Chapter 5

The look on his face was priceless. He’d been reading me the witness statements and was unprepared for the cold shower he just took at his desk. Swearing he jumped up from his desk to throw his door open. “Get maintenance down here! And a bucket!”

Uniformed men and women swarmed into his office grabbing anything they could try and save. I

grabbed pops’ file before taking refuge out in the reception area. The plumbing in this town sucks. I had lost count of how many times pipes burst in school and at the manor while I was growing up. One would think since this building was fairly new they would have hired a competent plumber. Chief Hayward came dashing out of his office carrying a stack of paperwork. If I was a paranoid person, I would call the glance he gave me accusing. Thankfully I wasn’t. I just imagined my dead mother stalking me. Currently I was pretending that it was someone else with red curly hair heading away from me down the hallway. Surely there had to be another see thru redhead in stirrup pants roaming this town. Right?

The maintenance guy showed up with a mop after turning off the water. Pops’ lawyer, Charles Kemp, showed a few minutes later. Chief VD showed us into a conference room before returning to the wading pool that used to be his office.

Mr. Kemp went through the spiel of how Pops was of sound mind when he made the will and yada yada yada before he got down to business. He looked me in the eyes. “It’s quite simple Miss McIntosh.

Everything he has goes to you. All finances, properties, and rights are passed to you.”

I sat there stunned. He’d left me everything. I couldn’t even begin to process what that meant. The manor had been built by his father in the twenties. It had become the family home. “What about my father?”

The lawyer looked over his glasses at me. He had the kind face of a beloved uncle, but the shrewd eyes of a lawyer. His lips twisted into an evil grin. “He’s left explicit instructions for IF your father dares to show his face in this town. Dillion McIntosh has no claim on your inheritance. If he does contact you, notify myself or Chief Hayward. We will deal with him.”

I looked around in alarm. For a moment I thought I smelt smoke. But it was gone as quickly as it

appeared and the smoke detector didn’t sound so, guess I’d just have to chalk it up to imagination. I was beginning to think my shrink was right about mine being overly active. We went over everything that I needed to sign and phone calls I needed to make. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot. Pops had set everything up to default to me in case of his death. I was even on some of his accounts.

The Chief returned as I was signing the last of the documents that made me the sole owner of the manor and all of its contents and outbuildings. That was a weird feeling.

“Guy just called. He’s got an estimate on your Wrangler. I can give you a lift over there.” I shook hands

with Mr. Kemp before heading out of the station.

“Did they get the water cleaned up?” I didn’t want to talk about the will. Hopefully I could keep him

distracted with small talk all the way to the shop.

“Yes. Our maintenance guy is almost magical with things like that.” A small smile was playing on his face. All righty then. We pulled into a beat up looking repair shop. I gave VD an incredulous look. This was the place he had my beloved Wrangler towed? Seeing my look he tried to reassure me. “Look, Guy is the best mechanic in town. He just spends all his money on beer and women instead of his shop.”

“Uh huh.” I got out of the car and walked into the building. It was dingy and dirty. Grease everywhere. I rang the bell on the counter. Then ripped a blue shop towel off the roll sitting beside it to degrease my hand. A balding guy in his mid-thirties with a belly that would make a trucker proud came out of the back. His grey and white coveralls looked like they had been drenched in grease for years and never washed.

“Well I’ll be damned. Is that Kenna McIntosh? Girl you looking good! That your Wrangler I got out

there?” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder towards the shop.

Holy Cow. How had I not figured out that mechanic Guy was Guy Williams. Yet another of my school mates. Small town USA at its finest.

“Hi Guy. Yeah, she’s mine. Can you fix her?”

“Of course I can. But a pretty little thing like you should have a nicer car. One that’s not so rugged or manly. Nice Rabbit convertible or cute little Bug. Tell you what, how about you and I go out tonight and I’ll help you pick the perfect car for you.” He was looking at me like I assume he looked at beer if his belly was anything to go by.

“Mighty kind of ya Guy. But, I like my Wrangler. What’s it going to take to fix her?” He went into a list of things that would have scared most people. Me? I’ve driven a Wrangler from the 80’s for fifteen years. He wasn’t the first mechanic to try to rip me off just because I was a cute girl. I gave him my most angelic smile as I told him what repairs he could do. We haggled over price for a minute. He backed down when VD cleared his throat and gave him the glare.

“I cannot believe I was friends with that low life in school.” I grumbled as I climbed into the squad car. “Yeah, I can’t either. But you know what’s even more unbelievable? That you two got freaky under the

bleachers during homecoming sophomore year.” My chauffer had the nerve to look me in the eyes as he

impugned my honor. I scoffed.

“Nu uh.” I gave him a condescending look. “We necked in the janitor’s closet junior year. It was Alex Landon under the bleachers sophomore year.” We both laughed as he started the car and headed back to the manor.