“Of course,” they answered, and Irene took Ora Mae’s hand. Together, the old ladies made their way to the front to pay their last respects to Amos, and the others followed and gathered around the coffin.
“I wonder if he’s chuckling at what just happened,” Ruby mused.
“You know it,” Ora Mae said with a nod. “He just turned this town inside out and upside down.” She patted his hand. “You look right natural in your overalls, Amos, and your letter was real nice. I hope you heard me read every word that the preacher couldn’t. And ...” She leaned down and whispered, “And you’ll be pleased to know that folks all over town who couldn’t get out to the service just heard every word that was said.”
Irene giggled under her breath. “So much for what was in that letter staying in this sanctuary, huh?”
“That was kind of the purpose,” Ora Mae said. “Amos Landry just spoke from the grave.”
“Vengeance might belong to the lord, but Amos is an angel,” Jorja said under her breath. “I wonder how many other girls got drugged that night—or for that matter, any night before or since then.”
“Who knows,” Anna Rose said. “But this might give them the confidence to come forward.”
“Which one of you are the one those boys ...,” Irene asked. Concern was written all over her face, and Taryn could swear she saw smoke coming out of her ears. If her grandmother had a heart attack over this, Taryn vowed that Ford Chambers would do more than lose his reputation in town.
Jorja raised her hand. “That would be me, and I got pregnant. I lost the baby that first semester of school.”
“It’s about time he was brought to justice, even if it’s too late for a real court of law,” Ruby growled.
“He needs more justice than just this much.” Irene’s fingers clutched her handbag till her bony knuckles turned white.
Who would have ever thought that a small country funeral would turn out this way?Taryn thought.
Chapter Sixteen
This is Mr.Terrance James,” Ora Mae said, introducing the lawyer when they were all in the fellowship hall.
Mr.James—a short, baldheaded man, with gold-rimmed spectacles that he wore halfway down on his nose—beamed at them. Taryn wondered whether this was the wildest case he’d had to date. His briefcase was open on the table in front of him, and several copies of legal papers were lined up beside it. “Thank you, Ora Mae. There seems to be enough chairs around the table for us all to sit down.”
Ora Mae took a seat beside the lawyer, and Jorja sat down beside her. Irene and Ruby chose to sit on the other side of him at the long table. Taryn joined her cousins, and Clinton sat across from them. Linda’s expression suggested she’d rather be sitting beside a rattlesnake, but she and Diana finally took their places at the end of the line—Diana sitting beside Clinton, and Linda at the very end. Diana kept shifting her eyes toward the door, like she couldn’t make up her mind whether to continue to fill in for her best friend or make a mad dash away from what was about to go down.
“This won’t take long. Amos was very adamant in his wishes.” Mr.James slid a thick copy of the will across the table. “This is for you, Mrs.Sullivan. Ora Mae delivered these young ladies’ copies to them yesterday. You don’t need the one from Ora Mae.”
“Why, oh why”—Linda swiped a tear from her cheek—“would he tell lies on my son-in-law and leave what is rightfully mine to these ...” She shot dirty looks around the table.
Taryn leaned around Clinton and looked the woman right in her shifty eyes. “These what, Linda?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Linda hissed.
“Be careful,” Irene said. “You might find yourself wading into waters too deep for you to swim out of.”
Linda’s hoity-toity gaze landed on Irene. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you should have been nicer to Amos, and it also means that Ford needs to be held accountable for what he did. The fallout from today will be your comeuppance for thinking you are better than your own kin and better than my granddaughters,” Irene answered.
Linda crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “Those are all lies from an old man who didn’t know what he was talking about.”
The lawyer cleared his throat and went on, “I’m not here to determine what is truth or not. I’m just here to deliver Amos’s will to you and the money he is leaving you. You will find one dollar attached to your copy. All of Amos Landry’s property goes to these three cousins. Ora Mae is giving her house and one acre, which makes up her estate, to them after her death. Are there any questions?”
Linda picked up the copy lying in front of her and stood with such force that the metal chair she had been sitting on flipped over and hit the floor, sending an echo bouncing around the whole room. “I’m not taking your word for this being ironclad—I’m going to have my own lawyer take a look at it.”
“Please do, but you will be wasting your money,” Mr.James told her. “You each have one of my cards attached to your copy of the will. If you have questions or need me for anything else, just call.”
Taryn raised her hand. “I have a question: When can we take possession?”
“Right now,” he said as he snapped his briefcase.
Ora Mae clapped her hands and then did a fist pump. “Does that mean you are all going to live on the farm?”
