Chapter 62

With his two loves looking over his arms, Hawk was trying to rapidly make sense of the headline. Brenda’s cell phone began ringing; she didn’t recognize the calling number displayed on the screen. “Hello,” Brenda answered.

“How’s my favorite Niece this morning? Did you like my present under your door this morning?”

Brenda exclaimed, “Aunt Beth! What’s going on? Where are you?”

“The whole gang is downstairs, but we can’t get past your security guard. We also have a big breakfast ready for room service to bring up.”

“Hang on a minute, Aunt Beth.”

Placing the phone on mute Brenda explained, “Aunt Beth and her gang are downstairs and they’ve room service waiting to bring breakfast; I’m assuming the food will be for them as well as for us. Also, the newspaper is from them, which means they can probably fill us in on the details. What should I tell them? I don’t even know how they knew where to find us.”

“How long will it take you girls to be ready for company?”

Maria responded, “We don’t have any extra clothes, or any makeup other than what’s in our purses. I can just get a quick shower and use the same clothes from yesterday until we can get back to the ranch. What about you, Bren?

“The same. Would you say twenty minutes?”

“I think that will work, especially if we don’t try to shower together. There are just too many distractions for when we’re in a hurry.”

“Aw shucks!” pouted Hawk playfully.

“Didn’t you get enough loving last night?” asked Brenda.

“When it comes to loving from you two, it’s like J. Paul Getty said when asked how much money was enough.”

“And what was his answer?” asked Maria.

“Just a little bit more,” laughed Hawk.

“Go get your shower, you sex glutton.”

“No, ladies first.”

“OK, you’ve shown us you’re a gentleman. Now, stop procrastinating and get your shower.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Hawk tried to look pitiful as he headed toward the bathroom. The two throw pillows following him down the hallway sent the message it hadn’t worked. While Hawk was in the shower, Maria advised the security team about the food and people who would be arriving in a few minutes. When she returned to the bathroom Hawk was drying off, and Brenda had just climbed into the shower. Looking at the bathroom counter, she found her clothes from yesterday neatly folded next to those of her sister-wife. With a little effort and a lot of cooperation, the three were ready with about three minutes to spare. They used that time to free up the tables and straighten the living room. Most of that task involved moving the white boards and notes from the previous evening’s meeting to a remote corner of the bedroom. When they finished, the three relaxed on the sofa until the food and favored guests arrived. Hawk sat between his two wives and held them both close to his chest. Their relationship had progressed to the point where one could almost sense one beating heart, rather than three.

Brenda answered the knock at the door. Hawk and Maria stood at her side; it was her Aunt, after all. The first to enter were the hotel staff, pushing several carts of food and beverages. Following them were Beth and Zed Andrews, Deke Templeton, and Elizabeth Johnson. This was the group that had listened to Brenda’s story about the hostage situation and had been the first to officially question John’s guilt.

After the hotel staff left there were hugs all around while everyone moved toward the food on the table. Before anyone started Brenda asked Zed to grace the table. Once it was said, those around the table attacked the waiting food. Other than when he was working on a programming problem, patience had never been one of Hawk’s strong points, so he finally asked, “Beth, can you enlighten us as to what is going on with this morning’s headlines?”

Zed grinned, and said, “I told you he’d be the first to break.”

“You were right,” replied Beth. “I was surprised Brenda even let us in the door without asking.”

Brenda laughed, and said, “I almost didn’t.”

Zed stopped eating for a moment as he reached over and took Beth’s hand. Smiling happily, he said, “There’s one announcement we need to make before we get into the news story. Beth has agreed to become Missus Zed Andrews.”

Brenda’s eyes lit up and she made a small shout of joy as she jumped out of her chair and ran around the table to hug her Aunt. Verbal congratulations followed from Hawk and Maria. This was truly joyful news for the entire group. Once the pandemonium calmed and everyone returned to their places Beth said softly, “Thank you all. Your approval and love means a lot to both of us. Now, in response to Hawk’s original question, I’m going to let Deke tell the story, or at least start it.”

“Hawk,” Deke began, “do you remember bringing up the question of how Candice got the visible part of your estate in spite of the prenuptial agreement?”

“Sure. I think it was during our very first meeting. You were still the Assistant Attorney General at the time.”

“Well, I did what I promised, and I raised the question. It bounced around for weeks before eventually coming to rest on the desk of the local District Attorney. In his inherent sense of right and wrong, neither your conviction for Candice’s boss’ murder, nor your subsequent ‘death, ‘ mattered in this situation. As he saw it that prenuptial agreement still controlled Candice’s access to your assets so he started an investigation. After one delaying tactic after another the DA finally had to threaten her attorney with charges of contempt and conspiracy before he was given the supporting document used to take over your known assets. It was an agreement modification signed by you, canceling the prenuptial agreement.”

“I never signed such an agreement!” Hawk stated emphatically.

“We know,” answered Beth. “Even without a handwriting expert it was obvious to everyone it was a forgery.”

“Beth’s right,” Deke added, “it was an obvious forgery, and the angry DA immediately placed the information before the currently seated grand jury. This is rather unusual, but he was urged to do so by the judge who approved the modification as well as granting the final divorce decree.”

“Why did he get involved?” asked Maria.

“Both of his decisions were based upon his clerk’s assurance of the validity of the signatures. When the DA presented the evidence, the judge went ballistic at the realization he’d been betrayed.”

“Does that nullify the divorce?” asked a concerned Maria.

“Maria, I seriously doubt it unless John appealed the decision. Thus, it’s a moot point unless John decides to return to the living.”

Hugging both wives close Hawk answered, “Deke, John is dead. Let’s leave him buried.”

Both of his women smiled brightly, looked at each other for a moment and then each softly whispered, “Thank you,” into an ear.

While she was at it Maria tickled his ear with the tip of her tongue. Hawk shook in response, and Brenda realized Maria had done something playful to their husband. In response, she playfully slapped her sister-wife’s wrist, and said, “Now, you behave.”

Hawk gave both of them a short kiss on the cheek, and asked, “So Deke, what happened after that, and why weren’t we kept informed?”

“Actually, I wasn’t even informed of what was happening until later. The first hint I had of what was going on was when the DA directed the estate to sue Candice for the funds that had been fraudulently taken. It turns out the clerk who certified the forgeries pled to a lesser sentence and turned ‘states evidence.’ Her testimony resulted in the attorney being disbarred, as well as Candice being indicted for a long list of related crimes.”

“I bet that made her happy,” remarked Brenda.

“Actually, we don’t know. She failed to answer any of the charges.”

“Really? I guess from what else we’ve heard I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Bren, I wouldn’t be either,” added Hawk.

Deke continued, “Well, it didn’t make the judge very happy, either, and she ruled Candice could be tried in absentia, but with the right to appeal within a specified time period.”

“Deke, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing,” remarked Brenda.

“I haven’t either, but the judge, with assistance from the judge who handled the divorce, linked the case to the divorce proceedings and used a little known procedure to claim Candice had waived her right to face her accusers. It didn’t take the jury long to convict her of all charges.”

“What was her sentence?” asked Brenda.

“Eight to fifteen,” responded Deke.

“And the civil suit by the estate?”

“With the criminal conviction our civil case was a slam-dunk. As of ten weeks ago we’ve legal claim on all her assets within this country, or anywhere in the world that has agreements with the US covering such things. Since we didn’t know where she was, or the location of any of her assets, I didn’t say anything. Beside, you had other issues on your mind.”

“Deke, I understand how we got this far, but how does that lead to this morning’s headline?”

“Just be patient, Hawk,” encouraged Beth. “This is a complex story.”

“I’ll try, but remember, I don’t consider patience a virtue.”

Elizabeth Johnson, who’d been quietly sitting there, laughingly said, “He’ll go nuts when either of his wives are about to deliver a baby.”

Maria kissed Hawk’s cheek, and said, “Don’t you know it! I definitely plan on having one of the security team drive us to the hospital.”

“Aw. You don’t have to go that far. I’ll really work on it.”

“You’d better, or the first you’ll hear about your son will be in an email,” laughed Brenda.

Hawk tried to look sternly at his two wives. Unfortunately, he was a complete failure, bringing out a laugh from everyone. Even Hawk was laughing as he said, “OK, Deke, please continue.”

“At first, we tried to put more and more pressure on Candice’s lawyer. Eventually, we discovered his only means of contacting Candice was an email address and a postal drop in New York, and she wasn’t responding to anything sent to either. Anyway, we continued to work on the New York City link, sending registered letters and legal notices to the postal drop and passing various news releases to some of the New York Papers. We even paid to have some of the articles placed in prominent spots in the papers.”

At this point Deke nodded to Elizabeth Johnson and she took up the story. “Hawk,” she asked, “do you remember Constance Taylor?”

“Vaguely,” he responded. “Didn’t she run the cafeteria? She always seemed mad at me, but I never knew why.”

“Hawk, this gets rather convoluted, so please bear with me.”

“I’ll try.”

“Seven or eight years ago Constance, or Connie, was Candice’s secretary. About a year before the murder Connie lost a daughter to SIDS. Between her husband’s angry accusations and her depression Connie was a wreck. Candice tried to help her employee with some form of drug-induced hypnosis, but before she accomplished the task Candice and William Brockman’s affair became more serious.”

“In what way?” asked Brenda.

“Always the schemer, William saw the approaching visit of his little known twin, a missionary in East Africa, as a way to escape the threat of the wolves who were gathering at his door.”

“What wolves?” asked Hawk.

“It seems Mister Brockman was laundering money for the mob as well as one of the Colombian Cartels, and a sizable amount of money was missing. On top of this some of his land speculations were beginning to fail, and he was under investigation for securities fraud and bribery. He reasoned if he ‘died’ and became his twin he could walk away from it all.”

“What a heartless bastard!” exclaimed Maria. “Compared to him, Robert’s and my parents were ‘angels.’“

“And Candice was no better,” commented Doctor Johnson. “She convinced William to also use this as a means to get John out of her life and to bypass the now famous prenuptial agreement.”

Doctor Johnson’s throat was suddenly dry. When she stopped to drink some water Deke continued. “In their intricate plan you were supposed to pick her up from work, where you were to catch her boss, or the drugged unsuspecting twin, appearing to rape her. When you arrived, she shot Brockman’s brother several times.”

“How did that move to Hawk, I mean John, being the killer?” asked Brenda.

To read this story you need a Registration + Premier Membership
If you have an account, then please Log In or Register (Why register?)

Support the author's future writing by purchasing this book from Bookapy

The Hawk and the Chipmunk

Mike Lowe aka The Scot

$5.95