“I know nothing about them. I’m talking about the Lachlan estate. There’s not much of it now, but in ’97 it was worth a lot of money. Not to mention prestige. To someone like Derek Oliver, the estate reeked of old world wealth. I always thought he was trying to get the money from the others so he could buy the place. But of course that was impossible.”
“Why?” Sara asked. “Your brothers wouldn’t sell it?”
“Good heavens! My brothers would sell me if they could get a penny. They couldn’t sell it because of James Lachlan’s will.” Billy knew he had their full attention and he loved it. “In 1962, a man won a Nobel Prize for discovering DNA. That fascinated Mr. Lachlan. You see, he believed his son, who had run away, was alive and well somewhere. Mr. Lachlan just had to find him. He willed the house to his eldest descendant—if he could be found. But there’s a time limit, and it’s at the end of this month. Exactly forty years after his death.”
“How hard has your family law firm looked for the inheritor?” Sara asked.
Billy smiled. “They asked me to do it.”
Randal shook his head. “And if you found him, he’d take over the house and you’d be homeless.”
“Exactly.” Billy was making it clear that he hadn’t looked at all.
Kate, always a Realtor, said, “This means you put the house up for sale prematurely.”
“I wanted to giveyoua chance at it instead of some snob from Sotheby’s,” Billy retorted. “And besides, the attic needed to be cleaned out.”
“Right,” Kate said. “Skeletons tend to hinder sales.”
Billy smiled. “Not if there’s a buyer who wants to turn it into a haunted bed-and-breakfast, and there is one. He loved my Lonely Laird story so much that he wants to expand on it. He wants me to write it down.” He glanced at Sara to let her know she was missing a great opportunity, then turned back to Kate. “Would you like to have his card? I think he’s a cash buyer.”
Kate looked sick at the thought of what would be done to that beautiful house. “Maybe later,” she said.
They said their goodbyes, promised to come again, and left.
As they walked out, Sara said to Randal, “Do me a favor and get him transferred to the best room in this place. Would you?”
“It will be my pleasure.”
In the parking lot, they stood by the vehicles, everyone looking at Sara.
She started to make a snide comment about involuntarily being made the boss, but she didn’t. She looked at Kate. “You two go to Publix and get food. We’ll meet back at the house and decide what we’re going to do.” She turned to her brother. “Let’s go.”
When they were in his car, Randal said, “You’re planning to do this, aren’t you? You want to recreate the house party.”
“Maybe,” Sara said.
“You could leave it alone. As Billy said, Derek Oliver was a despicable man. Maybe he deserved what he got.”
“I take it you’re concerned about who the killer might be. Exactly how much did you like his wife?”
Randal didn’t hesitate. “The most of anyone since Kate’s mother. If my life hadn’t been cut off, there might have been something between us. Her husband really was planning to divorce her.”
“You were married at the time.”
“Not happily.” A muscle worked in his jaw.
“Pull in here.” Sara was pointing at a long row of stores. The shopping in South Florida was excellent. Anything you wanted was at your fingertips.
She put her hand on the door. “Call Billy’s place and get a count of residents and employees. Billy is going to throw a party for them. There’ll be food and flowers, and later Jack can arrange some music. And I’m going to order him a phone so we can stay in contact with him at all times.”
He smiled at his sister. “He’ll like that very much.”
“I think he’s an unappreciated person,” she said. “Tell me when you get the number of people we’ll be feeding. I’ll be in the flower shop, then you and I can go choose food.”
“I like it,” Randal said as he picked up his phone.
Three
