When Danielle returned to Marlow House with Chris and Heather, they entered the side yard from the front gate, and they found Walt, Lily and Ian out on the patio off the kitchen, enjoying the sunny and mild July afternoon. Lily relaxed on a chaise lounge, sipping a strawberry smoothie Ian had made her, while Walt and Ian sat nearby, each with a glass of iced tea in hand.
“This looks relaxing,” Danielle said as she approached the patio, Heather and Chris at her side. Sadie and Hunny, who had been napping by Walt’s feet, jumped to greet the new arrivals, their tails wagging. Hunny greeted Chris, who knelt down and gave his happy pup a proper hug and greeting.
Heather glanced around. “Where are the babies? Connor?”
Walt frowned at Heather. “Babies? What babies?”
“Connor who?” Ian asked.
Danielle rolled her eyes and looked back at Walt. He chuckled before saying, “They’re inside with Marie.”
“She has all of them?” Danielle asked as she sat down next to Walt.
“They were sleeping, and Connor’s playing with the Lincoln Logs,” Ian said. “Max is in there too.”
Heather and Chris each took a seat.
“Marie will send Max out if she needs our help,” Lily said before breaking into a giggle and taking a sip of her smoothie.
“I’m glad to see the ghost and cat have it all under control,” Danielle said before joining Lily in a giggle.
“So, did you guys find out anything interesting? Did you talk to Cordelia’s ghost?” Ian asked.
“Found out lots of interesting things,” Heather said.
“And was it Cordelia’s ghost?” Walt asked.
“Yes, it was,” Danielle said before recounting her and Heather’s conversation with the ghost.
“So I was right. Rylee never abused her aunt,” Lily said when Danielle finished her telling.
“Here we are, planning to expose Adrian’s infidelity to possibly save Bonnie’s life. But now it seems Bonnie is not such an innocent after all,” Ian said.
“It’s entirely possible Wesley is behind the fraudulent will. After all, he’s the one who suggested the paralegal. He would have benefited from having a wealthy wife. And from what I’ve seen of Bonnie, she isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier,” Danielle said.
“I wish we could just ask Wesley,” Heather grumbled. “I don’t know what he thinks he’s gaining by refusing to be transparent.”
“He’s already pretty transparent,” Chris teased. “Some people can see right through him.”
Heather rolled her eyes at Chris. “Funny. But the thing is, he has nothing to lose by opening up to us. In fact, it could help him. And those secrets he’s keeping close to the vest, the Universe already knows, so he is not fooling anyone.”
“I suspect Bonnie isn’t the only dim bulb in that chandelier. I have a feeling Bonnie and Wesley were made for each other,” Chris said.
“It really sucks for Rylee,” Lily said. “Not only to have her inheritance stolen from her, but her reputation tarnished. While she obviously still has her nursing license, there are rumors of elder abuse out there.”
“So, do we still have Marie try to take those pictures? Do we bother breaking them up?” Heather asked.
“Like I said, we don’t know if Bonnie’s involved with the fraud. Yes, she benefits, but I’d feel horrible if we found out Wesley was right, and then she gets killed, and then later we find out Wesley was behind the fraud and she knew nothing about it,” Danielle said.
“How would we ever find out?” Lily asked.
“If she was killed and her ghost stuck around, then her ghost would probably tell us,” Danielle reminded her.
Lily let out a sigh. “True.”
“Okay, so we’re going forward with ratting out the cheating boyfriend, and we’re also going to look into this fraud thing?” Lily asked.
“I promised Cordelia we’d try to find out more about the paralegal. She is obviously the key to all this,” Danielle said.
“How do you expect to do that?” Ian asked.
“The paralegal was obviously paid off by someone to change the will,” Chris said. “And we’ve already established that someone is Bonnie or Wesley, or both of them.”
“I would assume if the paralegal was bribed to forge a new will, they’d have to pay her a lot of money. And if it was Bonnie or Wesley, did they have that kind of money, or did they have to wait until the estate went through probate before they could pay off the paralegal?” Ian said.
“I would assume they paid her something after it completed probate. From what Cordelia said about them, they didn’t have the means to pay someone a significant enough sum of money to break the law like that. Maybe they managed to give her a little something, but I would assume the bulk of a bribe was paid after it finished probate,” Danielle said.
“Which means,” Chris began, “if there was a bribe, we’d need to see if a large amount of money was deposited into her bank account—an amount that correlates with what came out of the estate funds—or Bonnie’s or Wesley’s bank account—after probate closed.”
“And how are you going to find that out?” Heather asked. “Doesn’t it take a warrant to access that type of information?”
“First things first.” Danielle grabbed the purse she had set by her feet moments earlier. She opened it and removed her cellphone. “Let’s find the paralegal. Cordelia gave me her name. Whatever they paid her to forge the will, I bet it was a substantial bit of money, which I have to assume it was; then I doubt she’s still a paralegal. She’s probably off somewhere, enjoying the good life on ill-gotten gains.” Cellphone in hand, Danielle started searching online.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked.
“Looking for our paralegal. I’m plugging in her name, along with Astoria, Oregon, and paralegal.”
“I thought you just said she probably wasn’t a paralegal anymore,” Heather said.
“It’s a place to start,” Ian said.
They were all silent for a few moments while Danielle searched for the information. After a few moments, she dropped her cellphone on her lap and looked around.
“Well?” Heather asked.
“I was right about one thing. She’s no longer a paralegal.”
“What’s she doing?” Lily asked. “Is she still in Astoria?”
“She is. About six feet under. I just found her obituary.”
“She’s dead?” Walt and Chris chorused.
Danielle nodded. She picked up her cellphone and silently reread the obituary. “She died on New Year’s Eve.”
“What did she die of?” Heather asked.
“Obituaries typically don’t mention the cause of death,” Chris said.
“Actually, this one did. It mentioned that she had emergency heart surgery, and the last three years was a gift. So I’m assuming that means she had heart surgery three years before she died, lived three years longer than they thought she would, and then died. Probably a heart attack or something. But that’s just my guess.” Danielle shrugged.
Hunny and Sadie started barking and ran to the front gate. They all stopped talking and looked to see what had caught the dogs’ attention. The gate opened, and Marlow House’s next-door neighbor, Olivia Davis, came walking through the gate, carrying a large package wrapped in pink and bows. She greeted the pups, gently pushing them aside as she closed the gate behind her, and walked toward the group on the patio as Hunny and Sadie followed along, their tails wagging.
“Olivia!” Danielle greeted. “You’re not working today?”
“Closed for the holiday.” She exchanged greetings with the group and then walked to Lily and handed her the package. “I just wanted to bring this over. I understand our new neighbor came early!”
They exchanged hugs and thanks, Lily opened the gift, and she promised to introduce Olivia to Emily Ann as soon as she woke up. Olivia sat down on a patio chair, and Walt offered her, along with Heather and Chris, some iced tea.
Ten minutes later, Walt returned with glasses of iced tea and a plate of cookies. While Walt was in the kitchen, Danielle and the others filled Olivia in on what had been going on regarding Clay’s and Wesley’s ghosts. While not a medium herself, Olivia, who had once dabbled in astral projection and had been mistaken as a ghost by the local mediums when she first moved to town, had learned their secrets because of it. She had moved to Frederickport the first of the year and had taken on the job as head librarian at the local library, which took most of her time.
“I know Bonnie,” Olivia told them after they finished with the update. She held a glass of iced tea in one hand and a cookie in the other. “She was one of the first people I met when I moved to town. In fact, I believe I was with her when she learned of her husband’s death.”
“How so?” Walt asked.
“Bonnie belongs to a book club at the library. I had stopped by to say hello to the members when Bonnie’s cellphone rang. It was her husband. Honestly, had it been me, I would have taken my phone and excused myself and gone out into the hall to talk in private. But Bonnie can be…how can I say this…a little immature?”
“Immature how?” Lily asked.
Olivia took a bite of her cookie, and as she chewed, she seemed to consider how best to answer Lily’s question. After swallowing her bite, she said, “Well, she talked a little loud, so naturally we could all hear the gist of the conversation. Her husband was on a business trip and had just arrived at his hotel and wanted Bonnie to know he had just checked in. There was a lot of,” Olivia paused and rolled her eyes before continuing, “I love you, no, I love you more, going on. While we couldn’t hear Wesley’s side of the conversation, it was obvious he was saying it, too. And when she got off the phone, she let us all know how she hated when her husband took business trips because she always missed sleeping with him. Frankly, I didn’t need to hear that.”
“Why do you think it was the last time she spoke to him?” Danielle asked.
“Later that day, a member of the book club came back to the library to pick up something she had forgotten, and while there, asked me if I had heard about Bonnie’s husband. He had apparently died of a heart attack while on his business trip. And Bonnie was a basket case. I guess she doesn’t have any family, so a couple of women from the group went over to the house to be with her.”
“Actually, she does have family. Rylee,” Lily reminded them.
“Hi!” a new voice called out from the front gate. Both Hunny and Sadie raced over to greet the new arrival. Ian’s sister, Kelly, had just stepped into the yard and now walked in their direction. Seeing Kelly, Lily quickly said under her breath, “No more ghost talk.”
“Hi, guys,” Kelly greeted once she reached the patio. As the others returned her greetings, she glanced around. “Where are the babies?”
“Sleeping,” Lily said.
Kelly looked around again. “Where’s Connor?” She sat down in a chair.
Lily and Ian exchanged quick glances and then looked at Kelly. “Umm, he’s taking a nap too.”
They chatted for a few minutes, with both Walt and Ian eyeing the kitchen door, each thinking the same thing. They were looking for a way to go into the house without Kelly following them. But then Kelly stood abruptly.
“You leaving already?” Lily asked.
“No, I’m going to use the bathroom. That’s okay, isn’t it?”