Page 72 of Key West Homecoming

Emma looked at him and could see the sadness in his eyes.

“I’ve thought about that often,” he said. “Every time she wanted to stay there, there was some reason she couldn’t. Then there wasn’t another trip.”

Emma thought of the cottage as it looked now, with the painted porch and Gloria’s lilies blooming along the fence. She imagined Gloria coming down to Key West with Edmund and staying at an inn only a few streets away because Arthur had told her the house wasn’t safe.

“You didn’t know he was renting it?”

“No.”

“Did she?”

Edmund shook his head.

“I want to be very clear about that. Gloria didn’t know Arthur was renting the cottage. About ten years ago, she sold her house in Coral Gables and moved into the Miami condo where I eventually met her. By then the drive to Key West had become harder for her, and she wasn’t coming down as often.”

Emma nodded.

“Around that same time, Arthur offered to manage the cottage for her. He told her he’d check on it, take care of the yard, handle the taxes and insurance and make sure nothing happened to the place while she was away. Gloria thought he was helping her.”

“And he rented it instead.”

“Yes.”

“For ten years?”

“As far as I’ve been able to determine.”

Emma sat back.

Edmund continued carefully.

“The property bills stopped coming to Gloria because Arthur arranged to handle them. She believed he was paying the taxes and insurance for her, and she gave him a small monthly amount for his trouble. Two or three hundred dollars, I believe.”

Emma stared at him.

“She paid him?”

“She thought it was fair. From Gloria’s point of view, her son was looking after a house she loved when she could no longer do it herself.”

“But he was paying the expenses with the rent.”

“Yes.”

“And keeping the rest.”

“Yes.”

Emma looked toward the garden.

The numbers began moving through her head before she could stop them. Ten years of rent, even allowing for taxes, insurance, repairs and months when the cottage might have been empty, would amount to far more than she had imagined.

“How much money are we talking about?”

“I don’t know. Your lawyer will have to work that out.”

Emma thought about the three years Jake had lived there and all the rent checks he’d sent to Arthur. Before Jake there had been other people. Maybe several of them.

“Did you ever suspect anything?”