“They don’t know that we don’t know,” he said, making her eyes glaze over a little. Even though he loved his wife dearly, he had never been blind to the fact that when God doled out the brain cells, she hadn’t been first in line. She hadn’t even been part of the first batch.
“Okay, look at it from the perspective of the killer,” he said. “He sees us talking to the prince, so he figures we’re all part of the same entourage. So who’s to say he won’t come after us next, huh? And when that happens, I want to be far away from here.” And never come back. There were many other places they could visit, up and down the coast. They could head up to Cape Cod maybe, or Nantucket even. And hope this killer didn’t follow them up there.
“Let’s just head down to the beach,” she said. “Forget all about what happened. The police are on top of things and before you know it, they will have nabbed the prince’s killer and things will go back to normal.”
Clearly, Brandy had no clue. No clue whatsoever. “We’re leaving,” he said. “Pack your bags.” And when she still didn’t make any sign of getting a move on, he snapped, “Unless you want to be killed as well?”
She wasn’t happy about it, but still did as she was told. And so he started throwing his own stuff into a suitcase as well. The sooner they were out of there the better.
CHAPTER 11
“Prince Abdullah was your client?” asked Chase, much surprised.
The estate lawyer nodded. “No idea why he’d come all the way to Hampton Cove, since I’m sure he must have excellent lawyers in his own country. But it would have been a great coup for me, so I wasn’t going to complain.” He shrugged. “Though now it looks as if I won’t be getting to meet him after all.”
“You hadn’t met yet?”
“No, we were supposed to meet tonight, over dinner.”
“To discuss what?” asked Odelia.
“I’m not entirely sure,” said the man. “He hadn’t told me what it was he wanted to discuss with me yet. I was hoping he’d send me some more information about his expectations, so I could prepare myself for our dinner, but so far he hadn’t.”
“So you have no idea why he wanted to meet?” asked Chase.
“He’d written me a letter—an old-fashioned letter, if you please—complimenting me on my work for a friend of his. A man named Isaac Furnish, who works as a tennis coach in one of the resorts along the coast. Apparently Prince Abdullah had been a guest at the resort and had met Isaac. He must have told him about my work, or at least that’s what I think happened. How else would he have picked me to do his estate planning for him?”
“So that’s what you think he wanted to do? Plan his estate?”
“Can you elaborate, Mr. Hartshorn?” asked Odelia.
“There isn’t much to tell,” said the lawyer. “Most people don’t think about their estate until it’s too late—in other words when they’re dead. It’s important to think about it before you die, so you can plan things in advance, and prevent your heirs from having to pay estate tax.”
“Prince Abdullah, did he have heirs, that you know of?”
“No, he wasn’t married as far as I know. And he didn’t have kids.”
“But he was well-off?” asked Odelia.
“Oh, absolutely. One of the richest people in his country. Or at least his family is very rich. He’s related to the king, you see. So in that case, it matters who you leave your fortune to, I can tell you that right now. When someone dies intestate, his fortune will go to his next of kin.”
“And in the case of Prince Abdullah, this would be…”
“I have no idea!” said the lawyer, spreading his arms. “I’m sure he was going to tell me all about it over dinner. Why? Do you think he was murdered for the inheritance?”
“It’s a possibility we have to look into,” said Chase. “Though there could be other motives as well, of course.”
“And the people who shot me?” asked the lawyer. “What’s going to happen now?”
“Now we’ll try to find them and put them away,” said Chase in that reassuring tone that he did so well.
“But in the meantime? They tried to kill me once, and failed. So you think they’ll try again?”
“There’s every chance that they will,” Chase admitted.
“So…” He gave them a questioning and hopeful look, and Odelia knew what he was going to ask even before he opened his mouth. “Can I have some police protection, please?”
She shared a look with her husband. Uncle Alec wouldn’t be happy about this. Police protection meant they’d have to assign an officer, or even more than one, to protect the man until the people who had made that attempt on his life had been caught. It also meant that they couldn’t rely on these officers for the investigation, and the station was understaffed as it was.
“I’ll ask my uncle,” she promised.
“I hope you can give me some protection,” said the man. “Otherwise, I don’t know what I will do. I mean, I have a business to run, you know, and I can’t do it when every time a car passes by the office I have to duck underneath my desk, afraid I’ll get shot at again.”
“Like I said, I’ll talk to my uncle,” said Odelia.
And she would, since obviously the man had a point.
They got up and made to leave the hospital room. “Can you… Can you put an officer at the door?” asked the guy. “Or put me up at a safe house or something?”
Odelia smiled. Did he really think the Hampton Cove Police Department would have a safe house at their disposal? “Wait here,” she said, and she and Chase left the room to discuss things. Behind them, the lawyer started pacing the floor, nervous and anxious about his safety.
“Are you really going to ask your uncle to assign a babysitter to this guy?” asked Chase the moment they were alone.
“What else can I do? We don’t want to see him killed, do we?”
“No, I guess not,” said Chase. “But I can tell you right now that the chief doesn’t have any men to spare to be some lawyer’s babysitter.”
