Stranger on the Shore - lanyon Josh (лучшие книги читать онлайн бесплатно TXT) 📗

“After Matthew...” Jarrett paused infinitesimally before continuing briskly, “Both Muriel and Marcus felt they should be my legitimate heirs, Muriel as my eldest child and Marcus as my remaining son. They both made good cases, but ultimately I decided that the precedent for the entire estate going to the eldest male child was outdated, and that it made sense to divide everything between my three remaining children. With one provision. Pierce can give you the legalese.” He nodded to Pierce.

Pierce said, “Skipping the legalese for a moment, what the provision amounts to is that if Brian does turn up alive, the new will is null and void. Everything reverts to the original will.”

“Provided I’m still alive and kicking,” Jarrett put in.

Pierce assented. “Provided the estate is not already in probate.”

So much for the precedent of the entire estate going to the eldest male child being outdated. “Is that commonly known?” Griff asked.

“Commonly known? No,” Jarrett said. “My children know the terms of my will, of course. Is that what you mean?”

Not exactly, although that was part of the question. He couldn’t forget the theory that Johnson had had a partner, that the kidnapping had been an inside job. As far as Griff could see there had been no motive for anyone within the family to get rid of Brian, because not only could no one predict Matthew’s untimely death, but there was no guarantee that Matthew and Gemma would not have other children.

Or was there? He made a mental note to pursue that line of inquiry. Also Matthew and Gemma had died in a boating accident. Was there any doubt their deaths had not resulted from an accident? It was an interesting question, but not one he felt he could pose with Jarrett sitting right there.

He asked instead, “What happens if by some miracle Brian did show up after the will was in probate?”

“That would be a miracle all right.” That earned Pierce another of those rare frowns from Jarrett. Pierce pushed his empty plate from the edge of the table, flipped his tie back into place, and said, “It depends.” He launched into a dry—deliberately dry, Griff suspected—explanation of inheritance laws and inheritance taxes.

The gist seemed to be that if Brian showed up once the will was in probate, the estate would be re-divided four ways. If Brian showed up after the estate had been distributed, Brian would receive a cut of whatever assets remained.

“That’s the basic idea,” Pierce said. “The fundamental principle underlying the revised will is one of fairness. Is it realistic? In practice there would be challenges, appeals, suits and countersuits. The estate would be tied up in court for decades.” The glance he gave Jarrett was apologetic. “I’m sorry, but I’ve seen it happen again and again.”

“I don’t believe that would be the case here,” Jarrett said. He seemed confident, but Griff sided with Pierce on that one. He too had on-the-job-experience with how the death of a loved one and the subsequent inheritance of property—even when the property amounted to nothing more than a pile of junk with sentimental significance—could turn otherwise fair-minded and sensible people into grasping, avaricious strangers.

“I hope this doesn’t seem like an inappropriate question, but what do your children live on now?” Griff was pretty sure the answer was Jarrett.

“They have trust funds from their mother. As you’ve no doubt surmised they all use Winden House as their home base, though Michaela lives primarily at the house in San Francisco.”

“They don’t have jobs?” Griff asked.

Pierce made a sound somewhere between a cough and a laugh.

“I don’t believe any of my children have what you would consider a real job, my boy,” Jarrett said solemnly, but with a gleam of amusement in his blue eyes. “Muriel has her charity work, Michaela is a painter, or so she informs us. Her husband owns a chain of popular eateries in San Francisco. Marcus...”

Griff waited, but Jarrett didn’t finish the thought. The Arlington riches were Old Money—at least what was now considered Old Money—acquired through the happy fusion of steel and railroads. Steel, railroads and marrying the right women. All but one of the Arlington brides had brought her own fortune, and the family remained among the wealthiest in America, though no longer ranked in the top ten. Not even in the top twenty, but then these days neither were the Vanderbilts or the Rockefellers.

The exception to the bring-your-own-fortune rule was Gemma Watterson who had been an art student when Matthew Arlington met and fell in love with her.

“What about your granddaughter Chloe?”

Jarrett looked at Pierce who said, “Chloe will eventually inherit through her mother. And of course she has a trust fund.”

Of course. Didn’t everybody?

Griff said to Jarrett, “Were you surprised when Odell Johnson was arrested?”

“Yes.” Jarrett added, “But I would have been surprised whoever had been arrested. It’s still unbelievable to me that anyone could do such a terrible, terrible thing. Brian was a child. He was a delight. Every day of his little life was a gift.” Jarrett’s face quivered with quickly repressed emotion. “Of course being his grandfather I was bound to think he was an extraordinary child, but he was truly...irreplaceable.”

All children were, weren’t they? At least to their own families. Griff almost missed Jarrett’s next words.

“He was a friendly, outgoing child. Completely trusting. Much like Gemma. I think that’s part of why she couldn’t stop blaming herself. I think she felt she should have taught him to be more cautious, more wary.”

“So Brian might not have struggled or screamed when Johnson carried him out of his room that night? Assuming Brian was awake when he was taken?”

“He knew Johnson, so he might have gone with him willingly. Brian loved cars, which is normal enough at that age, and Johnson used to let Brian sit in the front seat of the Rolls when he washed it. I think Johnson could have lured Brian away very easily, but what I don’t understand, what I will never understand is why Johnson would...would not return Brian to us after he received the ransom. He was not a cruel man. I think he was even fond of Brian.”

“That could have been an act,” Pierce said. “Johnson could have planned the kidnapping from the beginning. His whole purpose in taking a job as chauffeur might have been to familiarize himself with the house and grounds, and build up some kind of rapport with Brian.”

“Yes,” Jarrett agreed quietly. “I suppose so.”

“That’s true,” Griff said, “but it would have been to his advantage to return Brian alive. The manhunt would have been a lot less intense.”

Pierce said, “Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”

“It contradicts Johnson’s claim that he only came up with the idea of asking for ransom because he was bitter about being fired a week earlier.”

“His entire defense was a lie,” Pierce said. “Of course he wouldn’t admit he’d planned Brian’s kidnapping from the start. He was still hoping he could convince the jury that he’d only taken advantage of the existing situation when he made the demand for ransom.”

“For the sake of argument—” Griff began.

Pierce cut across. “If Johnson was telling the truth, then where was the ransom demand from the actual kidnapper?”

“There were other ransom demands,” Jarrett said.

Pierce shook his head. “All discredited. All long after the fact and not one of them credible. Attempts at extortion, nothing more.”

That answered that. Pierce was correct. If Johnson had not been the kidnapper, if he had simply taken advantage of the family’s fear and confusion, then what had happened to the kidnapper? Why had there been no demand for ransom? And if there had been no kidnapper, what had happened to Brian?

Griff considered this objectively. Was it possible Brian could have been taken with a more sinister motive? If ransom had never been the goal, was it possible the plan had always been to murder Brian?