Chapter 40

 

“You know what this means,” Sandy said after they’d decided to open the bottle of wine Gracie had brought along. “We need to move as quickly as possible to get that money out of those accounts Amber found.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” Amber said. “As soon as our plane landed yesterday I started trying to get back into them. Even looking for a work-around to the passwords, it’s as if all the U.S. bank accounts are frozen.”

“It’s standard procedure,” Sandy said. “Until the probate court reviews his will, not even family members have access to the money. It’s to keep them from clearing out all of it before the government gets its share.”

Pen spoke up. “But a man like Clint, sophisticated enough to move money around the way he did and to have a lawyer handling his affairs—he would have set up a trust. Those don’t go through probate.”

“True.” Sandy seemed puzzled. “Maybe frozen isn’t the right word.”

“It could be that he set up several additional layers of security,” Amber said. “I have to admit I’m not mentally a hundred percent right now, and maybe I just haven’t thought of it yet. I’ll get un-jetlagged and then work on it some more.”

“I’ll go to the funeral,” Mary said. “I ran the idea past Kaycie and she said, quote, do what you want.”

“It’s not a bad idea. Maybe you can learn something. In the movies, the cops always go to the victim’s funeral so they can catch the killer watching from the sidelines.”

They all chuckled at Amber’s assessment.

“The media will probably be there,” Pen said. “The story has shown up on the morning news, at least on Channel 3 where Kaycie works.”

“Oh, great. It means I’ll have to buy a dress. I don’t even own a dress.”

“You’re close to my size and I probably have something,” Gracie offered. “No point in buying an outfit you won’t likely wear again.”

Mary nodded acknowledgement but didn’t quite say she would accept the offer.

“So, what are our next steps?” Sandy asked when the room had been silent for several minutes.

“I’d say we need to talk to the Philippine authorities,” Pen said. “I definitely do not believe it’s common to issue a death certificate without a body. Without an autopsy how do they determine what to fill in as the cause of death? The whole thing, as Amber said, seems very much ‘off’.”

Gracie yawned, perhaps involuntarily. “Oh, god, another long trip?”

“None of us are ready for that,” Pen admitted. “It would be completely exhausting. I think we can accomplish a lot over the phone. I may speak with Benton about it—if that’s all right with everyone? I need to think of an angle, a way to approach the authorities so it seems I have a right to the information.”

Mary’s face brightened. “Remember the day I went to the plumbing shop and snapped photos at Debbie’s desk? One of those documents was a letter from an insurance company. You could pretend to be calling about that.”

“Great idea,” Sandy said. “They come around the bank all the time, wanting information on deceased clients so they can decide on paying claims.”

“Was Clint’s policy for life insurance?” Gracie asked. “I thought it was something to do with his construction project.”

“I’ll go back and re-read the letter,” Amber said.

“Send me a copy of it. Either way, the government in Manila doesn’t know what type insurance he had,” Pen pointed out. “Nor do they care, most likely. Let me give it some thought. I’ll figure something and bluff my way through.”