The Deepest Water Read Online Free

Brice sat down hard.
    Caldwell nodded, then said, “More, actually one hundred forty-five thousand. Just one or two more things, and we’re out of here. I talked to Harvey Durham, your father’s attorney and executor of his estate, and he said you weren’t aware of the codicil your father added to his will years ago. Is that right?”
    Abby nodded.
    “Do you have any idea why he added it?”
    “No.”
    “Strange thing to add. You inherit it all, act as his literary executor, continue to get your monthly allowance, but you can’t touch the principal or sell anything for six months. He never mentioned that to you?”
    “No. Harvey told us on Monday.”
    “But you knew you were his heir?”
    “Yes. After my mother remarried, he told me he had changed his will. We… we laughed because he didn’t have anything to leave except the cabin and his papers.”
    “Did he tell you about the designation with thirty-days contingency clause?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    “Did he confide in you at all about his finances, the sales of his work, how much he was making in the past few years?”
    “No. Lieutenant, he never talked about money, not when he didn’t have any, not when he did. It just wasn’t important to him. He began to travel, and he bought me a new car, a Toyota Supra, two years ago, and bought a van, a sports utility van, but even that wasn’t really important to him. More like a necessity, living back in the mountains as he was. I don’t know how much he was making, or what he was doing with it.”
    She had a flashing memory of the time Brice had suggested that his company would be happy to advise Jud about stocks, mutual funds, whatever.
    Jud had laughed. “There are three people that, if you use their services at all, you should make sure are not related to you. Your doctor, your lawyer, and your money manager. But thanks.”
    Caldwell had asked something else, she realized, something she had not heard. “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “Did he stay here with you when he came to town?” Caldwell repeated.
    She shook her head. Jud had never spent a single night in this house.
    “Did he stay with Willa Ashford?”
    “I don’t know,” she said faintly. “You have to ask her.”
    Finally Caldwell stood up. “Just one more thing, Mrs. Connors, then we’ll leave you in peace. As I said, we’ve had to go through his papers, records, all that. But the problem is you’re the only one we know who can look over the cabin and make sure nothing’s missing, that things are pretty much like he kept them. Can you go out there with us tomorrow?”
    “Jesus!” Brice snapped. “For God’s sake, can’t you see what this is doing to her? That’s too goddamn much to ask!”
    Caldwell kept his gaze on Abby. “The crime lab technicians have gone over things, there’s nothing left to see. It’s been padlocked ever since the sheriff got there, but we need someone like you to have a look around before anyone takes a notion to break in or something. How long a drive is it from here?”
    “Two hours,” she said. He was just doing his job, she thought bleakly. That was all it meant to him, another job to get over with, move on to something else. Then she thought, that was what she wanted, too. To find out who shot her father in the face on Friday night. She nodded.
    “Good. Nine? Is that okay with you? We’ll pick you up at nine.”
    She nodded again. She remained on the sofa, with her hands clasped tightly when Brice took them to the door.
    “I just don’t think you should come,” Abby said to Brice after the officers left. “There won’t be anything for you to do, and you must have a ton of work to catch up with.”
    “I don’t want you to go off with them alone. Let’s take the box, give your father his burial, then close up the place for now. We can drive Jud’s van home.”
    “No!” She took a breath, then said calmly, “I’m not ready yet, and not with them along. Not with police watching.