Larry cleared his throat. “Ten percent is to be paid to an irrevocable trust and the trustee is an attorney. I don’t know the recipient and your father didn’t name one. Just the trustee. It could be anyone or anything. It could be an undisclosed charity. It could be someone in need your father wanted to help. I honestly have no idea. This sort of thing isn’t that unusual.”
“Oh? Is it a secret?” Jessie asked.
“I suppose you could see it that way. Or it could be your father wanted to take a small amount out of his estate for some cause he supported...”
“But it’s not small,” Jessie said. “It’s over two hundred thousand dollars! Mom?” she said, looking at Anna. “Do you know?”
“I don’t,” Anna said. “I admit, I’m curious. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a client or needy family he knew about that he wanted to remember in the event of his death. His untimely death.”
“Why would he keep it a secret?”
“I have no idea,” Larry said. “He said it was a pet project that he wanted to remain confidential, then he added that he wasn’t planning to die and so it would likely become irrelevant. I took that to mean he’d probably donate money before the next revision of his will.”
“We often did that at the end of the year,” Anna said. “Depending on how the taxes were looking, we might make a charitable donation to help out as well as bring our taxes down, but he didn’t talk to me about this trust, either.”
“Maybe we should contest this will, if only to learn where the money is going. It’s a lot of money,” Jessie said.
“It won’t change the percentage you’re getting,” Larry said. “And there would be legal fees. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to let the departed have their way. It is his money to disperse as he will.”
“I realize that,” Jessie said. “But that ten percent stands out like a pimple on a nose and I’d like to know what my father’s intentions were and, if possible, why.”
“Why don’t I write a letter to the trustee, explain your questions and confusion and see what the response is. Before you consider dragging this out in a lawsuit, which will certainly deplete your funds.”
“I don’t care what he wanted to do with his money,” Mike said. “It was his money.”
“If Jessie wants to sue Daddy’s estate, she’s on her own. I won’t go along with that,” Bess said.
“Don’t you want to know this part of Daddy’s life that was secret?”
“People are allowed to have secrets,” Mike said. “I can live with that. We know he wasn’t a bad person.”
“Mom?” Jessie asked, looking for support.
Anna took a breath. “I’m completely blindsided by this and I don’t know what to do. Part of me thinks this might be something I don’t want to know, another part wonders what the hell was going on. I’m conflicted.”
“You must have suspected something,” Jessie said. “You were always in his business.”
Bess gasped, Mike grunted in disapproval. Anna sat silent. And Jessie cried. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it in a bad way, but you two always communicated everything and I don’t understand what was up with him. Why he decided he had to go rafting on one of the most dangerous rivers in the country! And leave a part of his estate to an unknown person! We should all want to know.”
“It’s not that unusual,” Larry said, interrupting the tirade. “I have a client who disagreed with his wife politically—they both have large portions of their individual estates willed to the political party of their choice, the only way they had of getting even. I know of a man who has bequeathed part of his estate to a horse, ensuring said animal will be pampered into old age, though that’s not confidential. Another client is bequeathing money to a person who helped him out of a huge gambling debt and no one, absolutely no one, knew he had a gambling problem, including his family. Whatever or whomever this small portion will go to, it’s probably something Chad thought would create a problem or argument if disclosed. It’s not something he wanted to share and I didn’t press him because it’s his money and his decision. He didn’t need my approval. And he didn’t need yours. Pursuing it could create more trouble than it deserves.
“Consider this,” Larry went on. “Let’s proceed with the will and disposition we have and think about the unknown factors. Give yourselves some time to think about it and discuss it. We can deal with it in a month or two.”
Anna nodded gravely but what she really believed, at that moment, was that in a month or two his young pregnant mistress would have spent all of the money.
THREE
Jessie went to the hospital after leaving the lawyer’s office because she knew exactly how to function on the job when clearly she did not know how to function in emotionally charged personal situations. She had come down hard on her mother and siblings when all she had really wanted was to understand what the hell had been going on with her father. And she wanted someone to put their arms around her, hold her, tell her everything would be all right.
She pulled into a reserved parking spot. There were three patients to check on, none of them critical. She could easily have passed on this errand. In fact, given her circumstances of grieving the death of a close family member, she had colleagues checking on her patients and they would continue as long as she needed them to.
She grabbed her bag, pressed the door lock and exited the car before realizing she was without her purse. The car was still running.
So much for her powerful memory and excellent coping skills. She hadn’t turned off the Lexus, the key fob was in her purse, the doors were locked. Her phone was also in her purse. In the running car. She leaned against the car in equal parts exhaustion and frustration. She cradled her head in her crossed arms and just moaned, trying to figure out what to do.
It was probably only a minute. Then she felt a hand on her back.
“Jessie?” a male voice asked.
She looked up into the eyes of Patrick Monahan, a neurosurgeon with privileges at the hospital. Her luck was not holding out. Just what she needed was to look completely stupid in front of a colleague. All she could utter was, “Um...”
“What’s wrong?”
“I, ah, didn’t turn off my car, and my purse, phone and keys are locked inside.”
He pulled out his phone. “I bet you have a service we can call. If you tell them the license plate number they can unlock the car remotely.”
“Yes. You’re right but...I can’t remember. Shit, I should’ve read the manual.”
“I’ll call Lexus.” He dialed up the number and she wondered...
“Do you have a Lexus?” she asked.
“No. Tesla. I searched it. Here,” he said, passing her the phone.
She explained her situation and they suggested a few vehicle services; she recognized one and Lexus connected her. She gave them her name, cell phone number, license plate number—and within a minute, pop. The door was unlocked. “Is there anything more I can do for you, ma’am?”
“Thank you, I’ll be fine now.”
She handed the phone back. “And thank you. I was a little rattled today. My father passed away recently and I just met with my family about the will. It was emotional. Distracting.”
“I believe I heard something about your father,” he said. “A rafting accident?”
“Yes. I have no idea why he was doing that. He never had before.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss, Jessie.”
“Thank you. Well. I thought I’d check on a few—”
“Anything urgent?” he asked.
“No, but I thought I’d—”
“Grab your purse, lock your car safely. Come with me and let’s go get a taco. You’ve had a rough few days or weeks. A little social escape is a good idea.”
“Surely you’re too busy to—”
“Actually, I’m kind of hungry and there’s this great place nearby, a hole in the wall. We can eat outside. Great food.”
“I’m really not all that—”
“If you’re not very hungry, pick at some nachos and have a beer. Then go home. I recognize the syndrome—you go to work because you don’t know what else to do and you don’t want to just hang out alone at home where there’s nothing to do. Doctors tend to do that. But maybe you’ll decide to talk about it. If not, that’s all right. The tacos are great.”
She had no idea why he was doing this. It’s not as though they had a relationship other than he was a physician at the same hospital.
“I’ve never ridden in a Tesla before,” she said, strapping in.
“It’s a complete indulgence,” he said. “I couldn’t justify it in a million years. I don’t need it and I’m not rich. But for some reason just having it makes me feel younger and slightly more reckless, something I can’t afford to be in my real life.” It roared to life under her and she tipped her head back and laughed.