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She looked at the anxious faces around the table and cleared her throat.
“As I’m sure Danny has told you, I’m proud to say I’m one of the most successful realtors in the Beverly Hills area. As such, it was easy for me to call some of my most knowledgeable contacts and ask innocent questions about the Shadys. The fact that I lost out on their listing when they sold the house on Canon didn’t hurt. It made me look like I still harbored a little bit of unresolved remorse. Particularly when I had lunch with Landon Hunt, the realtor who beat me out. He was only too happy to rub my nose in the lost listing and share details about them, particularly about Barbara. Landon and I have been friendly rivals for years, and I know how much he loves to gossip.”
The room was absolutely still as the others fixed on every word, waiting for the payoff. Occasionally, the silence was broken by one of Clarence’s snores, but other than that there wasn’t another sound. To her credit, Margaret played it for all it was worth. Among her other talents, it became clear that the woman had a knack for drama.
She inhaled deeply. “Danny tells me that all of you suspect she was a stereotypical Black Widow, so you know that one of her talents was getting wealthy old men to marry her and probably speeding their journey to the happy hunting ground earlier than anticipated. Of course, before that happened, she got them to leave her very generous amounts in their wills. She even bragged about that to my friend Sarah, when Sarah dared to ask her why a beautiful woman like her only seemed to marry old men.”
The Colonel said, “That’s all well and good, Maggie, but it’s also something we already know. I’m waiting for the earth-shattering revelations Danny referred to. Something so important it even caused you to be late tonight.”
Margaret said in a soothing voice, “Patience, my dear man. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed. This is my way. I start slow and build to a dramatic finish.” She took a sip of water and a last bite of sesame chicken.
“The good stuff is about to come.”
Kate interrupted. “I don’t want to steal your thunder but will speed it up a little. Thanks to one of my researchers and Danny’s FBI contacts, we already know about her originally being Barbara Overbeck from Poway. We also know that at one point she was known under the married name Briana Hanley and still has a bank account and safe deposit box maintained in San Francisco under that alias. The woman got around.”
“Good, good. That saves me a little time. Here’s something that you apparently might not know. Joseph Hanley was her fifth husband. As far as I can tell, she used a different first name each time, but always with the initial B. When he met her, the eighty-two-year-old Hanley was a grieving widower, his longtime wife having passed only a few months before after a courageous fight with brain cancer. Barbara told Sarah, who had become a close friend, that she arranged to meet him after reading a half page article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the memorial service for his wife who was a great philanthropist.”
Kate had often come across the use of aliases in the fraud cases she investigated. She had to ask the question. “Maggie, I’m surprised she told your friend all of this. I mean, there was a reason she was using aliases. Why reveal what she was doing?”
“Well, she never told Sarah who he was. Never really mentioned his name which Sarah thought was strange, but figured Barbara was entitled to her privacy. However, I did want to know who it was because it could have direct effect on the reason we are all sitting here tonight. I discovered it was Hanley. He was the founder and CEO of Hanley Innovative Technologies, a billion-dollar company. That wasn’t that hard to figure out for an inquisitive mind and ardent researcher like me. From there, with her experience, it was easy to conclude she immediately knew he was ripe for the picking. Incidentally, she had buried husband number four, a seventy-eight-year-old Chicago art collector, only six months before meeting her new target.”
“So,” Kate said, “let me guess from there. Either she showed up at the memorial service and managed to get close to him, or she figured out a way to meet him before a gold digger swooped him up.”
“Right on the second count. She wasn’t amateurish enough to do the chance encounter. Instead, Sarah said, she used the ploy of her own comfortable net worth from husbands one through three to arrange for a mutual friend to introduce them. Apparently, she shared all of this with Sarah after the two of them had what my friend likes to call a 3-D lunch. In other words, three Tequila Sunrises will certainly loosen tight lips. I doubt she would have revealed so much otherwise.”
The Colonel had perked up. His voice held an element of excitement when he said, “Well, this certainly is beginning to clear up my question of what a woman like her was doing married to an arrogant sourpuss like Al. Sorry, I guess it’s not cricket to speak ill of the dead.” He had a moment’s hesitation before saying, “But, the guy was a real bastard. From what you’re saying, it looks like she wasn’t much better.”
“Not only wasn’t she much better, but extremely clever. Unlike some of the others who might have had their sights set on this ‘catch of the day,’ she didn’t have to be manipulative because she had a rather substantial net worth of her own. She decided to start out by asking him for investment advice relative to his own company’s stock. Her plan was to say she had about a hundred thousand to invest and their mutual friend had suggested introducing her to Hanley. A little white lie, but she was relatively sure he wouldn’t check her story out. Truth be told, she had specifically asked for the introduction because it was the lynch pin of her plan.”
Matt contributed his thoughts. “One of the oldest tricks in the book. A financially independent beautiful woman snags a wealthy old dude with extremely big bucks by making it look like it’s him or his advice—not his money that she’s interested in. Man, I’ve played the part of the son who tried to buy off one of those clever money-grabbing types, and also, the one time I consented to play a villain, I was the lover scheming with my girlfriend to get the guy to marry her, change his will and then we were supposed to knock him off.” He paused for a moment.
“I know that one, Matt,” Garrett commented. “I believe you’re referring to the movie One Fatal Flaw.” He appeared to be visualizing it, then said, “Yeah, that’s it. That one was a breakthrough part for you—before you were the consummate action adventure star you are today if I’m not mistaken. As I recall, it was a perfect plan and they almost got away with it except for one small detail they overlooked. I do confess, though, I don’t remember what the detail was. I was still with the Bureau when that came out and upset at myself for not picking up on it. Right till the end, I thought the two of you got away with it and lots of his money.”
Matt gave Garrett a nod. “That’s the one.” He added in a joking tone, “Maybe if you’re good, I’ll share what the flaw was. But, right now I’m more interested in the rest of what Maggie, here, has to offer.”
He made a hands-out gesture, effectively turning the floor over to their guest.
“Oh, Barbara had a lot up her sleeve, alright. Landon filled me in on this part. So, picture this—she’s married to Hanley for just under a year. By the way, he was in extremely good health for a fellow his age. He played racquet ball three times a week, was an avid skier and surprisingly enough, didn’t take any medications. In other words, he was in top form and probably would have lasted several years with either no health problems or minor ones. She told Landon about this one night over drinks. I should mention here that Barbara also had no qualms about cheating on Al and had an affair with Landon who is a very good looking, charming guy.”
Cameron said, “I’m not surprised. I always said there was something about her. But, if this Hanley was in good shape that must not have fit into her plans of him kicking the bucket and leaving her even wealthier, did it?”
“Exactly. I did a little more research myself once I had those facts and found a few more tidbits I think you will find extremely interesting. Amazing what you can find online these days with computer skills and perseverance. Just before their one-year anniversary, Hanley suffered a massive, fatal heart attack. Of course, as soon as they were married, she had convinced him to leave her well cared for should he die. He must have been cautious because according to one piece of information I found he did that to the tune of two million dollars, but no more than that if he died before they were married five years.” Margaret snickered. “Apparently five years was way too long for her to wait for her inheritance to be sweeter, so two million was quite enough to do the deed. But, as in your movie, Matt, there was a fatal flaw.”