I had not looked at Willis’s persona quite that way. It never occurred to me that there was underlying damage that fed his need to be in charge. But Dolores had, and I supposed she thought her love could help him heal.
She took a long sip of tea and continued. “As a second wife, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did have some fear that Willis would either consciously or unconsciously compare me to Claudia and I would fall short. All during our courtship it never happened, and by the time we married I was relaxed, secure that Willis loved me and that I was not competing with a woman I’d never met.”
Dolores described conquering something that I couldn’t even imagine. I thought her ability to recognize the problem and face it head-on was remarkable, and I said so.
“One day Willis showed me a hand-tooled leather jewelry box, which I thought he’d bought especially for me until I lifted the lid. You can imagine my shock when I saw the name Claudia inscribed in gold on the inside. Even worse, there was jewelry, lots of expensive jewelry. Willis wrongly thought that he could just transfer the diamonds and emeralds from one wife to another. I practically threw the jewelry box in his face. I asked why he hadn’t given it to Emily.”
“Yes,” I said, “I would wonder that myself. They were her mother’s jewels.”
“As I’m sure you could tell, there was no love lost between Willis and Clancy. Willis never trusted him and always hoped Emily would end the marriage. But if that happened the jewels would be part of a divorce settlement, and that would have driven Willis insane. Of course, after Emily’s untimely death . . .”
I was getting a clear picture. “Willis kept the jewels, and when you married he thought they should become yours.”
Dolores nodded. “Exactly. He even offered to have the stones reset for me. He’d actually made an appointment for us to visit Morgana’s, the most exclusive jewelers in the state of South Carolina, to see what they could design for me. Can you imagine?”
Actually, I could imagine. Willis Nickens was nothing if not a take-charge kind of man. Once he got an idea, I am sure it would be hard for him to let it go. I still wasn’t quite sure where the fight came into the story. “Dolores, what led to the huge battle?”
“Honestly, Jess, haven’t you heard a word I said? It was the jewelry. How could Willis expect me to take those expensive gems and have them put in what he called ‘modern settings’ when he had a perfectly adorable granddaughter who should inherit her grandmother’s jewelry intact? When she is grown she can make her own decisions as to settings and all that. Maybe a grown-up Abby would actually prefer to have her grandmother’s jewelry in the original settings. You know how tastes change from generation to generation and back again.”
Now I was thoroughly confused. “But the argument? I still don’t see a cause for an argument.”
“That’s because you didn’t get to know Willis well enough. He had an idea that he thought was brilliant and he wouldn’t let it go. I told him that his mistrust of Clancy was clouding his judgment. He told me I did not know anything about dealing with duplicitous people. I reminded him that I’d had two duplicitous husbands before I met him. And it went on from there.” Dolores laughed. “I locked myself in my room and only Marla Mae was allowed to enter. He cracked in the middle of the second day.”
Now I was laughing, too. “I suppose you won?”
“Yes, I did. The whole enchilada, as they say. We agreed that he would hold on to the jewels and present them to Abby on some significant day—perhaps a special birthday, college graduation, engagement—a day to be determined in the future.”
I thought back to what I had overheard during Willis and Clancy’s heated discussion the night Willis died. It was no wonder Willis had been so confident that Dolores would always put Abby first. She had certainly proved herself.
“And now?” I hated to bring up Willis’s death, but that had changed everything.
Dolores’s face clouded. “I would have to check, but I think Willis made arrangements that if anything happened to him, Abby would receive the jewels on her twenty-fifth birthday. I think some bank is the custodian until then. Something like that. Marcus will know.”
“Yes, I am sure Marcus can answer a lot of our questions. One I have is about a folder I found in Willis’s file cabinet. Have you ever heard of Quartermaster Industries?”
Chapter Sixteen
Before Dolores could answer we heard a tap on the kitchen door, and then it opened. Elton stuck his head between the door and the jamb, just far enough that I could see his blue and green striped bow tie.
“Don’t mean to disturb.” His broad smile was infectious. “I just want to let you know that I have set up in the library, and that is where you’ll find me, at your service, whenever needed.”
I was sure Lucinda had provided a delicious lunch, but, half teasing, I asked, “Did you manage to find something good to eat in the kitchen?”
“Sure ’nuff. I had a fried catfish sandwich on thick slices of Lucinda’s homemade sourdough bread. Mmm-hmm. Don’t get better than that. Oh, Mrs. Fletcher, Marla Mae said you left your cell phone on the kitchen counter and it pinged a text message just now. You want me to get it for you?”
I looked at Dolores. “Would you mind excusing me for a few minutes?”
“Not at all. Go ahead—I’ll just
