A Deal to Die For (13 page)

“That’s some skeleton to have rattling in your closet,” Ginger said.

“A skeleton with really great hair,” Bianca said sourly.

Maggie had to give her that. Courtney had a fabulous head of hair.

“Anyway, when my grandfather died, Dad wanted to move back to St. Stanley, but Audra
wouldn’t hear of it. She was a city girl born and bred and had no intention of giving
up her glamorous life.”

“So he left her?” Maggie asked.

“No, she left him. She took Courtney, who was just a baby, and moved to Los Angeles.
Within months she was married to Bennett Alexander, the film producer. She raised
Courtney as Courtney Madison Alexander.”

“So, growing up, Courtney never knew—” Ginger broke off.

“That she was Buzz Madison’s daughter? No.”

“What does Molly have to say about this?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, she’s known your mother forever,” Ginger said. “If your dad had a former wife,
she’d know.”

Bianca glanced up. Her face was the picture of misery. “Courtney fired her this morning.”

“What?” Maggie and Ginger both gasped.

“She said she couldn’t live in the house—” Bianca abruptly broke off as the door to
the library opened.

“With one of your mama’s spies underfoot,” Courtney finished the sentence for her.
“That’s right. I won’t have a domestic who was in the employ of the woman who tried
to cut me out of what is rightfully mine.”

“But Molly has worked here forever,” Maggie said. “She is a single mother with a disabled
son. She needs this job.”

Courtney studied her fingernails, assessing her manicure.

“So not my problem,” she said. “Now, since you’ve all had a nice little catch-up,
how about we get down to business?”

“Excuse me?” Maggie asked. She was feeling a loathing well up from deep inside of
her that was usually reserved only for Summer Phillips. “What sort of business would
we have?”

“You need to return my things, all of them,” Courtney said with a toss of her glorious
hair. “Or I’ll have you arrested for stealing my property.”

Ginger rose up out of her chair with her fists clenched. “You want to repeat that?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Courtney said. “Maggie—it is Maggie, right?—yes,
well, Maggie knows she made off with Madison property, and I expect it to be returned
by the end of the day tomorrow, or I’ll call the sheriff.”

“That should be an amusing phone call, since it was the sheriff who asked me to hold
on to
Bianca’s
things for her.” Maggie rose to stand beside Ginger.

Courtney gave her a closed-mouth smile that chilled the marrow in Maggie’s bones.

“Make no mistake,” Courtney said, “now that I know who I am and what I’m entitled
to, I’m staking my claim, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to make me
go away.”

She sent a hateful glance at her sister and turned to leave. She paused at the door
and looked back over her shoulder. “Oh, and I’ve
changed my mind. You have until tomorrow morning or I’ll call the authorities.”

She slammed the door, and it shook in its frame with the force of her departure.

Bianca burst into tears, and Maggie really couldn’t blame her. First, she lost her
mother, and now she had the half sister from hell showing up to lay claim to all of
her inheritance. It had to be a nightmare for the quiet-natured woman.

Ginger and Maggie flanked Bianca. Ginger handed her a tissue out of her purse while
Maggie gently patted her back.

“It’s going to be okay,” Maggie said. “Really.”

Bianca sobbed harder, and Ginger gave Maggie a worried glance. Maggie shrugged. She
knew she was offering hollow platitudes, but really, what else did she have? This
was a disaster of sinking-cruise-ship proportions.

“Now, listen,” Ginger said. She was using her professional-accountant’s voice. “Right
now, Courtney is all talk. She’s trying to take the offensive and scare the baloney
out of you.”

Bianca stopped sobbing and gave a healthy blow into the tissue. “Well, it’s working.
I feel like I’m going to be motherless and homeless in a matter of days.”

“Nonsense,” Maggie said. “We’re not about to let that happen.”

“How can you stop her?” Bianca whispered. “She’s like her own personal wrecking ball.”

“Well, the first thing we need to do is get Molly Spencer back,” Ginger said. “I’m
pretty sure you can muscle Courtney into taking her back or else she’ll face Molly’s
lawsuit for wrongful termination.”

Bianca’s face lit up. “Oh, that would make me feel so
much better, and Molly needs to be here. She needs this job to pay for Jimmy’s therapy.”

“See?” Ginger said. “This is all manageable. We just have to handle what comes one
step at a time.”

“Thank you,” Bianca said. She wasn’t a huggy type of person but she wrapped an arm
around Maggie and one around Ginger and squeezed them tight.

Maggie and Ginger hugged her back and rose to go.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve spoken to Molly,” Maggie said. “Don’t let Courtney
intimidate you. You grew up here. This is more your home than hers. Don’t forget it.”

“I won’t,” Bianca said. She waved to them as they left through the front door and
walked to Maggie’s car. Maggie couldn’t help but notice that, like Alice Franklin,
Bianca Madison looked as if she, too, had been diminished by the events of the past
few days.

“Well, how do you like that?” Ginger asked as they headed down the drive. “Buzz Madison
married before Vera? I never would have guessed.”

“I can’t believe no one knew,” Maggie said. “My mother, your mother, Mrs. Shoemaker,
who lives down the street from me…one of them had to have known. Don’t you think?”

“If they did, they certainly kept it a secret.”

“I still think the best bet is Molly. If Vera told anyone, it was Molly,” Ginger said.
“Shall we head over there?”

“Why not?” Maggie asked. “She’s got to be completely freaked out, thinking she’s lost
her job.”

Maggie turned out of the Madison estate drive and onto the road that would lead them
down to the bungalows that surrounded the old wire factory. It was mostly an artists’
community now, and Molly lived on the same cul-de-sac as
Claire. The houses were small but well made, and the neighborhood was quiet and safe.

“I hope we can convince her to go back,” Ginger said. “She may be afraid to work for
Bianca if Courtney Madison is going to be there making her life difficult.”

“Oh, we will,” Maggie said. “I’ll have Max draw up some papers full of scary legalese
that will make Courtney’s big brunette head go gray.”

Ginger chuckled.

“What?” Maggie asked.

“Nothing,” Ginger said. “I’m just glad I’m your friend and not your foe. You are one
tough cookie.”

Maggie smiled. “It takes one to know one. I thought you were going to pop her when
she accused me of stealing.”

“It was very tempting,” Ginger said. “I do not take kindly to people trash-talking
my friends.”

Molly’s bungalow was at the end of the cul-de-sac. Maggie parked on the street, and
together the women made their way up to the front door.

The compact house was tidy but showed small signs of neglect, as if the people who
lived there didn’t have the time or resources to touch up the paint that was beginning
to peel or trim the hedges that had begun to sprout out random leaves in a show of
going wild.

Maggie knocked softly on the storm door, not wanting to disturb Molly’s son, as she
knew he was sensitive to noise.

“I should have brought my pumpkin cake over here,” Ginger said. “I hate the thought
of that she-devil digging into it.”

The inside door opened, and Molly’s face appeared. Her eyes were wide, and she was
biting her lower lip. She looked anxious, but when she recognized Maggie and Ginger,
she let out a sigh.

“Hi,” she said. “So, I suppose you heard?”

“Yes,” Ginger said. “We had the misfortune to meet Courtney. It didn’t go well.”

Molly pushed open the storm door and ushered them in. Her light brown hair tumbled
past her shoulders, her face was pinched with worry lines and Maggie would have bet
five of Ginger’s cakes that she hadn’t had a peaceful second since she’d been sacked.

They stood in the small living room, and Molly gestured for them to sit down. Maggie
and Ginger took the sofa while Molly sat on the recliner next to it.

“Here’s the thing,” Maggie said. “I’m fairly positive that Courtney can’t fire you.”

“Really?” Molly asked. “’Cause it sure seemed like she nailed it when she said, ‘You’re
fired.’ Donald Trump couldn’t have done a better job of it. She also said she’d have
me arrested for trespassing if I didn’t clear out. She gave me five minutes to go.
Needless to say, I went.”

She pressed her lips together, and Maggie could tell she was trying not to cry.

“If it’s any consolation, she threatened to have me arrested, too,” Maggie said.

“No!” Molly gasped.

“Yes, because I’m holding all of the Madison things from the flea market at my shop,”
Maggie said. “She said she was going to have me arrested for theft.”

“She certainly likes threatening people with incarceration, doesn’t she?” Molly asked.

“Where’s Jimmy?” Ginger asked.

“In the kitchen,” Molly said. She gestured to the doorway behind her, and Maggie could
see Jimmy, who was in his mid-teens with a thatch of unruly black hair and a sharp
nose and strong chin, sitting at the table with a newspaper spread out before him.

“He likes to sort the newspaper when I’m done reading it. It’s Sunday’s, so this one
should take a bit.”

“Is it a good time for you to talk then?” Maggie asked. “Are you up to it?”

“Sure,” Molly said. She appeared to shake off the bout of tears that had been threatening,
and asked, “Can I get you two anything? Coffee, lemonade, water?”

“I’m fine,” Ginger said.

“Me, too,” Maggie said.

She glanced down at the coffee table where the magazines were fastidiously arranged.

Molly caught her gaze on the table, and said, “That’s Jimmy’s doing. One of the upsides
to autism is that he is very orderly. He even caps all of my pens for me.”

“Molly, did you know that Buzz had been married before Vera?”

Molly blew out a breath. She looked as if she would rather not answer. Finally, she
gave a small nod.

“Vera told me,” she said. “She never mentioned that he had a child, however. That
came as a bit of a shock.”

“And what a child she is,” Ginger said. “She’s like having a feral cat decide it wants
to live with you.”

Molly cracked a small smile, and Maggie was encouraged that Molly’s usual sunny disposition
had not been completely squashed by Courtney’s power play.

“We spoke to Bianca, and she doesn’t want you to go,” Maggie said. “She’s struggling
to deal with her mother’s death, and Courtney’s appearance just knocked the pins right
out from under her.”

“I think Courtney threw us both for loop,” Molly said. “When I arrived this morning
and Bianca told me all about Courtney’s midnight arrival, I could tell she thought
she was having a wide-awake nightmare that would end at any
moment. When I tried to tell Courtney that she needed to give Bianca some time to
process all of this, she fired me.”

“Did Bianca protest?” Ginger asked.

“Bianca tried,” Molly said. “But after all of these years of living under Vera’s weighty
thumb, well, she doesn’t have the sort of personality that could take on someone like
Courtney Madison.”

“Which is exactly why you have to go back,” Maggie said.

“I don’t know,” Molly said. “I don’t want any trouble. I mean, what if Courtney could
actually arrest me for trespassing?”

“Molly, can you afford to lose that job?” Ginger asked. Her voice said she was trying
to state it delicately but couldn’t quite manage it.

Molly looked around her living room. The furniture was threadbare and the coffee table
looked as if holding up its small pile of magazines was all it could bear. The interior
of the house needed painting as badly as the exterior, and the curtains seemed to
be hanging mostly by force of will.

“No,” Molly said. Her voice was low and rife with fear. “I don’t know what I’ll without
that job. It pays well, and Vera set up benefits so Jimmy can have therapy and attend
the Parker School for Autistic Children.”

“You’ve worked for the Madisons for how long?” Ginger asked.

“Almost twenty years,” Molly said. “It was my first job out of high school.”

“Definitely a wrongful termination suit,” Maggie said. “I’ll have Max draw up the
papers.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Molly licked her lips nervously. “I was sort of hoping that once
Courtney got what she wanted
out of the estate and left, then I could go back and work for Bianca.”

“Did you get the impression that Courtney was planning on leaving anytime soon?” Ginger
asked.

Molly opened her mouth, but then it seemed the reality of the situation sank in and
she shook her head.