Free Death Of A Dream Maker by Katy Munger

lightheartedly.
    “Sorry,” Casey told Auntie Lil. “Didn't mean to
offend you. Max was a blunt kind of guy. It's just natural to be
blunt when you're talking about him.”
    Auntie Lil managed a smile. “I'm perfectly all right.
It's just so sad to think that Max never got the family he wanted
and that… well.” She stopped speaking and looked down at her cup of
coffee. The others glanced tactfully away.
    “May we hear more about the contents of his home?”
Herbert inquired to break the silence. “I was unable to conduct a
thorough search due to the untimely interruption.”
    Casey launched into an enthusiastic description of
the contents of Max Rosenbloom's house. She had, it seemed,
ferreted out every secret.
    “The wife is a pill freak,” she told them. “All kinds
of prescription drugs. Ones to get her going, ones to slow her
down. I think she was hiding them from Max. They weren't exactly
out in the open in the medicine chest, if you know what I mean. “A
couple bottles were on top of the dresser. I guess with him gone,
there's no point. But she kept a regular pharmacy in the closet in
a shoe box beneath a pair of purple pumps.”
    “Purple pumps?” Auntie Lil asked, scandalized.
    “Listen, that lady's got more shoes than Imelda
Marcos. Purple pumps were just the start. She was spending his
money as fast as she could pull credit cards from her wallet. She's
going to be pretty damn surprised when they read the will.”
    “You know about the will?”
    Casey smiled at them and carefully slathered jam on
her fourth piece of toast. “Sort of,” she said. “There will be some
unhappy family members, I can guarantee it.”
    “You've read it?” T.S. asked.
    She shook her head. “No. I just know that Max had a
new one drawn up a couple of months ago. Signed it last month. He
said his mind was made up and that the family was going to be very
surprised. That's all I know. Said he'd finally come to his senses
and was leaving his money to someone who would know what to do with
it. I don't know who it is, though. There's not a copy of the will
in the house, or I would have found it. It's probably with his
lawyer or the executor. I remember he said something about having
set up some trusts with the help of some bank that had a fancy Old
World kind of name like Gold, Silver and Crumpets, Inc.”
    “Sterling and Sterling?” T.S. interrupted.
    She munched thoughtfully. “That's it.”
    Auntie Lil and T.S. exchanged a glance. “There's no
way I could get a copy of it,” T.S. said quickly. “It would be
illegal. We'll just have to wait until probate.”
    “Surely a man cannot disinherit his wife,” Herbert
protested. “Even if she is a bit... high-spirited.”
    “Prenup,” Casey explained happily. “He had her sign
the tightest prenuptial agreement I've ever seen. It even had a
chastity clause. Darryl Zanuck would have approved.”
    “A what?” T.S. asked incredulously. “And how
did you happen to see the prenuptial agreement?”
    “Max showed it to me. It was the whole point of his
hiring me. He came to see my boss about a month ago and wanted his
wife followed. Since my boss is too lazy to do anything but eat, he
turned the case over to me. Are you going to finish those?”
    She stared at Herbert's untouched fried potatoes, and
he hastily pushed his plate her way. She dove in happily with her
well-used fork and ate as she explained. “It seems that Max was not
kidding about having a child. He wanted one, and if Sabrina was
going to be his wife, she had to give it the old college try. But
he didn't want her running around and procreating with someone
else, if you catch my drift.”
    “We catch your drift,” T.S. said grimly.
    “Fidelity figures as prominently in the prenup as in
a stereo ad. Sabrina would have gotten a nice piece of change even
if they did divorce—but not if they had divorced because of her
being unfaithful. But there's more.” She swept her hair off her
face wearily, the black