moved Margo into his home and spent five full days briefing her on the Stanford family. ' are the names of your brotherst ' and Woodruff."."'s right - Woodrow." do we call himt "Woody." you have a sistert '. Kendall. She's a designer." she married?"'s married to a Frenchman. His name is ... Marc Renoir.".' 207 '." was your mother's narnet "Rosemary Nelson. She was a governess to the Stanford children." did she leavet ' got knocked up by ..."!' Tyler admonished her.
"I mean, she became pregnant by Harry Stanford." happened to Mrs. Stanfordt ' committed suicide." did your mother tell you about the Stanford childrent Margo stopped to think for a minute. ' "There was the time you fell out of the swan boat." didn't fall out!" Tyler said. ' almost fell out.". Woody almost got arrested for picking flowers in the Public Garden." was Kendall ...' He was ruthless. They went over the scenario again and again, late into the nights, until Margo was exhausted. ' was bitten by a dog." was bitten by the dog.' She rubbed her eyes. ' can't think straight anymore. I'm so tired. I need some sleep." can sleep later!" long is this going to go ont she asked defiantly. 208 ''I think you're ready. Now let's go through it again.' And on it went, over an dover, until Margo became letter perfect. When the day finally - arrived that she knew the answer to every question Tyler asked, he was satisfied. ''re ready,' he said. He handed her some legal documents.
"What's thist ''s just a technicality,' Tyler said casually. What he had her sign was a paper giving her share of the Stanford estate to a corporation controlled by a second corporation, which in turn was controlled by an offshore subsidiary -of which Tyler Stanford was the sole owner. There was no way they could trace the transaction back to Tyler. Tyler handed Margo five thousand, dollars in cash. ''ll get the balance when the job is done,' he told her. ' convince them that you're Julia Stanford.' From the moment Margo had appeared at Rose Hill, Tyler had played the devil's advocate. It was the classic antipositional chess move. Irm sure you can understand our position, Miss ... er ... Without some Positive proof, there's no way ... I think the lady is afraud ... ' many servants worked in this house when we were children? ... Dozens, right? And some of them would have known everything this young lady told us ... 209 Any one of them could have given her that photograph Let's not forget that there's an enormous amount Of money involved' His crowning move had been when he had demanded a DNA test. He had called Hal Baker and given him his new instructions: ' up Harry Stanford's body and dispose of it.' And then his inspiration of calling in a private detective. With the family present, he had telephoned the district attorney's office in Chicago.
"This is Judge Tyler Stanford I understand that your office retains a private detective from time to time who does excellent workfor you. His name is something like Simmons or -", you must mean Frank Timmons."
"Timmons! Yes, that's it. I wonder if you could give me his telephone number so I can contact him directly?' Instead, he had summoned Hal Baker and introduced him as Frank Timmons. At first Tyler had planned for Hal Baker merely to pretend to go through the motions of checking on Julia Stanford, but then he decided it would make a more impressive report if Baker really pursued it. The family had accepted Baker's findings without question. Tyler's plan had gone off without a hitch.
Margo Posner had played her part perfectly, and the fingerprints had been the crowning touch. Everyone was convinced that she was the real Julia Stanfor-d. 210 7, for one, am glad it's finally settled Let me go up and see if she needs any help.' He went upstairs and walked along the corridor to Julia's room. He knocked at her door and called loudly, Vulia?"'s open. Come in.' He stood in the doorway and they stared silently at each other. And then Tyler carefully closed the door, held out his hands, and broke into a stbw grim When he spoke, he said, ' did it, Margo! We did it!"
Chapter Eighteen
In the offices of Renquist, Renquist & Fitzgerald, Steve Sloane and Simon Fitzgerald were having coffee. ' the great hard once said, "Something is