Death Changes Everything (14 page)

“Roger was still CEO until a few years ago. Don’t you think he would have kept a closer eye on Steven after Pam accused him? Even if he didn’t believe her, I’d think it would be human nature.”

“For a while, maybe, but not for fifteen years.”

“How could Roger have built a business as successful as Hill Energy and know whether his son was embezzling? He never said anything to you about it?”

“If he had, I would have mentioned it after Steven was killed. I did a lot of work for Hill Energy back in the day. Roger was brilliant at the nuts and bolts of exploration and drilling but the administrative side bored him. If the financials looked good, I can’t see him digging into them.”

“Do you think Steven was the kind of person who would do that?”

“I think I’ll wait to see the audit report. Matt must have it by now. Then there was her accusation of Steve stealing from Roger and Della’s house.”

“And having affairs, don’t forget that one.”

“Do you think it was all just the alcohol talking?”

Emma made a face. “Alcohol makes you blurt out whatever you’re thinking. It doesn’t suddenly turn you into a liar.”

“What about Maddie accusing Pam?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say she was just striking out at Pam to make her stop talking. She didn’t argue the point about Steven’s affairs. Combined with Steven traveling on business with some other woman, I’d say Pam was telling the truth about that much and if I were Maddie, I’d be afraid that Pam might be telling the truth about the rest.”

“Which is why Maddie asked me to just drop it.”

“That’s my thinking, yes. So, what were you and Della talking about before Pam butted in?”

As an answer, Jake called Matt. “You feel up to making a trip out to the house tonight?”

“I could be. What’s up? Don’t tell me Valerie Smith showed up at Roger’s funeral too.”

“That would have been fun, but no. There are a few things I need to fill the team in on.”

“In that case, I’m up to it.”

“Do you have the final audit report?”

“I haven’t seen it, but I’ll have Morty camp out at the auditor’s office until he gets it.”

“Great. See you in a bit.”

“Not fair,” said Emma when Jake ended the call.

“What?”

“I don’t want to wait. I want to hear it now.”

“It may have bearing on the case. I’m not sure, but it’s not a story I want to say over and over. I just hope for the Hills’ sakes that it doesn’t go public during the election. There’s nothing illegal, but it would light up the gossips all over town, especially now.”

“I forgot all about the election! How could I do that? I’m sorry. I’m a terrible politician’s wife.”

“You’re a perfect wife and I’m not a politician, no matter how many elections I’m in. Frankly, I’m not paying attention to it myself. Ron assured me he’d take care of everything and just let me know if I needed to show up somewhere. So far, he’s been meeting with potential backers, which he says is best done without me there anyway, so people don’t get the idea that I’m promising to trade favors.”

“Did get a chance to talk to Clint Taylor?”

“He offered me his job once he gets elected.”

Emma laughed. “At least he’s humble.”

“Don’t laugh him off. He could easily win.”

“He’s a snake.”

“A snake you invited to our home in order to introduce him to your best friend before she started seeing Matt.”

Emma blushed. “He seemed like a nice guy at the time.”

“And he’ll seem like a nice guy to the voters. Heck, maybe he actually is a nice guy. He’s a little too ambitious for my taste, but I can’t fault the guy for any of his work with juveniles. He’s tough, but he’s fair with them.”

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard you say about him. Maybe I’ll have to vote for him.” She laughed at the look her husband gave her as he pulled off the highway and started up the dirt road.

***

Jeb, who lived on the other side of Casper Mountain, had the furthest to travel and so was the last to arrive. Grace and Emma had thrown together a pickup dinner and were thankful that Jeb had stopped to pick up two bottles of wine. Matt had called Brugnick, who was doing his week of swing shift. The detective had gladly abandoned DUI detail to join the impromptu conference.

Emma threw her arms around the surprised young man when she saw the bakery box he carried. “Morty! How did you know I didn’t have a single thing I could serve for dessert?”

Brugnick blushed, and handed her the box. “My Mamma woulda skinned me alive if I’d shown up for dinner empty-handed.”

“Well thank God for southern mothers,” said Emma. “Kristy’s influenced her to bring salad so we have a regular feast of fine things to lay before you.”

“Hey Matt, you’ll be interested to know. It turns out that the impound clerk had a bench warrant for unpaid child support so he’s cooling his heels in jail.”

“I hope he won’t lose his job over it,” said Grace. “How will he pay his child support if there are no wages to garnish?”

“From what Child Support Enforcement says, he quits his job every time the garnishment order shows up,” explained Brugnick.

“I assume Valerie’s prints were in the car?” asked Jake.

“There were prints from quite a few people but none have shown up in the database. The Feds are running them now, but you know how long that takes. Miss Kristy, this is the best potato salad I’ve had in years.”

Kristy smiled. “My mother’s recipe. I thought you’d like a taste of home. I was just finishing up a batch for the Greeters potluck, but they can settle for store bought.”

“Much obliged.”

“So Jake, what’s the big mystery?” asked Matt. “You called, we’re here. Out with it.”

“Let me start with what happened after Roger’s funeral first.” Jake spoke methodically, not embellishing, but not skipping any pertinent facts.

“Hoo doggies!” whistled Brugnick. Everyone but Kristy snickered.

“Don’ you pay them no mind, Morty,” she soothed, slipping into her own accent. She turned to Matt, “You might should look into what Pam said.” When Matt simply stared at her, biting his lip, she said. “Don’ you be lookin’ at me like that. I got half a mind to smack you!”

“I caint help it, Miz Kristy,” said Matt in a horrible drawl. “You’s da purtiest ting I ever did see.”

“That dog don’t hunt here, mister.” Accent forgotten, she continued. “Pick your silly chin up off the floor and tell me what you think of Pam’s accusations.”

“I don’t know. Morty, when the heck are we going to get that audit? Wasn’t he saying yesterday, at the latest?”

“I called on my way over. His service laughed at me and reminded me that it’s Saturday.”

“I’m in the wrong business. I ought to be the only game in town. Then I can tell paying customers that I’ll get around to their job whenever I darn well feel like it.”

Brugnick raised his hand in surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’ll head over Monday and pick it up even if I have to sit in the lobby.”

“Send over a uniform,” suggested Jake. “Nothing gets faster attention from a business than to have a uniformed police officer cooling his or her heels in their reception area.”

Matt laughed. “You are going to be my kind of County Attorney, Jake. Devious, but on the right side of the law.”

“Well, it would be nice if I could take a look at that report before I meet with Pam tomorrow,” said Jake.

“I think you’d better hold off, Jake. Pam accused Steven, Maddie accused Pam. I think we want all our ducks in a row before we confront either of them.”

“I already told her I’d meet with her. What if I just hear her out, see if she can back up any of her accusations? Then once we get the audit, we can see if she was telling us the truth.”

“I doubt she can back it up or she would have done it already. Now, what’s the big news? I assume it’s bigger than a cat fight?”

“Why do men dismiss arguments between women as cat fights?” asked Emma.

“I take it back. Jake, save me here, buddy. What’s the big news?”

“I’m not stepping into that one, but I do have something that you all need to hear. I don’t know if it has any bearing on the case, but if it doesn’t, I would appreciate if this went no further.”

“I can live with that,” said Matt. “Let’s hear it.”

“Some of this I only know secondhand. Roger Hill was my father’s client and he handled most of the work on this. In fact, until Steven died, it had been years since Roger and I discussed it.

“The whole thing started fifty-two years ago, before Roger and Della married. As you may know, it’s common in the LDS church for young people to do missionary work. Roger served in the military, which doubled as his mission work. Della’s father insisted she complete a mission before he agreed to the marriage.”

“I didn’t know women went out as missionaries back then,” said Emma.

“Most missionaries are men, even now, but Della’s father was quite devout. When Roger came home from his tour in Vietnam, Della went off to do humanitarian work for eighteen months.”

“It sounds like he just didn’t want her to marry Roger and hoped distance would make her lose interest,” said Grace.

“Four years is a lifetime when you’re young,” agreed Emma.

“While Della was gone, Roger started working as a roustabout, traveling all over the state, learning the oil and gas business from the ground up. When he was ready to start his own company, he knew everything there was to know about drilling. He scraped together enough money to buy his first lease and Hill Energy was born.

“During this time, Roger met Trudy Klingman and let’s just say that nine months later, Trudy gave birth to a baby boy. By that time, Roger had moved on to other job sites. Since she didn’t know where to find him, Trudy contacted his parents. They asked my father to meet with her and negotiate a settlement agreement.”

“They paid her off?” asked Emma. “And your father let them do that?”

“Dad told me that Trudy was more than happy to accept financial assistance. She wanted to move to California and the Hills made that possible.”

“Did Roger even know about it?”

“Of course. He told me he felt horrible about it and terrified that Della would find out and not want to marry him.”

“And that’s what Della said Roger told her about after you two met last week,” said Emma.

“That’s right.”

“So what’s your role in all of this? Why were you concerned it would come out during the election?”

“My father forwarded payments from the Hills to Trudy for years. When I took over the practice, I took over making the payments.”

“But Roger’s son would have been an adult by then,” Grace pointed out. “Why would he still be paying child support?”

“Because that’s the kind of man he was. It wasn’t in the agreement. Roger just told Dad to keep making the payments until Trudy didn’t want them anymore. I made them every month until Trudy died.”

“Nobody’s that nice. Was she blackmailing him?” asked Matt.

“I asked Roger about it after Dad died, but he told me he felt called to help her. He’d never heard from her. He didn’t even know his son’s name and said he didn’t want to know. He loved Della and while he wanted to do the right thing by Trudy, he wanted his heart to be focused on Della.”

“Then he shouldn’t have slept with Trudy,” said Kristy, her voice caustic.

“It was one weekend during the height of the sexual revolution. He was twenty-three and the woman he loved wasn’t even allowed to write to him during her mission. Complete silence for eighteen months, not knowing if she would come back with changed feelings. He shouldn’t have done it, but he did and he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it.”

“So what happened after Trudy died?” asked Jeb.

“At Roger’s suggestion, I tracked down her son and sent the payments to him. When they all came back unopened, Roger told me to drop it. If his son didn’t want the money, he wasn’t going to press him to take it.”

“What was the son’s name?” asked Matt.

“Walter Winters.”

Brugnick nudged Matt. “And you think my name’s bad.”

“It’s still bad.”

“Hey, it’s a family name. It goes back five generations.”

“And hopefully stops with you,” Matt teased.

“Boys,” said Grace, giving them a look that Emma remembered from her days in clinical supervision. The two men looked sheepish. “Continue, Jacob.”

“There’s nothing else to say. This all happened years ago. As I said, I don’t know that it has any bearing on the case, but if we’re going to have to start digging into Hill family secrets, I thought it was best I tell you this one.”

“Did Roger make any mention of this son in his will?” asked Grace.

“The only son he names is Steven.”

“And since Steven predeceased his father?”

“Wouldn’t his share go to Maddie or Steven’s children?” asked Emma.

“Unfortunately not. He didn’t think it was worth putting in a provision because he never expected to outlive either of his children. That was one of the things we discussed when I met with him last week. He was going to make some changes in the will, but said he didn’t even want to think about it until the police arrested Steven’s killer.”