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He handed her the will.
“Just a second,” she said, before looking at it. “Am I defending or attacking this will?”
“Does it matter?”
“It could,” she said.
“I just want to know if the guy who wrote it is the same person who wrote these other letters.” He handed her Eddie Sr.’s correspondence file.
She switched on the lamp near her chair and read the will. “Very nice,” she said. “An excellent example of the Palmer Method.”
“Please look at the other letters in this file,” Stone said.
She read through half a dozen. “Very interesting,” she said.
“I’m glad they’re interesting,” Stone said. “But did the same man write both the will and these letters?”
“I’ll tell you this,” she said. “I’d rather defend this will in court than attack it.”
Stone’s heart sank.
SIXTY
Clarissa held up the will. “That being said, I think this one is bogus.”
“Why?” Stone asked.
“I’m still thinking about that,” she said.
“Have a look at these,” Stone said, handing her Junior’s begging letters.
“These are juvenile,” she said immediately.
“You haven’t even read them yet.”
“Oh, all right, if you insist.” She read them. “This person wrote the will,” she said. “I take it they’re by Eddie Sr. as a youngster.”
“No, they’re by his son, Eddie Jr.”
“That does it for me,” she said. “Eddie Jr. forged the will.”
“Pretend we’re in court. Make your case.”
“The overall shape of the letters in the will is too wide, by a hair; he picked up on the slantedTcrosses and the strangeR’s, but he would have written this sort of document too carefully to miss that. He would have stuck strictly to the Palmer Method. Eddie Jr.’s letters show excessive care to impress his father. Eddie Sr.’s will is too carefully written. Eddie Sr. would have dashed it off, as he did the letters in his correspondence file.”
“If the top five handwriting experts in New York were given the will, how many would say it’s a fake?”
“Three,” she said. “Four, if I were one of them. The other two are too dense to see the subtleties.” She examined her fingernails. “I’m also more persuasive. A smart judge would accept my opinion more readily.”
“Write me the best opinion you can produce,” Stone said. “Joan will give you a computer and a printer. Address it ‘To whom it may concern.’ ”
—
When Clarissa was done, Stone handed it to Joan. “Ask Fred to go over to Sixty-Sixth and Sixty-Seventh streets and find Eddie’s mailbox. Have him put Clarissa’s report inside. I want Eddie to see it.”
“Why?” Joan asked.
“Because if we can convince him we’re on to his forgery, it will no longer be in his interests to kill you.”
