The Better Liar(55)

“Did that work?”

“It never worked.” He chuckled. “But it gave us hope.”

    I crossed and uncrossed my fingers beneath the chair, a nervous habit. “So today’s the day, huh?” I said, trying not to speak too fast. “Signing checks?”

“Yes. Well, not today today.” He thumbed through the papers at his desk, humming to himself.

Mary and I both froze.

I shifted into a more natural pose, consciously relaxing my shoulders. “What do you mean? Is there some other step? Because”—I nearly said “Mary,” and saved it with a cough—“my sister has to go home soon.”

Albert glanced up. “Oh, I thought I’d explained this. Before I can give you a check, we need to file a release and refunding bond with the county and pay the fee.”

Mary’s fingers twitched on the arm of her chair. “What’s a release and refunding bond?”

He pulled out a manila folder from underneath a pot labeled CILANTRO and slid it toward us. “You can see there, it’s all in the language, but essentially it releases me of my duties as executor, and refunds any unpaid debts if there are no other assets to pay them. You don’t have to worry about that, since your father had us take the cost of probate out of his remaining savings, whereas your inheritance was held in a separate account. For your purposes, it states the amount you are both to receive—in this case, fifty thousand dollars each—and it requires you to sign in front of an attorney, saying you accept.”

I stared at the paper. “How long does it take to file?”

“Well, I can have Angela file it as soon as you leave. But they won’t acknowledge receipt until tomorrow morning at the earliest. My next available appointment is”—he squinted at his calendar—“Monday. You girls could come back in then and we’ll have the checks ready for you.”

My stomach dropped. “I thought—I mean, is there any way we could do it faster than that?”

“What’s the rush?” Albert turned back to me and frowned. “You had plans for the slots this weekend?”

Mary interceded. “I have a flight on Friday, that’s all. I thought this would be a one-appointment kind of thing.”

    Albert sat back, his stomach rising and falling above his battered silver-buckled belt. “Well, I think that goes against the spirit of Warren’s will, if you want to know my opinion. He wanted you two to spend a bit of time together.”

Mary touched my shoulder and assumed an expression of beatific concern on dramatic par with the Pietà. “We have been. Leslie drove me back, let me stay with her and her family. If you’d told me a year ago that that would happen, I’d never have believed it. But she’s been amazing.” She glanced down. “I’ve been here since Monday, though, and a whole week—” She gave a little laugh. “Well, I’ll be surprised if I’m not fired by the time I’m back. Jessica’s been covering my shifts, but…And without this I can’t—I can’t afford the plane ticket.”

“You don’t have to tell him that,” I said quietly, picking up her thread. Her eyes flicked to me, startled, but then her face resettled.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I don’t care if people know I’m poor. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Albert regarded us. The room had heated as soon as he closed the door, and it was as humid as a greenhouse in his office. I was sweating at my hairline and the places where my back met the chair.

“What if we met for dinner,” I said, unable to stand the silence. Mary’s fingers whitened on her chair, and I saw a tilt of displeasure in her profile, but I couldn’t stop talking. “Since you don’t have any appointments available until Monday. It would be a little more time for Robin and me to spend together, and you could tell us about Dad when he was younger and hand us the checks at dinner. We’ll go somewhere nice. My treat. How about Blue Roof?”

“Well,” Albert said, then paused. I glanced at Mary and saw that she was giving me a wide-eyed look. “I think that would be very nice,” he said at last. “Very nice. I haven’t been to the Blue Roof in many years. They used to have a pretty good salmon dish there. I wonder if they still do that.”

“They do,” I said, the words coming out in a relieved rush. “They do! Dave and I were just there a couple of months ago. He thought about getting it.”

    “Well, then, we’ll go ahead and get dinner,” Albert said.

“Tomorrow night would be wonderful,” Mary said smoothly. “Then I’d have a little time to pack before my flight, if you don’t mind.”

“Well, it is rushing things, but if the county notifies us of receipt, I could have Angela make the checks before the bank closes in the afternoon,” he said. “That’s an if, obviously.”

“We understand,” I said. “Give me a call. I’ll make the reservation, just in case.”

“I hope you can get a reservation,” he said. “That place used to be pretty stuffed.”

“I don’t think it should be too hard for a Thursday. Not like a Friday or a—”

Mary plucked a mint leaf from the plant and handed it to me. “Want some gum?” she said.