The View from Alameda Island - Robyn Carr Page 0,107

is a good place to start. We cleaned out a cupboard for you,” she said, opening a couple of cupboard doors, the shelves inside empty and waiting for her use. “We’re almost entirely paperless now but you’ll need the scanner and computer.”

It was like a dream come true for Lauren.

There was one more poker night before Tim and Angela left town and it was a wonderful celebration filled with laughter, but at the end of the evening, during the goodbyes it was a little emotional. When Tim took Lauren into his arms and said, “I’m so happy Beau has a good woman in his life,” she completely lost it.

“Please, please, please be safe,” she said, sobbing onto his shoulder.

It took a lot of comforting to get her under control again but before all was said and done, lots of people were crying.

There was a lot going on. Brad failed to provide his financial records and was cited with contempt and fined by the judge who had made the order. Brad’s response was to stop sending Lauren monthly support payments.

Beau was checking with the police about the progress of their investigation almost weekly. One of the first things he learned was that the detectives had interviewed Pamela and Brad, separately of course, and both had alibis for the night of the bomb and were not suspects, however they now both knew that Beau’s truck had been destroyed.

Lauren was going into the city to work with Sylvie daily and at the urging of both Sylvie and Lauren’s lawyer, she did not withdraw her suit against Merriweather. “Please do it,” Sylvie said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do this to someone else in the future.”

Lauren was offered her old job back, but she declined on the grounds she just couldn’t trust them again. She had a long conversation with Sylvie and said if there was a financial settlement, she’d donate it to one of the Emerson foundations. “I’d rather you donate it to law school for someone who doesn’t plan to make herself rich but plans on doing some good in this crooked world. Know anyone who fits that description?”

The first week in February everyone at the Magellan house rose to go to their jobs—Lauren to the city, Drew to school, but Beau was wearing a suit.

“Today I have mediation with Pamela,” he told them.

“You didn’t say anything!” Drew said.

“I wasn’t being secretive,” he said. “I knew it would cause some anxiety and I just want us all to stay calm. It might take more than one meeting. It might take more than two. I’m hoping for a peaceful outcome that’s fair to everyone.”

“I’m really surprised Mom hasn’t called me, tried to get me to wrangle something on her behalf.”

“I’m a little surprised by that, too,” Beau said. “I hope it means things are calming down and we’re getting to the end of hostilities.”

And Lauren thought, wouldn’t that be nice. But she had an ugly feeling the end was not yet in sight.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Beau’s day of mediation was surprising, to say the least. One surprise after another. He had worn his best suit and, for a landscape architect, that was saying something. He was typically seen in jeans, khakis or shorts. There was hardly ever a business meeting that required this much of a suit, however there was the occasional wedding or funeral.

He thought of this meeting as a funeral. He expected to be buried. He came to the marriage with so much and it never once occurred to him to create a prenup. Not so much because of his ferocious trust for Pam but because he wanted the boys, his boys, to be well cared for right into adulthood. Their fathers had pretty much bailed on them. Beau was going to hang with them till his last days.

The mediator had looked over the figures, done all his own figuring, calculated again and again and gotten his own value estimates on things like the business and the house. There were things that Pam was asking for that had a red line run through—like her legal fees—that adjusted the total by quite a bit. She wanted the house and half the value of the business. The mediator explained the law very patiently, it was assets accrued during the marriage.

Their lawyers argued about their research—the value of the house and business at the time of marriage versus current assessments. The mediator split the difference.

Beau had to concentrate to close his mouth. He really hadn’t expected