Page 56 of Lorna's Savior
“Works for me. Give me the address.” Andy wrote it down and nodded. He knew exactly where that was. “I’ll see you then.” He hung up and scrubbed his face. Now that he had completed his case for Mr. H, he only needed to state his findings. He moved onto the case he had received only two days ago. Keeping busy helped him keep his mind off Lorna. For the life of him, he could not get over the feeling of doom about his relationship with her.
* * *
Early the next morning, Andy was standing on the sidewalk outside the business he was to meet his client at. He looked up and saw two men approached him. He recognized one as his client, and was introduced to the other, who happened to be Mr. H.’s lawyer.
“Ball, this is Phillip Stanley, my personal attorney.”
“Hello.” Handshakes were exchanged, then everyone followed Mr. Stanley into the building and up to the sixth floor.
“Where would you like this meeting to take place?” Mr. Stanley asked, after he quickly began a pot of coffee.
“I’ve got several documents I’d like to spread out. Do you have a conference room?” Andy asked.
“I do, I’ll get you set up and bring the coffee right in.” Stanley showed them where to go, and quickly retreated. When he returned, he carried a tray with a carafe of coffee, with three cups, along with cream and sugar. After setting it down in the middle of the table, he pulled a pad of paper out from under his arm, then settled down. He began the meeting.
“I’m sorry, but I’m a little in the dark here. Marvin called me yesterday and asked if the three of us could meet this morning. I know nothing of what is going on. Could someone enlighten me?”
Marvin leaned forward and poured the coffee for the three of them. When he sat back down, he began. “Several weeks ago, I hired Mr. Ball to investigate my ex-wife. In our divorce decree, I agreed to give her a substantial amount of money monthly. Alimony.”
“How substantial?” Phillip asked.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars a month. In addition to that, I paid the mortgage on the house. However, if my ex, Kristen, ever married again, it was all null and void. I would stop the mortgage payments, along with the utilities, the car insurance, and even paying for a domestic staff. I paid for everything to keep that house up and running.” Marvin drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I hired Mr. Ball, because Kristen and I have a daughter together. Years ago, Kristen contacted me and said that this child, whom I have never met, by the way as I left the marriage before she was born, and Kristen has refused me all visitation rights, no matter how many times I took her to court. Anyway, in addition to the twenty-five grand I pay in alimony, I pay ten grand in child support.”
“Holy crap, so Kristen is receiving thirty-five grand a month from you?”
“Yes, but when our daughter would have been five or six, Kristen contacted me and told me that she had been in an accident and had to have special counseling. Along with rehabilitative therapy. I’ve received monthly bills from her and the law office that handled my divorce set up a fund where I deposit fifty thousand dollars a month for her care and upkeep. All of this was done with lawyers, but according to Kristen’s lawyer, my daughter would need more care the older she gets. I hired Mr. Ball to investigate. Short of banging down Kristen’s door, I wanted to know what I’m dealing with.” Marvin paused to sip his coffee. He studied Phillip and nodded. “Mr. Ball isn’t the first investigator I’ve hired over the years. Somehow, they’d say everything was fine, take my money, and disappear. I never heard from them again. I’m hoping Mr. Ball can shed some light on this matter.” Marvin nodded to Andy, and as both men looked at him, he cleared his throat, and said in a strong, clear voice.
“Marvin, your wife is a lying sack of shit, and I have the evidence to prove it.”
“First off,” Marvin said. “She’s my ex-wife.”
“Stop.” Andy held up his hand. “I have a lot of information to dole out to you today. If you interrupt me after every sentence, we’ll never get through it. You told me you like to keep your private life away from your business life. I understand. And I know you’re a rich and powerful man, but please, let me get through this. I have documents to back up each and every statement I will make. I hope you don’t have a heart condition, because you’d never survive this meeting.”
“I don’t.”
“Good. Now, are we ready to begin again?” When the other two gentlemen nodded their heads, Andy opened the file before him. “Like I said, your wife is a lying sack of shit. First, though the divorce papers were signed by both parties, they never went before a judge, and were never filed with the court.”
“Fuck,” Phillip said. “Sorry about the language.”
“What does that mean?” Marvin stared at Andy in shock. “And it’s not like I can confront him. He was killed in a plane crash twenty years ago. That’s why I hired Phillip here.”
“I can subpoena his office.”
“Don’t worry,” Andy said as he pulled out several papers. “I have signed permission forms from the partners of his law firm. They verify that the divorce never went further than the signing stage. I even have statements from the clerk’s office.” Instead of passing them over, he pulled two more files, each at least two inches thick, the same as he was working out from his briefcase. He passed each of them to the other men. Andy nodded when they didn’t touch them.
“Moving on, remember when I asked you if you had a personal plane I could use?”
“Yes.”
“I went to Kristen’s home. Don’t worry, she wasn’t there, she had left two weeks prior to go on a three-month cruise. I talked to the housekeeper, who in turn called in the butler and cook. We had a nice fact-finding meeting. It turned out that Kristen’s daughter told the three of them to take the money she was to pay them for services while Kristen was gone, and get a different job. To quit.”
“Does she have the mental clarity to authorize that?” Marvin demanded.
“We’ll get to that. I’m not putting it off, but that’s another whole can of shitstorm I’m about to open, but first, let’s focus on Kristen.” Both men nodded then looked at him.
“Okay, based on what the staff, who have been employed by Kristen for the last twenty-five years said, and documents they were able to produce from Kristen’s personal files, not including you, Marvin, Kristen Hepplewaite has been married seven times.” Andy looked up at the strangled sound, and saw Phillip jump to his feet and pound on Marvin’s back.
“WHAT!”Marvin waved Phillip away. “And this is documented?”
