Page 74 of The Cottage on Plum Island
“Bad man?” Harley squeezed the bridge of his nose. Angela had mentioned the wrong man before but could never tell him who the lousy man was. “Did she tell you who the bad man was?”
Jennifer’s eyebrows rose. “Like I said, when I asked her who the bad man was, Angela started freaking out and hid under the bed, then wouldn’t come out. She was convinced the bad man could hear everything as he knew all about her.”
“I’m sorry.” Harley felt his heart drop. “She didn’t hurt you or try to … um…”
“Attack me?” Jennifer asked. “No. She just hid under the bed.” She shook her head. “When she wouldn’t come out, I ordered a second slice of cherry pie, ice cream, and two grape sodas.”
“Yikes!” Harley shuddered, thinking about all the sugar and how it was going to react with Angela’s medication. “You lured her from beneath the bed with her favorite treats.”
“Yup.” Jennifer nodded. “I was sitting on the floor beside the bed with a piece of pie for myself and just chatting about random things when she slid out to get stuck into the pie.” She grinned at the pained look that must’ve been on Harley’s face. “While we were sitting on the floor, Angela told me about how she’d met a new friend at the beginning of the year.”
“New friend?” Harley looked at Jennifer curiously. “What new friend? Is there a new patient at the institute Angela has befriended as she won’t mix or talk to the other residents?”
“A doctor, I believe,” Jennifer told him, sending a zap of shock through his system. “He only saw her as a doctor twice and then started visiting her as a friend.”
“He?” Harley felt his alarm growing. “Did she mention who he was?”
“She only gave me a first name: Simon.” Jennifer’s words widened his eyes, and anger shot through him.
“Doctor Simon O’Neil,” Harley hissed, gritting his teeth. “He’s the doctor Clair and I were arguing about in that video the police have.”
“That fits.” Jennifer jotted notes in her timeline. “At first, he was there to assess if Angela should stay in the institute. He was convinced that if Angela went onto some new medication, she’d be able to leave the institute within a few months.”
“What?” Harley spluttered. “Why wasn’t I told about any of this?”
“Maybe because Clair might have thought you’d stop it,” Jennifer replied. “According to Angela, Clair was furious with Simon for his evaluation, so he visited her as a friend three times a week for the past six months.”
“No way!” Harley said with force, running his hand through his hair. “I would’ve known if Angela had other visitors. She wouldn’t even take phone calls from her family without going into a meltdown.”
“Phone calls from which family members?” Jennifer asked.
“Mostly her parents,” Harley answered. “Clair stopped calling about a—“ His eyes widened in realization. “Around the end of last year.”
“Do you know that everything is recorded in the visitor lounges at the institute?” Jennifer pulled out her phone and flicked to a video clip. “Notice the dates.”
Harley watched the different video clips Jennifer flicked through, which were time-stamped from January to a month ago. In them were recordings of Angela and Simon, who seemed much more intimate than friends in the past few months. But what surprised Harley the most was that Clair had visited Angela regularly for the past six months. Worse, he was never told about it.
“I’m sorry, Harley.” Jennifer’s eyes were filled with compassion. “I know how much Angela means to you.”
“No, it’s not that,” Harley assured her. “I’m supposed to be her guardian. If she attacks someone I didn’t approve of on the visitor’s list, that doesn’t look good and shows I’m not doing a good job as her guardian.” He blew out a breath. “If that gets taken from me…” He shook her head. “Well, now it doesn’t matter, as Clair was the one who was after Angela’s money.”
“I thought the Wesleys were uber rich!” Jennifer looked surprised by Harley’s words.
“Yes. Margaret and Randal are,” Harley told her. “But Angela and Clair each got a trust fund that was theirs when they turned twenty-five. Angela invested her money, and Clair blew through hers within a few years. Then, when Angela was committed, and Randal took over as CEO of Wesley Industries in Angela’s absence, he gave Clair a job as VIP of marketing.”
“So she’s making good money?” Jennifer pointed out. “Why would she want to get her hand on Angela’s money?”
“I have no idea,” Harley stated. “What do rich people spend their money on?”
“Cars, boats, expensive clothes, holidays…” Jennifer listed.
“Gambling,” Harley added. “I believe Wallis is a notorious gambler.” He remembered the conversation from the previous evening. “That’s why the Wesleys were so surprised that when Wallis’s father retired, he appointed Wallis as the next CEO of their company.”
“Why wouldn’t he if Wallis is his father’s heir?” Jennifer asked curiously.
“Because Wallis’s father had cut Wallis off after his last multi-million dollar gambling debt nearly crippled their company,” Harley told her. “I thought Mr. Hanover would’ve appointed his daughter, Shannon, Wallis’s younger sister, the CEO instead.”
“Weird, but not relevant,” Jennifer said, moving the subject away from the Hanover family. “Getting back to Angela and Clair. When they couldn’t reach you, Clair got them some food, and they went to the storage locker to lie low and eat.”
