Free Lawyer for the Cat by Lee Robinson

fine.”
    I follow Randall up the staircase. “Look around,” Randall says when we reach the living room. “You think this was a woman in her right mind? A fortune in stocks and bonds and she lived like this? Jesus.” He shoves a pile of books off one of the sofas, lets them fall to the floor. “I’ll get straight to the point. You don’t need to take notes—it’s not complicated.” The sofa gives a little under his weight. “My mother was always a little nutty. Lived in her own world, with all these books, played like she was a real historian, writing articles mostly nobody published unless she supported the magazine. Wasn’t much of a wife, couldn’t hide her relief when my daddy died, though God knows he was good to her, gave her everything she wanted.”
    â€œMr. Mackay,” I say, “My role in this case is to—”
    â€œI know what your role is. You really let old Judge Clarkson pass the buck to you, didn’t you?”
    â€œHe’s retiring soon, and apparently he’s not in good health.”
    â€œHe didn’t want to deal with the cat,” Randall Mackay says. “And frankly I can’t understand why a successful law-yer like you would want to waste your time.… Anyway, as I was saying, my mother was always crazy, but in the last five years or so, that brain of hers went haywire. Burney Haynes—he was her law-yer—should have known that. I guess she must have paid him a bundle, so he didn’t want to cross her.”
    â€œAre you alleging that your mother lacked the capacity to understand what she was doing?”
    â€œDamn right I am.”
    â€œBut apparently you believed she was capable of living out here all by herself?”
    â€œWe hired some people to stay with her. She fired them all. I should have had her declared incompetent, put her in a home.”
    â€œBut you didn’t.”
    â€œNo, I just couldn’t do it to her. She loved this place.” His voice softens. “I guess you know something about how hard it is, when they get demented.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYour mother.”
    My whole body tenses. “How do you know about my mother?”
    â€œYour ex—we hunt together sometimes.”
    â€œYou know Joe?”
    â€œFriend of a friend,” he says. Again the grin, the arched eyebrows. “No need to get all huffy. I’m just pointing out that we have something in common. When it’s your own mother, you don’t think straight. But never mind all that, I have to protect myself now.”
    â€œThen you should hire a lawyer.”
    â€œI’d like to avoid that.” he says.
    â€œBut I can’t advise you, Mr. Mackay.”
    â€œI’m going to cut to the chase. If I contest this trust, we’re going to use up a whole bunch of time and a whole bundle of money in unnecessary litigation. And at the end of all that, there’ll be some kind of settlement, so why not just get right down to it? I’m willing to work a deal.”
    â€œMy job is to choose the best caregiver for the cat. I’m not really concerned with—”
    â€œBut if I succeed in setting the trust aside,” he says, arching his right eyebrow, “all this nonsense about the cat goes out the window.”
    â€œAgain, Mr. Mackay, I can’t advise you.”
    â€œBut you can hear me out. The deal I propose is this: Let Gail keep the cat. She’s a good kid, and her boyfriend’s okay, too. Pay her that ridiculous salary, since that’s what my mother wanted, but they don’t need to live here in this house. Hell, they don’t even want to. And in exchange I won’t raise any objection to the trust. Everybody’s happy.”
    â€œSo you want to live here?”
    â€œI’ll get the property after the cat dies anyway.”
    â€œI don’t think I have the authority to make a deal like that, even if I