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“So, you’re glad I’m still alive?” he teased gently. “Just so I can take care of Lou while you’re gone.”
“Mind you, child, taking care of her is all you do to her while we’re gone,” she playfully chastised him.
“I promise not to defile, demoralize or otherwise molest her.” He chuckled at the look on Sadie’s face.
“Mind you she doesn’t get hurt. That means the heart…and the body.” She patted his shoulder. “I’m counting on you.”
“I know you are,” he squeezed her hand as she walked by.
After he heard their bedroom door shut, Brody opened the brown paper envelope. A letter from the attorney topped the stack of papers and Brody skimmed it quickly. It listed the contents of the envelope and requested a meeting the following week to discuss his mother’s will. It also contained a list of valuables that were inside the home at the time of her death—antiques, paintings, collectibles and jewelry were all listed. The note explained his mother had a safe over the mantle in her sitting room, hidden behind a painting. Any jewelry that wasn’t in the safety deposit box at the bank would be in the safe along with titles, deeds and any other paperwork he might need in the future.
The lawyer’s letter continued.
As you may have guessed, your mother left all of her worldly possessions to you. She was a little more creative with the business and other assets and has prepared a will to let you know her wishes in this regard.
Prior to our meeting, I would encourage you to go through the contents of the safe and familiarize yourself with these items so you will know what is and is not rightfully yours.
Brody rubbed his forehead as it was really beginning to throb.
So, she was creative with some of her assets. I hope she made provisions for Jeb, Sadie, John, and Lou.
Brody pulled the list of jewelry from the file and saw that each piece and its appraised value were listed. Brody could remember his mother dressing for social events when he was a child and donning herself with the most fabulous diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. He smiled slowly at the thought. He searched through the envelope until he located the combination to the safe. He gathered up the lists and carried them with him to his mother’s suite of rooms.
He stopped when he walked into the room and breathed deeply, his mother’s scent still lingering in the air. The hospital bed and equipment had long since been removed so it was nearly back to normal. He lovingly touched her lap quilt that was still flung over the back of her favorite chair. Her reading glasses rested on the end table.
Brody lifted the painting from the wall over the mantle and gently set it on the floor. The hard, gray steel of the safe seemed almost foreboding as he turned the knob, counting out the numbers along with left and right turns. When the last number was dialed in, the tumblers inside the lock rolled into place and he pulled the door open.
The safe
was neatly stacked with papers and documents, titles to cars and lineage for the horses they raised. At the bottom of the safe lay a long, wooden jewelry box. Brody gently removed it and laid it on the coffee table, sitting on the couch so he could open it easily.
Dozens of jeweled pieces winked up at him from inside the velvet lined box when he removed the lid. Brody immediately noticed an emerald necklace and touched it reverently. Every piece had a story. This particular one had been passed down from his paternal grandmother to his mother as a wedding gift. Brody checked the list and noted that it was included, even going so far as to have a photo of the item and its last appraised value. All of the other pieces of jewelry were accounted for in a similar fashion.
Brody placed the top back on the wooden box and slid it back in the safe. He searched through papers absently, noting his mother was as efficient about keeping records as she had been about everything else. His eyes filled with tears when he searched through one stack of papers and found they included awards he had won at school from kindergarten all the way through graduation. Never had any idea you saved all these things, Mom.
On the middle shelf in the back of the safe, his fingers brushed against a black canvas bag he had never seen before. He pulled it from the back of the shelf and unrolled it. He unzipped the long, metal zipper and was surprised to find cash inside. His mother had never been one for keeping cash in the home. He thumbed through the stacks of green dollars, absently counting in his head. $50,000 dollars? That was an awful lot to keep at home in a safe.
Beneath the cash, lay a flat brown jewelry box, about seven inches square. Brody removed it from the bag and gave it a quick shake. He opened the box and saw the biggest clear stone he had ever seen before, nestled in a bed of black silk fabric. He whistled softly to himself, “I didn’t know they made diamonds that big.”
He checked the list of jewelry and couldn’t find any documentation for this piece. He ran through it again. Still nothing. His eyebrows drew together. Someone must have forgotten to put this on the list. He closed the jewelry box and put it back into the bag. Monday, he would have to get an appraisal and find out why it hadn’t been accounted for. Must have been an oversight. But it certainly needed to be added to the estate.
He reached into the safe and pulled out one last thick envelope. Across the front, written in his mother’s handwriting, was just “Lou.” He took the envelope back to the end table and dumped the contents. He unfolded several newspaper clippings, all from a nearby paper and gasped as he saw the headlines.
Woman Dies in Fire—Identity Unknown
Charred Remains Found—Police Suspect Foul Play
Information Sought on Inhabitants of Mobile Home
He read through each article, touching the photos reverently on each page.
He searched through more paperwork, including background checks for one Miss Mary Louise Smith. His mother had thoroughly investigated her. She had nothing that stood out except student records from high school and employment records from a few part-time jobs.
He then found birth certificates, first Lou’s own and then one for Sarah. Sarah’s birth certificate listed Lou as the child’s mother. He had already proven that theory to be false. Then he found copies of letters from his mother to her own personal physician, asking for a birth certificate for an indigent girl and her child whom she had taken in. Then the pieces started to fall together.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered to himself. “My mother obtained falsified birth records for Sarah and took care of Lou after she checked her out.” He shook his head with wonder, finally understanding all that had taken place. He placed the documents back together in their envelope and returned them to the safe.
He closed the safe and spun the tumbler. He replaced the painting on the wall and sat down on his mother’s chaise lounge. He wearily pulled her lap quilt over himself and breathed in the scent of her perfume, missing her more than he had since the day she died. He closed his eyes and quickly fell to sleep, comforted by thoughts of his mother and her personal things that surrounded him.
