“Well, maybe I have it here still,” she said. “I’m never too far from it.”
“Well, Nan, if it’s still in the house, you’re quite far away from it,” Doreen said gently.
“Oh, that’s okay,” she said. “Nobody will care about all that stuff in there anyway, at least not until I’m gone.”
“Is it damaging information?” Doreen asked slowly. She hadn’t a clue what her Nan was up to.
“Well, for some people it probably is,” Nan said with certainty. “I did have fun over the years collecting stuff.”
“Are there any valuables in it?”
“Not that one,” Nan said. “The other one has valuables.”
Doreen reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Nan, are you saying you have two safety deposit boxes?”
“Yep, I sure do,” she said. “Maybe more. I’ll look. I did write all that stuff down. I showed it to you, didn’t I?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Doreen said. “I don’t think you gave me any list of bank accounts or anything like that.”
“I surely did,” Nan said crossly. “I think you’ve just forgotten.”
“Well, it’s possible,” Doreen said. “If I did, I’m sorry. It’s not triggering, but then I have seen an awful lot of paperwork lately.”
Nan chuckled. “That’s exactly what you saw,” she said. “I gave you that stack of paperwork to scan in for me. Remember?”
And, in fact, Doreen did remember. “That’s right,” she said. “I’d forgotten about that. But I didn’t look at that stuff. It was yours.”
“Foolish child,” Nan said. “That had everything. The bank accounts, my lawyer, and I think the will was in there too.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I don’t remember.”
“Well, you sent a digital copy to me, so you can take a look at what you have,” she said, “because it’s there somewhere.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I’ll search for it.”
“Do that then. Because you know something? If I happen to be the next little old gray-haired lady who drops dead, you’ll have to deal with my estate.”
And, on that note, Nan hung up, leaving Doreen staring in shock at her phone.
Chapter 10
Sunday Late Morning …
Doreen walked inside her house, ignoring the temptation to return to the crime scene at Rosemoor, knowing they would be winding down now since the coroner had shown up. She knew Mack would arrive here soon anyway. A bit of coffee was left, but it was cold, so she put it in a large mug and put it in the fridge to drink later, if it ended up being a hot day. Then she put on a fresh pot. She was more disturbed than she wanted to be by Nan’s parting words.
The fact that Nan had multiple safety deposit boxes, and one was full of all kinds of mysteries bothered her more than she had expected, but even worse was Nan’s comment about being the next gray-haired lady to drop dead—although Nan had gone to dying her hair this lavender hue lately. But Doreen didn’t know if that was in response to the ladies who were dropping dead. Even if Doreen thought some typecasting might be going on here, Nan wouldn’t be that type.
But, for all the people who loved Nan, Doreen was sure some didn’t love her. Just her gambling alone put her on the wrong side for a lot of people. Doreen loved Nan because of who she was to her, and Doreen didn’t care about the rest, but not everybody looked at it that way. And wasn’t that sad too because Nan was a very special person. It didn’t change anything as far as who she was or wasn’t, but the fact of the matter was, the thought of losing Nan was enough to depress Doreen thoroughly. She’d only just found her grandmother again, and Doreen didn’t want to miss out on sharing any more time with her. It was still on her thoughts when a hard rattle came at her door.
Startled, she turned to look up as Mack stepped inside. He frowned at her. “What’s the matter?” His voice was harsher than he expected as it immediately gentled, and he said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, but you look like you’re upset.”
She waved her phone at him. “It’s Nan,” she said. “Just that the last thing she said to me was that I needed to know about some safety deposit boxes and other stuff in case she ended up being the next little old lady who drops dead.”
Mack’s frown was instantaneous and broad. “I don’t think she’d be the next one. There’s no reason to think that.”
“But the fact of the matter is,” Doreen said, “you don’t know. That’s four little old ladies now. Four. Yes, one death isn’t suspicious on its own, unless by other facts. But possibly two similar deaths could be connected. And three is a stretch to believe they aren’t connected, not with all the female victims being roughly the same age and with the presence of the kiwis. But a fourth death, so much like the previous three, all in just a matter of days? No way are those four deaths not connected. That is an impossibility. They are connected. You know that.”
“I do,” he said. “And we’ll put some security on Rosemoor, but that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with—”
“It’s still pretty horrific to think about,” she whispered.
He nodded gently. “It is. But I’m sure Nan has a lot of outspoken years left to survive,” he said jokingly.
She smiled through the sudden wash of tears in her eyes. She brushed them away impatiently. “You know what? I woke up tired this morning, but that conversation with her just set me off on a downward spiral.”
“Well then, let’s grab coffee and sit out in the sun,” he said.
“Do you have to go back to work?”
“No, not at the moment,” he said. “It’s technically my day off, and other people will be there.”
“What about investigating the death?”
“Forensics is still on the scene. We’ve got one team doing the notification.”
“I thought you would have done it,”
