truck driver had suffered a heart attack at the wheel at the same time. Maddie cried for weeks, and I cried right along with her. Sara now, I never saw her shed even one tear. That’s not to say she didn’t. We just never saw a tear, I guess, is what I’m trying to say.” His tone of voice was as sour as lemon juice.
“I called the army to let them know so Andy could come home to the funeral. It took a whole bunch of time because he was over there in Iraq.” He pronounced it, I-RAK. “By the time he got here, his parents had been buried. Sara saw to that. She wanted them in the ground lickety-split, and there was no one to oppose her. That boy cried his heart out to us. He was here less than thirty-six hours, and he had to leave again. He said he left everything in Sara’s hands,” Henry said.
“Quicker than lightning, Sara put the house up for sale, and it sold quickly. She got a pretty penny for it, too. In other words, she got the inflated asking price because Dan kept the house updated and in good shape. Sonia had just gotten a new kitchen, too. All beautiful cherrywood. That helped raise the price Sara got for the property.”
“How much did the house sell for?” Annie asked.
“It was $389,000. And she didn’t use a broker, just put a sign in the yard. That was all clear money, and there was no mortgage on the house. Andy should have gotten half of that, but he told Maddie in an e-mail all the way from I-RAK that Sara said she made some bad investments and lost it all. By rights, if she was never legally adopted, and we think she knew that for years, she was not entitled to anything from the Nolan estate. As far as we know, neither Sonia nor Dan left a will. Since Andy is the only biological son, he should have gotten everything. Sara sold both their cars, too, and kept the money. We think she got close to maybe $17,000 or $18,000 total for both cars. Like everything else, Dan was the one who kept them maintained. Whoever bought them got a good deal. Andy didn’t get any of that money, either. He excused it all by saying Sara was a novice at investing and she was just trying to double the money so they would have more to divide.”
Myra and Annie both blinked at the disgust and downright hatred they were hearing in the older man’s voice.
“Bella, his widow, told us Sara got his insurance money, and I guess she also cleared out his bank account. Nothing illegal about any of it. The major had given his sister his POA,” Annie said. “Bella was left with nothing. We’d like to find Sara and perhaps explain to her that she needs to make things right with her brother’s widow.”
“That’s the thing, though, ladies. Sara is not Andy’s sister. She was no relation at all to Andy. I don’t see the young widow having any rights here. Andy was of sound mind when he gave her his power of attorney. While we might not like what Sara’s done, and even though she is not a blood relative, she did not do anything illegal. Underhanded, yes. I don’t know what you think you can do to make it right?” Henry Olsen said.
“By the way,” Maddie interjected, “a month or so after . . . after our dear friends passed, Henry and I went to the courthouse and searched the family-court records to see if we could establish that Sara was adopted. The people there were really nice and helped us. We couldn’t find a thing. We even had Sara’s social security number because Andy gave it to us. Well . . . he didn’t exactly give it to us, what he did was he showed us some paper in regard to the house, and Sara’s name and social security number were on it. I said I had to get my glasses to read it and walked over to the desk and copied it down. I don’t even know why I did it. Something just told me to do it. Would you like it?” Both Myra and Annie nodded. Maddie scampered over to a tiny corner desk and a minute later returned with a sticky note with Sara’s social security number.