Page 118 of Key West Homecoming

“How did you get all of this?”

“Most of it was already in the probate court record, and I obtained the supporting filings and account information this week. Arthur had reporting obligations as personal representative. The useful thing about paperwork is that people frequently create the record you later need against them.”

Emma couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“So, he was going to sell the cottage next.”

“For six hundred thousand dollars. If Samantha hadn’t called, he might have completed that sale before anyone questioned what he was doing.”

Emma looked past Rachel toward the wall.

“He had to have planned this before Gloria died.”

“I think he had a plan before he filed the probate case. How far back that plan goes is something I’m still working on. He moved quickly after her death, and some of the paperwork appears to have been prepared in advance.”

Emma thought about Gloria sitting at the kitchen table two years before she died, writing the will Emma had read in Miami. Her grandmother had known enough to protect the cottage twice, once with the original will in the safe deposit box and again with the copy she had made certain would exist somewhere else. Emma had assumed Gloria’s fear began and ended with the little pink house.

Now she wondered how much Gloria had understood about her son.

“Do you think she knew he might try to take everything?”

Rachel leaned back in her chair.

“I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t know, Emma. My sense is that the cottage was the thing she was most worried about because it meant something to her that the other assets didn’t. She may have believed the rest would be handled according to her will once she was gone.”

“She was still trying to be fair to him.”

“I think she was.”

Emma looked down at her coffee. Gloria had known what Arthur was capable of and had still left him things that mattered to the family. Even after everything, she had found a way to make room for her son.

“She never stopped being his mother,” Emma said.

“No. I don’t think she did.”

Rachel let the thought sit between them before reaching for another stack.

“Now we need to talk about the cottage income.”

Emma straightened in the chair.

“I’ve reconstructed about ten years so far. Two long-term tenants before Jake, roughly six years between them, at around eighteen hundred a month. Jake has paid twenty-two hundred a month for three years. There were also vacation rentals during some of the gaps. Based on the records I have, the total rental income may be in the neighborhood of two hundred fifty-nine thousand dollars.”

Emma stared at her.

“Two hundred fifty-nine thousand?”

“That’s my conservative estimate. It may change as we get more records.”

“And Gloria never saw any of it.”

“I haven’t found anything showing that she did. I also haven’t found anything showing that the income was properly accounted for to her or, later, to the estate.”

Emma sat back.

All she had cared about when she came to Key West was stopping the sale of the cottage. She had been angry that Arthur had rented it without Gloria’s knowledge and furious that he had kept her grandmother away from a place she loved. Until now, Emma hadn’t understood how much money had been involved or how long he had been doing it.

Rachel watched her.