“Julia had a pretty big life insurance policy. Ms. Dolan was her friend and former co-worker. She’s the beneficiary. She knows that you were also a good friend of Julia’s and wanted me to let you know that she’ll do good things with the money, in Julia’s name of course.”

“Why did she leave it to a friend? Had she recently changed it from her husband?” Val sat up straight, interested, and moved to the edge of her chair. An insurance policy linked Jeanne Coleman and Lorelei Sebastian and here it was again. Her heart began to beat faster.

“She took this out before she married Colin. He was never an intended beneficiary. Ms. Dolan told us what she believed Julia’s motivations to be. It seems Julia discussed this matter in some detail with her.”

“Which was?” Val’s thoughts fired in rapid succession.

“Molly Dolan works for an organization that provides medical and dental care to people in developing countries. Julia worked with her on these missions quite a bit. She left the money to help Molly with this cause. Julia was quite the humanitarian.”

Val remembered that Bradley Underwood had said the same thing about Julia’s previous employment. “How much was the policy for?” Val asked.

“Three million dollars.”

Val just stared, boggled by the amount. “Isn’t that a reason to have some concern about Ms. Dolan? Three million dollars is quite a lot.”

“That kind of money certainly could make her a suspect, and we did investigate that likelihood. But there’s nothing in her background to tie her to this case. She’s a well-respected missionary who devotes her time and expertise to helping the poor.” Gavin stressed, “She is not a person of interest.”

Val could see it in his eyes as he spoke. Molly Dolan definitely had some influence somewhere with someone. Gavin had no intention of pursuing her. He had probably been warned by his superiors to do no such thing. Gavin kept talking, telling Val about Molly’s accomplishments, but Val really wasn’t listening. Her mind was elsewhere.

“She couldn’t argue when I mentioned that Buffalo was experiencing spring weather as warm as Florida’s,” he said.

The words caught Val’s attention and she snapped, “Excuse me?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention this. She used to live in the Clearwater area of Florida too. She thought it was odd that the both of you would have that in common. She joked about Floridians having to endure weather like Buffalo’s. She told me to share the joke with you. That you’d understand.”

“That I’d understand?” Val could barely say the words. Her thoughts spun to the day in Julia’s office, the day of her interview. She had told Julia that she lived in Clearwater and now this Molly Dolan knew too.