He didn’t even know what to think about that.
“I just read that, but I haven’t looked for more.”
“See if anything is attached to it, will you?”
“Hang on a minute,” she said.
Baylor stood outside their vehicle, studying the surrounding area. It was a bright and clear day, and he was casually leaning up against a wall. He and Hudson were watching for any traffic going in and out of Horton’s apartment. This was now the family apartment. It was in a much older district, more for families. As a stranger, Baylor stood out, but then so did this vehicle.
As Gizella came back on the line, he heard tapping on the laptop. “There is an attachment,” she said, “on my mother’s email.” He waited while she brought it up, then gasped again. “It’s life insurance,” she said.
“And who’s the payee?”
“Well, it’s to my father, I’m sure,” she said, bewildered.
“And is it? Read through and double-check.”
She kept reading and said, “That’s it,” she said very quietly. “He is the beneficiary. I think Dane may be right. My father may have done this.”
As Baylor stood here, studying the world around him, his mind tried to formulate a response. “Done what?”
“Dane and I were just wondering if my father had a hand in this whole kidnapping thing.”
“Why would he?”
“There’s a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on her, but it covers any cancer, as she didn’t have it when she set up the policy, but it pays out double if not from the cancer, like if death is accidental …” she said, reading parts of the policy out loud to him.
“Interesting.”
“Yes, it does talk about other types of death, such as murder.”
“But she wasn’t murdered though,” he said quietly. “She died in the hospital.”
“Right,” she said, frustration in her voice.
And he could understand that.
“But maybe it was intended that she would die, at the hands of the kidnappers.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, since she was clearly so sick anyway and had such few days to live.”
“Except for doubling the payout, so some greedy person might find that compelling. I know I’m going off the deep end here. For all his shortcomings, I really don’t think my father had anything to do with the kidnapping. And Mom attached this to my email, so she knew about it. And he is her beneficiary. And she wanted me to know that too.”
At that, Dane asked to see it. “If it’s okay, I’ll open the attachment from the copy you sent.”
“Of course,” she said. “No secrets here.”
“Okay, thanks. Oh boy. You still there, Baylor? Gizella, look carefully, and you’ll see that it also says, in lieu of your father being alive, that you are the recipient.” She stared at him in shock, then scrolled down to where it said, in case beneficiary was deceased, and a second beneficiary was named, and she was it.
“So, he dies five minutes before Mom, so now I’m the beneficiary?”
“Yes,” Dane said. At that, Baylor chimed in from the other end of the phone and said, “Okay, we need to make even more of a point to be sure you stay safe.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” she cried out.
“And it could also be that it’s not related in any way,” he said. “Maybe she’s asking you to forgive her because she left life insurance to him, realizing he would be in trouble financially in some way.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I have no idea.”
“Baylor, take a second to scan the note that just came,” Dane said.
After a few moments, Baylor came back on the line. “Gizella, apparently your father was in danger of losing his job. There was a corruption scandal gaining steam, and there was talk of him not being able to continue.”
“And, if my mother would have known that,” she said, with a note of understanding, “she would have set up the life insurance to save him,” she said, blinking back tears. “Jesus,” she said. “The things that we do for the people we love.”
“And remember,” Baylor said into the phone, “love takes many forms and is very enduring in some cases. She loved him right to the end, and that was one of the last gifts she could give him.”
“Right,” she said, “but it didn’t work out that way.”
“No, but she would be okay with the way it is anyway,” he said, “because you were the next person that she loved the most.”
“She also knew that I would not have been on board with her giving him money,” she said. “He didn’t treat her well during the marriage, much less during the divorce,” she said. “So I was against anything she had to do with him.”
“Well, now it’s not an issue, but we’ll have to find out if your father had anything else going on in his world.”
“If he would put his position as governor in jepordy, I can see that he would have been extremely persuasive in trying to get her to do something for him. And they would have done it without contacting me,” she confirmed.
“Which is why she didn’t ask for your opinion or for your approval, and likely why, now that she’s gone, she’s asking your permission in a way.”
“Jesus,” she said. “I wouldn’t have wanted her to even be worried about that part,” she murmured.
“So maybe just trust her,” he said. “Trust that she did everything with the right thoughts in mind.”
“Right thoughts for a man who didn’t love her?” she said.
“Right thoughts for a man who may have taken a sideways step and had finally come to terms with having done something he regretted.”
“Maybe,” she said, her voice harsh.
At that, Baylor looked around his surroundings and said, “I’ve got to go.”
“Why?” Dane asked.
“A light just came on in the apartment.” With that, he disconnected, sent Hudson a quick message about it, then pocketed his phone. Just as he walked up the hallway to the family apartment, another door opened across from the apartment, and an
