Chapter 67

 

December twentieth was the first cold day of the season for Phoenix. Christmas lights decorated the palm trees at Fashion Square, and Amber teased Gracie about being bundled up in a down jacket, a heavy scarf and fuzzy mittens.

“You don’t have a clue that fifty-five isn’t actually all that cold. Try growing up in Santa Fe. It’s fourteen degrees there right now.” She mimicked forming a snowball out of the fluffy white stuff in the display outside Romano’s Ristorante. When she tossed it, the flakes drifted back to the ground in a flutter.

Pen arrived, classy as ever in a lavender sweater and winter-white slacks with matching knee-length wool coat, and Sandy came along less than a minute later with hugs for all.

“I’m so glad we decided to get together right before Christmas,” Sandy said. “Two months is too long not to see all of you.”

“I wonder what Mary’s big surprise is,” Gracie said. “Her message sounded so mysterious.”

“There she is now.” Amber nodded toward the front of Macy’s where their friend had stepped off the sidewalk to cross over to them.

Mary seemed positively glowing in a hot pink outfit that accentuated her strawberry blond hair and brought out the roses in her cheeks. She had called the meeting, saying dinner tonight would be her treat. She had good news to share.

“I’m so happy everyone could make it,” she said. “Let’s get inside. I don’t care if the thermometer doesn’t say it’s freezing out here, that wind has a bite to it.”

They were shown to a corner booth and everyone went with the server’s suggestion of a spiced Christmas hot toddy.

“So? What’s the big news?” Gracie asked. “Aside from the fact that you look gorgeous. I’d say you’ve been teaching more exercise classes, judging by the fit of your clothes.”

Mary demurred.

“It’s more than that,” Pen said with a smile. “You are positively glowing.”

“You got your settlement,” Amber guessed.

Mary nodded. “Do you want details?”

The drinks arrived and they toasted. “Absolutely—details are a must.”

“From the beginning?”

A chorus of yes!

“Well. It seems Clint suddenly became cooperative with the law. As the investigation went on, they discovered some interesting things in Derek Woo’s backpack, including a map of the area, a feathery brush and a collapsible shovel. He had circled a spot well off the trail where few visitors ever go, and they surmise he planned to get Clint to walk out there with him—maybe on a pretense of getting away from the crowds where they could talk, maybe he said he’d actually buried some of the money out there. No one knows because Woo, predictably, lawyered up the moment they read him his rights.”

A plate of appetizers came and they all dug in.

“Clint apparently went on a huge rant against all of us, yelling and screaming about how we had no business investigating him and how dare we follow him out to the wilderness area. Your friend, Dave Fresnell, is pretty cool. He said he calmly pointed out to Clint that we had most likely saved his life. Once they told Clint his own lawyer had planned to leave him out there as coyote food, he caved. They had so much on him, he knew he was going down for tax evasion and the insurance fraud anyway …”

Mary wiped her fingers on a napkin and took another sip of the warm beverage.

“So, a few days went by and I guess Clint did some soul-searching all alone in his cell. Whatever got into him, he admitted he’d been unfair to me.”

“Shall we say it was more like horrible?” Gracie said.

“He didn’t go that far, but as part of the deal, Fresnell’s office agreed to ask for a lesser sentence if Clint would publicly apologize to me and to Kaycie, and he had to make restitution based on the years each of us was married to him. Watching how far Mister Mighty has fallen was actually a pretty cool scene, for a courtroom.”

“You went to court and didn’t tell us? We would have been there as your cheering section,” Amber said.

“I know. You’ve all been so wonderful to me. I just—” She blinked back the moisture forming in her eyes. “It was something I needed to face on my own, confronting Clint like that.”

“So you did get your settlement after all,” Sandy said with a hint of the romantic in her voice.

“I did. First, the court examined all the documents and ordered everything liquidated—including Clint’s business and an antique car collection I never knew about—and all debts paid. They gave decent severances to the employees who lost their jobs. Kaycie, for her short stint in the Mrs. Holbrook role, didn’t get a whole lot. Clint’s half of our shared assets will go to cover debt. Anyway, my half isn’t a monumental fortune, but it’s more than I need. I’ve found a small house and made an offer. I learned this morning it was accepted.”

Smiles and congratulations all around.

“I’ve bought in as a partner in the gym with Billy. We have some improvements in mind and I’m having so much fun with it.”

She settled back in her seat and smiled. “The best part is, after I got everything I needed, there was still money left. I thought of the women’s shelter, the one that took me in when I needed it most. They’re good people and they do such great work. Once I’ve repaid Pen, I’ve donated all the rest to help them.”

“Oh, Mary, that’s perfect,” Pen said, waving off the envelope Mary held out to her. “So kind of you.”

“Well, it is the season, right? One thing I learned from this whole experience is that hoarding a big pile of money makes no one happy. I couldn’t bring myself to start living as Clint did—I had to help others if I could.”

She gave a little shrug and the others teared up slightly. Her gesture reinforced the mission which had originally drawn them together, as simple as that.