Blackberry Crumble (36 page)

“With this program?” Sadie asked.

“Um, no. He invested in a business I owned several years ago.”

“And it was successful?”

Gary’s eyes narrowed, and his smile wavered. He paused, and then his expression changed, almost to the point of making Sadie pull back in surprise. Instead of becoming more uncomfortable, Gary suddenly was relaxed, and his smile returned to its full brilliance. “Very successful,” he said. “Jim and I were both businessmen, and he had the utmost confidence in my financial abilities. I miss him greatly.”

Sadie tried to keep the puzzlement off her face. Jim had gone to rather extensive pains to keep Gary from inheriting anything from his estate, which, in Sadie’s mind, meant there had been some trust issues between the two men.

In the next instant, however, she understood. Jim was not here to counter anything Gary said. Sadie had agreed to meet with Gary, which meant he probably didn’t think May had said anything about him—assuming May knew. Jim seemed to have kept certain things from his children. As far as Gary was concerned, whatever bad blood he’d had with Jim had gone to the grave. Literally. Beyond that, con men had a seemingly inexhaustible amount of arrogance. Even if Gary had told May the truth, he probably felt up to the task of convincing Sadie it was a misunderstanding.

Sadie feigned a sigh and put a hand to her own chest. “That makes me feel a lot better,” she said. “From what I know of Jim, he did not make financial decisions of that caliber easily.”

Gary smiled, perfectly at ease with his lie. “No, he didn’t. In fact, I credit the recent success of his business with the things he learned through our work together.”

“I wonder how things will go now, though, with him gone. I assume Hugh will manage the day-to-day operations at S&S?”

Gary shifted and shrugged his shoulders. “I assume so. He’s the natural choice to take over.”

“Doesn’t Jolene inherit part of the company too, though?”

“Yeah, like thirty percent,” he said, not hiding that this wasn’t what he wanted to talk about. “Now, about your—”

“This must be such a difficult time for your family,” Sadie said, one of the few sincere comments she’d made during the last hour. “I imagine thinking about the business is a difficult task right now.”

“It’s certainly not on the top of our list,” Gary said.

Sadie hurried on, afraid he would try to redirect again. “Do you think they’ll sell? The three of them, I mean.”

“I suppose it’s a possibility, though, as I said, it’s low on our list of priorities.”

“If it sold, though, you’d have cash instead of the company as an asset. Easier to invest.”

“Of course, but for now Hugh is simply managing Jolene’s portion.”

“That does seem to make the most sense.” Sadie nodded in agreement. “Is there a formal contract between Jolene and Hugh?”

“What for?” Gary said, betraying his annoyance. “He knows she’s in no position to do much right now.”

“Well,” Sadie said, trying to keep on track, “May told me about the offer from Keith Kelly to buy out the company—is that something you’ve considered?”

Gary watched her closely, and she could fairly read his mind as he tried to figure out why she was asking about these things. “I’m sorry,” she said, sitting back. “I’m being nosy. I was just curious, what with all your business sense, if you were helping Hugh with any negotiations. I get the feeling he wants to sell, but I don’t want to pry, and of course I don’t want to upset May by asking questions that are hard for her to consider right now. She doesn’t have the expertise you do and would have a harder time thinking about these issues, I imagine.”

Apparently, she’d said something right. Gary relaxed and shrugged as though to display his confidence. “Actually, I have had some discussions with Hugh. Jolene and I have talked about selling out to Hugh completely—maybe trading him our portion for his part of the house. It’s a premium piece of real estate right now and ought to be able to make a tidy little profit once it sells. Of course, nothing is final, and it’s best not to discuss any of this with May right now. She’s had a difficult time with Jim’s passing, and we’re all being careful about upsetting her.”

“Of course. Jim’s death was a tragedy, but I imagine it will be a boon for your business. I mean, considering Jim’s other assets and Jolene’s portion of them. It’s funny how it works out that way sometimes, loss and increase cycling together.” It was a version of what Lois had said last night—rebirth in the wake of tragedy.

Gary was looking at her a little too closely, and she sensed she’d gotten too far off track.

“Did I mention my late husband left me with some money?” Sadie offered as a truce.

Gary immediately brightened and leaned across the table. “Really? How much?”

The admission about more money basically started the conversation over again, and Sadie went into autopilot, nodding intermittently and hoping her eyes didn’t look as glazed over as they felt. She thought about what Gary had said about Jolene trading her portion of the business for the equity in the house. If Hugh were looking to sell his portion of the business to Keith, he had two-thirds to bargain with instead of the one-third he’d have otherwise. Had he talked to May about selling him her portion of the business as well? Once he had it all, he would have full power to make whatever future decisions he wanted to.

Sadie couldn’t help but wonder if Hugh would kill for the chance to dig himself out of another financial mess. Jim had rescued his son before and lost Keith in the process of one of those rescues. If Hugh had approached Jim in need of financial help, would Jim have bailed him out again? What if Jim wouldn’t do it this time? What if
this time
Jim told his son to grow up, not calculating the level of Hugh’s anxiety and fear, or that Jim’s assets may have been Hugh’s only way out.

“So what do you think?” Gary said, all smiles again. “Are you in?” He pulled open a drawer and began shuffling through papers. He pulled out a half-sized desk calendar along with some other papers—things that had probably been on the desk and shoved in the drawer during the clean fest before Sadie’s arrival—and finally pulled out a photocopied agreement of some kind. He pushed it across the desk toward her.

“I just need you to fill this out so I can begin gathering the financial information we need to generate the official documentation.”

Sadie looked at the form and realized it was a release of information request. She imagined he planned to send it to her banks in order to verify her account information. Her phone rang again. The rudeness at taking another call was intense, and almost enough for her to let it go, but her internal anxiety was rising, and she could use a minute to calm back down. She apologized while she reached into her purse a second time.

Gary’s smile wasn’t quite as sincere as before, but she knew he wouldn’t argue when the carrot of her money was dangling before his eyes.

It was Richard, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She hoped she could pull off another careful phone call.

“Hi,” Sadie said into the phone, trying not to get her hopes up.

“I got your message. Lunch would be great. I’ve got some really interesting things to tell you.”

“Oh, good,” Sadie said. “Me too.”

Her gaze flickered to Gary, who had pulled out his phone and was typing in a text message.

“You mentioned Karri’s.” Richard said. “It seems appropriate. I’ve got a conference call in a few minutes, but my role will be a small one. I shouldn’t have any trouble being to Karri’s by noon, but I’ll text you if I’m running late. I think you’ll be very interested in what I figured out.”

A tremor ran through Sadie. He’d learned something important about Jim and Keith’s lunch; she could feel it.

“Perfect,” Sadie said. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

He hung up, and Sadie put the phone away. Gary was still occupied with his phone, and Sadie scanned the desk, looking for anything that might give her more information.

Her eyes stopped at the desk calendar he’d removed from the drawer. By leaning forward slightly and turning her head just a little, she could make out some of the information written there. There were lots of little things—lunches and conference calls—but her eyes were drawn to a similar event written in pink marker every Thursday in August: “Jo to Prov. 3:00.” Prov? Did that mean Providence, where Jolene received her cancer treatments? The other commitments were in a scratchy, decidedly masculine scrawl, but this one was in bubbly lettering, which gave away the fact that Jolene had likely been the one who’d written it in. Sadie thought again about the hospice website and wondered what was making Jolene give up hope; her treatment schedule seemed pretty intense and optimistic.

Sadie paused. Hadn’t Jolene said she was finished with this round of treatment? Yet, according to the calendar, she had two more treatments this month.

“So, where were we?” Gary said, slipping his phone out of sight and not seeming to have noticed her interest in the calendar. “Ah, yes, the agreement,” he said before Sadie could respond. He tapped the paper he’d put in front of her and moved it a little closer, his smile looking more and more radiant by the second. “Once we get that filled out, we’re good to go.”

“I just need to talk to my brother,” Sadie said, pulling the card she’d kept up her sleeve all this time.

“This isn’t the kind of decision you want to leave up to someone else,” he said, his smile faltering and his expression hardening. “Like I said, and no disrespect to your brother, but family members aren’t always the best people to go to in times like this. What we’re doing here is an intricate investment; not everyone is willing to be open-minded enough to truly grasp the concept.”

“I understand,” Sadie said with feigned regret. “But he has financial power of attorney over my accounts.” She folded the paper in half and tapped it against his arm. “But, believe me, I know how to take a stand when I need to, and I plan on having a very serious discussion with him about this.”

“He has power of attorney?” Gary nearly deflated at the news. “You didn’t mention that.”

Sadie raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t?” She made a face. “Do you have any other information I could show him about your company? A brochure or something to show him it’s legitimate?”

“Um,” Gary said, pulling open the drawer but not even bothering to riffle through the papers. He looked up at her, and she could tell that his smile was forced now. Apparently not getting a poor old lady—or in her case, a rich, not-so-old lady—to sign over her life savings in under an hour had soured his mood. “We’re back to the privacy issues of the investment.”

“Oh, right,” Sadie said, snapping her fingers. She stood up and tucked the paper into her purse. “I’ve got your card, so I’ll be sure to call you as soon as I talk to my brother.”

Gary stood too. “And do you know when that will be?” He looked at his watch and made a face. “I made this time for you today, but I don’t want you to get the impression that my time isn’t at a premium. I wouldn’t be able to pull the same tricks as I did today if we needed to meet a second time.”

Tricks
, Sadie thought. Interesting choice of word. She crossed her fingers and held them up. “I’ll just have to hope for the best, then.”

Gary forced another smile. She turned to the door, and he hurried to open it for her. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you,” he said, but Sadie knew that
he
knew he’d lost his chance. No brother in his right mind would let his sister step into a pile of manure like he’d just proposed to her.

As she paused at the threshold of the office, she gave Gary a long look as sadness rose in her chest. Jolene had been so sweet about her husband when Sadie had talked to her last night, so grateful for him in her life. Gary, on the other hand, gave no impression that he even cared about Jolene. Maybe his detachment had something to do with the loss of his firstborn son. Or maybe watching Jolene’s family members die one by one throughout their marriage had hardened him to the point that he didn’t trust himself to absorb the emotions in front of other people. Or, maybe he was a narcissist.

“Good luck to you and your wife at this difficult time,” Sadie said, every word heartfelt and sincere. “I really do wish you both the best, and I hope you and Jolene enjoy that cruise.”

Chapter 41

Sadie arrived at Karri’s fifteen minutes early and stared out the windshield, trying to determine how to fill the time until Richard arrived. The sky was grayer, and the wind was picking up, swaying the treetops and whistling around her door. Meanwhile, Sadie’s thoughts were also picking up in a storm of questions as she considered the things she’d gleaned from her conversation with Gary. If only Jack had that background information!

She couldn’t say for certain that Gary was a weasel, but there was something very weasely about him, and he’d talked to Hugh about selling their percentage. If only Sadie could ask May if Hugh had said anything to her. Could that be the reason for the tension between the two of them at Jim’s house yesterday? May had said Hugh thought she was crazy to think their father had been murdered—was Hugh hiding something? Protecting himself? Could Gary be manipulating his sick wife into the most financially advantageous position? There wasn’t enough information one way or another, but she knew she was getting closer and was more anxious than ever to fit the pieces together. She could smell it almost as well as she could smell Karri’s lunch special once she opened the driver’s door—chicken and citrus of some kind.