Page 82 of The Woman By the Lake

“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.”

“Yeah,” she repeated to the laptop where she was now closing all the documents.

“And it’d be masterful, considering what I bought this property for, because it’s probably around the same amount Roosevelt bought it for decades ago. So they took a massive loss on that investment by being a pack of hyenas.”

“Yeah,” she said again.

“It could just be they’re all greedy fucks who are so intent to suck off the teat of two men’s hard work, they’ll grasp at anything to get the golden milk, so dedicated to the task, they aren’t realizing they’re sucking that teat dry.”

She slapped the laptop closed and shot him a smile. “A colorful metaphor, but also very likely.”

“How old are the parents?” he asked.

“I don’t know that either, but considering the ages of the three principles, my guess is that they’re all in their seventies by now, at least.”

“That’s dedication,” he stated.

“I’ll say.”

He then did something else he shouldn’t do.

He caught a lock of her hair and started twisting it in his fingers.

It was softer than he would have guessed.

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