Final Option

it. “Ms. Millholland’s office,” she purred. She held the receiver to her ear and her elfin face formed itself into a frown. She nodded seriously and then, covering the receiver with her hand, said, “It’s someone from your bank. A process server is there with a subpoena for all of your account records, and they want to know what to do.”
     
    If there is anything worse than having your client shot it is being suspected of shooting him. There was no other explanation for the rapid flurry of subpoenas. I put a call in to Detective Ruskowski because it was better than doing nothing. I left a message with the desk sergeant. I was still pondering the mess in which I found myself when Ken Kurlander descended upon me.
    “I have been calling you all morning,” he said, his tone both imperious and accusing.
    “I was at Hexter Commodities.”
    “Pamela Hexter called me this morning. She is very upset. It seems the police were back this morning. That detective fellow told her that there was no doubt Bart Was murdered. They had a warrant to search the house, and they asked some very unpleasant questions.“
    “Murder is an unpleasant business,” I replied with more vehemence than I’d intended. I considered telling Kurlander about the subpoenas but immediately thought better of it. “I was just about to call you,” I said. “I need to know the exact disposition of Hexter Commodities in Bart’s will.”
    “I brought you a copy,” replied Kurlander, handing me the blue-backed document. He extracted a pair of reading glasses from his pocket while I began flipping through Bart Hexter’s last will and testament.
    Hexter’s estate was large, and the document was, by necessity, a complex one. Besides the house in Lake Forest, I noted that he had had houses in Vail and Palm Beach, as well as undeveloped property in Montana, Texas, and Maine. He owned a number of commercial properties in Chicago and an office building in New York City. According to his will, the real-estate holdings were left to his three children to be divided equally among them. The house in Lake Forest was the exception, being left exclusively to Barton Jr., with the provision that Pamela be allowed to live there rent free until the occasion of her death or remarriage.
    “Let me get this straight,” I said, looking up. “Who owns the land that the Hexters’ house is on? I was always under the assumption that since the property originally belonged to Pamela’s family, it must have passed to her when her parents died.”
    “It did, with the exception of the acre and a half on which her current house rests. That property and the house are titled to Bart Hexter alone and, by the terms of this will, pass to Barton Jr.”
    “So Pamela doesn’t own the house she lives in?“
    “Nor the land on which it rests. That is correct.”
    I was surprised. The property, divided as it was by the difference in ownership, would be considerably diminished in value. Who would want to buy a large, expensive parcel of real estate when an acre and a half right in the middle of it belonged to somebody else? The Hexters most likely figured that it didn’t matter since it was all in the family, but that’s why people had attorneys, to keep them from making this kind of mistake. I expected more of Ken. He must have read as much in my expression.
    “You have to understand that Bart and Pamela each approached matters of money and property from very different points of view,” explained the trusts and estates lawyer. “It was the cause of considerable friction in their marriage. It irked Pamela to no end that her father gave the parcel of land to Bart rather than to the two of them. However, in recent years when I suggested that they title the entire property jointly, Pamela refused outright.”
    “It does seem odd.”
    “Pamela is one of my oldest and dearest friends,” said Kurlander. “But there is no denying that she has her eccentricities. She has always been very frugal and peculiar about money. Let me tell you a story. A number of years ago Pamela came to see me, very upset. It seems that Bart found himself in trading difficulties—I believe the appropriate technical explanation is that he got caught in a large naked short position. Needless to say, he was unable to meet his margin call, and he turned to Pamela for help. It was a large sum that he needed, in excess of a million dollars, but for someone of Pamela’s wealth it was ready money. But