The Country Guesthouse (Sullivan's Crossing #5)(61)

“But the circumstances are a little different in this case. Erin went to a great deal of trouble to select the guardian she preferred and in addition, went to a lot of trouble to be sure Noah wouldn’t go to his grandmother. She made her reasons clear; she explained in detail why it wasn’t a good idea. Clearly Hannah has been closer to Erin and Noah the past five years than Victoria was.”

“Did you ever find out more about her?” Hannah asked.

“I learned a few things, and not at all what I expected. First of all, she’s a cancer survivor...”

“Wait. What?” Hannah asked.

“She told a neighbor and a coworker she’d been cancer-free for seven years, but neither knew what kind of cancer.”

“But Erin never... Erin would have known. Even though they didn’t have a good relationship, even though—Erin said she called her mother periodically, just to check on her, just to make sure she was okay. They didn’t see each other for years, but they were somewhat in touch. Erin made that dreaded phone call every now and then—I got the impression it was a couple of times a year or once a year—but said that her mother never called her. She once told me her mother hadn’t called her in four years. I’d known Erin for so long, I can’t remember how often she said she’d talked to her mother after Noah was born. Maybe never. She said every phone call ended in an argument—either Erin wasn’t doing enough for her mother or there was some issue with Roger, like he needed help or money. But if you’d known Erin... She was too tenderhearted to have ignored something like cancer. She would not have risked having her mother die without seeing her. And from what she said of Victoria, she would have asked Erin for some kind of help.” Hannah shook her head. “She couldn’t have known.”

“But if they were estranged...”

Hannah shook her head. “There were at least a few times Erin talked of being tempted to go see her mother or give her mother money after she moved to Madison. She said she had to be very careful. She said her mother wasn’t above using her.”

“I guess that doesn’t matter much now. I’ll see if that matter comes up again. She’s currently unemployed,” Cal went on. “She’s had a variety of jobs, many of them in the human services area. Apparently she was known to be giving. Generous. She worked for a consulting business that provided seniors’ services—they offered health care options, financial services like reverse mortgage, financial planning, long-term care insurance, investment counseling. They went out of business about six months ago so follow-up there was impossible. She has also worked in nursing homes, as a volunteer and in hospital administration. A long time ago she was in property management, in sales for an extended care facility, in a rehab facility. If that didn’t tell me much, add to that her volunteerism—she obviously has accounting skills because she’s worked for several nonprofits in that capacity. She’s also been a companion to a few elderly people. She’s dabbled in real estate, possibly for supplemental income. At first glance, it appears she enjoyed helping people.”

“At first glance?” Hannah said.

“We haven’t turned up many personal contacts. She’s moved a lot, renting places around Minneapolis and Saint Paul for a couple of years or less and it seems she either wasn’t close to her neighbors or they’ve moved just as much. There have been very few references—only a couple of coworkers who said she was very nice and well liked. She’s a single sixty-five-year-old woman and yet I can’t seem to find her friends. But a couple of neighbors from years past seem to know all about Roger. And while they didn’t know Victoria very well, they were sympathetic. She had a troubled adult son who took advantage of her.”

“That’s a tad unsteady,” Sheila said. “No long-term commitments. Who does she shop with? Play canasta with? Go to water aerobics with?”

“And she’s a liar,” Hannah said. “She told the judge she wasn’t contacted about Erin’s passing until the day before the funeral and that’s not true. Noah knows she doesn’t remember the true facts about her daughter.”

“I did learn that Roger Addison is still in Minneapolis but there’s nothing to indicate he was staying in Victoria’s home, according to a neighbor. He hasn’t lived with her recently, though he has visited for a couple of hours occasionally. Apparently he cut her grass a couple of times. He has a noisy truck, distinguishable by dents and peeling paint,” Cal said. “I’ll do a little more research. Maybe I can file an injunction, bringing this visitation experiment to an end. On the other hand, we might want to ride it out, then meet with the judge again.”

“Before you make a final decision, let me have a talk with Noah,” Hannah said. “If he’s upset, we might need to step in.”

  In the early morning, Owen was holding Hannah closely. “It’s our last day with our extended family,” she said with a sigh. “How do you like the idea of establishing a commune? I think we could pull it off.”

“What if I want you all to myself?” he countered.

“Don’t look now but I think that ship has sailed. It’s you, me and Noah. What are we going to do on our last day together?”

“You’ve already forgotten,” he said. “It’s going to be a warm, sunny day. There are fish to catch and swimming to do. And my sister is coming.”