CHAPTER4
Today
In the end, Jenna decided not to attend the police auction.
Few events had shattered her world like hearing that her beloved boat, the one promised to her by the late great Dino Vicenza, had been sunk.
Sol Feinnes, the attorney responsible for her mother’s estate, now managed all contracts between Jenna and her patients. Sol had introduced her to Dino, and all but begged her to take the assignment. A first. Sol had handled Dino’s affairs for almost three decades, and counted the old man as a true friend.
Dino had been sharp and cautious to the end. A hundred and two years old. His body an ancient wreck. But his mind—Jenna had come to genuinely love that man’s intelligence and wit.
Dino had shown a bitter humor at how his children and grandkids chomped at the bit, eager to divide the spoils of Dino’s long life. The last person he had allowed into his world, his final good friend, was Jenna. And she in turn had genuinely cared for the old scoundrel.
Dino had promised her the boat.
His family would have battled for years over any such gift, however. So Dino had sold it to Sol.
For a dollar.
Sol in turn had entered into a secret handshake deal with Jenna. Sell it to her for the same amount. A dollar. A year or so in the future. After the dust had settled and the family and their attorneys were no longer clustered like vultures, hungrily surveying the carcass of Dino’s possessions. In the meanwhile, the boat was hers to use whenever, wherever.
She tried not to hate the family, that greedy, impatient mob. Dino had been right to bar them from his final days. But of course this only added to the loathing and distrust they already felt toward Jenna. Especially after they learned she had been named co-executor of the old man’s estate. Not to mention how Jenna had been specifically instructed to remain in Dino’s home until the estate was officially cleared by the courts. If Jenna had known the hassles this would add to her life, she might have refused Dino’s final request. But Dino had begged for her help. It had been hard for the old man to beg, and impossible for Jenna to refuse.
And then there was the other reason why she had accepted.
The money.
As in, two thousand bucks a day.
To simply sit in the old man’s empty home, keeping watch. Refusing to let the grandchildren pass through the front gates while the legal dust settled. Why this had been so important to the recently departed, Jenna had no idea.
By this point, the family had hired their own lawyers. They were spoiling for a fight. Looking for an enemy.
Never come between the patient and her family. That was Jenna’s rule number one. And two. And three.
Still. Two thousand dollars a day.
Sol Feinnes had proven good as his word, keeping the family and their attorneys at arm’s length. Private security was stationed outside the gates twenty-four/seven. The children responded in a typically petty fashion, hiring their own security, stationing them on the street, hassling the cleaner and Jenna’s grocery deliveries.
Two evenings ago, Sol had called to report the probate would take longer than expected. The children had gone to court, demanding entry to Dino’s home. Twice. This time, the judge had granted them permission, so long as nothing was removed. Which meant Jenna’s lonely days were at an end.
Jenna enjoyed a final evening in the empty house, taking her last dinner as usual on the rear veranda. Dino’s home sat on a steep-sided hill overlooking Santa Barbara’s harbor and the glistening Pacific. Years of neglect and hard winter storms had taken their toll. Nothing had been done to the place in over twenty years. None of the walls were truly straight. Virtually all the tiled floors were cracked, the grout yellowed, the paint water-stained. Dino could have cared less.
Jenna was beyond ready when Chuck, the day security guy, walked up the drive and climbed the front stairs. She had the door open, her two cases positioned just inside the door. “Good morning.”
Chuck was like a lot of the security guys she had known, charged with steroids and pumped from spending idle hours in the weight room. “Looks like this is your coming-out day.”
“Not a moment too soon.”
Chuck had not been farther than this top step. Again, Jenna following Dino’s orders. He pretended to inspect the vast foyer, the stained red-silk wallpaper, the parquet floors, the chandeliers parading into the home. “Looks like the perfect hangout for ghosts.”
Jenna’s response was cut off by spotting the eight people marching up the drive. “Here comes trouble.”
“If you want some more time, I can hold them off.” Chuck bunched his shoulders like a boxer ready for round one. “Taking out the trash is what makes this job worthwhile.”
“There she is!” Laura, Dino’s younger daughter, was a professionally skinny woman with a dyed-blond helmet for hair. She waved a sheaf of papers as she stomped up the drive. “Throw her out on the street where she belongs!”
“Not happening,” Chuck replied.
