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

was full of
advice for the teen and even wanted to discuss how she should
invest her inheritance and manage her money portfolio.
    “You have enough to get you through school if you
conserve it,” he insisted. “Always remember money doesn’t grow on
trees, so spend it wisely and make it work for you.”
    “How about we cross that bridge when the probate
judge makes his decision?” I suggested. “We can’t actually count
those chickens quite yet. You never know what will happen between
now and when the judge issues his final decision.”
    I was feeling very confident that Jenny’s life was
back on track, and it would be smooth sailing from that point on,
but secrets have a way of biting you in the ass or kissing you on
the cheek. It’s hard to know the kind of greeting you’ll get from
them until they’re standing right in front of you.
    The first clue that things were going south came when
Kenny called me on Wednesday, just after breakfast. We normally
spoke after dinner.
    “Hey,” he said, his voice sounding tight. “Got a
minute?”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Is Jenny there?”
    “No, she’s upstairs, making beds. Let me
call....”
    “Don’t. I need to tell you something and I don’t want
her to know about it till we get it straightened out.”
    “Oh, okay.” I was cleaning the dining room, hanging
around while Laurel was out on the porch, getting a workout with
her physical therapist, just in case they needed me. I stepped into
the kitchen for a little privacy, sat myself at the counter, and
waited for that other shoe to drop. “I’m all ears.”
    “Jenny is not Vivian’s daughter.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Jenny’s mother was Vivian’s younger sister.”
    “No!”
    “That’s not the least of it, Scar. A copy of Jenny’s
birth certificate was found in a box recovered by the sheriff’s
department.”
    “ Why do I think there’s more
news?”
    “Because there is more. On that birth certificate is
the name of Jenny’s father.”
    “That’s good, isn’t it?”
    “Let’s hope so. I’m calling you now, Scarlet, because
I want you to start thinking about how we’re going to break the
news to Jenny. She can’t get her driver’s license without a birth
certificate and she’s just about ready to take the test.”
    “We’ll handle it,” I decided. “Do you think you can
find her real mother?”
    “Already have. Remember how Jenny said she was born
in Boston? She was. Her mother died when she was two weeks old.
Vivian collected her after her mother took an overdose and brought
her up to Maine.”
    “Crap. That stinks. Why did she do it?”
    “There were a few more papers in that box. As best I
can tell, Jenny’s father went out to California to see his family.
Maybe he was planning to tell them he had a wife and child. I don’t
think he had the chance. The bus he was on flipped over and he was
one of three people who died.”
    “Dear Lord,” I sighed. “What a mess.”
    “Indeed.”
    “Poor kid. Father dead, mother dead, aunt dead,
grandparents dead. She’s really an orphan.”
    “Not quite, Miz Scarlet.”
    “No?”
    “Her father’s parents are still alive out in
California.”
    “They are?” A little piece of me flickered inside,
hope springing eternal. Was it possible this could all turn around?
“Do you think they might want to meet Jenny?”
    “Honestly?” He paused. “I don’t know. It’s
complicated. Maybe their son had the chance to tell them and they
don’t want anything to do with Jenny. Maybe they have no clue they
even have a granddaughter. I won’t know until I have a chance to
talk with them. The bad news is that Steve might actually have more
of a leg to stand on now that we know Vivian wasn’t Jenny’s real
mother. At least now he can’t totally blind-side us in court.”
    “But surely the basic facts of the case still remain,
Kenny. Vivian still wasn’t of sound mind when she married him, and
that shouldn’t change the fact that she set