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“Thanks, Brogan,” Keegan said, handing Brent and Cord a cup of the black stuff. “Poor Kinsey. I understand she took it harder than Logan.”
“I feel responsible for that, although Logan offered to go in there,” Brogan explained. “It never occurred to me they’d find a dead body.”
“It’s not something anyone even considered a possibility,” Cord maintained, taking a swig of the strong black brew. “Why would we? Vera Lockhart was one of the nicest people in town.”
“She had a secret, though,” Brent pointed out, sipping his coffee. “A big one. You can’t deny that.”
“No, I won’t even try,” Cord stated. “I’m blown away. It’s not every day you keep a mummified body inside your house.”
Brent leaned forward in his chair. “Did she ever talk about where she lived before Pelican Pointe?”
Cord shook his head. “No. She had four cats and two dogs. When she came to the clinic, we talked about her animals. Routine stuff. I took care of their problems, and she loved me for it.”
But Keegan eyed Brent. “Um, Vera once mentioned to me something about living in Kansas. Then when I tried to follow up about what living in the Midwest was like, she changed the subject.”
“When was this?”
Keegan thought for a moment. “Last Christmas. I know because she brought over a tin of cookies she’d made. Macaroons.”
Brent jotted the information down on a notepad. “Did you get the sense she purposefully avoided the Kansas thing?”
“Yeah. I did. Vera acted like she’d slipped up and said something she shouldn’t have said. No matter how much I brought it back around, she ignored me. She stayed for maybe ten minutes after that, then left.”
Lucien made a mental note about Kansas. “Were you ever in her house before she died?”
“Sure,” Cord supplied. “I wouldn’t say it was a regular thing, but she would call me maybe four times a year to stop in and check on one of her animals. With six pets, one of them always had an issue. She’d always have a cup of coffee waiting, knew I took it black and served it with a batch of homemade cookies or cake to go with it. She knew I liked coconut cake and always seemed to have it on hand. That was maybe four years back. When the years caught up with her, and she couldn’t get around too well, she’d offer me store-bought cookies. Macaroons. My favorite.” He eyed his wife. “Those cookies she brought over at Christmas she bought at Murphy’s.”
“That makes more sense,” Keegan mumbled. “I thought they tasted familiar. She must’ve taken them out of the bag and put them in the Christmas tin.”
“It’s the thought that counted,” Cord reiterated.
Keegan made a face. “Maybe at the time. Now thinking back, it’s gross. You ate every cookie in that tin. How do you feel now, knowing there was a dead body upstairs?”
“Try to get past the dead body thing,” Brent suggested. “You were talking about going into her house to check on her pets.”
“Well, a few times, there would be nothing wrong with her dog or cat,” Cord explained. “I began to think Vera wanted company. But I didn’t mind stopping in on my way to work to make a house call once in a while. What did it hurt? Vera was nice to me.”
“Sounds like you were her favorite,” Brogan noted. “When would you say she stopped using the stairs?”
Cord twisted in his chair. “At least four years ago.”
“When did you first go inside the house after Vera died?” Lucien asked the couple.
Keegan leaned back in her chair and thought back to last spring. “Not until Kinsey said it was okay, probably around the middle of May. We went inside and looked around, jotted down a few things that needed doing but didn’t stay long.” She paused and looked over at Cord. “I think I need to make something clear here. First, we didn’t jump up and down at the news Vera had left us her estate. Cord and I have what we need to live comfortably. His veterinary practice is booming. And I’ve been happily running the rescue center for ages. We don’t live a luxurious lifestyle. We don’t take trips to Cancun or Hawaii. We both love what we do. Our money goes into rescuing animals. Period. The day Vera died, I remember getting the news from Kinsey that she’d passed away in her sleep. It was a few weeks before Easter. Kinsey showed up that night at the house to tell us we were Vera’s beneficiaries, or rather the rescue center and shelter were. But she didn’t go into details then. She said we’d go over everything after the funeral and memorial service. That’s how we learned about Vera’s generosity.”
Cord shifted in his chair. “Keegan and I were both swamped at work. I had several surgeries scheduled that week, and Keegan had two pregnant sea lions due at the same time. I’d say we probably waited damn near three weeks after the funeral to go into the house to check things out.”
Keegan nodded. “That sounds about right. I know Cord had to move things around at the clinic, and I did the same at the rescue center so we could attend her funeral and the memorial service in Phillips Park. That’s how busy we were.”
Lucien frowned. “Why a memorial serviceanda funeral?”
Keegan lifted a shoulder. “It was one of the things Vera requested. I thought it was odd for about two seconds. Kinsey handled the details. We didn’t have to lift a finger except show up. A couple of days later, Kinsey dropped off the keys to the house on a Saturday morning and went over the will with us.”
Brent spoke up, “Was anything about it unusual? The will, I mean?”
Cord finished off his coffee and returned the mug to the tray. “There was one thing odd. Kinsey mentioned something about a third party that never materialized. Something about the cash on hand in the bank—seventy-five grand. The money is still there, by the way. You can ask Nick or Naomi. We haven’t touched a penny of it. But the third party thing made us wonder if Vera intended for us to get the entire estate or if there was someone out there who would show up later and want the cash.”
“But when we followed up with Kinsey in May, she said the will had gone through probate,” Keegan clarified. “And that was it. She told us not to worry about anyone else. That’s when I think the reality of the inheritance hit us. That’s when we began to talk about what to do with the cash, the house, the furnishings, and her car. We had that discussion well into June.”
