“I know to you we’re just two spoiled rich women,” Katja added. “But you don’t have any idea what we’ve endured.”
“No, I don’t,” Gage replied, not knowing what else to say.
“Will you do it?” Katja asked.
“I’ll try.”
“You need to do more than try,” Ina countered. “A few days ago, I spoke to Thomas and he said mother isn’t doing well. What if she dies before she changes her will?”
“Then you two need to give me information that will convince her,” Gage demanded. “Talk is cheap. She’s not going to listen to me if I simply try to reason with her.”
“What information do you need?” Katja demanded.
“Instead of simply proclaiming your innocence, prove it. The only way I think she’ll change anything is if you can prove you didn’t do it.”
“The burden of proof shouldn’t be on us,” Ina griped. “There’s no evidence he was even killed. His doctor blamed his heart which, oh by the way, had been failing him for years.”
“His heart was a time bomb,” Katja added. “During his last few years, if he stood up, his ankles would fill up like water balloons.”
“I think you’ll need more than that,” Gage replied. “She already knows all those things.”
“Well, we were both on the estate the night he died,” Katja said. “So, how the hell do we prove we didn’t hurt him?”
“This kind of thing isn’t my specialty,” Gage answered. “Have either of you spoken to a lawyer?”
“Do you have any idea of how much money is at stake?” Ina asked.
“No, I don’t,” Gage replied, even though he knew it had to be a staggering amount, simply based on the estate.
“Well, if you knew,” Ina maintained, “then you’d know we’ve spoken to lawyers. And because of the way the estate was set up, there’s nothing we can do other than prove she’s incompetent. And, according to her, she’s already fixed it so that’s going to be impossible. Sure…a hundred lawyers want us to hire them to fight her will, but they just want years of fees.”
“Then, if I were you, I’d tell them the deal is contingent on getting the proper judgment. They don’t get paid if you don’t get paid.”
Ina rolled her eyes as if this were an elementary suggestion.
Katja wagged her index finger. “If our mother says she’s taken care of the competency question, then she’s taken care of it. No amount of lawyers will be able to undo her work.”
Gage couldn’t help himself. “I thought you both said she was crazy.”
“Don’t be cute,” Katja said. “There are plenty of brilliant people in the world whose minds are twisted.”
“Twisted?” Gage asked. “Does that make them crazy?”
Ina spoke next. “She’s screwing us over due to something she supposes. No proof has been presented. You have to admit that’s wrong.”
“This isn’t my place to judge,” Gage replied. He decided to twist the knife a bit. “Surely you’ve saved your money.” He let his eyes wander Katja’s home. “I can’t imagine what you spent on all this. Maybe you should think about getting jobs.”
“Don’t play silly little mind games with us,” Ina warned. “Out in the jungle with a rifle and a platoon, you might be in your element. But here, you’re way over your head.”
“We checked up on you,” Katja added.
“Okay. But if I’m so far over my head, then why do you want my help? You claim your mom is crazy—then you tell me she’s brilliant. You tell me I’m just a dumb soldier—but then you ask for my help.”
“I didn’t say you’re dumb,” Katja replied.
Gage averted his gaze out the window and did his best to ignore his growing frustration. “I can only help by speaking to your mother. I don’t know what else I can do unless you come up with something additional to help me convince her. And if you do, you have my word that I will help you as much as I possibly can.”
Surprisingly, the diamond-hard Ina began to cry. “Please help us. This is so wrong. It’s just wrong.”
“Get yourself together,” Katja hissed.
The Vogel ice was melting. It was time to go.
Gage stood and walked the way they’d come in. “I’ll do what I can. Please put your collective efforts towards giving me something to help sway your mother.”
He halfway expected to be stopped on his way out the door, but no one said another word to him. Outside, Gage stared up into the snowy sky, watching as the massive, wet flakes fell and swirled in a frenzy. On any other day it would have been beautiful.
Tramping across the snowy quadrangle, Gage ran everything he’d just heard through his mind. Despite his distaste for the Vogel daughters, every instinct in his body told him that they were telling the truth.
And because of that, he had to do something.
* * *
Once inside the manor, Gage went back upstairs and looked in on Claudia. She was sleeping deeply, something she did more of with each passing day. His mind still awash in the pleas he’d heard, he went into his room. Sheriff eyed Gage for a moment, eventually deciding that they’d be in here for a while, signified by his curling up in his bed and watching his owner with mild interest. Gage slid the moveable dry erase board from the closet, propping it on the dresser and staring at his scrawled notes. In the top center was a column Gage had titled “Persons on the Property.” These were the individuals who were on the estate at the time of Herr Vogel’s death:
1)Claudia (wife)
2)Katja (daughter)
3)Ina (daughter)
4)Thomas (caretaker)
5)Olga (nurse)
6)Marco (gate guard)
7)Peter (gate guard)
8)Ursula (kitchen staff)
Over the past five-plus weeks, Gage had spent a fair amount of time with each of these individuals—other
