Ring of Lies (4 page)

‘
Mrs.
Elliott,
p
lease take a seat.
I’m sorry to drag you here, especially today of all days, but it’s best for all concerned if these matters are settled quickly.
I hope you’ll accept my condolences on your husband’s untimely demise.
It must have been a terrib
le shock for you.
’

‘
Yes, it was.
Your letter came as a surprise
, too
.
I
wasn’t
aware that Daniel had made a will.
’
Grace’s hands twisted in her lap.
‘
I didn’t think it was necessary as we purchased the house in joint name
s and have a joint bank account.
’
To
her dismay, her voice cracked.

‘
Mr
Elliott made his will quite recently.
Of course, it simplifies matters from a legal point of view, but I am surprised he didn’t discuss it with you first.
He leaves the bulk of his estate to you
, as you would expect
.
Applegate Cottage, as you pointed out
, is held
jointly
between you and your husband
so
his
share
automatically
passes to you.
I am sure it will come as a relief to know there are
ample
funds from his life insurance to pay off the
outstanding sum on the
mortgage, so you needn’t worry about that.
There is only one other
bequest
, to a Miss
Catherine
Peterson.
’

‘
Catherine
?
Daniel included my sister in his will?
Do you know w
hy?
’

‘
A will is a very personal thing,
Mrs.
Elliott, as I’m sure you appreciate.
It is not my place to ask my clients the reason behind their decisions.
’

‘
No, no
, o
f course not.
’
Grace bent her head and studied her hands as she
absently listened
to the solicitor.
Anger and confusion surged through her.
Why had Daniel felt it necessary to make a will?
And
why
had he made
Catherine
a
beneficiary?

‘
—Probate should take four to six weeks to obtain and everything should be finalised within six months.
I’ve already spoken to your
b
ank and arranged to transfer your husband’s savings account into your name.
You’ll need to make an appointment to see the manager and sign some papers, but it’s all very straightforward.
W
ith regard to the beach house in Florida, I’m
afraid your
attorney in America will have to handl
e the transfer into your name.
’

Grace’s head jerked up.
‘
Excuse me?
A house in Florida?
An attorney in America?
I don’t understand.
We don’t own any property overseas.
’

The solicitor examined the papers in front of him.
‘
Actually,
you do
.
’
He
took off his reading glasses
and smiled at her
benevolently
.
‘
I ca
n assure you there’s no mistake
.
Your husband purchased the beach house on Gasparilla Island
some
months ago.
I have a copy of the purchase contract
here in the file
.
As I mentioned,
Mr
.
Parous, your American attorney, will be able to handle the transfer into your name.
Now, is there anyth
ing else you’d like to ask me?
’

‘
Mr
.
Parous?
’

‘
Yes, that’s right.
’
He handed Grace a business card.
‘
I’ve already spoken to him and faxed him a copy of the will.
He sounds like a very competent chap.
I’m sure he’ll deal with the legalities in a prompt and professional manner.
’

Grace glanced at it.
Zachary Parous, Esquire, Attorney at Law
.
Beneath the neatly typed name were a telephone number and an address in M
iami.
She sat dumbfounded.
Why hadn’t Daniel told her that he’d purchased a house in Florida?

Her mind refused to accept what she’d been told.
She was about to ask
how Daniel could afford a second home
when the solicitor pushed a pile of papers across the desk.

‘
I
f you’d just sign these,
Mrs.
Elliott, I can get started.
Mrs.
Elliott?
’

‘
I’m sorry?
M
y signature
?
Yes, of course.
’
She signed every sheet without reading it.
Daniel always told her what she was signing.
Daniel
—

It was dark when Grace left the solicitor’s office.
Numbness had finally set in.
She moved without thinking, without emotion
—
as if she were one of the stick figures at a theme park—flagging
down a taxi and giv
ing
the driver her address.

Flicking on the hall light
in her home
,
the home she and Daniel had shared and
loved,
the pain return
ed
in a torrent.
She dropped her
purse
on the table, and went straight to the study.
Daniel’s study
,
the one room in the house she ne
ver entered, not even to dust.

Grace rested her hand on the
doorknob
, and half expected to hear his deep-timbered voice
scolding her for disturbing him
.
She’d ignored his warning only once, the ensuing argument had left her reeling.
Ever since
then she’d respected his wishes, a
ll of them.

But Daniel was no lo
nger here to wish for anything.

She
pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The air smelled
stale.
She told herself that the
lingering aroma
of pipe tobacco was permanently embedded in the furniture, but her feelings told her otherwise—that he was here, alive somehow, yet invisible to her.
She fumbled with the catch on the window and threw it open, impervious to the
frigid
air that flooded the room.

An
old leather chair, which had once belonged to
Daniel’s
father, stood next to the soot-stained limestone fireplace
where
ashes of a half-burned log lay in the grate.
A large oak desk
, its surface covered with a faint film of dust,
filled the bay window
.
The date on the desk calendar showed the
seventeenth
of
November
,
the day Daniel had left for
the conference
.
She tore off the pages without bothering to read the proverb printed underneath, and threw them into the wastepaper
basket.

Daniel’s face
,
and that of her own, smiled back at her from
a
silver-
framed photograph on the corner of the desk.
She picked it up and wiped the dust from the surface
with her fingertips.

‘
What other
secrets have you kept from me?
’

Daniel’s brown, unfathomable eyes seemed to stare everywhere but at her.
With a heavy heart she replaced the photograph on the desk
.
She
collapsed into the chair
and
rested her aching head in her hands.
Their marriage hadn’t been perfect
;
they’d
had
their fair share
of ups and downs like every other couple
,
but she’d never thought of Daniel as being secretive
. Y
et the last fe
w hours had proved that he was
just that
.

She leaned back
and rubbed her temples.
Nothing the solicitor had told her made any sense.
They weren’t rich
. Their
joint
bank account, which last time she
looked, held less than
two thousand pounds
.
When they
purchased Applega
te Cottage four years ago, they ha
d
paid
the
minimum
ten
per cent
deposit and borrowed the rest from the bank.
So where had the money come fro
m to purchase a house in America?
A
nd more importantly, why h
adn’t Daniel told her about it?