Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(45)
“Did she tell you which class mommy was spreading that ugly rumor?” Joanna asked.
“I don’t think she knows, but if we ever get a chance to speak to Kendall, I’ll ask her. I’ll bet she knows.”
“I’ll bet she does, too,” Joanna agreed.
She glanced at her watch. It was approaching dinnertime, and she didn’t want to be late getting home.
“But that’s not all,” Deb continued excitedly before Joanna could cut her off. “I just left Lube&Oil Tek, where Leon was the manager. I spent the better part of an hour with one of his mechanics, a guy named Ricky Amado. You’ll never guess what Ricky said the moment I showed him my ID.”
“What?”
“‘That bitch killed him, didn’t she!’”
“That bitch in question being Madison Hogan?”
“Right. Ricky asked me if I’d ever seen the woman in the flesh. I told him no, that I wasn’t directly connected to the officer-involved shooting so I hadn’t met her. He said, ‘She’s a dish, at least she used to be, but she’s also a real piece of work.’ For instance, did you know Kendall and Peter Hogan aren’t even Leon’s?”
“I know that now,” Joanna said. “Leon Hogan’s dad and mom drove in from Wyoming. He dropped by the office this afternoon. He’s the one who told me.”
“Ricky told me she used to be a real looker with a Playboy—centerfold body and the personality of the Wicked Witch of the West. Back when Leon first met her, she was working as a bartender out at the Nite Owl and was barely making ends meet. Ricky said he thought Leon fell for the kids before he even fell for her. He seemed to think he was going to ride to the rescue and save all of them.”
“Except Madison wasn’t much interested in being rescued.”
“According to what Leon told Ricky, she’s more of a good-time girl, with the kids little more than inconvenient afterthoughts. Once Leon and Madison tied the knot, he went to court and officially adopted them. Since their biological fathers had long since disappeared, Madison made no objection to changing their last names to Hogan.”
“Calling Madison Hogan a piece of work doesn’t quite cover it,” Joanna observed.
“Just wait,” Deb said. “Once Madison started showing her true colors, Leon didn’t know what to do. He stuck it out for as long as he could for the sake of the kids, because he knew that if he tried to divorce her, once the case came before a judge, he wouldn’t have a chance of keeping the kids, but all that changed—”
“When Leon’s father stepped in and offered to pay for a high-end attorney who was willing to duke it out in court,” Joanna supplied.
“You got it.” Deb said. “In the meantime, while they were getting their ducks in a row, the attorney advised Leon that even if he moved out, he should still go on paying Madison’s expenses so she couldn’t claim he’d deserted them, and in order to keep Leon’s money rolling in, she let the kids stay with him on weekends.”
“I’m assuming Madison had better things to do on the weekends than look after her kids.”
“That’s what Ricky said, too—that leaving the kids with Leon on weekends left her free to do whatever she wanted with her latest boyfriend, Randy Williams.”
“So Ricky knew about Randy?” Joanna asked.
“And so did Leon,” Deb said. “It was common knowledge, but Leon ignored it for the same reason he ignored everything else.”
“To protect Kendall and Peter?”
“Exactly,” Deb said. “But just because he hadn’t filed for a divorce, Leon hadn’t stopped moving forward. He told Ricky that his attorney had already rewritten his will, leaving everything he owned to be held in trust for Kendall and Peter until they come of age.”
“Which makes sense,” Joanna said. “I’m sure he didn’t want Madison to be able to lay hands on any of his estate. But since he was living in a rented trailer on the outskirts of Whetstone, that probably won’t amount to much.”
“You’d be surprised,” Deb replied. “As the franchise manager, he had a hundred-thousand-dollar group life-insurance policy. He also had the beginnings of a 401(k). A month or so ago, he changed beneficiaries on both of those, cutting Madison out completely and leaving the proceeds in equal shares to Kendall and Peter.”
In her previous life, Joanna had spent time working in the insurance industry. “Filing for a divorce happens in public, but rewriting your will and changing beneficiaries on insurance policies or 401(k)s are private transactions that could have been accomplished without Madison’s having a clue,” Joanna surmised aloud. “With Leon dead she’s probably under the impression that she’s looking at a big payday.”
“Not anymore,” Deb said. “Once I talked to Ricky, I called Lube&Oil’s corporate headquarters in L.A. The head of HR told me Madison Hogan had called her office earlier today, asking how she should go about filing a death-benefit claim.”
“Not exactly letting any grass grow under her feet,” Joanna observed.
“And only to be told she was out of luck,” Deb replied, “although she’s probably looking for a work-around on those revised beneficiary arrangements.”