Free Hearse and Gardens by Kathleen Bridge

witnessed at the wake between Brandy and Richard, and my time with Uncle Harry and Liv. She seemed happy Liv was such a devoted granddaughter.
    When we got to the rental, I showed Elle my storyboard for Rebecca Crandle’s cottage. After it received her stamp of approval, she headed back to Sag Harbor to relieve her part-time shop worker, Maurice.
    Off-season, Mabel and Elle’s Curiosities was closed on weekdays. For the next couple of weeks, because of the Hamptons International Film Festival, Elle adopted an open-seven-days-a-week policy. Elle had regular showbiz clients who came to her when they were in town, to feed their collecting addictions. Elle didn’t need the money, just the satisfaction of someone finding that special one-of-a-kind item that would make their day. Elle’s great-aunt had left her very wealthy, and it was thanks to her loan that I was able to pull off the down payment on Little Grey.
    I sat on the sofa to make a phone call to my father. He was already on the case to find some kind of proof Gordon Miles wasn’t who he said he was.
    Jeff Barrett picked up on the first ring. “Hey, kitten.”
    â€œHi, Dad. What’s for dinner tonight?”
    â€œWell, let me see. Sheila’s got me on this new farm-to-table kick. We’re leaving in a few minutes to go foraging for wild herbs and greens. I plan to make homemade sausage with gnocchi in a sage broth. We’ll see. It depends what the forest yields.”
    Sheila was my father’s new bride. They were married less than a year. In the beginning, I had a hard time withSheila’s intrusion into my father and my table-for-two life, but he was in Detroit and I was in Montauk. It was time we both moved on in the romance department. And Sheila wasn’t that bad.
    I looked at the screen on the phone to double-check I’d read what he said correctly. I had. “Foraging for greens in Detroit, the Motor City? Where?”
    â€œActually, on one of the old automobile moguls’ estates in Grosse Pointe. It’s been turned into an organic farm and natural animal habitat. There’s a vast forest on the estate and it’s only two miles away. It’s run by the university.”
    â€œWell, make sure they point out the poison herbs from the safe. Did you have a chance to do any digging? And I don’t mean for wild turnips.”
    â€œYes, but I don’t think you’ll be too happy. Sergeant Gordon Miles is a war hero. He came back from the Middle East after a four-year tour. He was held in the mountains, missing in action, for half that time by some rebels. Sorry to bring you the bad news.”
    Darn you, Gordon Miles. Now you’re a nice guy?
Maybe the seagull was just a prank by a local teen. But what about the fish guts?
    â€œHow about any genealogical ties to the former owner?”
    â€œMore bad news. The former owner, Mrs. Eberhardt, did have a nephew who recently died and his name was Joseph Miles. Gordon’s father, I assume.”
    â€œUgh. I need time to absorb this. I better run. Give my love to Sheila.”
    My father said, “Will do. Don’t give up yet on your property. The other side still has to prove their case. Love you.”
    â€œLove you back.”
    â€œOh. One more thing. Tell Doc to stop texting me and make an actual phone call.”
    â€œWill do.” Doc texting? Must be Georgia’s influence, the seventy-year-old who acted like she was thirty.
    After I hung up the phone, I thought about my attorney. He wasn’t anything like smooth Justin Marguilles. He was a kind, elderly Montaukian nearing retirement age. I trusted him. He had kind eyes.
    I got up and grabbed a Vernors from the fridge, then sat on the sofa thinking about Gordon Miles. Even if Gordon was related to the former owner, why couldn’t Old Lady Eberhardt have left her estate to the church if she wanted? I’d bought it from the church. Now that I thought about it,