Chapter 7: What Margaret Was Protecting
Diane Holloway's office was on the fourteenth floor of a building downtown, clean and spare, with none of the heavy furniture and oil paintings I associated with old-money law firms.
She was in her fifties, direct, and she had read every document Gerald had sent her before I sat down.
"The recording is the strongest piece," she said.
"It's your father speaking in his own voice about a pattern of payments and a deliberate concealment.
Combined with the transfer records and the 1991 letter, it establishes that Margaret had both motive and a sustained financial relationship built on the original lie."
"Can we use it in court?"
"Your father made it with the intent that it be used.
Gerald witnessed the recording session and can testify to your father's state of mind that day.
Yes.
We can use it."
"Caroline's attorney is filing the contest Friday."
"I know.
I'll file a response Monday that will make it very clear what evidence exists." Diane set down her pen.
"But I want to talk about something else.
The recording mentioned that Caroline called Margaret before calling your father back — the day Thomas told her he'd found you."
"Yes."
"I want to know what was said in that call.
Because if Caroline and Margaret coordinated their response to your arrival — if Caroline knew about the original lie and helped Margaret protect it — that changes the nature of the will contest significantly.
It's no longer just a daughter disputing her father's final wishes.
It becomes something closer to a coordinated effort to suppress evidence and benefit financially from a fraud."
I sat with that for a moment.
"How do we find out what was said?"
"We may not be able to get the content of the call.
But we can establish the timing, the duration, and the pattern of contact between them going forward.
Phone records.
We can also depose Margaret.
Under oath, with the transfer records in front of her, her story becomes very difficult to maintain."
"She told me on the phone that my father chose to believe her.
That he wasn't the only one responsible."
Diane looked at me steadily.
"She's right that he bears some responsibility.
That's actually a coherent position.
But it doesn't erase what she did.
And it doesn't explain the money."
"She said there are things about the estate she knows that aren't in any document Gerald has shown me.
She called it complicated."
Diane's expression didn't change, but something behind her eyes sharpened.
"Did she say what?"
"No.
She said I should meet her before I made decisions I couldn't reverse."
"Don't." Diane picked up her pen again.
"If she has information relevant to the estate, she can produce it through proper channels.
The offer to meet privately, before litigation, with vague warnings about complexity — that's a pressure tactic.
She wants to assess how much you know and whether she can manage you before this gets formal."
She slid a document across the desk.
"I need you to sign this so I can formally represent you.
Then I need you to go back to the estate, say as little as possible to Caroline, and let me handle what comes next."
I signed it.
I was almost at the door when Diane said, "One more thing.
Gerald mentioned your father said he didn't have proof of everything.
He said he had enough.
I want to know what he meant by that — what he believed existed that he couldn't document."
I turned around.
"He said Margaret didn't act alone."
Diane was very still.
"He said that on the recording?"
"Yes.
He said he didn't have proof of everything.
But he said he had enough, and that he believed Margaret didn't act alone."
Diane wrote something on her notepad.
She underlined it twice.
"Go back to the estate," she said.
"I'll call you by end of day."
She called at four-thirty.
"I pulled the probate records on your mother's estate," she said.
"The small trust your mother left for you — the one Margaret redirected after she told your father you hadn't survived."
"Yes."
"It wasn't redirected to Margaret."
I stopped walking.
"What?"
"Margaret received some of it.
But the primary redirect — the bulk of the trust — went to a joint account." A pause.
"The account was held in two names.
Margaret's.
And a man named Richard Hargrove."
The name hit me like a step that wasn't there.
"Richard Hargrove," I said.
"That's—"
May you like
"Your father's brother," Diane said.
"Your uncle."
