Free We All Killed Grandma by Fredric Brown Page B

house. It is mortgaged for fifteen, so you can see it makes quite a difference—ten thousand dollars difference—one way or the other to the estate how much it is sold for.”
    “Hope you get thirty then,” Arch said.
    “There is an excellent chance of it. Incidentally, I’m hiring Wilcox and Benton—they’re the best certified public accountants in the city—to handle the estate. I’ll only supervise their work and handle the legal end. You can trust them implicitly—so you won’t have to worry about trusting me. And, I should tell you, either of you is entitledto have his own attorney or accountant, or both, check on our work at any time. I’ll be glad to give him access to everything and help him in every way.”
    I said, “As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Hennig, I trust you to handle it.”
    The secretary came back with the checks. Hennig signed them and I endorsed mine back to him; Arch pocketed his.
    On the way down in the elevator Arch said, “Another cup of coffee?”
    “Sure,” I told him. We went back into the drugstore from the inside entrance and took our booth back.
    “This Hennig, Arch. Is he a lawyer or a banker? I thought you said a banker, but he’s got law offices.”
    “He’s both. He’s a lawyer, but he’s on the board of directors of the Second National—that’s where Grandma banked—and owns quite a chunk of the bank stock. Incidentally, you don’t need to worry about him.”
    “I wasn’t,” I said.
    “He’s one of the biggest men in town. He could buy and sell the Britten family a dozen times. Grandma trusted him implicitly—and she trusted damn few people.”
    “I wasn’t worrying,” I told him. “How come Grandma didn’t have Mr. Henderson handle her will and make him executor, though, since he was her best friend and they lived next door to one another and all that?”
    “Oh, he handled work for her—but just routine stuff, making out deeds and options and things like that. She was sold on Hennig when it came to handling her money, and on anything big. Don’t ask me why—she had her own ideas about how to run her business. She was one strong-minded old lady, Rod. You couldn’t talk her into anything. You get your stubbornness from her side of the family. But back to Hennig versus Henderson—I think she used both of them because they hate one another’s guts. Politically, anyway. They’re both in politics off and on, and on opposite sides of the fence. Grandma played one against the other, sometimes had them both work on the same thing just for a double check. Neither one of them could have pulled anything on her—would havedared to. The other would have caught him at it.” He chuckled. “Yes, Grandma was quite a gal.”
    We sipped our coffee and Arch said, “If we do decide to hire anyone to check up on Hennig’s handling of the estate, Henderson would be the boy. But I think it would be unnecessary expense. Uh—thanks for coming along, Rod, and for signing the stipulation.”
    “Don’t mention it. You signed, too. And, listen, Arch, I’m not going to draw against the estate beyond that money I got for Mrs. Trent. You don’t need to worry about it.”
    “Why would I worry?”
    “Because if it turned out I killed Grandma Tuttle, you’d be out whatever sums I’d drawn. The whole estate would be yours, less those sums. I could read your face, Arch, just before you made up your mind to sign that paper.”
    “Don’t be a damned fool,” he said. “Despite what the police tell you, you still think you might be the murderer. Damn it, you
need
to go to a psychiatrist. Why won’t you?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I’m afraid to find out that the police are wrong. Listen, Arch, you don’t have to worry about it. I’m not going to draw against the estate any farther. So if it turns out I
am
barred from being a legatee, you won’t be out more than that thousand.”
    He looked disgusted and said, “Don’t be a damn fool, Rod.” But