Free Tahoe Ghost Boat (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller) by Todd Borg

the earth rotates, the stars trace slow curves through the sky.”
    “Those aren’t the curves I was thinking about. But yes, it’s very romantic.”

    NINE

    I slept in the next day, and called Nadia after I’d had my second cup of coffee. She came to my office that afternoon. Her first words were to ask if I’d seen Gertie and Merrill. I nodded.
    She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The idea of me seeing Merrill made her tense and worried.
    “Did it, you know, go okay?”
    “Yeah, great. Merrill is a loving, caring dad, and he’s rearranging his schedule to be sure that Gertie isn’t at risk.”
    “Gertie? Not Trudy?”
    “Nadia, Gertie made it very clear that she prefers to be called Gertie and that everyone in the world but you calls her by the name she prefers.”
    Nadia hesitated. “I... I like the name Trudy.”
    “Yes. I can see that. At every step, you care more about your likes than your daughter’s.”
    Nadia colored. Her jaw muscles bulged. Her eyes moistened. She blinked multiple times. But no tears spilled over the dam.
    “Did Ian have substantial assets?” I asked.
    She blinked some more, then focused on the new subject.
    “I didn’t know that at the time I married him. But later, I learned that his company was a much bigger deal than he’d led me to believe. I also found out that his vacation home here in Tahoe is practically a castle. It’s this big stone place with a matching stone boathouse. Much bigger than the house in Santa Clara. I learned that he collects expensive toys like that fancy old wood boat that he died in. He used them for employee perks and for entertaining clients. Of course, they all were lost when Symphony TechNation went out of business.”
    “How did that happen?”
    “Another lawsuit. Or maybe it was mostly a prosecution thing. Anyway, this time Ian was on the receiving end. He had to liquidate everything. Even the Tahoe castle was sold. Although he got the new owners to lease it back to him for six months. The only thing left was the house in Santa Clara.”
    “Besides the insurance, what are you left with?”
    “Just my car and the house, and that’s about it. I could always sell the house. It’s small, but it’s still worth about two million, so I could move to a nice apartment and still be okay.”
    “You said Ian was prosecuted? For what?”
    “I don’t know the details. But one of the companies Ian sued some time back counter-sued a few years later. Something about discovery and whether or not Ian or his lawyers had been forthcoming during the first lawsuit. So the next thing Ian knew, the District Attorney came calling. It took a couple of years for the lawyers to do their dance. That’s what Ian calls it. Lawyers dancing. In the end, they made a deal. Ian paid a fine to the government and pleaded guilty to some minor thing, and he also paid a giant settlement to this other company on some civil case. He said it cost him about twenty million, which was all he had including all his property.”
    “Tell me about his insurance.”
    “I don’t really know anything about it. I just went through the file about a week ago after I got over the shock of Ian dying. There was a form that I found. I filled it out and sent it in along with a certified death certificate. Now I just wait.”
    “Was Ian worried about dying?” I asked.
    “I doubt it. He was too cocky for that. He probably thought he was going to live forever. I think that the only reason he even had insurance was that some salesman sold him on the concept. Probably, there was something else that Ian got out of the deal.”
    “Like what? A bribe from the agent?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know. But I don’t think that Ian would have bought the policy out of the goodness of his heart.”
    “Do you inherit his entire estate?”
    “I guess so. As far as I know, he didn’t have a will. But the Santa Clara house was in both our names, so now it’s mine.”
    “Most people like Ian have