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CHAPTER thirty

  I made sure Harold Didrickson wouldn’t have any excuse to chew me out for being late on Tuesday morning. I arrived at the office at seven-fifteen. I hadn’t slept well and had tossed and turned for what seemed like forever. I tried waking Jay with a kiss just before six but he just smiled in his sleep and turned over. I left him sleeping and dragged myself out of bed.

  I put on a black Chanel-style, light wool suit with white piping on the collar and cuffs of the jacket. It was a little heavy for the warm spring we were having but it was the most appropriate outfit I had for a funeral home. I planned on going straight to Hillson’s from the office for the visitation.

  I was powering up my computer and having my first cup of coffee of the day when I heard a tentative knock on my door.

  "Yeah," I shouted. "Come in."

  The door opened at few inches and Harold’s face appeared. I looked at my watch.

  "You’re in awfully early Harold. It’s only seven-thirty. Come in."

  Harold came in and shut the door behind him. He sat down in the guest chair across from me.

  "A couple of things Kate," he started. I grabbed my notebook and a pen and looked at him.

  "First of all. About yesterday. Let’s forget about it okay?" He looked at me expectantly. I figured this was as close to an apology as I was going to get. It must have been difficult for him to say that much. I thought about letting him stew for a while longer and then remembered that I’d said some pretty nasty things to him too.

  "It’s forgotten Harold." I felt simply magnanimous. Like the governor granting a pardon at the last minute. "Don’t worry about it."

  He nodded. And looked relieved. Jesus, did he think I was going to bite him, I wondered. I had heard people say that they were scared of me and I always laughed it off. I doubted that Harold could be scared of me. He was a mean son of a bitch when he wanted to be.

  "That’s good. Anyway, I know you’ll be out of the office this afternoon and again tomorrow for Evelyn’s funeral. And something pretty important has come up that I need your help on."

  "No problem. Aren’t you going to Ev’s funeral?" I asked him.

  "Of course I am. But I’ll be here this afternoon. I'll probably go to the visitation this evening." He looked a little offended that I would suggest he wouldn’t go to her funeral.

  He continued. "We’ve got a lot to do before Thursday."

  "I know," I interrupted. "I left the board agendas and draft materials in your basket yesterday. If you can look at those this morning, I can get them out to Oakes for comments."

  "The agenda’s totally changed," he told me. "If Oakes can make up his mind about what’s to go on it, we’ll do something about it. In the meantime, we’ve got other things on the burner. Do you have a copy of the master list we use for due diligence when we’re acquiring a company?"

  I dug the list out of a file in the cabinet behind my desk and passed it to him. Harold went down the list and left check marks in the left margin beside several items. He finished and handed the list back to me.

  "Start getting these things together. You do the work. You do the photocopying. How long will this take you?"

  I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked at the list and saw that he had checked off about seven or eight different items.

  The list was a generic one that we would give to a company, or their lawyers, when we were taking a serious look into acquiring that company. Due diligence materials we called them. Documents of their's that we wanted to see and review. Minutes of meetings, historical financial statements, business plans, press releases, policies and procedures. Materials they would provide to us for our people to look over before making big decisions like whether or not to buy their company.

  "You want me to get these things together for our company?" I asked him. Harold nodded.

  "This is a change. Are we on the other side now?"

  "Yes. Someone is looking at us. And I must emphasize Kate, that this is extremely sensitive and confidential. I understand their lawyers will be contacting us today and I know they’ll want at least this material. I don’t know what else. This’ll at least get us started."

  "Okay. I’ll get right at it. How far back should I go?"

  "Last five years. How long will it take you?" he asked.

  "Well, most of the financial information will be easy. I’ll just get the annual reports. And I’ve got a start if I use the materials we’d pulled together three years ago when the Germans were snooping around."

  We had gone through a very thorough, I called it painful, due diligence process then. I had spent many long nights getting the material together and indexed for the German’s lawyers. I still had all the documents in binders in one of my filing cabinet drawers. It had remained good reference material.

  "I’ve got at least two years of the last five in those materials. I’ll get working on the past three years," I continued. "I should have everything by noon. Is that okay?"

  Harold stood up to leave. "Noon is great. What time are you leaving?"

  "Probably around two. Danny, Ev’s son, asked me to be there for the whole afternoon."

  "You leave when you have to." He shut the door behind him when he left.

  I lit a cigarette and chewed on the information Harold had just shared with me. I had wanted to ask him who was looking at us but knew he wouldn’t have told me. I’d find out soon enough on my own.

  I wanted to call Vanessa and get the dirt but I knew she wouldn’t be in for at least another ten minutes so I dug out the binders of due diligence materials from three years ago and started getting the material for Harold together. It was going to be another interesting day.

  It was ten after two when I arrived at the funeral home and parked my car in the large lot behind the building. I saw Jay standing beside his car when I pulled in and I was glad to see him there. He had agreed to meet me and I had planned on hiding in my car if he wasn’t there when I arrived. I knew this wasn’t going to be pleasant and I didn’t want to go in alone. Jay was dressed in a dark, navy suit and was wearing sunglasses. He reminded me of an FBI agent.

  The last time I’d been in a funeral home was when the original founder of our company had died, and that time I paid my respects to his wife and made a beeline for the door. The wife and his sons had been clinging to each other, sobbing. It had broken my heart and I didn’t know what to say in the situation. Funerals don’t usually call for smart remarks and jokes and that was the only way I knew how to handle myself.

  Jay opened my door for me and I got out. I brushed the cigarette ashes off the front of my jacket and slung my purse over my shoulder.

  "Hi," I said. "Did I keep you waiting long?" We’d agreed to meet at two.

  "No. Just a few minutes. No problem." He put his arm around my shoulder and we walked around to the front of the building. It was built in the style of a southern plantation home, with white brick and large stone columns across the front of the building. We walked up the steps onto the veranda and Jay opened the large front door.

  Inside it was very quiet and I could hear Muzak playing softly in the background. There was an easel set up at the left of the lobby with a listing of the deceased’s names. I looked for Evelyn’s name and saw that she was resting in the Evergreen room. I held Jay’s hand tightly and we wandered down the main hallway, glancing at the brass plaques beside the door of each room. We passed the Whispering Pines and the Grand Oak rooms before we came to the Evergreen room.

  We stood outside the room for a moment before entering and I looked in. I could see the coffin set up at the end of the room on the left, and I could see Danny and his twin brother, Jonathan, standing together at the foot of the coffin. At the other end of the room were several wing-back chairs and coffee tables, and I saw Evelyn’s daughter sitting in one of the chairs with her daughter on her lap. There were other people standing around in sma
ll groups. It was very quiet.

  I was perspiring and could feel a small rivulet of sweat running down my back between my shoulder blades. My mouth was dry and the blood pounding in my temples was giving me a headache. I can’t do this, I said to myself. My hand was wet in Jay’s and he pulled me through the door. I followed reluctantly.

  The next five minutes were ones I'd just as soon forget. Jay led me over to Danny and his brother and I can’t remember what we said. Actually, I can’t remember if we said anything. We just sobbed.

  Danny was a very large man and I tried to hold him the best I could. It was hard but I stood on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. I shook Jonathan’s hand and nodded my head. I kept nodding my head because I didn’t know what to say. Sorry just didn’t seem enough in the situation.

  I found my way over to where Elaine, Evelyn’s daughter was sitting and I started crying again when I looked at little Sarah sitting on her lap. Little Sarah was ten now, but Ev had always called her Little Sarah.

  Elaine and Sarah stood up when I approached and Sarah gave me a hug. She was almost as tall as I was.

  Sarah said to me, "You shouldn’t be crying so much Kate. Grandma said you were the toughest person she knew. So don’t cry. She’s an angel now and she can see you." She smiled at me and I smiled back through my tears. I gave Elaine a hug and made small talk for a few minutes before excusing myself.

  Outside on the veranda I lit a cigarette and breathed in and out. In and out, trying to calm myself. I looked at my watch and saw that it was only two-thirty and wondered how I was going to make it through another hour and a half. I felt emotionally spent. I had lost a very good friend, but Danny, Jonathan and Elaine had lost their mother. I ground out my cigarette and was going back in when I saw Gina Lofaro walking up the steps of the veranda. She looked different and I realized it was because she wasn’t in uniform. There was an older man with her.

  "Constable Lofaro," I said.

  "Ms. Monahan. Kate. Hello," she said. "This is Detective John Leech. John, this is Kate Monahan."

  I guessed that he was about fifty and it showed on his face. The age lines were deeply etched in his face and were especially noticeable beside his mouth. He had steel gray hair cut in a brush cut. He held out his hand and we shook.

  "Pleased to meet you Miss Monahan."

  I looked at Gina and wanted to ask why they were here but didn’t know if that would be rude.

  She answered my unasked question. "We’re here to pay our respects. And talk to Mr. Morris about the lab findings."

  "Um," I cleared my throat. "I’m not sure if this is a good time to be talking to Danny. It’s pretty emotional in there."

  Detective Leech nodded his head. "Yes, ma’am. We know. We’ll try and pick a good moment." He took Constable Lofaro by the elbow and led her to the front doors.

  "Miss Lofaro," I called after them. Gina turned around and looked at me. "You got a minute?"

  "You go ahead, John," she said to the detective. "I’ll be just a minute."

  "I’ll wait," he said. "I’ve never met the family." He stood by the door and Gina came over to me.

  "Did they find anything in the lab analysis of the food?" I asked her. "I don’t know if you can tell me, but I need to know. Evelyn was my best friend. You understand, don’t you?"

  "Actually, Ms. Monahan, nothing's official yet," she said.

  "Kate. Please call me Kate," I said.

  "Kate. And unofficially, yes, we did find something," she reluctantly told me.

  My stomach sank. So there had been something in one of the dishes. Someone had made a mistake and Evelyn was lying in there. Dead. Someone had made a stupid mistake and Evelyn had paid for it. I wanted to wring someone’s neck.

  "What did they find?" I asked her. "Which dish was it?"

  "Actually," Officer Lofaro said. "It wasn’t just one dish of food. It was everything. Everything was laced with peanut oil. We found it in almost everything."

  I was shocked. I couldn’t digest this information.

  "Everything?" I repeated in a whisper.

  "Yes," she said. "And please. Keep this to yourself. There’s going to be an investigation. Detective Leech is from Homicide." She turned around and joined Leech at the door.

  Homicide. Evelyn had been murdered.