Jennifer went straight home and called Chris and verified that he was filing the death certificate, and calling the appropriate people.
She took a long bubble bath, and then got ready to go to the funeral home. She got there at 2 and was talking to the funeral director when Jonathan came in.
"Mrs. Hart, it will take us a few days to get your father here. But it will take us a couple weeks to get your mother here. It might be best if we transport them together. So, if you wanted to have them buried together, we can postpone the ceremony till they are both here. We have a few options available for side by side plots. I've highlighted them on the map here". He handed her the map and she began to look at it.
"I like this one, near the entrance".
"Perfect. Now did you want a joint tombstone, or individual tombstones?"
"Joint, please."
"Ok, great. Our tombstones lie flat, so you have these options available for style and design. You can fill out the form attached as to wording and dates and all that, and turn it back in when we have the burial ceremony. It will take approximately 4 weeks after that before it's ready for placement".
"Ok, thank you".
He drew up a quote for her and then printed it and pushed it across the desk to her.
"So, just to clarify, you are looking to just rebury your mother in our plot-you aren't planning on having her coffin opened?"
"No, I'm not."
"Ok, great. Just as a precaution, we will check the seal to make sure that it's still intact."
"Thank you".
"Ok, so you are looking at a pretty steep price. The local funeral home in the county where your mother is buried requires a funeral director to be present when they exhume her body. That plus the cost of exhumation will run you $5000. We are going to charge you a fee of $8000 for the plot, and $350 to bury her. Same for your dad. So, the funeral home costs that you are looking at are $21,700. You are also going to have to purchase a plane ticket for both of your parents. If you call the airline directly, they can give you the export luggage price. Not to sound crass, but your parents are going to be riding in the plane with the luggage, so that's why you want the export luggage price".
She nodded.
Jonathan spoke up then.
"We own our own plane, can't we just fly them on our aircraft and avoid that?"
"I'm sorry, but state law in California states that all bodies accepted at the airport must be on commercial aircraft and not personal, unless the person died in flight."
"So, how do I know what dates to give the airline?"
"You call and book the flight and then call the funeral home and tell them what the flight is. They will see to it that your parents are at the airport. For the purposes of exhumation, I would give them 7 business days to exhume your mother".
She wrote him a check and he promised to take care of everything on his end.
"Thank you".
They shook hands and left.
Jonathan held the door for her as she went outside.
"Do you want to walk around to see where the plots are?"
"Yeah, I do".
They silently walked over to the plots and she took a few moments to really look at the surroundings.
Finally, she was ready to go.
He walked her to the car and opened the door for her and then kissed her cheek.
"See you at home".
***Willow Pond***
Jennifer pulled up to the house and parked and went inside. Jonathan was right behind her.
"Mrs. H., these flowers came for you while you were gone. And I picked up the mail, and these cards were in there for you as well".
"Thanks Max".
She walked over to the bar and started digging for the cards on the flowers.
One bouquet was from Marcia, her editor. It was a gorgeous bouquet of blue irises, blue gladiolus, and white carnations.
Another bouquet was from Jonathan's office. It was a beautiful bouquet of pink roses, pink and purple larkspur, pink four o'clock flowers, pink hoyas, peace lilies, and white chrysanthemums.
The final bouquet was from Chris Perkins.
"Sparkles, it was so wonderful to see you last week. Wish the circumstances had been better. You are always in my thoughts".
His bouquet was filled with red roses, red and orange parrot tulips, white liatris, pineapple lilies, Chinese hat flowers, and white gladiolus.
She started to open the cards when Jonathan appeared with a glass of wine for her.
"Thank you".
She finished reading the cards and went to sit on the couch.
The phone rang as she was sitting down and she picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Jennifer? Hi, it's Chris".
"Hi. Thank you for the flowers, they are quite lovely."
"I'm so glad you like them. Listen, I finished filing everything. And there's one more matter that we didn't discuss, the matter of you receiving your share of the Edwards' family trust. So, I will fly out end of this week, and I was hoping that you would agree to have dinner with me so we can discuss it".
"Well, I'm glad you called actually. I was going to call you myself tomorrow. I spoke to the funeral home today, about having my mother exhumed and moved here and dad flown here. They said that a family member must be present. I hate to ask Walter to do that-he's done so much for us. Can you possibly oversee them exhuming my mom? She's buried at the back of the property, at the end of the third trail on the right as you go out the back door. You can also access it from Rosewood lane. Once the gate is opened, you just go right towards the rose garden, and she's over to the right under the trees".
"Yes, I would love to do that for you."
"Thank you. I appreciate it. I will have the funeral home call you. And then after that is done, we can discuss the other legal matters".
"Ok great. Great to talk to you, Jennifer".
"Thanks, you too".
She hung up.
Jonathan came and sat by her.
"Are you ready to talk about this key thing?"
"Are you ready to tell me what it goes to?"
"As I said before, I have no idea what it goes to. Your father and I talked many times about many things, but we didn't talk about a key or a scavenger hunt or anything like that".
"Why would he say that I am supposed to ask you about it then?"
"I have no idea. We never spoke about it at all."
"This isn't making sense".
"What did Chris say on the phone?"
"well, he wants to fly out here so we can discuss the terms of me getting my share of the trust over dinner. But that's on hold because he agreed to be present and oversee them exhuming mom."
"You got some nice flowers today".
"Yeah, I did. Marcia sent the blue ones, your office the pink, purple and white, and Chris the red ones".
"He personally sent you flowers?"
She nodded.
She handed him the card.
He read it and then handed it back to her.
"Jennifer, he isn't acting like a lawyer".
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, he's not acting like a lawyer. He's way past that".
"What do you think he's acting like?"
"A smitten 9th grader with an unlimited allowance".
"That's silly. He's just being a caring friend. He and my father got along very well, even after he and I stopped dating".
"You dated the bank guy too, but you don't see him giving you bouquets of flowers and offering to take you to dinner".
"That's different. Davy broke up with me for a girl he met at a college party. I broke up with Chris because I was going back to Gresham in a few weeks and didn't want to do the long distance thing".
"Well, still, one is pursuing you and the other isn't".
"Oh Jonathan, Chris isn't pursuing me. Like I told you, he's just being a kind and caring friend".
Just then the doorbell rang.
Max went to get it and signed for a package for Jonathan.
"It would be nice if this caring friend respected the fact that you are married".
"Is it so hard for you to believe that I can be friends and nothing more with an ex?"
"It isn't you I don't trust. It's the ex. He was too excited to see you and he's obviously pursuing you, which is disrespectful to me".
He brought it to Jonathan and handed him the letter opener so that he could open it.
"Chris isn't like that, darling. He is just very sensitive and caring".
Jonathan pulled the present out of the box.
It was a small box with a very intricate ornate script detail across the top.
He looked at the packing receipt.
"To Jonathan, from Stephen".
He opened the box and found that it was a small cigar case.
There was a piece of paper inside. He handed it Jennifer.
"To open the bottom layer, slide shelves to the left and right in the right sequence to reveal a keyhole".
"Maybe this is what he meant in the note".
She dug the key out of her purse and handed it to him.
He followed the instructions, and it opened right up.
Inside was another note.
"My darling Jennifer-you figured it out. Now open the envelope marked 2. You were always my smartest daughter. Love Pa".
She opened the second envelope and found an invoice.
"What is it, darling?"
"I don't know. it's an invoice of some kind".
She handed it to him so he could look at it.
"We have to take this to the dock tomorrow and they will give us the crate that it goes to".
He got up and refilled her wine glass and got himself a cocktail.
She walked over to him and embraced him.
"I apologize for yelling at you over the key. I shouldn't have done that".
"It's alright".
He kissed her a few times and then they went and sat back on the couch.
"So, what now?"
"Well, we go to the dock tomorrow. And Chris is going to overnight me the death certificate when he gets it, along with the other paperwork. And then I will take it to the bank and consolidate dad's accounts and pay our account back for what we are spending. And then at some point, I guess we are having dinner with Chris to discuss the trust."
"We? As in you and me?"
"Well, this part of the you and me is content to have dinner alone because I know that nothing will happen. However, this part of the you and me also realizes that your part of the you and me is suspicious of him, so this part of the you and me figured your part of the you and me might want to tag along".
"I see".
He shifted towards her and put his arm along the back of the couch.
"This part of the you and me wants to take your part of the you and me to dinner tonight. Is your part content with that?"
"My part is. But I think Max has made us dinner".
"Let's go see".
They walked into the kitchen and found Max cooking up a storm.
"Dinner's almost ready. I grilled some chicken and made lemon parmesan rice and a chopped salad".
"Wonderful".
Jennifer set the table while Jonathan got them drinks.
After a nice meal, Jennifer and Jonathan went upstairs to watch a movie.
They had just settled into bed when the phone rang.
Jonathan reached over and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Hart, it's Stanley. I just received a message from the company stockbroker that someone is trying to buy up large quantities of Hart Industry stock".
"Any idea who?"
"Not yet. I temporarily suspended the sale of all stock and opened an investigation into the transactions to find out who is doing it, though".
"Ok, great. Thanks, Stanley".
"As soon as I hear, I'll let you know".
"Thank you".
He hung up.
She turned to him and gave him a weak smile.
"Everything ok?"
"So far. Just a little matter of stock sales, that's all".
They snuggled up and resumed watching the movie, and just as he predicted, Jennifer was asleep in about 20 minutes. He covered them with a blanket and wrapped his arms around her.
Jonathan wasn't paying attention to the movie at all. He was staring into space going over and over everything that had happened with Christopher Perkins so far. For some reason, he got a bad vibe about him, and he didn't like it. He had to tread carefully though, so that Jennifer would take him seriously when he figured it out.
He quietly crept out of the bedroom and down to the office and got a notepad and pen.
He began to make a list of everyone connected to Stephen's estate that wasn't family. He kept coming back to the same names-Chris Perkins, Mark Walters, and Davy Wilson. He wasn't sold on Davy having untrue motives, based on his profession, but he didn't want to count him out just yet.
He picked up the phone and called Stanley.
"Stanley? It's Mr. Hart. Listen, can you do me a favor? There are some people I want you to check out. I need as much detail on them as you can possibly find. The first person is Christopher Perkins, of Hill Haven, Maryland. He's an attorney. The second one is Davy Wilson, also of Hill Haven. He's the president of MDV Bank in Hill Haven. Also, see if you can find anything on a Mark Walters of Hill Haven. I'm not sure of his profession, but I know that he grew up in Hill Haven, Maryland. As soon as you find out whatever you can on them, please let me know".
"Sure thing, Mr. Hart."
"Thank you".
He hung up and went back to bed.