“That’s a relief,” Myron replied, rubbing the back of his neck to relieve the tension. “I’ve been worried about him. The police finally decided they didn’t have enough evidence to charge me so they had to let me go.”
“We know you didn’t do it, and I can’t imagine who would have changed out the pills,” Ava said just as the nurse signaled them that they could go back in.
“Clifford, looks who is out of jail,” Ava said cheerfully. “Now Evan and I are going to desert you all and head for home. We’ve had enough excitement to last us for a month of Sunday!”
“We will just rent a car,” Evan said, when Myron realized that they were stranded in Odessa.
The cousins all gathered around the trailer to say goodbye as the couple unloaded their bags.
“We will miss you,” Mica said sincerely. “You’ve become like relatives, we’ve shared so many things… both good and bad. I hope your knee feels better soon.”
All the teens quickly chimed it to say goodbye. It was a heartwarming send off for the chaperoning couple.
The next day Clifford escorted his all six of his grandchildren to the bank to sign the paperwork for the release their trust funds. He asked to speak to the Trust Officer, Markus Jacobs.
They were told Mr. Jacobs had just left to go on a vacation to the Caribbean. Another man offer to help them and he quickly logged onto the computer to access their trust accounts. He looked confused when he typed in Ruby Warren and didn’t find an account. Clifford pulled out his billfold and handed him a card with an account number on it. Again nothing came up.
Worried and aggravated, they returned to the house to get the complete folder of the trust fund account paperwork. When they arrived back at the bank with all the complete folder the bank manager was called to assist them.
Although Clifford had written proof, the account was not found. The manager with great embarrassment agreed that a theft had occurred and the police should be called in to investigate the man who apparently embezzled the money and left with it to go on vacation. The manager knew the bank was in serious trouble, they were obligated to cover the amount of the missing money.
Myron took the cousins back to the house and returned to help with the police report. Clifford told the detective that in addition to the trust fund money being gone there had been an attempt on his life and on the whole group while they were hiking.
The police interviews were exhausting for Clifford who had only been out of the hospital for one day. The stress of dealing with the lost funds was sapping his strength.
The next day he put the whole matter out of his mind. He was ready for some quality time with his grandkids before they all headed back to their homes.
He had everyone assemble in the library where his housekeeper brought in six large flat package wrapped in pretty paper.
“This is what Ruby hoped you would consider your real treasure,” Clifford told his grandchildren. “Go ahead and open your boxes.”
Each box contained a photo album that started out with Ruby and Clifford’s wedding picture and a copy of their wedding certificate. Then came baby pictures of their mother or father and a copy of their birth certificate. There were a few growing up pictures and high school graduation pictures. Following that was wedding pictures of their parents and their wedding certificates. Next they found their own baby pictures and a copy of their birth certificate. There were some additional pictures but Opal’s and Amber’s albums ended quickly. Garnet’s album held the most pictures because he’d spent lots of time with his grandparents. At the end of each album was a letter.
The letters told her grandchildren of Ruby’s love for them and her desire to give them memories of her.
Each of the grandchildren hugged their grandfather’s neck and told him how wonderful the trip had been and how they would indeed treasure their album. He told them not to worry about the trust fund issues that they would get the money Ruby wanted them to have.
“Ava will be sending me trip pictures,” Clifford told them. “I will make each of you a set so you can put them into your scrapbooks.”
Carol flew in the next day and Roberta picked her up at the airport. They discussed the hiking trip. Carol compared what Opal had told her with the version Flint and Crystal had provided to their mother. Both learned some things about the trip they hadn’t heard before.
Once they arrived at the house, Clifford filled Carol in on the trouble with the trust officer at the bank. He assured her that Opal would be getting a $25,000 trust account, but it would be at a different bank.
The next morning after many goodbye’s Carol flew home with Opal and Amber in tow. Not long after she left Roberta and her family headed home to San Antonio and Myron and Garnet left also.
Richard planned to leave that day with his family too, but Mica’s new puppy was proving to be an issue. It wasn’t eating well and had gotten car sick on the drive home from Big Bend. Mica and Alice took the sick puppy to the vet.
By the time they got home with some diphenhydramine for car sickness it was too late to leave.
“Tell us what we want to know and the DA will probably cut you a deal,” the TX Ranger cajoled the frightened young man sitting handcuffed to the table in the interrogation room.
“You’ll get six years instead of twelve. With good time you could be out on parole in two.”
“So spill your guts,” the Texas Ranger advised him with a hard stare.
“I want a lawyer first. I want him to verify the offer is real. Maybe the DA needs to make the offer in writing,” the man told the Ranger.
The Ranger left the interrogation room and called the DA’s office. He explained the situation to the assistant DA.
“So now he wants to cut a deal, huh?"
"Of course. Wouldn't you?” the ranger replied.
“Get him a public defender and I’ll write up the paperwork and be right there.”
The sat alone in the interrogation room waiting for his lawyer to show.
“Starting my own gym was a wonderful fantasy,” he thought grimly. “Reality is going to prison for attempted murder. Reality sucks!”
The irrevocable truth was he’d been played. Well he wouldn’t play the sap any longer. He’d tell the police everything.”
“My mother, Glenda Adams, raised me as a single parent,” Rocky hunched his shoulders and stared at the table in front of him as he began telling what happened.
“She died of breast cancer a little over six months ago. Last month I finally got around to shifting through Mom’s belongings. You know filling boxes for Goodwill with the useable stuff, a box with what I wanted to keep, and the rest was going into the trash.”
“Anyway I pulled a small box off the top shelf of Mom’s closet and was surprised to see a dust covered wedding album laying there on top. I thumbed through the pages and saw her in a wedding dress and a stranger standing next to her in a tux. Behind the happy couple were older couples.”
“My thoughts went crazy, you know?”
“So I did have a father, and those were probably my grandparents. I still don’t understand why mom let me think I was the product of a one night stand with a man whose name she didn’t even know!”
“The wedding date was embossed on the album cover. Inside I found the wedding certificate. My father’s name is Richard Warren even though the line for my father is blank on my birth certificate.”
“I was born just seven months after their wedding date,” Rocky continued. “Apparently my dad hadn’t stuck around for my birth.”
“I got out my computer and put “Richard Warren” into the Google search engine, but I didn’t find anything useful. I tried Facebook and came up with so many hits that it was useless, especially when so many of them didn’t have a picture. Any of them could be my dad.”
“So how did you find him?” the DA asked.
“I didn’t. I’d given up and was not even thinking ab
out it anymore. Then one day a PI showed up at the Gym where I’m work as a private trainer and started asking me questions. He told me that this Bank Trust Officer, Markus Jacobs, hired him to find all the grandchildren of Ruby Warren.”
“I recognized the name Warren right away. The PI told me Ruby passed away and left a trust fund for each of her grandchildren. The bank was executor of the fund and I needed to go see Mr. Jacobs.”
“I took off work and went to San Angelo to meet with Mr. Jacobs. He led me to believe that I wasn’t in the will. I was ticked off because why did they even bother to find me if I wasn’t getting anything. I vented my anger and that’s when he suggested that I help him get rid of the grandchildren. He said I was justified in being angry. He suggested that if there weren’t any grandkids to inherit he’d get control of the money. He told me he’d split it with me half and half.”
“And you were dumb enough to accept his word for it rather than go see your grandfather?” the DA asked with a shake of his head.
“Yah, I know. Dumb as a rock, just like my name,” the boy agreed as a dark flush spread up his neck. “I indulged myself in fantasies of what I could do with my share of the money. It just occurred to me that he never had any intentions of sharing the money with me.”
“Okay, so continue,” the DA told him impatiently.
“Jacobs told me that they were all taking a trip together. Going hiking in Big Bend. He suggested that I could catch them all out on the trail together and cause an avalanche that would bury them all. He told me that if Clifford Warren was killed too, there would be an additional trust fund that we could split.”
“So you decided to do him in and leave the teenagers alone?” the DA asked.
“Well I met a couple of my cousins around the resort in the evenings and they seemed liked nice kids. I guess I was getting squeamish, having second thoughts. I didn’t want to kill them.”
“So when they were out hiking one day I seized the opportunity to sneak into Mr. Warren’s room and switch the pills in his heart prescription bottle with sugar pills. I figured Jacobs and I could just split his trust fund and not mess with the teenagers.”
“But when you told Jacobs that your grandfather was in the hospital he told you that as long as the teenagers were alive they would get Mr. Warren’s trust fund didn’t he?” the TX Ranger interjected. “So to get any money they had to die. You tried to kill your Grandfather for nothing.”
“That’s right,” Rocky admitted. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted to give up on the idea. But Mr. Jacobs wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted I continue with the original plan. So later I caused a rock slide on the trail. Only it didn’t work. A couple of them had minor injuries but that’s all.”
“So I beat it out of there, and headed up to San Angelo to let Jacob’s know that he wasn’t going to get the trust fund money.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t just call him,” Rocky continued with a sigh.
“When I showed up at his house he was expecting good news I guess. He invited me in. I was uncomfortable telling him that I’d failed to kill the kids, but he was as kind as could be. He assured me that we’d work something else out. He told me to sit down and I did. He brought me a glass of ice tea and we sat there talking. I got so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open and that’s the last I remember.”
“So he doped you,” the TX Ranger said. “The rest of the story is easy to figure out. He put you in the backseat of his car and drove up to Waco. He drove the car off into Lake Brazos with you passed out in the back and caught a cab to the airport where he flew to Houston and from there on to the Caymans.”
“Good thing you woke up when the cold water got to you,” the DA said.
“Yah, but I was disoriented so I almost drowned before I got the window down and pulled myself through the opening. Good thing he had a cheap car with roll down windows instead of electric or I’d be dead for sure.”
“The idiot drove off into the lake right next to the police station. There were several police officers there on shore to help you out of the water wasn’t there?”
“Yah and I was so messed up I told them Jacobs had tried to kill me,” Rocky continued. “They put out an APB and just missed arresting him in Houston. They were waiting for him when he landed in the Cayman Islands.”
“Well you’ll be happy to know your Grandfather has made a full recovery,” the DA advised him. “So the charge against you will stay at attempted murder. You are a very lucky man.”
“I’ve got one more question for you,” the Texas Ranger said softly. “You do know that Mica is your brother, right? Not a cousin.”
The way Rocky’s face went white answered the question even before he exclaimed in an appalled voice, “No way! Mica is my brother?”
The DA left the shocked young man and headed to a phone. It was his duty to inform Richard Warren of his relationship to the suspect.
“I have another son?” Richard asked, as shocked as Rocky had been.
Alice sitting nearby came to full attention. She knew Richard had been married previously but this was truly startling news.
“Of course I want to meet him,” her husband continued. “We will come right over.”
“Oh my,” Alice said, taking his hand and drawing him close to her. “Who was that?”
“That, my dear,” Richard said, “was the police! The person who tried to kill Clifford and the kids is my son.”
“What?” Clifford said, overhearing the exchange.
“I’m afraid it’s true. The Texas Rangers are checking on his records but it appears he really is Glenda and my son.”
“She kept him secret from me. I never knew,” he added quietly.
“Of course you didn’t,” Alice consoled him. “Come on, let’s go meet him.
“I’m coming too!” said Clifford, raising from his chair.
“Well I’m coming too,” Mica said spilling the puppy he’d been playing with from his lap onto the floor when he stood up. He scooped up the puppy and headed toward the pet carrier.
“What’s his name?” he called over his shoulder.
“Rocky Adams,” replied his father. “My first wife’s name was Glenda Adams”.
Mica turned around. He and his grandfather exchanged startled looks.
On the ride to the police station they told Richard and Alice about their meeting with Rocky.
The officer stepped into the interrogation room where Rocky sat and told him that his father was there to see him.
“He came to see me,” the confused man asked in disbelief. “after all I’ve done, he still wants to meet me?”
“Yep, and by the way, he brought along his wife. Your step-mom I guess you’d say.”
“What? Here? Now?” Rocky sputtered, his voice raw and raspy. His face a mask of disbelieve.
“You should cut them a break,” the TX Ranger advised him. “I talked to your Dad and he had no idea that your mom was pregnant when they got divorced. She never told him and they didn’t keep in touch. He never knew she had a child; let lone his child.”
“He must hate me for trying to kill his father and his son too!” Rocky moaned.
“Speaking of them, they are here to see you too.”
Rocky laid his head on the table in front of him and continued to moan as the door to the room opened behind him.
THE END
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