57
Laurie returned to the conference table in her office and removed the papers from the mailing envelope. As she had expected, the envelope contained the joint will of Robert and Virginia Wakeling, which went into probate when Robert passed away.
Next, she flipped open the binder she had received from Johnny Hon and found a copy of Virginia’s will, as it existed when she died. She was already familiar with Virginia’s estate. She also knew the distribution of assets that had occurred when Robert passed away: half of the shares in the corporation went to Virginia, a quarter went to each child, and the remainder of the estate passed to Virginia.
What piqued Laurie’s curiosity were the subsequent pages in the joint will, which addressed what would have happened in the unlikely event that both Robert and Virginia passed simultaneously.
Laurie had taken out a notebook to keep track of any discrepancies between Virginia’s will and the joint will in the event that the married couple had passed together. The similarities were striking, which was not surprising to Laurie. When she and Greg had created a will right after Timmy was born, the terms were simple: if one departed, the other inherited everything; if they happened to pass at the same time, the situation was more complicated, involving Leo and some family friends to care for Timmy. When Laurie unexpectedly found herself a widow, her lawyer took the “backup will”—the plan if both she and Greg departed together—and used it as the road map for her own individual will.
Now that she was comparing Virginia’s will to the will she had signed with her husband while he was still alive, she could see that Virginia had used the same approach. Virginia’s will relied on the same terms as the joint will in the event they both died together.
Laurie was doing a second scan of all the numbers when she realized there was one significant difference. In the joint will, Robert’s nephew Tom would have inherited $250,000 cash in the event that both Robert and Virginia departed at the same time. Because Robert predeceased Virginia, that condition never came to pass, and Virginia inherited almost everything. But while Virginia’s own will tended to cut-and-paste terms from the previous joint will, she had made one change: When she died, Tom’s interest was reduced from $250,000 to $50,000.
Laurie wrote the two numbers side by side on her legal pad, wondering what the change meant. Given that Virginia was worth $200 million plus half of the value of the corporation when she was killed, the change was a small percentage of the money that was at stake. On the other hand, most people would consider either amount significant, and the 80 percent reduction to her nephew was a notable alteration. This was the only revision she had made, and it seemed obvious that she must have had a reason for it.
Laurie closed her eyes, trying to imagine what it would be like to be a person with that much wealth at stake. When she opened them, she firmly believed that if she had been Virginia, the only reason she would have reduced a nephew’s inheritance—and no one else’s—was if she did not trust the nephew with money. She thought again about Anna’s recollection of the arguments Virginia had had with her children before she was murdered. She had told Carter that he needed to grow up, that he was still playing the field and not working hard enough at the company. According to Anna, her mother told Carter, “I’m afraid that if it weren’t for the family money, you would have turned out just like your cousin, Tom.”
Laurie had eliminated Tom as a suspect after confirming his alibi with Tiffany, but she wanted to be absolutely certain that she wasn’t overlooking anything before finalizing their special.
She went to her desk, picked up the phone, and dialed Anna Wakeling’s cell number. Anna sounded apprehensive when she answered. “What happened today? Please tell me that my brother didn’t do this.”
“It didn’t go very well,” Laurie said. “He didn’t confess, but he was very defensive.”
“Does he know what Peter and I told you?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, Anna, but it’s part of the process we use. Are you afraid of your brother?”
“No. At least, I don’t think so. I just wish I knew for certain. It’s been hard enough to live without closure, but I always told myself it was just a matter of time before the police could build a case against Ivan. Now I don’t know what to believe.”
Laurie knew any consolation she offered would sound hollow. “All I can say is that we’re doing everything we can to get at the truth. To that end, I was hoping to ask you one more question about your cousin, Tom.” She explained what she had learned about the very small inheritance Tom had received from Virginia. “When your father was alive, the plan was to leave Tom a quarter of a million dollars.”
“My father had a running feud with his brother, but he had a soft spot for Tom. I think he blamed his brother for Tom’s lack of focus in his younger years. My mother was less sympathetic. She saw Tom as always having his hand out when it came to our family. I can’t say I’m surprised that she changed what Daddy had planned. Granted, the fifty thousand dollars that Tom inherited was a great deal of money to him, given where he was three years ago, but Carter and I still felt guilty. That’s why we decided to give him a job at the company when he asked. We’ve all moved on.”
Where he was three years ago. Anna had previously mentioned Tom’s lack of regular employment and penchant for gambling. “I hate to ask you this, Anna, after the questions we’ve also raised about Carter, but do you think there’s any possibility that Tom did this?”
“No, but I said the same thing about Carter until yesterday. My recollection is that he and his date were sneaking around the portraits gallery. That woman was a bit eccentric, but I don’t see why she’d lie to the police for him. Did you talk to her?”
“I did,” Laurie said. “She confirmed that she was with Tom the whole time.”
“Well, at least I don’t need to suspect him,” Anna said sadly, still concerned about her brother. “Please promise me that if you learn something about Carter one way or the other that you’ll let me know.”
“I will,” Laurie promised.