between them. He'd never known anything like it before. The responsibility was not only frightening, but overwhelming.
He could handle responsibility. With a sigh, Axell uncovered his eyes and glared at his wife. She didn't flinch, just waited expectantly. Damn, but he loved the way she did that.
"Pfeiffer?" he asked wearily.
She nodded. Cleo turned to Axell for explanation.
"He named you and Cleo and the relationship?" Axell clarified. At Maya's nod, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "The school?"
"Don't know," she finally replied. "The lawyer blathered on about deeds. He's driving down this afternoon to explain." She looked a little less certain. "They've already filed the will at the courthouse. There's nothing we can do."
"A vacation in the Bahamas until this blows over would be nice." Leaning against the counter, Axell covered his face and wished escape was an alternative.
Idly, Cleo fished another petal from her hair. "Inheriting is good, isn't it? Why the long faces?"
"Mr. Pfeiffer was murdered," Maya emphasized. "Who do you think are the prime suspects now?"
Silence.
Axell looked up. Cleo didn't have to look guilty. He wagered she looked guilty sleeping. He turned to Maya.
"Cleo got out the day Mr. Pfeiffer died, remember?" she reminded him.
Axell summoned the unpleasant memory of Cleo walking down the shop stairs on them one morning—the day after the murder. He didn't think prisons let people out in the middle of the night. She must have been released the day of the murder. Shit.
"I didn't know anything about any damned will," Cleo responded defensively at Axell's look. "He said he'd take care of us, but I figured it was an old man talking. He was my damned landlord," she shouted beneath the force of their stares. "I paid him rent. I figured he gave me a discount because I listened to him talk."
"Where were you the night you were released?" Axell asked as calmly as he could. For Maya's sake, he wanted to believe her sister. But the circumstances definitely looked questionable.
"I was here!" Cleo gestured at the stairs. "I got a ride, found the key over the sill like Maya said, and came in and inspected the place. I went upstairs and went to bed. Stevieboy came in around three and woke me. He can verify I was in bed."
"At three. News of the murder was all over town before midnight," Axell replied with resignation. "I don't suppose you know the name of the person who drove you here? I don't know the exact time of death. There might be a chance..."
He saw the exchange of looks between the sisters and knew that alley was a dead end.
Cleo shrugged. "He's not a reliable witness."
Axell cringed at the defeat in her voice. He thought he understood something of how a person could be used for a doormat for so long, they began to think that's all there was to life. Beaten down by circumstances all their lives, with no money, no resources, no friends or family for support, the doormats of the world existed to take the blame for others.
He turned to Maya and recognized the gleam of confidence in her eyes as she watched him. She thought he could solve her sister's problems.
Logically, he should run the other way.
Insanely, Maya's faith and trust in him pumped new energy through Axell's blood, inflated his heart—and probably his head, not to mention other parts of his anatomy—and released something previously fettered and downtrodden in his soul.
He thought it was hope.
Chapter 34
It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you!
"You'll understand that we haven't talked with Mr. Pfeiffer since the will was signed. He gave us this list of his properties, but they could have changed since then. All except his house are in the name of his corporation, so it's merely a matter of listing you as the new stockholders of the corporation, and filing a deed on the house."
The lawyer sipped his martini and sampled one of the stuffed mushroom appetizers Axell's chef had brought back to the meeting room. Maya clung to the seat of her chair and tried not to squirm as he chewed. She couldn't label her emotion. She'd lost a grandfather she hadn't known she had. She wished they'd known him while they were growing up. Dumping a lifetime of memories on them after he was dead didn't seem right.
She glanced at Cleo. Her sister had flattened her hair into something that almost looked normal and Peter Pannish. She still had tired circles under