Free As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark Page A

work?”
    â€œStraight to work.”
    â€œSo that means you’ve been working for thirteen years?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat type of work do you do?”
    â€œI’ve always been a freelance photographer.”
    â€œBy freelance you mean you are not on salary? You’re only paid when you get work. Is that correct?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat is the average annual amount of money you have earned over the years?”
    â€œTypically between fifty and eighty thousand dollars.”
    â€œAnd is it true that from the very beginning of your career, you were getting financial help from your father?”
    â€œYes. He loved me. I was his only son and he wanted to help me.”
    â€œSo how would he help you? Would he give you money every time you asked or was there some other arrangement?”
    â€œWhen I got out of college and in the few years after that, I often needed to buy new camera equipment, lenses, filters, etc., to help me get work. Usually when I asked for help my father would say yes.”
    â€œDid that arrangement change?”
    â€œThree or four years after he married Betsy, she persuaded him to help me once a year. At Christmas my father would give me a check for one hundred thousand dollars.”
    â€œAnd you have received this one-hundred-thousand-dollar Christmas check every year up to and including this past Christmas?”
    â€œYes, I have.”
    â€œOkay, so one hundred thousand at Christmas and in an average year you earned sixty-five thousand, which means you typically have had one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars per year to address all of your expenses. Is that about right?”
    â€œYes.”
    Delaney scribbled notes as over the next few minutes Maynard delved deeply into Alan Grant’s financial life. She found herself wishing she had paid closer attention in the one accounting course she had taken in college. If Maynard was trying to establish that Grant’s personal finances were a mess, he certainly succeeded.
    In response to Maynard’s questions Grant admitted that he had an expensive divorce and alimony commitment with the mother of his two children, and child support payments for his other child. His father had bought him a condominium when he graduated college, but he had taken out a home equity loan. The payments on that loan were due monthly, as were his maintenance on the condo, health insurance payments, and car and garage payments. His rather high routine living expenses included three vacations per year. Grant reluctantly agreed that his expenses of nearly eighteen thousand per month substantially exceeded the one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars available to him each year.
    Maynard continued.
    â€œDid your father ever talk to you about changing careers?”
    â€œHe told me that the photography did not pay enough and the work was too sporadic. He wanted me to find another career that would insure a stable income.”
    â€œDid you follow his advice and seek another career?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œLet’s go back to your financial deficits that we identified. To make ends meet, have you taken out any other loans?”
    â€œIn addition to the money I borrowed against my condo, friends have also given me loans.”
    â€œAre you paying interest on these loans?”
    â€œI pay interest to the bank for the condo loan. Most of my friends agreed that I could pay the interest and principal on their loans when I got my inheritance.”
    â€œYou testified earlier that you received the annual gift last Christmas even after your father’s death. Is that correct?”
    â€œYes. I spoke to the estate lawyer, who requested of the chancery court that this disbursement be approved.”
    â€œAnd Betsy Grant did not object to this disbursement. Did she?”
    â€œI did not speak to her. The estate lawyer did. He informed me that she did not object.”
    â€œThree months ago did you