and other charities. She left Paul enough to finish college. She gave Jack all of her beach properties, and she gave me some mountain property — a cabin and some land with a couple of weekend rentals on it.”
“Jack got all of the beach property?”
“Yeah, I suppose she figured Paul would get it someday and that in the meantime Jack would fight against getting it developed.”
“Pete tell you about Malcolm Gannet?”
“Yeah, something’s not right there. I don’t know. Something’s not right about any of it. It bothers me. I wish Bredloe would let me in on it.”
“It sounds like Pete’s keeping you informed.”
“But he gets everything secondhand, so by the time it gets to me, I can’t ask the questions I want to ask.”
“Such as?”
He took a long sip of scotch, then sat forward. “Okay. Why no signs of forced entry? No struggle? Beyond finding the pentagram and the drawing on the door, why blame a cult? I think about what happened at your house last night, and
“She was connected to the shelter,” I said. “Maybe she knew as much as Sammy. Or suspected something. Maybe they didn’t have time to do more at Mrs. Fremont’s house. Maybe something scared them off. Maybe they heard us drive up.”
“Maybe. But how did they get inside in the first place?”
“Don’t you think the people assigned to the case will ask those questions?”
“Yeah.” He stared into the fire.
“So tell me about this mountain property.”
“Huh? Oh. Well, it’s up near Pine Valley Lake, off by itself. A place called Pine Summit. Overlooks the valley and the lake. Very peaceful. She used to give me the keys and tell me to go up there whenever the job was getting to me.”
“Are you happy about it?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t want anything from her. Must make her family feel bad.”
“Did Jack or Paul seem upset?”
“Not at all. They were very gracious about it. Paul said he had some things up at one of the rentals and I told him to take his time picking them up. I’ve never used the rentals, so I don’t care if he uses one of them.” He drained the last of his scotch. “It was still damned awkward.”
I took his hand. “It was a place she knew was special to you. She didn’t know this was going to happen this way. She was in good health. She thought of you and wanted to give you a place where you could be happy.”
He shrugged.
The waiter arrived again and took our order, and we accepted his offer to bring us another round. Frank sat looking into the fire. When dinner came, he looked over at me and gave a little smile.
“Quit worrying about me,” he said. “I’m just trying to sort things out.”
“Can’t help but worry about you, Detective Harriman.”
“‘Mister’ or ‘sir’ will do. And I’m okay.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I could get used to the sound of that.”
“It would be a shame if you did, because it would mean you’d found another woman.”
“Don’t want one. Got all I can handle now.”
We chatted about lighter subjects through dinner, which was excellent. When the last plate was taken away, he ordered a couple of brandies.
“Hey, take it easy. I’m not driving for a while, but I am working.”
“Mind if I hang around again tonight?”
“No, so long as you promise not to flirt with Stacee.”
I should have known that would get a laugh from him.
“Easiest promise I’ve ever had to make.”
“We’ll see.”
The brandy came and we raised a silent toast to one another. It was smooth stuff.
“Irene?”
“Hmm.”
“Move in with me.”
“What?” Smooth stuff or no, I choked on it.
