Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
At least he’d been when he was fourteen.
And Roosevelt, Sarah and Lincoln paid the price.
But in the end, for Jeff, it was all about getting his hands on that contract and the manuscript.
Which truly was a great “fuck you” to Sharon that lasted a long time, was still messing with her head in a way that it seemed it would for the rest of her life, and eventually, it brought her to justice.
But it also ultimately led, through no fault of his own, to Lincoln’s demise.
This could mean that there was a possibility that Roosevelt and Sarah had been alive when they’d been taken to the stables that night and had died in the fire.
To that, all I would allow myself to think was that they had to be completely unconscious and didn’t know what was happening to them.
The alternative didn’t bear contemplating.
But at least, in the end, they were together.
There was a crucial link missing, and he’d go through hell and have to live seven years without either of them.
But he lived those years doing his utmost to take care of the thing they all held most dear.
Their family.
The three Whitaker children banded together after all of this and beat back their challengers on all the claims on the estate.
A judge awarded what was left of it to the children, as well as anything that came from it in future royalties, not to mention, they now held the rights to sell for television or movies.
The estate was distributed equally between all three.
The Whitakers tried to make amends to their grandchildren after that, as did their Aunt Mary.
Word reached us, they were having none of it.
Word also reached us, they’d been approached for the rights by several producers.
It was said, the youngest two now looked to Truman to guide the way, and his guidance was that their family had had enough.
So far, they’d declined all offers.
I heard Sarah’s folks were interviewed on some religious channel about what to do if your child was taken into the devil’s thrall.
I never saw it.
And I had no interest in ever seeing it.
The properties being in Sarah’s names alone, properties that, regardless that he’d supposedly killed her, Lincoln inherited on her death (and no one, not even Sarah’s parents, had contested that in seven years, for unknown reasons), obviously, were bundled in the estate.
This was one of the outstanding questions no one had answered, and I had to know.
Therefore, Riggs mentioned the change to the trust to Harry, Harry had asked Tru about it, and seeing as he’d only been around fifteen at the time, he told Harry he had no idea why his parents did that.
So that would remain a mystery.
Sadly, the bungling of the Whitaker murders turned the spotlight on Harry and the sheriff’s office.
Fortunately, Harry already knew this would happen, and at a town council meeting that was growing contentious, Megan, the president of the council (a ballbuster, no-nonsense blonde who was a good friend of Delphine’s, and would become one of mine too) let Harry have her microphone.
With only Rus standing behind him, Harry explained how the department was already deep into an audit, they’d identified five cases that bore more scrutiny, and was continuing its search.
No, he would not say which cases they were at this juncture.
But yes, if it was discovered they required further investigation, an announcement would be made, but, Harry warned, they couldn’t comment much on active investigations.
After a lot of gavel pounding from Megan, this announcement eventually calmed the citizenry and left them with new mysteries to chew on.
Which, I’d noted, was exactly as Misted Pines liked it.
Only Murders in the Building, indeed.
In the meantime, Evan Pugh and his parents came to visit Riggs and me.
My heart went out to the guy. He clearly felt terrible about what he’d done at the cabin.
Riggs had the same reaction, I knew, when he asked them to stay for a slice of his mom’s leftover lemon cake.
They accepted.
On the other hand, and in another twist, we were all at the Double D for dinner one night when I met Casey Grimes.
Bryce was with him.
Casey immediately got in Riggs’s face with his threats about a civil suit.
I could see Riggs wasn’t taking this well, didn’t like his woman’s and son’s dinners interrupted with this guy’s shit, and he was about to slide out of the booth, and I was trying to figure out how to handle that, when Bryce approached his dad, tugged hard on his sleeve and snapped, “God, Dad, why do you always have to be such a jerk?”
I feared Casey’s head would explode when this came from his son, and I didn’t want it in my onion-less patty melt.
But before it could, Bryce looked at me.
“I was a dick. It was uncool. Everyone at school thinks I’m a jackoff. But that’s not the only reason I’m sorry.” He then mumbled, “Sucks you lost your mom.”