Free Tell No Lies by Tanya Anne Crosby

ago Savannah had discovered a codicil intended for their mother’s will—an amendment that, although signed and dated, had somehow never made it into the attorney’s version. While the original will had bequeathed Sadie the carriage house along with all its surrounding property, the new codicil would have seized the house from her and willed it, along with the surrounding property, to the County of Charleston. Although Sadie had always claimed she didn’t care about the land, she damned well did care about the house. And evidently, Savannah had taken her discovery to their family attorney without talking to Sadie first, and he in turn had confided in Sadie. Clearly, Daniel Greene’s and Sadie’s relationship had become a conflict of interest and Daniel should be held accountable for the breach of ethics, except that he was obviously too close to their family—and to Sadie—to believe any of them would report him. He was right.
    As Augusta had earlier when Savannah told her the story, Caroline screwed up her face in confusion. “What do you mean a codicil?” She shook her head. “And why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
    “Well . . .” Savannah sat up straighter, nervously tossing away the quilt. Augusta noticed and couldn’t help but wonder why they both seemed to fear Caroline’s wrath so much. She was their eldest sister, so what? “It’s not an official document,” Savannah explained. “I just wanted to see what Daniel had to say about it. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to tell Sadie.”
    Caroline looked even more confused. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, it’s not an official document?”
    “Yeah, so this is where it gets really confusing,” Augusta added, swallowing the last of her wine and setting her goblet down on the table.
    Savannah sighed. “Okay, from the beginning . . . I found this pad of paper in Mom’s office. I noticed the indentations were well-defined, so, out of curiosity, I used a pencil to do a rubbing. So I don’t have the original—the one with the actual signature and writing on it—I didn’t think the damned thing would hold up in a court of law anyway. I just wanted to find out why a codicil Mom went so far as to sign and notarize never ended up in the final version of the will. I figured Daniel must have been aware of it, so I asked him. It’s that simple.”
    “Mom is—was—a notary, right?”
    Savannah shrugged.
    Caroline placed a hand to her forehead, as though the conversation threatened to give her a headache. “Well, it doesn’t sound simple to me.”
    Savannah continued, “Bottom line: Daniel says he’s never seen the thing. He suggested Mom must have written the codicil, then changed her mind and threw it away.”
    “Which is entirely possible,” Augusta agreed.
    “Since it was written the day before she died—that’s what the date says, right?—maybe the original never made it out of this house?” Caroline suggested. “Maybe it’s somewhere in Mother’s things and we just haven’t found it yet?”
    Savannah shrugged again.
    Caroline drew her brows together. “So Sadie’s pissed now because you brought the document to Daniel?”
    Savannah shook her head solemnly. “No, Sadie’s pissed because I asked her whether she’d seen the codicil, which she felt implied maybe she’d kept it from us. And because I asked Daniel if there was any legal recourse to investigate honoring Mother’s wishes—if that’s indeed what the codicil is.”
    “And the answer is?”
    “No. There’s no original document, and even if it wasn’t just a pencil shading, it’s our word against . . .”
    “Sadie would never lie!” Caroline assured them both. “Not even to save her house!”
    A sense of gloom entered Savannah’s gray eyes. “I only asked her if she came across it in Mother’s things, Caroline. I never accused her.”
    They sat there in silence for a few moments, and then Savannah added, “But you have to wonder about the