Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #16)(77)

“Did you try to find out why Warren used someone else?”

“Of course I did. The next morning I went out to the hospital to see Warren and ask him what was going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to talk to him. He was in I.C.U. and the visitors’ list was limited to members of his immediate family. Roger was there, visiting his father.”

“Did you get a chance to talk to Roger?”

“Yes. I waited for him to come out and I asked him about the new will. He said that his father had told him about calling in a lawyer from Minneapolis and changing a few things to make it easier for him to take over Dalworth Enterprises when the time came.”

Hannah was curious. “Do you have any idea what those changes could be?”

“I don’t have a clue unless circumstances have changed over the past month or so. I thought that Warren and I had every contingency covered in the will I drew up for him.”

“Did Roger give you any reason why his father called in a lawyer from Minneapolis?”

“Yes. He was reluctant to say it, but Roger thinks his father’s mind is slipping. He said Warren probably forgot he had a lawyer right here in town.”

“Poor Warren!” Hannah didn’t like to think that the man most people regarded as the shrewdest investor and developer in the state could be failing mentally. “And poor Roger, too. It must be awful to see your father failing that way.”

“Roger’s had a lot of grief lately.” He was silent for a moment and then he continued. “Roger was embarrassed. It was clear he didn’t want to go into details, but he said that when he asked Warren what was wrong with the will I drew up for him, Warren didn’t seem to know who I was and he didn’t remember that he even had a will.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No, it doesn’t. Of course Warren is on some pretty strong pain medication so we have to make allowances for that.”

“But do you think he was capable of making out a new will?”

Howie shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t speak to him. But if what Roger says is true, Warren certainly shouldn’t have drafted a will without the advice and assistance of someone he knew and trusted.”

“Like you?”

“Not necessarily. It could have been someone like Doc Knight, or an old friend he knew in town.”

“But Warren did it all by himself.”

“That’s what I understand. And he did it with a lawyer who’d never met him before and couldn’t accurately judge his mental state.”

Hannah shivered slightly. “What if there’s something . . . wrong in the will?”

“That’s exactly what Roger asked me. He didn’t see the new will and all he knows about it is what his father told him. He asked me what he could do if his father had done something crazy, like leave Dalworth Enterprises to a total stranger, or a shelter for homeless earthworms.”

“What did you tell Roger?”

“I said that if there was something outrageous like that in Warren’s new will, it might go toward proving that Warren was incompetent, or not in his right mind when he instructed his new lawyer and signed the will. The courts have to decide that.”

“And if they do, then the new will can be . . .” Hannah stopped, unable to think of the correct legal term. “Revoked?”

“Declared invalid,” Howie provided the phrase. “If Warren was not of sound mind when he signed the new will, it doesn’t exist.”

Forty-five minutes was long enough to stay at a teenage party even if the teenagers were dancing to music the adults couldn’t hear. Hannah and Michelle got back to Hannah’s condo at five minutes to ten.

“Do you want to catch Moishe, or shall I?” Michelle asked as Hannah drew out her keys.

“I’ll do it, but I don’t think he’ll be jumping into anyone’s arms tonight. He was so tired, he was snoring on my pillow when I left.”

“Cuddles?” Michelle asked.

“Cuddles,” Hannah confirmed it. “They were playing chase when we left for dinner.”

Hannah held out her arms, but no orange and white twenty-two-pound cat landed anywhere in the vicinity. They walked in, shut the door, and listened to the faint snoring coming from Hannah’s bedroom.

“Your guard cat is sleeping,” Michelle commented.

“I know. How about you? Are you tired?”

“Not really. Maybe we should bake. That always gets me relaxed enough to go right to sleep.”

“Sounds good to me,” Hannah said, heading for the kitchen to switch on the lights. “What do you want to bake?”

“Something we can use tomorrow at The Cookie Jar. You decide.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment, but before she could decide, the phone rang. She reached up to grab the wall phone that hung near the kitchen table. “Hello?”

“Thank goodness you’re home, dear!”

“Mother?” Hannah was surprised. She’d seen her mother less than an hour and a half ago. Surely nothing drastic had happened in that short length of time.

“You weren’t in bed, were you?”

“No, Mother. Michelle and I were about to bake. Where are you?”

“At the hospital. We’re having some trouble with Barbara tonight.”