Head Shot

71

It occurred to Sarah that Clyde Oakdale looked more like a lawyer than anyone she had ever known. He wore a three-piece, pin-striped suit, the jacket cut long, a blue shirt with a white collar, and he peered at her over half-moon spectacles as she laid the last will and testament of Leo and Susannah Grace on his desk.

'You're sure you understand al of this, now you've read it?' asked the interim senior partner of Grace, McLean, Wylie, Whyte and Oakdale.

'I think so, but perhaps you'd summarise it for me.'

'Of course,' he answered. 'Some time ago your father consolidated all his investments into a trust fund for his benefit and that of Susannah, during their lifetimes. With their deaths you inherit everything, other than his continuing interest in the law firm, which is distributed among the surviving partners; you and your husband are joint executors of the estate, and have absolute discretion over its disposal. You can dissolve the fund, or continue it in being for your own benefit. Alternatively you may appoint your children as beneficiaries.

'The wil places no constraints upon you of any sort. It does not require you to resume residence in the United States, nor does it require your children to become American citizens as a condition of benefit. In case you're surprised by that remark, I have seen such conditions imposed in situations such as these.'

'What's the total value of the estate?'

'The current valuation of the fund is just under eight mil ion dollars, and the two properties are worth in the region of one-and-a-half million.

There are no borrowings attached to either.'

Sarah whistled. 'I always knew I had a rich daddy, but that surprises me.

'I have to tell you that it would be to your advantage to continue the ftmd in being, for the immediate future at least,' said Oakdale. 'It is extremely tax-advantageous, and the firm would be happy to continue to manage it for you, through our associated brokerage, for the same fee arranged with your father.'

'I'll come back to you on that. Obviously, I'l have to discuss it with my husband. However in the meantime would you please proceed as soon as possible with the sale of the lakeside cabin. Neither Bob nor I have any wish to see that place, ever again.'

'I don't blame you; I'll instruct a real estate agent on your behalf, once the police give me the all clear to proceed.'

'Good,' she said. 'Now if that's al, I must be going. I have another engagement.'

Oakdale held up a hand. 'There is just one more thing.' He rose, ponderously, and walked towards the wal of his office. Behind a mirror, there was a wall safe, which he opened by dial ing in a combination. He reached in and took out a long legal envelope, with a red wax seal on the back.

'A few weeks ago,' he announced, 'Leo gave me this, with the instruction that should he fail to reclaim it before his death, I was to give it to your husband; to no one else but him. I have spoken with him by telephone, and he said it was okay for you to receive it on his behalf, as long as you don't open it.' He handed it to her. 'I must say that I was surprised that he gave it to me rather than to Jack, who was, after all, my senior partner at the time.'

'Do you have any idea what it is?' she asked.

'No. All I can tell you is that, from your father's demeanour when he entrusted it to me, it is very important.'