About an hour and a half later, while she was still doing research into garden contests and basic local fairs held in Kelowna, Nan called. “Good morning, Nan,” Doreen said cheerfully.
“Glad you’re so bright and cheerful,” Nan said. “Goodness. I didn’t sleep very well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Doreen said in a commiserating voice. “It’s hard when you have a tough night, isn’t it?”
“It so is,” she said. “Particularly at this place. Everybody is all abuzz about the new will.”
“The trouble is, none of us know what’s in it,” Doreen answered.
“But you took a picture,” Nan said hopefully. “Can’t you tell?”
“I meant to download it onto my computer and see if I could blow it up enough to read it,” she said. “But right now, I can’t see it on my phone at all.”
“Well, do it,” Nan said, “and then call me back.” She hung up.
Realizing what a lousy effect Doreen was having on her normally very polite and proper Nan, Doreen plugged her phone into the computer and downloaded the photos that she’d taken. She opened them up on her laptop, but the will still had pretty horrid lighting. Granted, she had taken the snap quickly before Mack could stop her. Changing the shading ever-so-slightly, she could see that several charities were mentioned and so was Rosemoor. That one was a surprise. So Rosie did have money or assets to pass on? But what she didn’t see in there anywhere was any mention of the nasty grandson. She knew Mack would be really pissed if she said anything to anyone about the will, but she wasn’t exactly sure what to say to Nan. Just as she figured she should contact Nan, Mack called her back.
“Now that I’m awake,” he said, “I did warn you about not sharing any of the information from yesterday. Correct?” And his tone brooked absolutely no argument.
“Nan has already called me this morning,” she said, “wondering what was in the will.”
“Well, if you tell her, we’ll have a problem,” Mack said.
“I won’t tell her,” she said. “Can I tell her what’s not in it though?”
“I’d appreciate it if you don’t,” he said. “Not until we get to the bottom of this. You don’t want to cause anybody else to flare up. What if Nan were to go to Danny and say, ‘Hi, you’re not in the will.’ He might retaliate and hurt Nan.”
Doreen winced at that. “I guess there’s no way to judge the temper of an ill-mannered young pup like that, is there?” she said.
“I’m also still trying to figure out,” Mack said, “exactly what Rosie’s assets were.”
“Good point,” she said. “Especially considering she’s leaving some of it to Rosemoor.”
“Right,” he said. “And that’s not necessarily unusual, but we have to make sure that nobody at Rosemoor forced her to write that will.”
She gasped. “Okay. I won’t say anything,” she said. “And that’s a good point.”
“Absolutely it is,” he said. “That’s why cops are handling this. Remember?” And he hung up.
Chapter 18
Monday Midmorning …
Several hours later—that Doreen had spent buried in research—the doorbell rang. She hopped up with Mugs barking like a crazy man, and she scolded him. “What kind of a guard dog are you that we have to wait until they ring the doorbell?” But he wasn’t interested in answering her and was simply jumping all over the front door. She opened the wooden door to see one of the guys who had been here on the weekend. “Hey, Harry,” she said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I got off work early, and I wanted to come see how the deck was doing. I can’t walk around because the sidewalk isn’t ready for that yet.”
She opened the screen door for him and said, “Come on in. We can go through the kitchen, but can we walk on the deck? I haven’t even stepped out there yet because I wasn’t sure I was allowed to.”
He chuckled. “Depends on the coating we put on,” he said, “but it was pretty tacky dry last night. It should be more than fine to walk on it now.” She led the way through the kitchen to the deck. As soon as the back door was open, he crouched down, reached out, and touched it with his hands. He nodded and immediately stepped on it.
She gasped yet followed him in her bare feet. It was still damp from all the times the concrete had been wetted down. She walked around, admiring the deck and feeling such joy in her heart. “It’s absolutely stunning,” she said warmly.
“You know what? It’s pretty nice,” he said with a nod. “We left you some garden space by that patio, once we get the framework off. That’ll really make this gorgeous.”
“I’m so in love with this,” she said, and she couldn’t stop beaming. She looked down at the wood. “We have to do a second coat though, I think. Right?”
“Yes,” he said. “And it looks like it’s ready to be done too.”
“But we wear it down with sand first, don’t we?”
Harry chuckled. “Indeed, we do. And I don’t know if the paint brushes and rollers survived overnight. If they were treated properly, they’ll be fine.”
She looked at him in surprise and then pointed at the stuff sitting at the bottom of the steps on a board that crossed over the sidewalk. “As far as I know, it’s all there.”
He walked down to the bottom step and quickly scooped it all up and checked it. “Yeah, it’s perfectly good,” he said. “Maybe an hour or two hours to do this, max.”
“Seriously?” She stared in surprise. “I thought it would take a lot longer.”
“The second coat goes on much faster,” he said. “You may want a third coat on the top of the railings, although I don’t know for sure.
