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)
“So Roosevelt was carrying Lincoln?”
She nodded. “Yes, supporting Lincoln, not to mention providing for his wife, his family and his living large with two properties in two locations, both of which were rather impressive. Because this house is very nice, but he also had waterfront property in Seattle that was worth some big bucks.”
“Jesus,” Riggs muttered.
“This means, if the Whitaker parents can sway a judge, Sarah’s parents, and her sister, at least, have no claim to anything that came from what those twenty-six books produced, which, obviously, is quite a bit of the whole banana.”
The whole banana.
Christ, she was cute.
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed.
“And just to say, several of the parties, namely the Whitakers, noted that the brothers were fighting about the movies. Lincoln wanted to sell more rights. Roosevelt did not. He apparently didn’t like the notoriety it was causing him. And if it’s true that Lincoln didn’t have a hand in writing any of the books after the first three, which were the only rights sold, it could be that Lincoln didn’t have a leg to stand on in pushing his brother to sell more. The elder Whitakers contend things were coming to a head between the brothers, and Roosevelt wasn’t changing the pen name they’d come up with, because by then, it was branded. But Roosevelt had shared with them, if Lincoln didn’t back down, he was going to let it be known his brother was no longer creatively contributing, and the intimation was that things might get financially dicey for Lincoln if his brother cut him off.”
“Motive for murder,” Riggs noted.
“I’ll say, premeditated at that,” she replied. “And I’m not done.”
“Jesus, does this shit end?”
“Susan said she’s only skimming and hasn’t had near enough time to do a deep dive, so I guess the answer to that is no.”
“Great. Give the rest to me,” he invited.
She cozied up to him and went back to it.
“Now, Lincoln and Sarah had three kids, two boys and a girl, with the girl in the middle. And not only are they up against both sets of grandparents and their aunt, they’re combatants against each other, with the oldest boy on his own, and the younger two ganging up against him. There is no love lost between any of the interested parties. The only ones sticking together are the two kids, and each set of grandparents.”
“What are the kids claiming?” he asked.
“The oldest wants an equitable distribution of the estate among him and his siblings. The younger two want the oldest disinherited, because, they claim, that’s what their parents would have wanted. Apparently, the oldest didn’t see eye to eye with either Lincoln or Sarah. In fact, he was closer to Roosevelt than any of them, including his siblings. Apparently, he spent all the time he could at the cabin with his uncle. He was in Misted Pines nearly as much as his mother was.”
If memory served, that was true.
Though, Riggs didn’t really know any of them. He’d seen Lincoln, Sarah, and Roosevelt in town, but it was mostly Lincoln or Sarah. He couldn’t recall seeing any of the kids, but one boy, a few years younger than Riggs, he’d seen a couple of times with Roosevelt.
And Roosevelt stuck close to his patch. Rumor had it, and from what Riggs had noticed himself, he barely left it, and to do mundane things like keeping his larder full, it was known he had an assistant take care of it so he could stay on his patch.
“Do you know how old the kids were when their parents died?” he asked.
“Um…” She looked back at the laptop and started scrolling and clicking. “No,” she mumbled. Then, “No, wait, here. The oldest was seventeen. The younger two were fifteen and fourteen, respectively.”
“So the oldest was old enough to drive to Misted Pines the night his family imploded.”
That got him her attention again.
“Wait…no,” she breathed “Do you think…? Holy cow, yeah. That makes sense. The oldest finds out his mom is cheating on his dad with his beloved uncle, he loses it. The dad walks in on the situation and moves heaven and earth to cover for his boy, including sacrificing himself.”
“It’s a scenario,” Riggs allowed. “Though, it doesn’t fit with Lincoln purposefully setting it up so all hell would break lose when he offed himself. If you go that extra mile to protect your kid, you’ll engage an attorney to make sure all of them are covered when you’re gone.”
“Yeah,” she whispered, looking again to the laptop.
“It’s a stretch, got no clue and never will, where my head would be at after I murdered two people I loved, so he could have just been fucked up. But this all could also be Lincoln’s last fuck you. Revenge. Because it doesn’t seem like anyone, including the kids, are real great people.”