“Jean-Claude’s not going to be able to make it in today.
He apologizes.”
“You need to fire him, Nina,” Kit said.
Mrs. Krauss clucked again, jabbed Kit in his chest. “Have you never had troubles? Have you never needed help? Have you?”
Kit didn’t back down. “Of course.”
“Right now that boy has no help. He has troubles and he’s trying to do it his way. Soon enough he will see that all he has to do is ask, and he will see who his true friends are.”
“Did he tell you what kind of trouble he’s in?” I asked. All I could see was Jean-Claude on the corner in the Blue Zone doing God knows what.
“He did.”
I prodded. “Well?”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”
I blinked. She stared.
I wasn’t going to win this battle, so I said, “I’m going out 190
Heather Webber
for a while. Kit, I need you to organize everyone, including Jean-Claude. We’re going to be finishing the Grabinsky yard on Thursday.” At his look, I added, “I’ll explain later.”
BeBe sidled up to Mrs. Krauss, sat obediently at her feet.
“We’ll also discuss BeBe later.”
I grabbed my backpack and headed for the door. As the chimes rang out, I heard Kit say, “How’d you do that? With BeBe?”
Mrs. Krauss said, “It’s all in the tone. Did those tattoos hurt? I’m thinking about getting one on my—”
I covered my ears and ran for my truck. I didn’t want to know.
Deep purple-blue circles lurked under Noreen’s Sally Jesse glasses, and I swear she’d lost weight because she didn’t look as potato as before.
The pansies had perked up at least.
I followed Noreen into the house. “I can’t stop crying,”
she said. “Who could have done this to her?”
“Maybe,” I broached, setting my backpack down on the recliner, “it was a natural death. A broken heart, maybe?”
One eyebrow arched and the other dipped. “You’re kidding, right?”
“That bad?”
“Worse. Know why she took such good care of this house? Because it was the only thing she had. It had been a wedding gift from our parents to Greta and Russ. The deed was in her name. Russ controlled everything else.”
“What about when he died? Didn’t he have savings? Life insurance?”
She sighed with disgust. “He left everything to a male heir. A distant cousin.” She must have seen the horror on my face. “Exactly.”
“Not even to his daughter?”
191
“Francie couldn’t stand him. Left at eighteen and never looked back. Broke Greta’s heart. Russ disowned Francie, acted as though she hadn’t existed.”
“And Greta stayed with him? Why?”
“I wish I knew, Miss Quinn. I really do.”
My image of Greta continued to change. From victim to villain, back to victim again.
It didn’t escape my notice that Greta was the one whose legacy was threatened by the HOA’s lawsuit. It twisted my thinking.
Had Russ been behind the blackmail at all? Or had Greta been the mastermind?
I needed to talk to Dale.
The design plans were fairly straightforward, and I could tell Noreen was pleased with them. We made plans to meet there at seven a.m. on Thursday morning to finish the job I’d started last week.
Something Noreen said triggered a question. “You said Russ left everything to a nephew?”
“Cousin.”
“Even his partnership in Growl?”
