“But what?” Chet asked.
“But this is a surprise to us all. A terrible surprise.”
Duncan scoffed.
Downes said, “It’s a huge estate.”
“With huge problems,” Beauville said.
“No,” Nicolson countered. “There shouldn’t be any real problems.”
“Of course there are,” Beauville said. “There always are.”
“As you know,” Nicolson said, “your dad was a very well organized man.”
Jack saw Fletch watching Corso. The Lieutenant evinced no intention of breaking in, taking control of this discussion, beginning his questioning. He seemed to have settled in his brown shoes and green trousers like a cop on a corner content to watch the human comedy.
Alixis sniffed loudly.
“But he was reasonably young and very healthy and did not know he was going to die last night,” Nicolson said.
“What is your point?” Chet asked.
The baby at Amy’s breast slurped.
“Settling this estate is going to take a lot of time,” Nicolson said. “Two, three years, at least.”
“While you lawyers dine out on it,” Alixis said.
“Right,” Chet said. “While you each make your life’s fortune off it. You’ll take the rest of our lives to settle the estate. Build your hours. Generate paperwork. Misfile papers. Make wrong motions. You won’t get away with it. I won’t let you.”
Duncan said, “How much do I get? When do I get it? I’ve got things to do.”
Alixis said, “Duncan, we all want to get away from here.”
From behind her veil, Mrs. Radliegh inquired, “Do any of you intend to stay for the funeral?”
Jack heard a noise behind him and turned around.
Shana stood there.
Her face looked like that of an eagle. Her eyes seemed entirely protruding pupils. Her jaw was set to hold a beak.
Standing behind Fletch, Corso and Jack, she was looking around them, watching the people in the living area, listening to them.
She did not glance at Jack’s face.
Amalie Radliegh said, “I think we should bury him out by the laundry yard. You know, where the maids air out the sheets?”
“The point is,” Nicolson said, “there is only one hundred thousand dollars in available cash.”
Alixis gasped. “A hundred thousand dollars?”
“It’s mine,” Duncan said loudly. “I have to have it for my new racing car!”
“Like hell, Duncan,” Amy said. “My children come first!”
“I already owe eighty five thousand dollars!” Duncan said.
Amy resettled the baby at her breast. “My children are the only grandchildren of Chester Radliegh. They come first. And they always will.”
Amalie Radliegh said, “You know how Chester always liked his sheets aired out.”
Alixis said, “To hell with you both. I need to set up a place in California.”
Duncan said, “I don’t care what any of you say. I need to pay this bill, or the car won’t get finished in time to race.”
“Now you’ll all get allowances from the estate,” Nicolson said. “Adequate allowances. It will take a little while to set them up.”
“Allowance,” Chet said. “Lot of good that will do. You mean us all to stay here?”
“Why not?” Downes asked. “Until things get set up.”
“Well, I claim the apartment in New York,” Chet said. “And the rest of you can stay out.”
“No one wants to live with you, Chet baby,” Alixis said. “But I do need to buy a place in Malibu. I’ve been promising it to myself.”
Red-faced, Beauville seemed to be talking to the floor. “Well, I’m fed up for sure. Don’t look to me to run the company. I’m gone as soon as I get a decent offer.”
A telephone rang. Nancy Dunbar reached from the divan and answered it. “Hello?”
“We’ve all suffered enough, this place. Everybody spying,” Alixis said.
“I see.” Nancy Dunbar hung up. She had not said, “I’ll take care of it.”
Nancy said, “A child was just run over outside the General Store. Hit by a car. A six-year-old boy. He was killed.”
“To hell with your brats!” Duncan exploded at Amy. “And you!” he said to Alixis. “It would be good to be rid of you. Talk about spyin’! But you’re not taking my money just to build yourself a human stud farm in Malibu!”
Alixis snickered. “Oouh. How’d you guess?”
“Damned nympho,” Duncan said.
“Druggy,” Alixis said.
“Where is Chester now?” Amalie Radliegh asked. “Where did they put him?”
“I don’t know what to say to you all,” Nicolson said.
“You’ve said it all.” Chet stood up. “I’m going. I’ll leave the jet at Atlanta airport, if anybody cares.”
“We need some cooperation here, a little understanding.” Nicolson was pleading. “We’ve got to find a way of being fair!”
Then Shana stepped around Fletch, Corso, and Jack. She moved toward the center of the living area.
Her face was as red as the setting sun.
“You murderers!” she screamed. Her right fist was up. “You’re all murderers! Every one of you! Each one of you murdered Chester as surely as if you had driven a knife through his heart!”
Chet looked at her curiously.
“Ah, shut up,” Duncan said.
“Why is she yelling?” Amalie Radliegh said. “She’ll wake the dead.”
To Amalie Radliegh, Shana said, “You did everything you could to make him miserable, every minute. You never tried to understand him! You just stayed in your room, taking pills, drinking by yourself, weeping, telling everybody how miserable you are! Love? Hell! You never even took responsibility. Did you ever try to teach your children to respect their father? To understand him?”
“I never understood him myself,” Amalie said. “It was too much work. Well, it was impossible. The man would talk about anything from ants to spaceships.”
“Did you ever listen to him?”
“I did. At first. It wore me out. Are there ants in space, do you suppose? They’re everywhere else.”
In a lower voice, hands on hips, Shana said, “You’ve all been trying to kill Chester. Each and every damned one of you.”
“I haven’t,” Amy said. “I’ve made my life.” To Nicolson she asked, “There’s no way Vindemia is to be sold, is there?”
“Who’d buy it?” Duncan asked. “Who’d want it?”
Beauville answered, “I expect new corporate officers will want to move headquarters out of here. Who wants to live in this hellhole?”
“I do,” Amy said. “My children do. I expect this place to continue.”
“You’ll be mighty lonely here,” Chet said.
“There’s Mother,” Amy said. “She’ll stay. Where could she go?”
“That’s what I mean,” Chet said. “You’ll be mighty lonely.”
“Paying the servants comes first,” Nicolson said. “Three have already resigned,” Nancy Dunbar said.
“They have?” Downes asked.
“They’re waiting for their checks in the kitchen,” she said. “I forgot to tell you.”
“Nobody’s writing any checks on that money!” Duncan said. “I have an emergency. I wrote Dad a memo.”
