“It was a bad one. Your father was worried about you,” she said. “He knew you’d carry it for a long time. And here you are again, same family.”
Reid stared out the window behind Winnie, at the rolling hills, blue in the afternoon shadows. He had the feeling she wanted to reach across the desk, touch his hand.
“I’m okay,” he said, steeling himself against the feelings: for how his father had cared about him, how Winnie did now.
“Anyway, let’s get down to business,” she said.
“The Lathrop family’s financials,” Reid said.
“Yes. And here’s why my work is so much easier than yours. I follow the numbers. They are so nice and tidy. There’s no blood, no death. They don’t care who the killer is, and they don’t lie.”
“So what do they say?” Reid asked.
Winnie pushed the two black binders toward him. “The one on the left contains balance sheets from the Lathrop Gallery. Their earnings and losses, salaries and benefits, the purchases and sales of art going back to the year Beth married Pete. The one on the right contains Beth’s trust documents.”
Reid reached for the one on the right. He flipped it open and saw that Winnie had annotated each page, marked some with brightly colored Post-it notes.
“It’s a complicated trust,” Winnie said. “Originally set up by Mathilda Harkness.”
Reid scanned the first page—there were a hundred more to go through.
“Can you boil it down for me?” he asked. “Mainly, what does Pete get and when does he get it? Half the gallery? Will he have to share it with Kate?”
“No,” Winnie said. “Beth’s interest in the gallery goes directly to Sam, to be overseen by Kate. That includes the real estate, the works of art and all other assets, and the business itself. Pete receives nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Beth leaves him a lump sum of money from her own investment account.”
“How much?” Reid asked, riffling through the pages.
“One point five million dollars,” she said.
That stopped Reid short. “Well, there’s a motive,” he said.
“Until you consider that Beth’s entire estate is worth seventy-five million dollars. And add in the fact that Pete does not receive the money free and clear. It is in trust. And Kate is the trustee.”
“So ...”
“It will be her discretion as to how much is paid out and when.”
“Still, one point five is a lot,” he said.
“Conor, he would have gotten much more in a divorce. They didn’t have a prenup. They have a sixteen-year-old daughter, and if he claimed he had helped Beth build the business, he could have a good case.”
“Did he know what was in the will?”
“The trust,” she said, correcting him. “The documents were on Beth’s computer in the gallery, attached to an email from her lawyer.”
“I doubt she gave Pete her password,” he said.
“Her computer wasn’t password protected. And our tech guys determined the trust documents were accessed after her death.” Winnie paused. “Beth’s Gmail account had a very easily guessed password.”
“What, Sam’s birthday?”
“Yes, combined with the name Popcorn and Beth and Pete’s wedding anniversary.”
“Can Pete contest the trust?”
