The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights Page 3

  “So maybe he was innocent.”

  “If a major firm brings those kinds of charges against you, you’re never completely innocent.”

  “Maybe he was a sacrificial lamb?”

  “Maybe the lawyers just couldn’t make the charges stick. I wonder if Garth knew about Cecily’s money and put his wife up to something.”

  “Edwina stole the cash from her mother?”

  “Maybe she rationalized that it was a loan. She didn’t seem shocked that the money was missing.”

  “You think Edwina killed her mother?”

  “No, I’m not saying that. There’s no evidence that Cecily died of anything but a heart attack. I’m just thinking that maybe Edwina helped herself to the money a long time ago and just never told her mother or sister about it.”

  “Ripping off her own mother?”

  “Who better?” Decker sliced off another piece of rib eye. He had cooked it perfectly: medium rare, with a good crust on the outside. “Or maybe Cecily gave Edwina money to help with her husband’s legal defense and never told Meredith about it. Or maybe one of them stole the money from under my nose. I wasn’t keeping an eye on them all the time.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why the sweater drawer wasn’t closed properly. And it doesn’t explain why the gate was locked and the front door was open. All that happened before the sisters arrived.”

  Decker thought a moment. “Then maybe one of them arrived before you did, Nina. Seeing her mother dead, she decided to help herself to the cash. But before she could call in the death, you showed up.”

  “That’s absolutely morbid.”

  “I’ve known families who raided the safe-deposit box as soon as the body was declared dead, in order to prevent the IRS from seizing the assets. If Edwina or Meredith had been there before you, it would explain the front door being unlocked, the gate being locked, and the sweater sticking out. I wonder if either of them made any big deposits in the bank lately.”

  “Could you check that out?”

  “I don’t know why a judge would give me access. I have no proof that either of them was stealing. Just a hunch.” He took another sip of cabernet. “Be careful, Rina. Usually, family members don’t like non-family members swiping what they consider to be their inheritance.”

  “I won’t be the only non-family member. Mr. Kwan was in Cecily’s will as well.”

  This time Decker put down the fork. “Huh! How do you know that?”

  “Because I asked Mr. Mortimer if I was the only nonrelative who’d be there.” She swirled her wine. “I keep wondering why on earth I’d be in Cecily’s will. I can only conclude that Cecily willed Mr. Kwan and me many of her plants. I’m sure her daughters will be happy to get rid of them.”

  “That makes sense. Also makes me feel better. It’s true. Cecily’s daughters wouldn’t want them. I’m not sure I want them.” Decker shook his head. “Just what we need. More plants.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, what I’d do with all of her plants.” Rina smiled. “I’ve come up with several ideas.”

  “Uh-oh!”

  “Don’t worry, Peter. Except for the rare ones, I wouldn’t keep them.”

  Decker grinned. “A rare burst of common sense.”

  “Stop that.” Rina sipped her wine. “One of my ideas was to donate them to the Arboretum. We could take a tax write-off.”

  “Beautiful.”

  “Or . . . I’ve been thinking about building a greenhouse at school. What do you think?”

  “That’s a thought.” Decker looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Who’s going to build it?”

  Rina winked at him. Decker pretended not to notice.

  In a brown long-sleeved dress, legs crossed at the ankles, Rina tried to look innocuous and inconspicuous as she sat upright in the chair provided by Arthur Mortimer, Esquire. Lee Kwan sat next to her, dressed in a khaki uniform, his white hair slicked back off his forehead. His face was blank, as were his eyes. He hadn’t spoken a word since coming in the office.

  Rina regarded the family members, who looked more anxious than somber. There was Edwina Lettiger in her sensible black dress and her husband, Garth, in his black suit. Their twenty-something daughters, Lily and Brooke, were dressed in dark clothing that dramatically set off their long white-blond hair. Tall and lithe, the girls seemed more excited than nervous. Meredith Eden, garbed in a black shirt and pants, sat completely isolated, with red-rimmed eyes and a scowl on her face.

  Cecily had planned well for this day, writing a will to avoid probate court. Her instructions were clear. Each of her granddaughters was awarded fifty thousand dollars in cash. The girls screamed upon hearing the news and hugged each other. The rest of Cecily’s estate—her house and its contents, all of her stocks and bonds, as well as the remaining cash in her accounts—was to be divided equally between her two daughters.

  “Cash” turned out to be a significant wad: three hundred thousand dollars. Both sisters gasped when they heard the amount. With big smiles, they ran to each other and hugged like long-lost lovers. It seemed odd to Rina that Cecily would keep twenty thousand dollars in cash in a dresser drawer when she had so much in the bank and in a brokerage account. She couldn’t help but think that maybe the sisters had made up the entire story. But what would be the point of doing that—of pointing a finger at Lee Kwan—if they couldn’t file an insurance claim?

  Maybe Cecily had kept cash on hand to buy exotic plants or flea-market artwork.

  But twenty thousand dollars?

  The whole thing was very odd.

  The family seemed to barely hear as Mr. Mortimer awarded Mr. Kwan all of Cecily’s potted plants and flowers. Nor did they care when Rina was gifted the artwork: all of the paintings, drawings, charcoals, watercolors, and prints that hung on Cecily’s walls.

  Sixty-three pieces in all. Rina was stunned. Yes, she had expressed an interest in the collection whenever Cecily had presented her latest purchase, but it was just to be polite. Kwan leaned over and whispered to her, “I’m glad she give it to you and not them. You love plant like she did.”

  Rina loved plants, but not all those pictures of plants. What in the world was she going to do with sixty-three framed pieces? But she smiled and pretended to be very grateful.

  Kwan whispered, “Any orchid you want? I don’t have room for all of them.”

  “Maybe a few. Are there any pictures that you want?”

  He shook his head. “No, I don’t have room.”

  Neither did Rina. After the assets had been distributed, everyone stood up. Kwan said, “I come by next Sunday to pick up the plants.”

  Edwina was grinning. Inheriting such a large amount of money had lifted her spirits. “You’ll have to come by sooner, Mr. Kwan,” she sang out brightly. “Meredith and I are selling the house. We have a broker coming by on Saturday to look at it, and I need to get rid of that ugly greenhouse.”

  Kwan sighed. “Okay, I come by Friday.”

  “Bring a big truck,” Edwina said. “Whatever you don’t take, we’re throwing away.” She looked at Rina. “Same goes for you.”

  Rina clasped her hands nervously, still wondering what she was going to do with all those wall hangings. Maybe she could have a garage sale. “If either of you want any paintings from your mother’s collection, feel free to take whatever you want before I pick up the pieces.”

  “Take them all,” Meredith said scornfully. “If I never looked at another flower again, I’d be fine. I think Mom loved them more than me.”

  “In the end, Merry, the old girl came through,” Edwina said.

  “Minus the twenty thousand,” Meredith pointed out. “I wonder what happened to it?”

  A slow wave of pink infused Edwina’s face. Meredith, already mentally spending the money she had just inherited, didn’t seem to notice.

  Rina looked at Brooke and Lily Lettiger. “Maybe the girls would want a painting to remember their grandmother by.”

  Both of them shook their
heads. Brooke said, “I loved Grandma, but she was a little extreme.”

  “Very out there,” Lily added.

  “If you could pick up the art by Thursday, Mrs. Decker, that would be helpful,” Edwina said. “We need to paint the house, and it would be better if the walls were clear.”

  Decker regarded the sixty-three pieces of art spread out over his living room. “We could give it all to Goodwill and take a deduction.”

  Rina said, “I think we’d make more at a garage sale.”

  “Who’d buy any of this stuff?”

  Hannah was slowly going through the works. She was twelve now, a decent artist herself, although she much preferred cartooning. “Some of these pieces aren’t so bad, Abba. I like this little painting of this white flower.”

  “Actually, it’s a magnolia blossom, and it’s very well painted.”

  “I’d like to keep it.”

  Decker sighed. “Okay, we’ll keep that one, but only because it’s small. The rest go!”

  “These watercolors look very old,” Hannah added. “Maybe they’re worth something.”

  Decker groaned. “I knew this was going to happen.”

  “What?” Rina asked.

  “You’re going to keep the entire collection!”

  “No, we don’t have room.”

  “Finally, the woman speaks sense.”

  “However, we shouldn’t just junk everything.”

  “Why not? Sell it, burn it, just get rid of it!” Decker cried out. “If I see one more flower in the house—real or otherwise—I’m going to tear down the place, build a barn, and stuff it with racing cars.”

  “I’ll take this one for my room, Abba,” Hannah said, referring to the magnolia painting. “I’ll hang it in a corner so you won’t even see it.”

  “You don’t like this rose painting, Peter?” Rina held up a thirty-by-forty oil canvas of tumbling pink roses against a dark background. “I think it’s pretty.”

  Decker snarled, “The painting’s huge, Rina. Where are we going to put it?”

  “How about over the sofa?”

  “It’s flowers, Rina. I’m sick of flowers! And I don’t like the frame.”

  “I agree with you about the frame. How about we take it out of the frame, and then maybe you’ll like the picture better.” She lifted the painting. “Wow, this is heavy!”

  “Don’t bother taking it out of the frame . . . just give it away!” But there was no talking Rina out of it. She was already removing the cardboard backing. Within seconds, pieces of paper began falling to the floor.

  Lots and lots of paper.

  Rina felt her head go light. Of course, she couldn’t tell the exact amount of cash. Only that there was a lot of it.

  After all sixty-three works had been removed from their frames, the grand total was $11,600, all in Franklin bills.

  “It’s not twenty thousand,” Decker said as he fitted another painting back into its original frame. The living room was an absolute mess. It would take them hours to clean up. His hands were still shaking from counting all that cash.

  Rina looked at the rose painting. “Well, we’re certainly going to keep this painting now. It’s a harbinger of good luck.”

  “I’ll say,” Decker agreed.

  Rina smiled. “Except we both know, Peter, that we’re going to have to give the money back.”

  “Why? Cecily obviously put it there for a reason. She obviously gave you the paintings for a reason. She wanted you to have the paintings and the cash.”

  “Peter, we have to give it back.”

  “They’ll just accuse us of stealing from them. They think there should be twenty thousand dollars.”

  “Peter, we have to give it back!”

  Decker sneered. She was right—at least morally right. Under the law, a case could be made for their keeping the cash.

  Don’t even go there.

  “I’ll return the cash under one condition.”

  Rina looked at him. “What?”

  “I want those boobs to tell me what happened to the other eight thousand four hundred.”

  They all met at Mr. Mortimer’s office. The atmosphere was friendly, but Decker didn’t trust the women or their lawyer. To protect Rina and himself, he had brought his own attorney, a friend from the synagogue named Ernie Garshofsky. Under Ernie’s direction, Rena slowly explained how she and Decker had found the money.

  “We intend to give it back—”

  Decker broke in before Rina could finish. “My wife and I realize there are moral issues about our keeping the cash, even though it was hidden behind a painting that legally belonged to her.”

  “The painting, yes, but not the money,” Edwina countered. “That’s obviously where Mom put that cash that we told you about.”

  “For all we know, you kept eight grand for yourself,” Meredith countered.

  “I knew this was going to happen,” Decker muttered.

  Garshofsky said, “We’re getting far afield. The Deckers have no intention of keeping the money, even though it’s legally theirs—”

  “That’s not quite true,” Mortimer interrupted.

  “We don’t want to take this silly little matter to court, do we?” Garshofsky smiled. “Lieutenant Decker would just like a couple of questions answered before we return the money to the women.”

  “What kind of questions?” Edwina asked nervously.

  Decker said, “What happened to the other eight thousand four hundred?”

  “I don’t know,” Edwina said.

  “On the contrary, I think you do know,” Decker said. “You came to your mother’s house before Rina arrived, and when you found your mother dead, you took the eight thousand out of the drawer.”

  “I did not!”

  “Then why did you turn bright red when I asked about the missing eight thousand?”

  “Edwina, you don’t have to say a thing,” Mortimer said.

  “She does if she wants me to write her a check this afternoon,” Decker said. “Otherwise, she can sue and this meeting is over.”

  “Eddy, why do you keep turning red when he asks about the other eight thousand dollars?” Meredith asked snidely. “Why don’t you just fess up? You always did have a terrible poker face.”

  Finally, Edwina said, “Oh, what the hell! What does it matter?” She regarded Meredith. “About three years ago, when Garth was having all those legal problems, I went to borrow money from Mom. She gave me two thousand dollars. That’s it! Two thousand dollars. I couldn’t believe she’d be that stingy. We all knew she had money in the bank.”

  “It was her money, not yours,” Rina said.

  Edwina glared at her. Then she looked away. “I don’t know what came over me. I went back and took an additional two grand one day when she wasn’t home.”

  “Oh my Lord!” Meredith cried out.

  “I’m sorry. I know it was wrong, but we were broke. We needed the money. The witch just wouldn’t budge!” Edwina exhaled. “Altogether, with the loan and what I took, it was about four thousand and change.”

  “How much change?” her sister asked.

  “Okay . . . maybe five thousand total. I’ll give you an additional twenty-five hundred dollars from my share of the eight thousand that Lieutenant Decker found.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Decker said. “As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t given you anything yet.”

  “But you said—”

  “We’re now up to sixteen thousand six hundred. What happened to the other three thousand four hundred?”

  Edwina said, “I swear I only took five thousand at most.” Suddenly, she glared at Meredith with granite eyes. “Okay, little sister, now it’s your turn.”

  Meredith stared back, but it lacked ferocity. A minute passed and then she gave up. “Just like you, I needed money.”

  “Right! To sustain your nasty habits?”

  “I’ve been sober for over two years.” She burst into tears. “My creditors were breathing down my neck
. She gave me less than she gave you, for your information! Only fifteen hundred.”

  “And the rest you helped yourself to?”

  “When you’re a chemically dependent person, you do crazy things. And who are you to judge, Ms. High Horse, with your sticky little hands in the till?”

  “You two have plenty of time to snipe at each other when we’re not here,” Decker said. “We’re still about two thousand short.” Meredith looked away and didn’t answer, but that was enough for Decker to fill in the blanks. “Okay, you helped yourself, like your sister. So from what I can figure out, it seems you each stole about the same amount from your mother. It’s a wash.”

  Rina said, “Cecily must have found out that either one or both of you were stealing from her. So she hid the money behind the paintings so you wouldn’t be able to get to it anymore.”

  “She obviously forgot about it when she made up the will,” Mortimer said.

  “Or maybe she wanted you to have it, Rina,” Decker said.

  “She distinctly left all the rest of her cash to her daughters,” Mortimer added.

  “It doesn’t matter what her intentions were,” Rina said. “We’re giving the money back.”

  Decker said, “Before I make out the check, I want to know something. Which one of you showed up right after your mother died, went through her drawer in an attempt to steal the money, but left in a hurry without locking the front door when my wife showed up?”

  Rina held up a finger. “You know, Lieutenant, I’d guess that both of them were there and discovered together that the money wasn’t in the drawer,” she postulated. “Otherwise, each one would have accused the other of taking the cash first. And didn’t you think it was odd that they both showed up at the same time but in separate cars when you only called Edwina about the news?”

  Decker smiled. “You know? I bet you’re right.”

  Meredith and Edwina exchanged knowing glances but kept silent. Finally, Mortimer spoke up. “I think you’ve asked enough questions, Lieutenant Decker. And I think you have enough answers. Can I trust you to write a check?”

  Decker grumbled as he took out his checkbook. “Do I make out two checks or what?”

  Mortimer said, “I’m the executor of the estate. Just one check, and make it out to me.”