The others echoed Hutch’s words, wishing her a happy birthday. When the room grew silent again, Gerry said, “Miss Andrews wants to be informed and involved in the business of the estate. She wants a say in how things are handled.”
Bart clicked his pen. “You want to be involved to what extent, Miss Andrews?”
“Not in the day-to-day business, but I do want a say in major decisions. When I was a little girl, my grandfather spent time with me every day, talking about business. I think he was preparing me even then to take over some day. He was proud of his accomplishments and I am proud to be his granddaughter. It’s my right and my responsibility to be involved.”
“Your grandfather was a good man,” said Bill. “He was well respected in the business community.”
“He respected you, too, Mr. Morrison.”
A sad look passed over Bill’s eyes. “Cara, I’m sorry about the loss of your mother. Even though she couldn’t be with you, I know she loved you dearly.”
Touched by his remark, Cara nodded her thanks.
When Ron Holcomb walked in, Nick tapped his watch again. Cara exchanged a look with Nick as Ron took his place at the head of the table. He had wasted thirty minutes of everyone’s time.
“Ron, you remember Cara.” Hutch introduced Gerry and Nick. “Today is Cara’s birthday, the day she inherits the estate.”
Ron’s eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t realize. Cara, I’m not prepared to—”
“I’d like an overview, Mr. Holcomb.”
“Yes, all right.” Ron was a slender man wearing a bad toupee. It was very dark, a sharp contrast to his thin gray eyebrows and pasty skin. Immaculately dressed, he fidgeted with the crease in his pants and straightened his tie. “If you’ll come back next week, I’ll—”
Cara took an instant dislike to the man. “I’m leaving tomorrow, and I want something to take back with me.”
Gerry chewed on the stem of his glasses. “Surely you have financial statements, quarterly reports, investment portfolios—”
“Yes, of course.” Ron jumped up and walked out of the room. Minutes later, Marge produced copies of the first quarter report. Ron sat down and started down the list of assets, explaining what companies they were invested in and what products or services they each provided. Then he spoke quickly in terms Cara wasn’t familiar with, as if he were speaking with a business or investment expert, not a young woman inexperienced in such matters. Nick asked a few questions and seemed to understand, but Cara was lost. She grabbed Nick’s hand under the table.
He came to her rescue, as she knew he would. “Cara needs a break.”
“Now?” said Gerry.
“Right now,” said Cara. Before her head exploded.
Ron’s face creased with a smug smile and he gathered his papers. “All right, Cara. We’ll continue this at our next meeting.” His tone of voice suggested he was speaking with a child, irritating Cara even more.
Nick glared at Ron. “No, we’ll take a short break and continue. This meeting is not over until Cara is finished.”
Bill spoke directly to Cara. “I have another meeting, something I can’t miss. I’m afraid I’ll have to bail out.”
“And I have a lunch meeting,” said Sylvia. “I only scheduled an hour here.”
Cara clasped Nick’s hand under the table. She knew what they were doing. They were shoving her off, getting rid of her. “Two minutes,” she said.
“Please excuse us,” said Gerry. The trustees left the room.
Nick rubbed Cara’s back. “You can do this, Maxine.”
“He’s throwing things at me so fast, I can’t think.”
“He’s doing it on purpose,” said Gerry. “Jerk.”
“Okay, Maxine.” Nick stood and walked around the table to face Cara. “Why don’t we even things out some?”
“How?”
“Poke holes in his balloon. He’s acting so damn high and mighty. Let the air out of his balloon, bring him down to our level.”
Cara took a deep breath and blew it out. “I can barely stand to look at him. All I can think about is him sending those people to take care of me, and then ignoring me.”
Nick smacked the table. “Then use it.”
“Absolutely,” said Gerry. “Here they come now.”
As Nick took his seat, he leaned close and whispered, “Turn Maxine loose and let him have it. Put him in his place so we can get down to business.”
Ron Holcomb sat down and looked down his nose at Cara, the first time he’d looked directly at her. “All right now, Cara?”
How dare he act as if she were nothing more than a spoiled child to be placated and pushed out the door? All she’d ever been to him was a nuisance, like an untrained puppy. Anger burned inside her. This puppy fully intended to piddle all over his shiny shoes.
Nick nodded slightly and she read the unspoken words in his eyes.
Go get ’em, Maxine.
Cara stared at Ron Holcomb. “Before we continue, I’d like to talk about something more personal, Mr. Holcomb.”
His eyes flickered around the room and settled on her. She wanted to wipe the smug smile off his face. He laughed nervously.
“Personal?”
“When Johnny died and my mother went to the sanitarium, you hired guardians to take care of me.”
“Yes, I did,” he said proudly. “The best people I could find.”
Bill said, “Ron brought us your report cards, your school reports, and pictures. We watched you grow up.”
“From a distance,” she said. “No one bothered to actually speak to me, to ask me how things were going, to see if I was all right.”
As silence settled over the room, Ron’s face flushed and every other set of eyes in the room stared at him.
“I spoke often with your guardians,” said Ron.
Gerry set his glasses on the table and spoke calmly, but firmly. “I certainly hope you gave more attention to the business than you gave to Cara.”
Ron’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about? She had the best of care.”
Nick said, “She fired her guardians yesterday.”
Ron brushed an invisible piece of lint off his lapel. “Yes, I know. Ian called me last night. He said there’d been some kind of disagreement, that they’d left the house. I’ve authorized a nice severance package and—”
Cara’s anger bubbled to the surface and she nearly came out of her chair. Nick’s hand on her thigh steadied her. “How dare you. I fired them for good cause and you didn’t even to bother to ask me why.”
Five shocked people had their eyes on her now. Nick’s slight squeeze told her she’d said exactly the right thing.
Gerry said, “Years ago, you left a distraught child in the hands of cold, unfeeling people, people who punished her for crying, people who wouldn’t allow her a moment of privacy, who constantly put her down.”
Nick glanced at Cara and continued, speaking directly to Ron Holcomb. “Those people told their niece, Sally McCullough, that Cara’s mother was mentally ill and Cara would be, too. They said Cara didn’t deserve to inherit the estate. Sally told her boyfriend, who decided Cara would be an easy mark. His name is Michael Lance, but Cara knew him as Lance Berkshire.”
Sylvia’s hands dropped to the table. “Your
husband
?”
“I didn’t know he was drugging my tea until I poured it out one night,” said Cara. “I was wide awake when I heard him on the phone with his lover the next morning. They were planning to lock me in a sanitarium in the Caribbean, so they could steal the estate.”
“Oh, my God!” Hutch’s words echoed murmurs of shock around the table. Ron’s face had turned white. He looked ill, but Cara couldn’t summon any sympathy.
“There’s a warrant out for his arrest,” said Gerry. “Cara talked with Miss McCullough and she gave us a statement.”
“Ian and Jane Corinth made my life miserable. I didn’t need jailers, Mr. Holcomb. I was treated like an outcast in my own home. I would have been better off with the servants, but my guardians wouldn’t allow the servants near me.” She scanned the rapt faces around the table and stopped on Ron Holcomb. “I wasn’t a bad kid, Mr. Holcomb. I needed love and understanding, not contempt and endless criticism.”
Ron leaned forward. “Cara, I had no idea—”
“You didn’t want to know,” she said a little louder than she’d intended. “I tried many times to call you, but you refused to take my calls. Even after I was a grown woman and no longer needed guardians, you paid those people to live in my home.”
Ron straightened the papers on the table in front of him, avoiding Cara’s eyes. “When you were a child, Ian said you needed a firm hand, that they’d take care of the problem.”
“That’s all I ever was to them. And to you.
A problem.
I was thirteen years old.” Her voice rose and she didn’t care. She was pissed and she wanted him to know why. “I lost my grandfather one year, my stepfather the next, then my brother and my mother. My whole family was gone, and my guardians, the people
you
sent to take care of me, resented me from the very first.”
“No, I can’t believe that.”
“Believe it,” said Gerry. “I brought copies of the tape recording we made yesterday when Cara fired them. You should listen to it, Mr. Holcomb. You should all listen to it. If we find they participated in Cara’s husband’s scheme or in the theft of a three million dollar painting, we will not hesitate to ask the prosecutor to file charges against them.”
Ron’s eyes rounded and his mouth opened in shock, but he didn’t speak. Cara wondered if he was afraid he’d be implicated himself. Maybe he should be. He was the one who hired her guardians and set things in motion. Indirectly, he caused this to happen. “You see, Mr. Holcomb, I’m finding it hard to have confidence in you, in any of you.” She glanced around the table at the shocked faces. “Maybe you’re all good people. You may be experienced and competent in business, but you’re going to have to earn my trust.”
“Well, that’s understandable,” said Hutch.
Ron said, “Ian told me everything was fine.”
The room grew silent as everyone stared at Ron squirming at the head of the table. All the smug self-righteousness had disappeared from his face. “Do you want my resignation?”
“I want you to teach me what I need to know,” said Cara. “Show me how things work, then I’ll consider a letter of resignation. From what I’ve read, you’ve done a good job managing the estate. I appreciate that, Mr. Holcomb, but I doubt I’ll ever have confidence in you on a personal level.” She glanced around the table again. “Maybe I can learn to trust the rest of you. I’ll try to keep an open mind.”
Cara let the silence settle for a minute before she spoke again. “I’d like to spend time with each of you over the next few months. I want you to teach me, too. I don’t pretend to be an expert in business, but I’m reasonably intelligent and I can learn. This estate is my responsibility, my burden. My grandfather trusted me with it and I am determined not to let him down.”
Hutch leaned on the table and looked into Cara’s eyes. “Is there anything specific you’d like to know today?”
“I’d like to know the value of the estate and how much of the profits go to charity.”
Sylvia said, “Not enough.”
Ron held up his hand as if to end the discussion. “Now, Sylvia, we’ve had this discussion before. We all feel—”
Cara interrupted Ron, ignoring him as he’d ignored her for years. “Mrs. Towne, which charities do we support?”
“Marge can give you a list. In my opinion, it’s a mere token. Social responsibility has not been a priority.”
“That’s going to change. How much money is available right now, today?”
Bart asked, “How much do you need?”
“What do you have in mind?” asked Hutch.
“A new house in Washington, something my guests won’t get lost in, a construction company, and a pilot program for a new charity.”
“A construction company?” asked Hutch.
“I’ve put some of my personal assets into it to get it started. They’ve already done some earthquake repairs and I plan to have them build my house.”
“In what city?” asked Ron.
She slowly shook her head. “I’m telling no one that location until my husband is in police custody.”
“Fair enough,” said Hutch.
Sylvia asked, “Do you have someone working on the charity?”
“Not yet. I’d like to establish The Monica Andrews Foundation, for my mother. Funding for that charity and others can be funneled through the Foundation.”
“Starting with how much?” asked Bart.
Cara opened her hands and shrugged, a gesture she’d picked up from Nick.
“Why don’t we start the Foundation with ten million and add more as needed,” said Bill. “Bart, we can afford that, can’t we?”
“Yes, of course.” Bart looked at Cara. “Miss Andrews, would you like to spend some time with me after this meeting? I’ll get you started with financial information, profit and loss statements, and whatever you need on the financial end.”