She gazed at me while her mind worked on how to respond. “You do your homework, I’ll give you that. Okay… okay. I’ll tell you what happened-not all of it, but some. First, we need to come to an understanding about our business matters.”
She opened a drawer and brought out an expensive-looking ledger, several notebooks, and some papers bound in a folder. “If I’d actually been blackmailing Harney, I did a piss-poor job of it. Judge for yourself. He left an estate worth close to a hundred million, but all I got was a chunk of his life insurance and the remainder of the citrus grove he didn’t give you and your mother. Oh, and Reggie-he’s so easy to forget.”
“A partnership between just us,” I said. “Is that what you’re proposing?”
“I’ve got to find some way to provide for my future. Any idea what a hundred acres of dead orange trees are worth in this part of Florida? Not jack shit, compared to what I have here”-the ranch, she meant-“which all goes to his kids. Me? I’m out in the cold. How old are you, Hannah? Ten, maybe fifteen years younger than me? I know you’re single, that you have no children, and you have to hustle to pay bills at the end of the month. Isn’t that right?”
She was closer to twenty years older, but I let her talk.
“Almost all women end up alone. That’s just the way life is. Sooner or later, we have to look out for ourselves, and I’m not going to end up some sad old woman in a roach-infested nursing home. Think about that while I show you what I have in mind.”
She continued talking while I glanced at a plat map, and a couple of other documents. It was difficult to separate the woman’s bitterness from her attorney’s advice, which was to fight her husband’s last will and testament in court. Equally difficult was gauging her sincerity when she said, “If I drag this through the legal system, it’ll take years, Hannah. Do you know what that means to you and your mother? You won’t see a cent. None of us will-except the attorneys. Do you really want that to happen?”
It was a mild threat, I assumed, to be exchanged for confidentiality regarding the missing football star.
I was wrong.
She opened a folder, saying, “That’s why I hired an expert to comb through every asset I can legally claim. My hope was, he’d come up a brilliant idea about how to turn what Harney left me into real money. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. Either way, you and I are better off working together. Here, I’ll show you.” She flattened more papers on the desk and waited for me to scoot my chair closer.
“Mind putting out that cigarette?” I asked. “It’s hard to get the smell out of my hair.”
She complied, but not without saying, in her subtle, superior way, “I remember girls like you in high school-not many, but a few. I bet you played in the band, and dated nice boys. I always wondered what they did for fun.”
I was tired of her condescending manner. “The clarinet was more enjoyable than some instruments I can think of. Being a cheerleader, Lonnie, you’re probably an expert on the subject.”
She glared, then decided, “I guess I deserved that. How about we call a truce until we get things sorted out?”
I agreed, and moved closer to the desk. I was looking at an aerial photo of the citrus groves, the pasture, and Mr. Chatham’s cabin hideaway-Salt Creek Gun Club. A yellow highlighter divided the property into hundred-acre parcels.
“Harney wanted to give you the cabin, plus the river frontage and Reggie’s little shack. All the highway frontage is mine, except for this narrow little ingress-egress, which we’re somehow supposed to share.” She ran a finger along the access lane to illustrate, while I noted her careful phrasing. She’d said “wanted to give” instead of “Harney gave you.” Already, her mind was made up. She was not going to honor her late husband’s wishes.
I played along, and paid attention.
“My expert knows real estate,” she continued. “More important, he knows the citrus business. At first, he suggested we package our two hundred acres, get the zoning changed to commercial, and quietly offer it to some big-money developers he knows. Half the trees are dead anyway, so it made sense until he saw this.”
The leather-bound office ledger was placed in front of me. Two spiral notebooks were added. “This might be the real game changer,” she said. “When I told my guy-this expert-I’d almost thrown these books in the trash, he nearly had a fit. That was two weeks ago. He’s had time to do the research, to contact the right people and check everything out. Take a look. I had no idea of the potential value of what’s in there-but I’m fairly certain you do.” She tapped the notebooks for emphasis.
I opened the ledger instead. Inside, on the cover page, was a man’s bold handwriting in ink. I leafed through a few pages, seeing diagrams and notes, all related to citrus greening disease. “This belongs to Kermit Bigalow. His name and phone number, all his personal information, it’s right here plain to see.”
“So what?”
“I’ve got no right to be looking at the man’s personal papers. You don’t either, as far as I’m concerned.”
The woman stared with feline intensity. I got the impression she had been waiting for this moment. “Not according to my attorney. Kermit was contracted by Chatham Enterprises, L-L-C. Every scrap of work he did was proprietary. In other words, the company owns all his research and everything else he produced on our time. What’s the problem, dear?” Her smile lasted through a silence that forced me to make eye contact.
“I don’t care what your attorneys say. It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Fair?” she chuckled. “At your age, if you believe life is fair, you’re in for a shock. The law doesn’t give a damn about fairness-or justice, for that matter. Are you sure it’s not something else?”
I closed the book and pushed it away. “This is between you, your lawyer, and Kermit. It’s none of my business.”
Her eyes moved to the ledger, then the notebooks. “Open one of those and you’ll change your mind. In his notes, you’re scattered all through there, including a diagram of your house and citrus grove. What tree is located where, even their approximate ages. He used your initials quite often. Come on, Hannah, do you still think this is none of your business? I know Kermit has the hots for you. That’s the real reason you’re upset, isn’t it?”
I looked away from the notebooks, worried about how much personal detail they contained. “I barely know the man,” I said. “We talked about citrus trees, mostly, but-”
“That’s not how I know,” she interrupted. “It’s the way he lit up when your name was mentioned. That Chatty Cathy kid of his couldn’t shut up about you and your boat. It was Captain Hannah this, Captain Hannah that, until I finally took him aside. Kermit claimed I was imagining things. But from the look on your face right now, I’d say…” The woman nodded as if she’d just confirmed something. “Why, you poor little fool. That was just one of many lies the bastard told Harney and me. God knows how many he told you. I hope you at least had some fun while it lasted.”
I got to my feet and collected my purse, saying, “His wife has no reason to be jealous. You don’t, either, if that’s your problem. This conversation’s over.”
Truth is, I felt numb and needed air.
“Jealous?” she said, sounding genuinely puzzled. “I don’t give a damn about a man like him. He was trying to steal your idea for a biotech patent. That’s why I kicked his ass off my property. Well, one of the reasons. Don’t you get it? You, your idea, all the research Kermit did-it all belongs to me now.”
Yes… she had been waiting to say those words. It was in the controlling way she motioned for me to sit down.
I remained standing. “Lonnie, what do you want? Just tell me, so I can be on my way.”
“Be sensible,” she said. “We have too much in common to be enemies. That’s all I’m asking. Kermit was in the process of filing a provisional patent. Do you know what that is? Of course you don’t. It’s a bunch of complicated forms neither one of us would understand.” She reached for another folder, then decided the evidence could wait. “He would’ve done it, too, if I hadn’t locked him out of his office. Be thankful for that, at least. If you don’t believe me, I can arrange a meeting with my attorney.”