When Jack made his way downstairs the next morning, he found Daniel in the kitchen making breakfast, or trying to, anyway. A pan of bacon was perilously close to burning, and Daniel seemed oblivious. Jack managed to rescue it just in time.
Whistling…Daniel was whistling, evidently making up a tune as he cracked eggs into a ceramic bowl. Now, there was a cliché for you.
"Morning, Daniel. Anything I can do to help?"
"No, thanks. I've got everything under control."
"Is Sabrina up yet?" Jack searched through several cabinets before finding plates.
"Uh, I don't know. She might be taking a shower. We're supposed to go to the lawyer's office later this morning." He scowled as he picked a piece of shell out of the eggs.
Since Daniel didn't mention his 'sleepover', Jack didn't say anything about it, either. But he wanted to. He wanted to say, 'Hey, we're all adults here, Daniel. Knock yourself out,' but instead he said, "Is there toast?"
"Only if you make it. Bread's on the counter. Butter's in the fridge. Is Sam up?"
"Uh, I don't know…" Two could play that game.
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They were joined fifteen minutes later by Sam, and five minutes after that by Sabrina. Everyone ate with gusto, and both of the girls complimented Daniel and Jack on their cooking skills.
"So Daniel, what time did you two get to sleep?" Sam reached for another piece of toast. "It had to have been at least…ow!" She glared across the table at Jack and rubbed her sore shin.
"Sorry, Sam. My foot slipped. Why don't we clean up here and let these two head on out?" Jack gathered the dirty plates and stacked them in the sink.
"Oh…oh, sure… You two go on. We're going to get back to work on the tapes while you're gone." Sam looked apologetically at Daniel and shrugged her shoulders.
"Thanks, guys. We should be back in two or three hours." If Daniel was embarrassed by Sam's question, he didn't show it. He glanced at Sabrina, who just seemed amused. "Ready to go?"
"Ready. Oh, Jack?" Sabrina turned before leaving the kitchen. "Catherine's cleaning woman is coming in this morning. I told her to concentrate on the living room, first. Could one of you give her an idea of what needs to be done?"
"No problem," said Jack. "We'll take care of it."
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"Good morning, Sabrina. It's good to see you again." Sabrina had just finished signing multiple copies of legal documents and had passed them back to the secretary. She turned around slightly in her chair to greet Catherine's lawyer.
"Good morning, Morgan."
Morgan Peterson was a pleasant looking man in his late seventies. With his snow white hair and bushy eyebrows, he reminded Daniel of his grandfather. He wondered if the distinguished looking lawyer was still working full time or if he just kept a few choice clients.
"And you must be Daniel." He shook Daniel's hand warmly. "I would've known you anywhere—Catherine spoke of you very fondly. Come in. Come in." He led them into his inner office and indicated two leather chairs in front of his desk. "What can I do for you?"
Daniel decided to take the lead. "We have some questions about Catherine's will," he said. "More specifically, we'd like to know when the last one was drawn up." He leaned back in the leather chair and waited for a reply.
"Well, let's see. It was about…six months ago?" He consulted his computer screen before continuing. "Yes, that's right. It was in December of 2004."
"Did she give a reason for changing it?" asked Sabrina. Her chair seemed too big for her, and it accentuated her vulnerability, it seemed to Daniel. She didn't look comfortable, somehow.
"Yes, she did…" Peterson regarded two of the beneficiaries of that will and wondered how much he should say. He considered himself to be a pretty good judge of character, and something told him he could trust these two. "She learned some…disturbing facts…about some of the potential heirs."
"I think we know the facts you're talking about." Daniel exchanged glances with Sabrina. "How did Catherine find out?"
"Quite by accident. Phillip was looking for work, and listed Catherine as a relative. Somehow a registered letter from his parole officer was sent to her by mistake. Naturally she was concerned." He steepled his fingers together and leaned forward over the desk. "She asked me if I would do a background check on everyone, including you, my dear." He smiled at Sabrina apologetically. "When the results came back, she asked me to draw up a new will."
"Leaving most of her estate to Sabrina?" asked Daniel.
"Leaving most everything to Sabrina. That's right."
"Do you have any idea if she told anyone else she was changing her will?"
"If she did, she didn't tell me. I got the impression she wanted the would-be heirs to be unpleasantly surprised, though." Morgan looked at Daniel curiously. "Why do you ask?"
"We're just trying to tie up some loose ends, that's all." Daniel didn't feel like alarming the old gentleman.
"Is there any way my cousins can challenge this?" asked Sabrina.
"Well…" Morgan chuckled softly. "They can challenge it 'till the cows come home, but they'll never win."
"Can we have a hard copy of the will?" This request came from Daniel.
"Of course. There should be one in this folder." The elderly lawyer shifted through some papers on his desk before coming up with the correct document. He handed the copy of the will to Sabrina.
Sensing the interview was at an end, Daniel stood up, Sabrina joining him.
"Thank you for meeting with us, Mr. Peterson."
"Glad to be of help." He came from behind his desk and walked with them to the door. "Sabrina, it's good to see you looking so well." He gave her a careful hug. "If you need anything, anything at all, please let me know."
"I will, Morgan. Thank you."
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"Sabrina, what was he talking about when he said it was good to see you looking so well?" They were almost back to Daniel's car. She turned around to face him as he pulled out his keys.
"Oh, that…" She bit her lower lip as she considered her answer. "I was in an automobile accident almost a year ago." Daniel frowned at this revelation. "Nothing serious…really." She smiled at him reassuringly. "Morgan must've found out about it when he did my background check."
"Tell me about it." Daniel leaned against the hood of the Jeep and drew her close, his arms resting on her shoulders.
"Nothing much to tell. I was on holiday in the southern part of Italy. I was driving a sports car on a road I was unfamiliar with. It was a one car accident." She put her arms around his waist and pulled herself closer. "I'd really rather not talk about it."
"Did Catherine know about the accident?"
"Of course. But she also knew my injuries were superficial. She wanted to come to Naples anyway, but my doctor talked her out of it."
"I'll bet that wasn't easy." Daniel recalled several times when he had been in the infirmary and Catherine had been there for him.
"Probably not, but I would've been out of the hospital by the time she could've gotten there." She leaned her head against his chest and sighed rather dramatically. "Can we drop this now?"
He kissed the top of her head and smiled. "Consider it dropped."
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When Daniel and Sabrina got back to Catherine's, they found Jack and Sam taking a break on the verandah. It was still a little cool to be sitting outside, but they didn't seem to mind. They had removed the covers from two of the wicker chaise lounges and were sipping iced teas while they enjoyed some early spring sunshine.
"You're back!" Sam got up and removed the covers from two of the chairs sitting close by. "Did you have lunch?"
"We weren't hungry," answered Daniel, "but we did get some information about the will." He pulled a chair closer and turned it so that it faced his friends.
"I'm going upstairs to change," said Sabrina. She left the three friends to talk on the verandah.
"Well…what did you find out?" asked Jack.
"Basically, we found out that Catherine did a background check on her heirs, and apparently changed her will soon after."
"Which was…"
"About six months ago. The lawyer told us they didn't have a clue about the change. Caused a big stink at the reading of the will."
"I can imagine. I guess that clears the cousins, though; if they didn't even know they'd been cut out of the will." Jack took a sip of his iced tea.
"I guess," agreed Daniel, but he didn't seem convinced.
"Did they inherit anything?" asked Jack.
"Not to speak of. Geoff got the family Bible. Barbara got some earrings that had belonged to her great-grandmother. Phillip got an old violin—not a Stradivarius, by the way." He poured a glass of tea for himself before continuing. "Have you finished looking at the tapes?"
"Yes, we have," replied Sam, "and we've got some bad news."
"What?"
"The tape for March 15th ? It's definitely missing."
"Crap…" Daniel sat down heavily in the wicker chair. He had been counting on those tapes to give him the evidence he was looking for.
"Well, you can't really be surprised," said Jack, "'cause I'm starting to think that was the whole point of this break-in." Daniel stared blankly at his tea while he processed this information.
"Daniel, you said yourself that nothing was missing." Sam was on a roll. "What if the vandalism was just that—something to cover up the theft of the tape?" It was obvious to Daniel that they had worked all of this out while he and Sabrina were at the lawyer's office. Sam's face had that gleam of righteousness and discovery that he had learned to trust as gospel.
"That explains the break-in here; but what about my place?" asked Daniel. "I've been wracking my brain, and I can't think of a single reason for anyone to rob me." He glanced up at his friends. "Do you think that was a cover-up, too?"
"I'll have to admit, we were a little stumped by that," admitted Jack.
"Maybe they were looking for something at your house that they couldn't find in this house…" Sam looked thoughtful.
"Yeah, maybe. But what?"
"That, my friend, is the 'sixty-four-thousand-dollar question'," intoned Jack, who had adopted a look of mystery and intrigue. Daniel just looked baffled.
"The sixty-four what?" asked Sam.
"Nevermind. Just another lost cultural reference." Sometimes Jack felt very old around these two.
