family is.” Her face went hard. “He won’t take it well, I can tell you that. So it’s better if you just talk to me.”
“Very well,” Mr. Frazier returned gently. “Now. On to Darrin Ross. A friend of his fenced four very valuable fur coats through a shady acquaintance. The guy who fenced them is known to the Aspen police, and they arrested him for theft. Afraid of going back to jail again, he gave them Darrin’s name. So Mr. Ross is sitting in the Aspen jail biding his time until his attorneys can find some way to get him out.”
“He’ll need money for those attorneys,” she said quietly. “And he knows about the ring I wear. Most people think it’s paste.” She held it out for them to see. “It was valued at several million dollars by the jewelry firm where my mother bought it. Darrin knows about its worth. Mr. Cameron gave it a great deal of scrutiny.” She looked up at them. “I should have taken it off and put it in a safe deposit box, but it was the last thing my mother gave me, before she died . . .” She choked up and had to take a minute to get the pain out of her voice.
“If he saw it, someone may try to come and get it for him,” Mr. Thornton said quietly. “It would easily pay all his legal fees.”
Esther’s blue eyes sparked. “He’s not getting it. Not if I have to take it out in the woods and bury it somewhere!” She looked worried. “I’ve put my husband in the line of fire. I couldn’t bear it if he got hurt because of me. I love him so much!”
“We won’t tell him,” Mr. Frazier promised. “But you have to keep the doors locked all the time, even during the day. And be careful where you go. Take your husband with you when you go to work or come home.”
“Butch takes me to work and comes to get me,” she assured them. “And he’s always armed. Poachers and such people can be very dangerous. Butch is a cautious man.”
“So he is. Now. Let’s go over the case again,” Mr. Frazier said, changing the subject.
He wanted to know about the will, how Darrin had behaved just before and just after Terry died. She told them in a choked little voice, about Darrin picking up Terry and hurling her headfirst down the long winding staircase at the Aspen house. She told them of her wild flight, and how she’d ended up in Benton and later married the man who’d saved her life.
“He’s such a good man,” she told the attorneys, and she was beaming with happiness. “I’d go crazy if I ever lost him.” She gave them a sad look from big blue eyes. “He’ll have to know what’s going on sooner or later. When he finds out what I’m worth, he’ll leave me.”
“Why? I know I asked you before, but please repeat the reason you think that,” Mr. Frazier asked gently.
She sighed and smiled. “I told him there were a few stocks and bonds that we could give to our children. He said that was great because he didn’t want to be Mr. Esther Marist,” she told them flatly.
Mr. Frazier sighed as well. “There are ways around that, Mrs. Matthews,” he replied. “In fact, you could leave what you inherit in a trust for your children, when they come along, and just let the stocks and bonds remain in the hands of your investment broker.”
“That would be a fine solution. But what about my mother’s bank accounts, and the jewelry she had in the safe deposit box?”
“Your mother’s lover might already have that.”
She shook her head. “Mama never told him about it. I’ve carried around a key to it for the past few years. It was something Mama never shared with any of her lovers. She didn’t want to be taken advantage of, you see.”
“That was wise,” Mr. Thornton agreed.
“So Darrin couldn’t get to the jewelry and our statements from the broker and the amount of cash she stowed there for emergencies. He doesn’t even know which bank the safe deposit box is in,” she added with a quiet smile.
“Well, it will keep him busy looking for it, I imagine,” Mr. Thornton said, “but I think he has bigger problems than that. He’s just about to be charged with first degree murder. One of our criminal attorneys is handling the case for us. He’s