The Wicked Wife (Murder in Marin Book 2) (33 page)

Hoping to provoke a response from Gloria, Sylvia declared, “Willow seemed happy and sad all at the same time.”

Gloria shrugged. “I never knew her to be really satisfied. The moment she achieved one goal, she’d be on to the next one.”

“Sounds like an admirably ambitious young woman.”

“Admirable?” Oscar said abruptly. “Not in Willow’s hands.”
 

Suddenly, Oscar seemed distracted by the finger sandwiches. He wandered to the buffet table, while Gloria took Sylvia by the hand and walked her to a far corner of the room. “I’d rather not have my husband hear this,” Gloria whispered. “You see, Oscar and Willow had a terrible relationship! I learned, over time, to forgive her, but my husband never could.”

“Forgive her?” Sylvia feigned innocence. Even though this all felt increasingly awkward, Sylvia kept moving forward. “What could cause such a terrible divide between your husband and your daughter?”

Gloria pursed her lips. “I don’t want to see any of this in the story you’re doing. You must promise me that.”

“Absolutely,” Sylvia promised. “I had tremendous respect for your daughter. We’re off the record. Please don’t give that a second thought.”

Gloria looked down at her clasped hands. “Before Willow finished middle school, things in our home began to disappear.”

“What sort of things?”

“At first, small, rather unimportant things. I lost a hat, a pair of sunglasses, and some perfume. Oscar lost a Willie Mays autographed baseball. He was rather upset about that!”

“Did you think it was Willow?”

“No. Instead, we changed house cleaners—twice, in fact—until we began to suspect that it had to be Willow. But it was more than a year before everything got a lot worse.”

“What happened?”

“Oscar’s parents’ wedding rings vanished. His mother gave them to him shortly before she died. Oscar was devastated by that. Then, my grandmother’s diamond bracelet vanished. I won’t go into the details, but Willow was the only other one in our home who knew where those pieces were hidden.”

“Why did you tell her where they were if you suspected her?”

“When the other things went missing, we convinced ourselves it was the result of our own negligence and carelessness. We presumed they’d been left in places that were too accessible to any cleaning and maintenance people who had gone through the house. Plus, Willow was our only child! If something terrible had happened to us—a car accident, or whatever, she’d be the only one left. We wanted her to know where our few treasures were kept. Of course, then, with the jewelry vanishing, it all fell into place.”

“But, you must have confronted her about all this!”

“Of course, almost immediately. But she vehemently denied all of it. In fact, she was very angry with us. But after her school contacted us about other girls claiming that she had stolen from them, we confronted her again. It only resulted in more anger and more denials. Nothing we did made things any better. We suggested counseling—not just for Willow, but for the whole family. She put up a stone wall and wouldn’t even discuss it.”

For the first time that day, Sylvia saw Gloria begin to cry.
 

Sylvia wrapped her arm around her shoulder and said, “I’m so sorry to have upset you. Gloria, please know that wasn’t my intention.”

“No, my dear, you did nothing wrong. Willow’s relationship with us has been the greatest source of strain in our marriage. And now, with her death, we know that we’ll never have closure about any of this.”

“I know Willow was modeling successfully and on her own by the time she was nineteen. But, you mean to tell me that none of this was ever resolved between the three of you?”

“Our lives together unraveled after the jewelry disappeared. When we got nowhere with suggestions of therapy, Oscar wanted to get the police involved! It was terrible. By her senior year of high school, Oscar kept everything of value under lock and key. We were constantly on alert. It was a great relief when Willow’s income from modeling allowed her to move out and live on her own.” Gloria hung her head. “She had nothing to do with us after that. Even our holiday and birthday calls, our cards and gifts, would all go unreturned and unacknowledged.

Sylvia could not imagine the stress and sadness of all this. “Of course, I won’t write a word about any of this,” she assured Gloria once more. “My heart goes out to both of you.”

Gloria nodded desolately. “Thank you, Sylvia. Oscar and I realize that the issue will never be resolved. But life moves on. It’s really our only choice.”

Holly was thankful that Allard and LeBon were undisturbed at the reception, except for a brief moment when William came over to thank them for coming such a great distance.
 

After William had his say, Holly walked over and reached out her hand. “How nice it is to see you both again! I’m Holly Cross. We met at Willow’s wedding.”

“But, of course!” Jacques smiled, as he took her hand and kissed it.
 

Henri nodded nonchalantly, but Holly read his look as,
Who is this local peasant disturbing my time of mourning?
 

Never one to pay the least attention to social resistance, Holly simply pressed on. “As I’m sure the both of you were, I was devastated by Willow’s death.”

“And you are, again?” Henri sniffed.

Twit, Holly thought.

She smiled and said sweetly, “I’m the editorial and production manager of the local community newspaper. Willow and I spent a great deal of time together working for local charitable causes.” Turning to Jacques, Holly added, “We want to do a piece in the paper about Willow’s love of jewelry. Those pieces you designed for her were quite a sensation at the annual Belvedere Ball.”

Sighing loudly in boredom, Henri excused himself and wandered off.
 

Good riddance, Holly thought. Frankly, she was relieved to have Jacques all to herself. “I’m sure you know that Willow was very proud of the pieces you created. She often said that she thought you were a genius.”

“Dear Willow was too kind and too generous!” He dabbed his eye with a monogrammed kerchief. “I have, on my phone, photos of several of the pieces that she had purchased over time from estate sales. She asked me to recreate these pieces into something more modern and beautiful. Now…well, what is the point?”

“Those photos would be amazing to have for my article. With such a unique fashion angle, I’m sure it’ll be picked up for international syndication too.”

He smiled. “I will send you all those photos, just give me your email. I’m sure Willow would not have objected.”

“That would be wonderful,” Holly exclaimed.
 

Her enthusiasm encouraged him to take a step closer. “I must tell you that I think our Willow was being a naughty girl.”

“How so?”

“I have a friend in Paris—a private investigator named Roger Guilbert. He was hired by Willow’s lawyer, Monsieur Finch, to spy on Willow and her lover Kozlov—the Russian violinist.”

“How did Roger come to tell you that?”

“He read online that Willow had been murdered, and he called to suggest the husband asked this Finch, who is his law partner, to find out what his wife was doing with this Russian! Roger thought perhaps the husband did not want to contact him directly…How you say, ‘get dirty hands’—
oui
?”

“How did you come to know Guilbert?”

“He has worked for both my company and for Henri. We have need for security now and then. He knew, of course, of Henri’s connection to Willow, and my connection to Henri. Small world,
n’est pas
?”
 

Holly shrugged. “M
ais oui, mon ami!
It’s a small world indeed.”

Eddie followed James down into the reception hall, where he and Jade talked with William as he greeted and thanked his neighbors for their attendance.
 

When, finally, James wandered over to the refreshments’ table, Eddie walked up and introduced himself. “Would you have time to see me tomorrow? I want to ask you a few questions about the late Mrs. Adams.”

James slipped him his card and said, “I should be in the office all day. Anything I can do to help, of course. Just call my secretary in the morning.”

“Happy to, Mr. Finch.”

“Are you making any progress in the case?”

“Right now, I’ve got many more questions than answers. But you have to take it one day at a time.”

As Eddie walked off, James once again thought of all those phone calls he had made to Willow.

Just as they stepped out of the church, Oscar and Gloria heard a soft voice say, “Excuse me.”

They both turned around to find an older gentleman standing behind them. He had unruly white hair and clear blue eyes.

“I’m Bob Ivan,” he said, as he stuck out his hand.

Gloria looked down at it. “You’re not with the press are you?” she asked in a weary voice.

“No, not at all. I’m an attorney here in Marin. In fact, I was going to call you tomorrow, after the service.

“What about?” Oscar asked impatiently.

“Your daughter came to me shortly after her marriage to William Adams. She had no will, and asked that I prepare one for her.” He handed them a business card. “Here is my phone number and address.”

“Why would you want to talk to us?” Gloria asked.

“Well, we don’t need to go into detail here, but in fact, Willow left you the bulk of her estate.” He let that sink in. “At your earliest convenience, I’d like you to come to my office, so that we can go over your inheritance.”
 

“I…beg your pardon?” Oscar said in amazement.

Bob leaned in. “With Willow’s murder, it will be some time before it’s all settled in probate. But when that’s done, you’ll receive approximately two hundred million dollars. We’ll discuss the details when you come see me.”

He reached out once more to shake their hands.
 

Gloria held onto his hand as if it were a lifeline.

Bob patted it, smiled kindly, and then went off in the opposite direction.

In shock, Oscar and Gloria walked the two blocks back to their car, got inside, and closed the doors. They held each other and cried for a very long time.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Sylvia and Holly were two of the last people to leave the church. As they walked down Bayview Avenue to their cars, they came across Eddie.
 

He was leaning against the front fender of his car, studying some text messages on his phone, but looked up with a smile. “Did either of you come up with anything we can use?”

Simultaneously they answered, “You won’t believe what I heard!”

“Where’s someplace private we can talk?”

“My place is two minutes from here,” Sylvia suggested.

“Great,” Eddie said. “I’ll drive you to your car, and you can lead the way.”

“No need, my car is less than a half a block down. Where’s Rob?”

“Karin was having a meltdown about the kids being in two different places. She needed help, so he took off.”
 

Sylvia’s place was right off San Rafael Avenue. They all walked in together.

Eddie and Holly sat down at the kitchen table, while Sylvia busied herself making tea.