Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
First, after inspecting it, he lifted the notecard and flicked it to and fro.
“R?” he asked me.
“No idea,” I told him.
He nodded, set that aside and started looking through the documents.
I sensed his surprise when he saw what they were, and then I sensed when he put it together.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The paper trail from Paloma to Chet, through a few shell companies. Though it’s clumsy and not at all buried.” He turned from the papers to me. “She gave him money. Likely so he’d talk to the media and give them whatever bogus story he cooked up.”
“How much did she give him?”
“From what I can tell, two hundred thousand.”
Goodness.
That was a lot.
“Where is she getting that kind of money?” I asked.
Jamie turned back to the statements and shrugged. “Seems they’re cash deposits.”
“Does AJ have that kind of cash on hand?”
Jamie returned his attention to me. “He’s got assets he hasn’t tapped, but they’d be last ditch to anyone in his situation. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t sold them. Heirlooms. Jewelry. Art. Guns. He had the horses, which were worth a great deal of money, but all of their carcasses were found in that fire.”
I winced.
In the three days since it had happened, it had become official.
It was arson, and all the evidence pointed to the arsonist being Jefferson Oakley.
It didn’t take a genius to put together that Jeff had set fire to the entirety of the Oakbilly Gulch estate (save for one outbuilding that held tractor equipment, which he died before he could get to) in an effort to collect insurance. And as Jefferson Oakley was prone to do, he’d fucked it up, getting caught in one of the blazes he was setting.
The question that was beleaguering my beloved was if it was Jeff’s idea, something that Jamie didn’t think was possible, considering his brother wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. Or if AJ had not only told his second son to do it but did so knowing how gullible and dim he was, so also knowing there was a good possibility he’d get caught.
In other words, setting him up to take the fall, while AJ pocketed the proceeds and bought himself another chance to save his own hide.
Neither of us could wrap our heads around the idea that AJ did it thinking Jeff would perish, just that he could collect the insurance money, which was considerable, with his hands coming out clean, even if there was a chance that Jeff’s wouldn’t.
However, in all of this, the death of those horses, and how they must have spent their final moments, was the thing that could set Jamie into a fury. I knew because it had, on two occasions, and one of my old-fashioned glasses shattering against a wall was indicative of how deep his fury went.
This happened when Kateri had told him the horses had been insured as well, for quite a lot, and the stables were the first building Jeff set fire to.
Thus, it was clear the collection of that bounty was also on the radar for one, or both, of those Oakley men, and the hideous murder of those horses was done in pursuit of a payout.
Jamie took my mind from all this by continuing to talk.
“He could do private cash sales, which I couldn’t track, nor could anybody, which means, even if he sold assets, the insurance companies would be none the wiser. We had Waterford. We had Limoges. We had an original Bierstadt and a Remington. My grandmother had an affinity for Royal Doulton and Cartier. I could go on. The payout of the insurance on the horses, the house, and the contents is enough to buy him years on that ranch, even if he erects a modest home in which to live there.”
“If he sold, and didn’t disclose, and the insurance paid on those items, that’s fraud,” I pointed out.
“If he talked my idiot brother into setting fire to his property so AJ could collect a payout, that’s fraud too,” Jamie returned.
I’d noticed of late that Jamie wasn’t referring to AJ as his father or “Pop” anymore.
I thought this was good, especially considering he told me he shared important matters with Judge. It indicated to me that he might be moving closer to claiming his real father.
I just wished the final straw on that wasn’t what it was: death and destruction.
Without warning, Jamie communicated what some of that dissonance in his eyes was about.
“I feel responsible for this, Nora.”
My body jerked in shock. “What, darling? My goodness, why?”
“I pushed him to it.”
Oh no he didn’t.
“You did not push AJ or Jeff into committing arson and equine homicide,” I snapped. “I’ll not hear you say that again, Jameson. For years, you did not actively seek to muzzle women who had been violated so you could protect the value of your shares, thus your tattered reputation shredded to oblivion when your foul behavior was outed. You did not make desperate and foolish deals that fell through. And you didn’t light any matches. Of course, it can be said you know those men, but I can’t imagine even if you had a functioning crystal ball, you’d believe they’d take it to that point.”