The Undertaker's Daughter (Ilka #1)(15)

“But you went fishing and forced that meeting on me, instead of staying and telling me how things were,” she muttered.

He nodded. “I had to find a way to get you out of that room. We don’t have time for you to lie in there and whine. We’ve got until Friday to put our rescue plan into action. You need to understand that this isn’t only going to hurt you. It’s our skins, too, if your dad’s business closes down this way. But I didn’t think you’d go through with the meeting. And I really didn’t think you’d put your signature on something without reading it, either.”

He might as well have slapped her, several times.

“What about my father’s new family? You say they live in a big house in West Racine. It must be worth something too.”

The crow’s-feet spreading out from the corners of his eyes returned for a moment. Single strands of his long hair, which was combed back over his head, drooped down alongside his face. “What Paul and Mary Ann had together is her own property. You won’t get anything there. Whether it was her who saw it could end up bad, or your dad who wanted to protect her and the girls, I don’t know. But the debt is in his business, so if the IRS needs to seize assets any other place, to cover the losses in the funeral home, the first place they’ll go to is your property.”

She heard her mother’s voice in the back of her head: If you go over there, you risk being liable for something you can’t get out of. And they might even arrest you.

Artie glanced at her. “Do you own anything?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have anything valuable, and no, I don’t own anything.”

“Probably the first thing the tax authorities will do is investigate your financial situation in Denmark. But we do have an offer that can save everything your dad built up.”

“But there must be money coming in, too,” she said, ignoring her knifelike pangs of hunger. “Because it looks like you’re busy enough. And with those prices! It’s not exactly cheap to die here.”

They were outside the city again, driving down a long, straight stretch of highway with nothing but an occasional house and a few large barns. “I can’t say what he spent his money on, but he milked the business dry; no doubt about that.” Artie spoke with a seriousness that made it absolutely clear to Ilka: Her situation right now was desperate.

She took a deep breath. Story of my life, she thought. She tried, really tried to get a grip on her life, and yet it always ended up with other people or circumstances controlling her.

“Tell me about this offer. It wouldn’t be coming from a place called Golden Slumbers Funeral Home, would it?”

Artie looked surprised. He nodded. “Yeah, the Oldham family runs the biggest undertaker business in the entire region. They have their own crematorium and can hold funeral services for over a thousand people. They can put up as many as sixty people when relatives show up from out of town. And they want to take over your dad’s business. To stop the IRS from freezing the assets, we must pay sixty thousand dollars before banks close on Friday. And that’s just a sort of deposit. We don’t have the money, but the Oldhams are willing to pay it if we sign a statement that we’re in the process of transferring the business to them.”

“It sounds like you’ve already talked with them.”

“Your dad started the negotiations before he died.” It seemed like Artie understood just how lousy the situation felt to Ilka, being dragged into the middle of a deal already taking place.

“What do they want?” Ilka tried to ignore her hunger and jet lag, to keep her head clear, because she had a bad feeling about this.

“They’ll take over the order book and all the debt in the business. That means you won’t be involved financially in the settlement with the IRS or with any of the other creditors. You would still be able to take any of your dad’s personal belongings you want.”

“What does it mean—they’ll take over the order book?”

They drove into a parking lot behind a long gray building. Artie nodded to a security guard and showed his ID, and they parked near a gateway leading to a ramp. “It means they’ll take over all the funerals paid for in advance. A lot of people begin making payments for their funerals when they’re young, so their relatives don’t have to borrow money to bury them. Like you said, it’s very expensive to die in this country.”

“So the Golden Slumbers people take over the funerals already paid for? And my father already spent that money?”

“No. That money can’t be touched; it’s in a special account.”

“But what do they get by taking over the business?”

“They also get a list of people who have signed up for a funeral but haven’t paid yet. Because of the expense, some people take out funeral insurance and pay on it their entire lives, and the insurance covers the funerals when they die.”

Ilka nodded. “Okay, so that’s what they’re going after.”

“If you’d bothered to read what I gave you, you’d know your dad’s will says that Sister Eileen and I have the preemptive rights, the right to buy, if you decide to sell the business.”

“Okay,” she said, without understanding what would be left to buy.

While they were sitting in the parking lot, another hearse had driven up to the gateway. Two people had gone into the morgue, but they must have returned without Ilka noticing them, because the hearse drove off.