to make her brother calm down.
The doorbell rang, interrupting the argument. While Daddy went to let Noah in, Theo said, “We hang tight.”
“What the hell does that mean?”