“Yeah. Me too.” He frowned at her. “Why are you putting those clothes back on?”
“I’m not walking out to the car in a towel, Mike – what would the neighbors think?”
* * *
Joe Pritchard resembled his brother but was taller and clean-shaven, though just as fierce in the eyes. Mike had glimpsed him at the memorial, but from afar. He and Overton welcomed Joe, Terry, and Victor into Mike’s office.
Once everyone was comfortably seated, Mike jumped into it. “We’ve had the documents faxed over from the estate lawyer. We’d like to discuss the property in Gloversville. But first let’s talk about what’s happened. As you know, Steven Pritchard was picked up this past weekend for fighting with a man outside a bar in Lake Haven. Petrov didn’t press charges, but Steve has been charged with disorderly conduct and assault in the third degree. After the arraignment, he sought counsel and is now contesting bail. There’s a hearing scheduled for this coming Monday. Bail was set high, in part for remarks Steve made to me the night of his arrest. He’d said, of Harriet, that ‘she had it coming.’”
Mike gazed at their faces, watching the various reactions. Terry seemed to turn inward while Victor blushed with anger. Joe Pritchard grunted and said, “Sounds like Steve.”
“It sounds like him?”
“Steve has problems,” Joe said. “He called me, asked me to bail him out. I told him to get a good lawyer.”
“I’ll come right to the point, Joe: Do you think your brother would have done something like this to your sister?”
Joe’s answer was immediate, filled with conviction. “No. Absolutely not.”
Terry blew out a held breath and got up from the chair, walked toward the wall, then turned around. “How can you say that? Rita was afraid of Steve, Joe. She told me about his potential for violence…”
Mike waited to see how Joe reacted. The elder Pritchard stayed calm. “Steve is all bark and no bite, Terry, always been that way.” Then he looked Mike in the eye. “This guy, Petrov; he hit him?”
“You asking if Dmitri Petrov struck Steve?”
“No – did Steve hit him. Did he actually hit him? Or was he just yelling, running his mouth?”
“He didn’t physically strike Mr. Petrov, no. But he kicked the door open while detained in the back of a police car. An officer had to use force to restrain him.”
“Yeah, mace. Steve said.” Joe shook his head. “Well, you said this Petrov guy didn’t press charges… Doesn’t sound like there were any to press. Anyway, look – I know about my brother. He’s his own worst enemy. His mouth has always gotten him into trouble. But he never touched Rita, and never would. He said what you say he did, okay, he even admitted as much to me, but that’s because Steve is an asshole, and that’s when he’s sober.” Joe looked at Lena. “I’m sorry about the language.”
Lena’s brow drew together in a scowl. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
Joe opened his mouth, closed it. Opened it again. “Sorry to everybody.”
“Yeah,” Victor said sarcastically. “You’re sorry, Uncle Joe.”
“Victor,” snapped Terry. “Please.”
“Let’s get into the estate,” Mike said, eyeing Victor. Then he took a quick glance at his notes, refreshing the critical information. “The property is on Route 8, in Gloversville; 103 acres, a once-working dairy farm. In the Last Will and Testament of Arthur and Cecilia Pritchard, the house and property was bequeathed to you, Joe, and to Rita, each of you with one-half.” Mike looked up. “I’m not passing judgment on family business, but I’m wondering if this is what’s behind Steve’s comment about your sister deserving death.”
Joe’s expression hardened. “Well, what you’re… I don’t want to help anyone build a case that my brother murdered our sister, for God’s sake. He told me he was somewhere else. Right? With a woman on the res.” Joe looked between the investigators. “Did you check on that?”
“We’re in the process.”
“Well, what’s taking so long? If he was with someone else, and they’ll give a deposition or whatever, then he’s off the hook, right? This thing with the bail – the judge has got to knock that down; it’s excessive. And a year in jail for kicking a car door?”
Terry broke in. “Was he upset with you, Joe? Did he think you had it coming, too?”
Joe tilted his head to look at Terry behind him. “He was, Terry. For your information, I spent months on the phone with Steve. He’d call, sometimes drunk, sometimes just royally ticked off. Once, he was even crying. He told me he tried to talk to Rita a couple times, but she shut him down.”
“Oh, for God’s… She drew a boundary, Joe.”
“Steve wanted to lease the property from us,” Joe said to Mike and Lena. “He was trying to get Rita and me to come to terms on that. This whole thing played out over a few years, Rita and I spoke on it a few times. I was willing, and I thought maybe she was, but you gotta deal with, you know, a lot of paperwork, so the whole thing – it never really got off the ground. And Steve, okay, he gets these ideas but doesn’t follow through. He’ll think he’s gonna return the place to a working dairy farm, but then he’ll lose interest. Couple months later, suddenly it’s the most important thing in the world again.”
“Can I ask,” Lena said, “why your parents would’ve kept him from such an inheritance?”
“Look,” said Joe. “Much of an estate passes by law to beneficiaries, despite what the will says. Like retirement proceeds, life insurance, joint bank accounts, payable-on-death bank accounts, stocks registered with a transfer-on-death form – these all go to a specified beneficiary.”
“I’m aware,” Lena said, a bit coolly.
“Well, Steve’s a beneficiary in these regards. Okay? So, you know. It’s not like he was cut out of everything. Just the farm.”
Lena said, “If you’re implying that Steve should have been content – he filed twice in probate court just this past year. And he doesn’t seem to be able to come up with any money for his bail.”
Joe looked bewildered. “Naw, you sure? Probate? Steve knows once a will is drawn up, it’s final…”
“But that doesn’t mean uncontestable,” Lena said. “Do you know about your parents changing the original will?”
Joe blinked. “Changing it? I mean, I dunno, maybe they updated and added a few things, I guess…”
“There are actually several codicils attached to the will,” Lena said. “Apparently your brother Steve was originally set to inherit a third of the Gloversville farm, but then that inheritance was revoked. That change was dated, signed, and witnessed just a few months before your mother passed. So, she changed it after your father died two years prior.”
A thick silence developed. Terry sat back down in his seat, looking like he had something to say.
“Terry?” Mike asked.
Harriet’s husband sighed, long and heavy, glanced quickly at Joe, then looked at Mike and Lena. “Rita mentioned talking to Cecilia before Cecilia died. They talked about Steve, about his behavior. To be honest – okay, I told her I didn’t think that he should get any part of the Gloversville property.”
Joe opened his mouth but Terry put up a finger and hurried on. “Stocks, insurance, all these other benefits – okay. But that property was in Rita’s family for over 100 years. Splitting it three ways – I thought it would only cause infighting. Like Joe just said, Steve would get some harebrained idea – he’d already talked to her about razing the old barn, the house, rebuilding… I mean, he had some crazy plans, Joe. And you and I both know he would’ve gotten halfway into it, figured out how much work was involved, or gotten distracted by something else and…” Terry raised his shoulders and let them drop. “Cecilia was worried about it, and she talked to us. And me and Rita, we helped her make the right decision. And yeah, she was honest with Steve that she did. He called her a cunt, and that was the last they spoke.”
Mike was surprised to see tears in Joe’s eyes.