Free Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery) by Sara M. Barton

let
alone make rational decisions.”
    “You’re saying the guy stole the house out from under
Jenny and her mother?”
    “I’m saying Stevie is a cheese weasel who took
advantage of a dying woman and robbed the daughter. John Vignone,
the lawyer up in Salem, has decided to challenge the probate claim
and file a lawsuit against Stevie to recover the house, the car,
and even a savings account that was supposed to help pay for
Jenny’s college expenses.”
    “Captain Peacock, you’re the best!”
    “I am. And you can kiss me now, fair lady!”
    We stayed at a Holiday Inn near Salem. Jenny, Kenny,
and I showed up in court with the New Hampshire attorney hired for
the hearing by Gayle Fulsom, Bur’s legal friend at the Hartford
office of Winnow, Smith, Quinlan. Within an hour’s time, John
Vignone had presented the medical records of Vivian Lorraine
Mulroney. Any sensible person could see Vivian was in no shape to
make decisions about her own future when Steve was transferring all
of her property into his own name.
    It also turned out that Vivian’s boyfriend, Dr. Jason
Smith, was back in New Hampshire, and he was a great witness,
telling the judge about the lengthy discussions he had had with
Vivian about Jenny’s future. It turned out that he was the one who
advised her to put more money each month into the college fund. The
reunion between teen and mother’s lover was bittersweet. They had
both loved Vivian and both lost her. Jason was now married, with a
child on the way. He seemed at a loss as to what to do about the
young woman he had once considered adopting.
    Three of Jenny’s high school teachers provided
testimony on Vivian’s conversations during parent-teacher
conferences, her interest in sending Jenny to college, and even
Jenny’s consistently good schoolwork. Kenny had first contacted
them when he ran a background check on Jenny, and he was impressed
with what they had to say about her. The judge was equally
impressed.
    Kenny also managed to track down Vivian’s relatives,
who had, it seems, been told that she moved without leaving a
forwarding address, right after Steve transferred the property into
his own name following the marriage. They testified their cards and
letters had been returned to them as undeliverable, and their phone
calls rebuffed, all part of Steve’s plan to make Vivian and her
daughter disappear from public view. Before the distant cousins
left the judge’s chambers, they made sure Jenny knew of their
desire to remain in touch and even invited her to visit whenever
she felt inclined.
    But best of all? With medical charts and scans in
hand, the oncologist detailed Vivian’s illness for the probate
judge. Jenny looked stricken as the doctor pointed out the
locations of each of the tumors and explained the erratic behavior
of his patient over the last few months of her life. Listening, my
heart ached for the teen. She had been the one at her mother’s
bedside during those long months, not Steve.
    The final nail in the wicked stepfather’s legal
coffin was hammered in by the three visiting nurses, who had
provided the hospice care to Vivian. They swore that Jenny was the
one who changed her mother’s adult diapers, tended to her personal
hygiene, and even spoon-fed her when she was too weak to feed
herself.
    “I’ll make my ruling after I have reviewed all of the
material,” said the probate judge. “But first I would like to
consult with the district attorney and the Pelham Police Department
about criminal charges in this matter.”
     

Chapter Eight --
     
    Steve bristled at that, his bitterness clear. It
seems he had already put the house on the market, planning to move
to Florida, but the probate judge put a stop to that. “You will, in
the meantime, vacate the property until this case is decided. I
will have a sheriff accompany you now to retrieve your belongings.
And if Jennifer would like to go to the house and also collect her
belongings, she can do