A/N: Here I am once again. This has been a tough chapter that I never thought I would get done. It's been a busy time for me personally as I am a bookkeeper and everybody wants their taxes done now so I've been working every weekend.
I hope this will start to explain some things and I'm sure you will see why it had been such a tough chapter. Enjoy!
Thanks
Tina Marie
The police report that Elizabeth had ordered arrived on Friday and she sat down to thoroughly read the whole thing on Saturday morning when Bill had to go to the job site to take of some business.
In the report, everything was set out pretty much as Bill had explained the situation to her. Sarah's car had plunged off a cliff and she had been killed instantly. What surprised Elizabeth was the fact that the report mentioned that Sarah's mother had been staying with her for the few days before Sarah's accident.
Elizabeth's hands were shaking as she looked up the phone number for Sarah's mother, Emily Masters.
The doorbell rang before Elizabeth could dial the phone and when she opened the door Elizabeth was surprised to see her sister on the doorstep.
"Lydia, what are you doing here?"
Her sister gave her a petulant little frown as she said, "I was bored," Lydia pouted; "My dear Wickham has business out of town and so left me on my own for the day so I thought I would visit with my favorite sister."
"Lydia," Elizabeth couldn't hold her tongue any longer, "Can't you see what kind of man you have gotten involved with. He is the worst sort of person, a gambler, a liar and he associates with the worst kind of people."
Her sister looked furious, "You don't know what you're talking about, Elizabeth." Lydia shouted, "Just this morning an old friend of George's called who is a detective in Los Angeles, a Detective Saunderson who George has gone to meet with today."
Elizabeth tried to hide the shock that she felt when she heard the name because it was the same name that appeared on the police report as the lead detective on the Sarah Darcy investigation. She quickly set out to sooth Lydia, "I'm so sorry, of course I don't know Mr. Wickham." Elizabeth pointedly looked at the clock, "I'm sorry, Lydia, but I can't talk any longer. I have an appointment that I am late for."
Elizabeth walked her sister to the door and as soon as Lydia was gone, Elizabeth called Mrs. Masters and arranged to visit her within the half hour. She gathered up the children and walked to the car. She drove to the Masters residence which was no more than a half hour away.
Elizabeth was a little nervous as she stood at the door with David on her hip and Anne Marie holding her hand. When Mrs. Masters opened the door there was a moment of shock as the older woman took in the appearance of the young woman in front of her and Sarah's mother swayed slightly on her feet.
Elizabeth reached out a hand to steady her, "Are you okay? Do you want to sit down?"
The older woman was tall and blond with a svelte figure and she accepted Elizabeth's help gratefully, "I think I had better sit down for a minute."
After the woman was settled on a large chair, Elizabeth introduced herself, "I'm Elizabeth Darcy and I spoke to you on the phone earlier."
The woman stared at her critically, "So you are Bill Darcy's wife."
"Yes, we've been married for a little less than a month."
"I'm sorry about my reaction on the porch," The older woman explained, "But for a moment I thought my daughter Sarah had come back from the dead. You look so much like her that I'm amazed at the resemblance."
"I have heard that I look like her."
"Darling Anne Marie, come say 'hi' to grandma." Emily motioned to her granddaughter and Anne Marie didn't waste any time as she crawled onto her grandmother's lap and the other woman looked down at Anne Marie with tender affection.
David squirmed to get down so Elizabeth sat him down on his feet but shyness overwhelmed him and he stood peeking out from behind Elizabeth's legs.
"Who is this handsome young man?" Emily asked as she reached out her hand toward David. He crossed the room and stopped when he had reached out a hand to settle on Emily's knee.
"That's my brother, David." Anne Marie announced imperiously.
Elizabeth smiled but added clarification, "David is my nephew; Bill and I are in the process of adopting him."
Soon the woman was smiling happily as both children where snuggled up against her on her lap, "I'm grateful that you have brought my granddaughter to see me." She ruffled David's hair, "As well as my new grandson, of course."
Elizabeth smiled at the woman indulgently, "I'm happy that I was able to help."
"Bill brings her to see me a few times a year for the holidays but she grows so fast it never seems to be enough." The woman's eyes glistened with emotion, "I lost my daughter to that horrific accident and all I have left of her is this precious child." Her fingers brushed Anne Marie's cheek.
"I would be happy to have you see Anne Marie as much as you would like." Elizabeth's sincerity was evident is her eyes.
"Thank you, my dear; that would make an old woman very happy." Her eyes clouded over in grief, "My late husband and I loved Sarah dearly and we could never say no to her so we spoiled her miserably." Tears flowed down the woman's cheeks, "I know she ended up as a very selfish woman but that never changed the way we felt about her." Her chin quivered as she looked at Elizabeth, "I was devastated when I had found out that she had left her husband and child all those years ago."
Elizabeth listened attentively to every word the woman spoke, "I had gone to Los Angeles to try to talk some sense into her." Emily visibly shuddered, "What I found was more horrible than I could possibly imagine. That man Wickham was living off my daughter, he was taking tens of thousands of dollars from her accounts every day." She shook her head at the memory, "I couldn't allow that man to take advantage of her. I was finally able to get her to see sense and talked her into leaving him. She was going to come back her to live with me for a while until she got on her feet."
"We went to the safe deposit box to get her jewelry and stock certificates." Emily closed her eyes, "Everything was gone, not only the safe deposit box but every account she had was systematically drained of money."
"When Wickham came home, Sarah was distraught as she tried to find out where the money had gone and confronted him." Emily closed her eyes briefly to steady her emotions, "His anger was immediate and volatile as he practically dragged Sarah into the bedroom and when she came back out, she told me she was staying with Wickham and asked if I could give her access to the rest of her trust fund as they needed the money for an investment."
Sarah's mother gulped back the tears before she spoke again, "I thought I was doing the right thing when I refused her for the first time in my life." Her breath sputtered as she dragged air into her lungs, "I thought that he would leave her when she couldn't give him any more money."
"But that didn't work did it?" Elizabeth said quietly.
"No." The older woman took a ragged breath, "He had a plan to get his hands on the rest of Sarah's trust fund."
"What was it?" Elizabeth asked when Emily stopped speaking for a moment.
"He took my daughter to a lawyer friend of his and a new will was drafted for Sarah to sign leaving George Wickham everything." Emily Masters pulled her shoulders back and sat up straight, "What that manipulative, scheming bastard didn't know was that the trust was written so that in the event of her death that the trust would pass directly to Sarah's children or in the event that she did not have children the trust would revert to the estate." The woman closed her eyes, "Sarah knew that he would never get his hands on her trust fund but she didn't enlighten him."
"Oh, my goodness," Elizabeth breathed when the words had left Emily's mouth and she visibly paled.
Anne Marie ran to Elizabeth, "Mommy, what's wrong?"
"I'm alright, sweetie." Her eyes lifted to meet Sarah's mother look of concern, "So if I understand this correctly, the trust belongs to Anne Marie now."
"That's correct." She agreed, "But I don't understand why that is a problem."
"Mrs. Masters," Elizabeth's eyes were full of concern, "Mr. Wickham is my sister's boyfriend and they have been going to great lengths to delay our adoption of David." Her voice was full of emotion, "Mr. Wickham has made threats on Bill's life and has blatantly said that he wants me." There was a look of disgust on Elizabeth's face, "He even said that 'he might even marry me' so that he could get Bill's money but now I think he wants access to Sarah's trust fund and is trying to go through me and Bill to get to Anne Marie."
The color drained from Emily's face as she looked at Elizabeth with frightened eyes, "You and Bill have to be very careful because I know that man will not stop short of murder to get what he wants."
"I promise you we'll do everything in our power to keep Anne Marie safe." Elizabeth vowed with steely determination, "I will never let that man have any power over me or her."
"Elizabeth, there is something that you need to know."
"What is it?" Elizabeth cocked her head to the side.
"There a couple important things that were left out of the police report." Emily ran a hand through her hair, "Sarah got a call from my phone just before she died and after her death I realized that my phone had gone missing that morning." She shook her head miserably, "I told Detective Saunderson but he just laughed at me and said that just because I was a forgetful old lady who lost my phone didn't mean it had anything to do with Sarah's death."
"Thank you for telling me because it would make sense that Wickham could have used your phone to lure Sarah to the place where she died." Elizabeth's expression was thoughtful, "He wouldn't want to have called her from his phone because it would tie him to her death. It seems reasonable that if it worked for him once it could work again."
"There's also one other thing," Emily's expression was pained, "There was nice young officer who told me that that although it was thought that faulty brakes were the cause of the accident that he had found nothing wrong with the brakes. He had done some checking on his own and found that the brake reservoir had been drained of fluid." Sarah's mother paced back and forth, "He thought it was strange because he found a receipt from a mechanic dated the week before where all the fluids had been checked and topped off. According to the young officer there was no way for all of the fluid to be gone in that length of time and it was his belief that the brake fluid had been manually drained from the car."
"Well why didn't this officer come forward during the investigation?"
"I called a few days later and the officer had been fired for incompetence." Emily sighed, "I tried to find him but he had moved from the area after his dismissal from the police department."
Elizabeth looked at her watch, "Thank you for talking to me and you've given me a lot to think about but it's time for me to leave."
"Thank you for coming." Emily hugged her granddaughter and David, "Please come again soon."
"I will." Elizabeth promised as she took her leave.
During the short car ride home, Elizabeth gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Bill was already home when Elizabeth pulled into the driveway. With a happy grin, he came out to help her get the children out of the car.
As Anne Marie and David ran to the open door of the house, Bill stopped his wife and pulled her into his arms for a kiss, "I've missed you today."
"I missed you too." Elizabeth said as she melted into his arms with a satisfied sigh.
"Did you have fun today?" Bill asked with a smile, "Where did you go?"
"I went to see Sarah's mother." Elizabeth said.
"That was nice of you."
"Our visit was very enlightening." Elizabeth's eyes held meaningful significance as Bill watched her expression change, "I'll tell you all about it later."
After dinner and while the children were watching a movie, Elizabeth took Bill aside and told him what Emily had told her about the investigation.
Bill's eyes were intense when she finished, "So now we finally know what he wants."
"He wants custody of Anne Marie so that he can get the rest of Sarah's trust fund."
"I never knew that she didn't have access to her whole trust fund." Bill admitted, "But I guess the good thing is that it kept Wickham from getting all of her money."
"He's gotten greedy over the years and now he wants your money as well." Elizabeth reminded him as her eyes reflected the fear she felt.
"I will protect all of you." Bill pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head, "We know what his plan is so we can be on guard against it."
"You're right, I'm worrying about nothing."
"What do you say we get the kids to bed early?" Bill asked with sparkling eyes, "I believe an early night would be a benefit to us as well."
"You come up with the best ideas." Elizabeth agreed enthusiastically.
"If I grab one, you can grab the other." Bill picked up his daughter and shuffled her off to bed
"You've got a deal." Elizabeth picked up David and headed toward the bedroom.
After putting Anne Marie to bed and read her a story, Bill climbed into bed with his wife and he couldn't help but issue a sigh of contentment as he thought of the family that was theirs. Wickham will never get what is mine, I would die before I'd let that happen.