“Three years ago. He’s a real estate developer from Montgomery. Made millions building shopping centers. He went along with all of Millicent’s plans for the property, apparently, and they formed the Blue Bay Ranch Corporation. And here’s where it gets interesting.” She held up another sheet of paper. “Voila! The shareholders of Blue Bay Ranch.”

Mary Alice, Frances, and I looked at the paper blankly; none of us had on our reading glasses.

“Well?” Haley asked.

“Well what? We can’t see the damned thing,” Sister admitted.

Haley poked her finger at the piece of paper. “Laura and Eddie Stamps are stockholders! And Emily Peacock. With Millicent and Emily gone, Eddie and Laura and Jacob Marley own the whole kit and kaboodle of Blue Bay Ranch.”

“Jason,” I corrected.

“But I don’t understand,” Frances said. “What about Fairchild? Berry mentioned it last night, but how come he doesn’t get Millicent’s part?”

“I looked that up, too,” Haley said. She sat on the sofa with the photocopied papers before her on the coffee table, and motioned us to gather around like a teacher does a reading group. We gathered.

“It’s a common business practice,” she explained. “Millicent had the land and Jason Marley had the money to develop it. He wasn’t about to risk his money in a deal she could back out on, and she wasn’t about to risk her land. So they formed Blue Bay Ranch Corporation, a joint tenancy from which both of them were planning on making a bundle of money. In this type of corporation, in case of the death of either partner, what they put into the corporation originally stays there, doesn’t go to their heirs.” She paused. “Are you with me?”

I nodded. “That’s why Millicent had Blue Bay buy her a million-dollar insurance policy for Fairchild.”

“Right. And I’m sure Jason Marley has one, too, made out to his heirs.”

“But Eddie and Laura?” Mary Alice asked. “How do they fit in?”

“Well, Millicent and Jason could have done it fifty-fifty, but if they hadn’t agreed about something, the whole company would have come to a standstill.”

“I don’t understand,” Frances said.

“You know, like the vice president not voting unless there’s a deadlock. With two people owning equal shares in a business, deadlock could happen easily, something as simple as Jason wanting to cut down some trees that Millicent didn’t want cut, and neither giving in. Just all sorts of things. So it’s a common business practice to have someone else own a small share of the stock, enough to make a voting difference.”

Haley’s knowledge of “common” business practices was on par with mine, but what she was saying sounded reasonable. “So Eddie and Laura Stamps are the tie breakers,” I said.