Free Breaking Ground by William Andrews

you’ve heard some of this already, but I had a long talk with Steven Swanson yesterday and got some things clarified. So let me try to sort this out. Two parts: one, the half-million of Mary Ellen’s pledge; two, Mary Ellen’s will. On the first, like I said a couple of times, there’s no question about the funds being available. The question is getting the probate judge to release them prior to settlement of the estate. It’s not a slam-dunk, but with Steven’s cooperation I’m pretty sure we can persuade the court that Mary Ellen intended to give the historical society the money right away, and that the society relied on that expectation in breaking ground, et cetera, et cetera. The point is the money will be there, and I don’t want you to be concerned about that.”
    â€œI’m not. I know you can’t talk about her estate, but I trust you that there’s enough.”
    â€œI’m not talking about the estate now—just the cash. That’s what the society needs, and it’ll be there. See, Mary Ellen agreed to sell the land out at Birch Brook to Frank Nilsson and Luke Dyer—mostly Frank, but Luke’s got a piece of it, in addition to doing the construction. Mary Ellen signed the P and S in early June.”
    â€œP and S?”
    â€œSorry. Purchase and sale agreement. Anyway, she was never really comfortable about it.”
    â€œAbout selling the land, or about the price?”
    â€œBoth. Dan, Mary Ellen’s husband, bought that land from Paul Dyer, Luke’s dad, just a couple of years before he died.”
    â€œWho—Swanson or Dyer?” Julie interrupted.
    â€œBoth, as a matter of fact. Paul Dyer died about a year after he sold, and Dan Swanson died maybe a year after that. Anyway, Dan really loved that piece of land—great views, river access. I think Mary Ellen got to feeling guilty about selling it, or maybe she figured she could do better, but she asked me to put a clause in the P and S that gave her some time to think it over. Frank was naturally eager to get it settled since he and Luke had to line up financing for the construction. I think he recognized that if he didn’t allow the back-out clause Mary Ellen wouldn’t sign, and he’d have to delay. He probably figured she’d just let the date ride and the deal would go through. Which is just what happened. And so the money will be available very shortly. We’ll go to closing next Monday.”
    â€œBut who sells? Steven, I guess.”
    â€œNo, I’m the executor of the estate, and I have full power to close the deal since the back-out date passed.”
    â€œWhen was that?” Julie asked.
    â€œToday, as a matter of fact. The clause gave Mary Ellen thirty calendar days to withdraw without penalty, and that’s July fifth.”
    Julie was idly doodling on the yellow pad in front of her as the attorney talked, but when she looked down she saw she had written “July 5th” and underlined it. “Hold on a second, Henry. You mean that if Mary Ellen hadn’t been killed on Tuesday she could have backed out of the land deal?”
    â€œHad until today to do so, like I said.”
    Julie couldn’t believe that Henry wouldn’t see the significance of this fact, but she decided to let him continue, assuming thathis part-two item would cover it. “Okay. Go ahead—you said the second thing was the will.”
    â€œRight. I need to ask you a question about that. Frankly, I’ve been sort of putting this off because I wasn’t sure about what my duty was—I have a dual duty on this, to the estate and to the historical society. But I talked to Steven about it, and he agrees I need to ask you just to be sure.” Henry hesitated, and Julie heard him take and swallow a sip of something. “Julie,” he resumed, “did Mary Ellen mention anything to you about changing her will to benefit the Ryland