Tears were welling in her eyes. She blinked hard and went on. “Ten months ago, Bob had a massive coronary. In that hallway.” As she looked toward the doorway, she closed her eyes for a moment. “He was dead by the time the ambulance arrived.” She took a deep breath. “The day after his funeral, I received an email from Carl’s assistant at Spalter Realty. An email. Telling me that a cemetery management company—can you image such a thing?—a cemetery management company would be taking over responsibility for Willow Rest. And, for an efficient transition, it would be necessary for me to vacate the cottage within sixty days.”

She stared at Gurney, erect in her chair, full of fury. “What do you think of that? After fifteen years! The day after my husband’s funeral! An email! A goddamn, wretched, disgusting, insulting email! Your husband’s dead, now get out of here. Tell me, Detective Gurney—what kind of man does something like that?”

When it appeared that her emotion had subsided, he said softly, “That was ten months ago. I’m glad to see you’re still here.”

“I’m here because Kay Spalter did me—and everyone else in the world—a giant favor.”

“You mean Carl was shot before your sixty days were up?”

“That’s right. Which proves there’s some good in the world after all.”

“So you still work for Spalter Realty?”

“For Jonah, really. When Carl was incapacitated, full control of Spalter Realty passed to Jonah.”

“Carl’s fifty percent ownership didn’t become part of his own estate?”

“No. Believe me, Carl’s estate was big enough without it—he was involved in so many other things. But when it came to the holdings of Spalter Realty, the corporate agreement Joe made them sign included a provision that transferred everything to the surviving brother at the death of either one.”

That certainly seemed to Gurney like a fact significant enough to have made its way into the case file, but he hadn’t seen any mention of it. He made a mental note to ask Hardwick if he was aware of it.

“How do you know about this, Paulette?”

“Jonah explained it to me the day he took over. Jonah is very open. You get the impression that he really and truly has no secrets.”

Gurney nodded, tried not to look skeptical. He’d never met a man with no secrets. “I gather, then, that Jonah canceled Carl’s plan to outsource the management of Willow Rest?”

“Absolutely. Immediately. In fact, he stepped right in and offered me the same job Bob had, at the same salary. He even told me that the job and the house would be mine to keep as long as I wanted either one of them.”

“He sounds like a generous man.”