“There’s a hobby farm?” I asked.

“There is. You would have seen it if you’ve ever gone along the Blackstone River behind the house. Beautiful bit of land, but the animals are all gone now. John would have loved to have kept it going, he always liked animals more than people, but Constance kept that from him too. Then there’s the youngest, Mary. I don’t think she wanted anything. She was the peacemaker in the family, much good it did.”

I frowned. “I’m surprised they didn’t sue when it all first happened.”

“I’m sure Rip thought about it, but Beatty did all the paperwork, so you can be sure he didn’t cut any corners. Either way, it’s really not Rippert Sr.’s will that we should be focusing on,” Roxie said with a wink.

I shot her a sideways look. “What do you mean?”

She tapped the floor a couple of times with her staff. She was clearly building up to something and was enjoying taking her time getting there. “It looks as though the estate might be up for grabs again, doesn’t it?”

“Are you implying one of the siblings waited all these years to do away with Constance, so he or she could finally get ahold of the estate?”

Roxie’s face fell.

Clearly, I had taken the fun out of the story.

“The real question, though, is which one of the siblings?” Roxie said, recovering quickly. “That family has been torn apart for decades. If I had to guess, Constance never had any intention of leaving any one of them anything, and yet . . .”

“And yet?”

Roxie leaned back and smiled.

“Roxie,” Izzy warned.

“You’re such a tiger today.” The dance instructor made a claw with her fingers and gave my aunt a slight growl. “I love it. But where was I going? Oh right. Beatty did tell you about Constance’s father changing his will before his death, right?”

“He did,” I said, “without intending to.”

Roxie smiled. “Right, well, let’s just say Rippert Sr. wasn’t the only one.”

Chapter 7

The shock on our faces must have had the effect Roxie had been going for because she looked pretty satisfied. The look dropped a moment later, though, when she felt compelled to add, “To be clear, I’m not sure if Constance even had a will before recently. But regardless, she had Beatty draw one up for her, and you will not believe what she said to me when she did it.”

The dance instructor eyed us but said nothing. She really did love putting on a show.

“Roxie,” Izzy prodded, rubbing her forehead.

“So, the day she came to see Beatty, I’d asked her what brought her by, and she said she was getting her affairs in order. I then prattled on about it being a good idea for everyone to do that, and she said, Well, it’s about time I made somebody happy.”

Izzy and I let that sink before I asked the obvious, “Who did she mean?”