Adam’s life changed little for the next six weeks. True, the divorce was final now, but he made little use of it; mostly he got up, went to work, and came back to the apartment much like he’d been doing for over a year. The option was now open all the way for him to be looking for another woman, but he didn’t take advantage of it.

If the truth were told, he was still a little gun shy. Although his marriage to Brittany had been somewhat accidental, he’d stuck it out, for good or ill, probably longer than he should have. As lonely as it got at times, he was not anxious to have to go through something similar again. If someone happened along who might seem interesting, he thought he might pursue it a bit, but he didn’t have the inclination to go looking just yet. And, if that someone did come along, he was prepared to take as much time as needed to be as sure as he could be that he wasn’t letting himself in for more trouble.

So there was no rush, and there might not ever be one. If that was the case, well, so be it; after all the trouble he’d had with Brittany, he thought he could do without if he had to.

Early one morning in March, a day that held the promise of spring, he was just getting settled into the office when he looked out the window. Though it would have to be a while yet, in six weeks or two months he might be able to break free for a long weekend, go north to Winchester Harbor, and go sailing on the Pixie. It was something to look forward to. His musings were disturbed by a buzz from Marcia on the intercom. “Benita for you on line one,” she said. “She sounds upset.”

Adam felt a chill go up his spine. It was very rare for his father’s housekeeper to call him at the office. As he punched the button on the phone, some sixth sense told him that this couldn’t be good.

“Mr. Caldwell,” he heard Benita say in her vaguely accented voice. “I think your father is dead. When I got here this morning, he was cold and stiff and not breathing. I’ve called the ambulance.”

“Thank you, Benita. I don’t know whether to come over there or what. I guess maybe I’ll do that.”

“It would be good if you could.”

Adam paused in the front office to say to Marcia, “It sounds like my father died, or at least Benita thinks so. I’m heading over there. I don’t know when I’ll be back but it might not be today.”

“Take it easy,” Marcia suggested. “Do what you need to do.”

As Adam got into his car, he realized this was going to change things drastically. He hated the thought of seeing his father gone, although it had been clear for some time it was likely to happen in the next few years. He’d been having heart problems, and for the last several months had been seeming weaker and sicker when Adam had visited him, usually two or three times a week. He’d been living alone for almost twenty years since his second wife had died, and he’d seemed to get along well living by himself, with Benita coming in for a few hours every day. In fact, it was the knowledge that his father was able to get along well without a woman in his life that had told Adam it was something that could be done, and was at least part of the reason he was in no hurry to replace Brittany.

On the other hand, his father’s tight control of the company was one of the major clamps that had held Adam to his life. He could have left the company a long time ago, of course, but he knew he’d be giving up a lot to do it. Now that was gone, and if his father’s will hadn’t changed since the last time he’d been aware of it, Adam would have most of the ownership of Caldwell-Deerfield. For the past year or more, perhaps several years, Adam had contemplated selling the company when it came into his hands; that would leave him free to do something else. Now, perhaps, the option was open.

He remembered last summer, when Greg had made a suggestion that he look into a merger or buyout by Ferguson-Eagle when the time came. It was a possibility now, but Adam didn’t want to rush into things. While a sellout was now possible – or, at least would be once all the paperwork was completed – he knew in his gut that he didn’t want to rush into the question. It might be six months or a year before he made a decision about it at all, but once again, he felt no reason to rush into it.

In any case, it was going to seem strange not to have his father looking over his shoulder all the time. That in itself was going to change his life a lot.

The ambulance was still there when he arrived at his father’s house. Good God, that was something else that was going to have to be dealt with – the house, and his father’s huge collection of things accumulated over a lifetime. That could probably take months by itself.

There wasn’t much he could do at his father’s house, other than to sign some paperwork; an unattended death meant that having the coroner sign off the death certificate would be more complicated. He told Benita that he wanted her to stay on for a while, since her help would be needed in getting his father’s things in order, and she seemed glad to hear it.

His father’s funeral was large; they shut down production at the plants around town for a couple hours in the late afternoon to allow workers who had known him to attend, and there were several people, both workers and administrators, who showed up from the out-of-town plants.

A little to his surprise, Brittany was there; she and his father had known each other more than a little, of course. Brittany looked good – at least better than she had at the divorce hearing over a year before. She was well dressed, and did not seem as emaciated as she had been at the hearing. Adam took that to mean that she’d gotten over the stress of it at least a little.

“Adam, I was sorry to hear about your father,” she told him. “He was a good man, and I know he did a lot for us.”

“That he did,” he replied noncommittally; even though the divorce was now final, he didn’t want to get more involved with her than courtesy demanded. “It’s going to seem strange not having him around. How are you getting along?”

“Better,” she said. “Things were really bad there for a while, but Dr. Preble has me on some medication that’s allowing me to get along better. Having Charles take care of some of my affairs has helped with that, too.”

Maybe, he thought, she was getting her act back together. He didn’t want to approach the subject of Mary and Matty for fear of setting her off, but from the sound of things she wasn’t quite as driven about it as she had been a year before. “So what are you doing these days?” he asked politely.

“To tell the truth, not much of anything,” she shook her head. “I get over to see my folks a couple days a week, and they seem glad to see me. I’m giving some thought to selling the house and moving back in with them, or at least near them. That is a pretty big house to have to take care of by myself.”

The house had been a sensitive subject, and her insisting on buying it years before had only served to split them a little further apart. “I often thought it was too big for the two of us to be rattling around in by ourselves,” he said, trying to not sound too negative about it.

“I’m beginning to think you were right. I know the housing market is not very good right now, and it’s probably the big thing that’s holding me back. I don’t suppose you would be interested in it?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, not wanting to mention that he absolutely despised the place. “After all, now I’ve got another big house that’s not going to be of much use to me, and I’m going to have to do something about that. In the last year or so I’ve gotten to the point where I’m comfortable living without a lot of possessions.”

“Well, if you change your mind, let me know.”

They exchanged a couple more sentences of no real importance, although Adam was left with the impression that things were going well for her. The fact that the subject of Matty hadn’t been raised, even obliquely, was promising. Either she wasn’t quite as obsessed about the boy as she had been in the past, or else she was deliberately playing it down in order to cover up her interest, and he couldn’t make out the difference. In any case, this was no time to get slack.

A couple of days after the funeral Adam had a luncheon appointment with Deke. “According to Dad’s lawyer,” Adam told his attorney – and really, his best friend in the city – “it’s going to take three or four months to get everything probated, but as far as I know, it should be pretty straight forward.”

“That’s my impression,” Deke agreed. “Realistically, though, there are no competing claims against his estate, so it should be pretty smooth. Just consider yourself lucky that the divorce was final before he died, or else we could have had a hell of a mess with Brittany.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” Adam nodded. “That was about my second biggest fear behind her finding out where Matty is.”

“You said you talked to her. Did you get any impression that she might have backed off on that a bit?”

“That was my impression, although I don’t know how much to believe it. She could have been putting on an act very easily, and I wouldn’t have trusted very far anything that she might have said about it.”

“That’s probably wise, but it sure would be nice to know what she really is thinking.”

“Don’t I know it, not that I was ever very good at it anyway. She did ask me if I might be interested in buying the house, since she apparently wants to get closer to her parents. I think that might be good, if for no more reason than caring for them would give her something to think about besides Mary and Matty. I’ve kicked it around several different ways, at least with the thought of helping her get out of town, but I’m not sure whether it would help the situation or not. My main concern is that if she doesn’t have that millstone hanging around her neck and she’s living in a cheaper place, that would give her more money for detectives. She doesn’t have to be living here in town to keep going on that angle.”

“True,” Deke agreed. “You probably wouldn’t want to try it right now anyway, at least not till your father’s will is through probate. You might be able to make a low cash offer to her, sit on it for a while until the market improves, and flip it for a profit. That’s not a sure thing in this market, though, even though the market for McMansions like that is still pretty strong. Maybe since you’re not in a position to do anything about it right now, the thing to do is to sit tight for a few months and see if her status changes.”

“I’ll give you that. After all, I still have Dad’s place to deal with, and that’s going to be a nightmare with all that stuff he had.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with it?”

“Not a clue. There are a few things there I wouldn’t mind having as keepsakes, although not very many. He was a collector of small antiques and memorabilia, and he collected a huge pile of stuff. I can’t really do anything about selling the house at least until I get the pile knocked down a bit.”

“Is his stuff worth anything?”

“It could be. I was never a collector of that kind of stuff, so I don’t know.”

“You know, I might have an idea on that,” Deke said. “There are services that will do estate appraisals and auctions. It might be a good idea to call in one or more of them for an estimate. A good one might be able to at least tell you whether it’s worth trying to get something out of it. It might be a better idea than just getting someone to haul in a twenty-yard dumpster.”

“You’re probably right on that. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the stuff in that house is worth some real money, but I wouldn’t recognize it if I saw it. Do you think you could track down a reputable one or two for me?”

“Sure, there’s a couple I’ve worked with before who have done pretty well by my clients. I can get you the names and let you work out the deal.”

“All right,” he said. “There’s one other thing I need you to do for me, and I know it’s out of your line.”

“What’s that?”

“I need a car that’s not registered in my name or can be connected to me. It doesn’t have to be anything great, just reliable. In fact, a small pickup or sport-ute would probably be better than a car.”

“What’s this about?”

“I want to go visit Mary and Matty. There’s some things about Dad’s will I need to talk to them about. Dad left them a big cash legacy. Well, actually two, one to Mary, one as a trust fund for Matty. Matty won’t be able to draw on his till he’s twenty-one, so there’s no problem having it in some bank here. Mary’s, though, I need to work out some way to get it to her without it giving Brittany a lead to her. Besides, I want to see both of them anyway, and I figure the best way to do it without leaving a trail is to drive, especially in an anonymous car.”

“I told you it’s going to be months before that money can be distributed.”

“True. But Mary should know it’s coming, and we need to set up a relatively anonymous way to get it to her.”

“That shouldn’t be any great trick. I can think of a dozen ways to do it without resorting to straight cash.”

“Your ideas are probably better than mine,” Adam admitted. “Let’s work on something on that, too. I was thinking about an account in a Canadian bank, preferably one in St. John, New Brunswick.”

“Why, may I ask?”

“If we were going to set it up to go to Mary’s local bank, it would have to be in St. John’s, Newfoundland. I may not know a lot about Newfoundland, but I do know that the St. John versus St. John’s business has caused some confusion in the past. Being a little misleading might be worth the effort.”

“Good thought, and I wouldn’t have come up with that one. You’re getting sneaky in your old age, Adam.”

“If I haven’t learned how in the last year, I’ll never learn,” he snorted. “Anyway, this car. I can pay cash, but it probably shouldn’t be able to be easily traced to you, either.”

“Not a problem. I know some people who would be willing to help in something like that, and who owe me a favor or two. No rush on this right?”

“Well, no. I’d like to be able to do it sometime in the next month or two, but it’s going to be hard to open up a three-week hole where I can be gone. I mean, what with jumping through the probate hoops, the company, and now probably this business of dealing with Dad’s estate.”

“Three weeks? That long?”

“When Matt and Mary drove his old car up there, it took them five and a half days one way,” Adam explained. “And that was driving hard. Two days to Nova Scotia, a day to wait on the ferry, a day on the ferry, and a day and a half in Newfoundland. Then there’d be that much coming back. I might be able to squeeze it into two weeks if I only stayed a short time in Blanche Tickle, but it would be nice to hang around a little longer if I could. I mean, if nothing else than to get rested up from the trip before I have to do it again. So I figure I need to open up a three-week hole if I can.”

“All right, I’ll get working on the wheels for you.”

“Once you get it worked out, we need a place to stash them, and I’ll need a different place to stash my car while I’m gone.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll bet there are storage sheds that could be rented. It’s going to cost, though.”

“I’m not worried about the cost. It’s relatively minor, especially when I’ll be getting the proceeds of the estate in a few months.”

One other thing needed to be worked out – letting Mary know he was coming. He had an e-mail contact for her, although he hadn’t used it very often; it involved anonymous accounts on a couple different free servers. That evening, Adam stopped off at an Internet café partway across town, sat down at a computer and sent a message to Mary: I’m planning on coming up and seeing you in the next few weeks but I don’t know for sure when just yet. I have news for you, but I still don’t know if I’m being followed, so we have to be careful as always. I will either e-mail you when I have a date for sure, or have our fisherman friend get in touch with you, or both. Looking forward to seeing the boy.

There really wasn’t much more he could say, but at least he knew he’d be able to see her face to face before long.

Knowing that Mary only rarely got on the computer, he waited several days before he went to a local library and logged onto the anonymous e-mail account. Sure enough, there was a message from Mary. It was brief: Looking forward to seeing you. I will be ready.

Opening a big enough hole in his schedule to make the trip proved vexing; it always seemed if there was something else to keep him from doing it. Dealing with his father’s collection of stuff proved to be the biggest problem; both the dealers that Deke sent him to acted like they knew what they were talking about, and their off-the-cuff estimates of the worth of the collection came to a much larger figure than he had anticipated. A thorough cataloguing of the saleable items was needed before the sale could take place, but then, it was also necessary to have the estate probated before it could happen.

In the end, he decided to go with the dealer he was most comfortable with, an attractive woman about his age named Beverly. The other dealer seemed to know what he was talking about but there was something about him that rubbed Adam the wrong way, or at least made him feel uncomfortable. In any case, Adam didn’t think he could be there to look over her shoulder every step of the way, especially with the trip to Newfoundland in the cards, so after some misgivings he worked out a deal for Benita to work with Beverly on the project. Benita knew more about his father’s things than he did, anyway, and he felt he could trust her in the deal.

That didn’t mean he was all the way free: he still had his father’s personal things to go through, and he did it in the evenings when he felt he had time, sometimes by himself, sometimes with Benita to help him. There was more there than he expected, and not much he felt he wanted to keep. Eventually there was one downstairs room filled with things that would go to secondhand stores or the like once he was legally able to do something about them, and inevitably, there was going to have to be quite a bit to go to a dumpster.

Getting free from Caldwell-Deerfield for a while proved to be a little harder; most of the routine run of things could be shoved to the side or handed off, but there were going to be things he had to deal with, too. Toward the end of April he thought he saw a hole opening, and he knew he’d better take the chance while he had it. He called in Bob, his assistant, and Fred, the production manager, along with Marcia and his chief financial officer. “I have to be gone on personal business for several days,” he announced. “It could take as long as three weeks, but maybe not. I just don’t know yet and things could change along the way. Right at the moment I don’t see anything coming up that you guys can’t handle. If something goofy comes up, something unanticipated, deal with it the best you can. Bob, I’m going to be leaving you the authority to do anything you have to do in my name.”

“I’m pretty sure we ought to be able to handle things for that short a time, so long as nothing major comes up.”

“Good. I trust you guys or I wouldn’t dare take off to do this anyway, but it needs to be done. Now, I want you guys to get a little more used to taking charge in my absence, because it could well work out that I’ll be gone for long periods in the future. Nothing is set in stone, but the possibility is there.”

“If something comes up, where can we get in contact with you?” Marcia asked.

“I really hate to say this, but you’re probably not going to be able to. Bob, Marcia, if it works out all right, I may try to get in touch with you once or twice, but don’t depend on it. Like I said, there shouldn’t be anything come up that I can’t trust you to handle, and that includes the possibility of new orders. Now, I want to meet with you separately to go over any details of things that may come up, but as soon as we’re done I’m out of here.”

It took Adam less than an hour to get through the list. He had a good staff and he knew it; it was nice to know that he could take off and expect to have the company there when he came back. Finally, there wasn’t anything left to do. He turned off the monitor on his office computer, shut off the lights, and said goodbye to Marcia.

“I’ll bet I know where you’re going,” she smiled. “I won’t say a word about it, though. Have a good trip.”

“I hope to, Marcia. I hope to. You take care of things for me, will you?”

A few minutes later he was on his way. He stopped off at an Internet café – not one he’d used before – had a cup of coffee and sent a brief e-mail to Mary. Then, he got back in his car, found a pay phone some distance away, and made several calls. One was to Jake, asking him to alert Mary that he was coming, and another one was to a phone number Deke had given him. He asked the man who answered the phone to meet him at a complex of storage sheds. An hour and a half later he was in Port Huron, heading for the Blue Water Bridge toward Sarnia, Ontario.

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