1.
When she was in her forties, someone asked Loretta about her major in college. Loretta replied: “Sexual intercourse.” Then, she said: “I’m still that gal.”
2.
Billings was a young hard-driving exec at the Company. He had an attractive wife and two small children. Billings told his lawyer that he wanted an estate plan that protected his children if he and his wife died. He said that he wanted a guardian for his kids who “shared their values.” Then, he mentioned Roundway, another hard-driving exec with the Company who was not his manager, but his manager’s manager, and a member of his church. The lawyer understood the motivation.
3.
Lea had a troubled life. When she was a little girl, a flood destroyed the house in which she lived. Then, her sister was killed in a car accident. But, approaching seventy, she found happiness. She re-connected with a high school sweetheart and lived with that man until she became very ill with a kind of blood cancer.
4.
Mr. Bentley didn’t think he needed a Last Will and Testament. He was healthy and ran half-marathons. Everyone he knew was strong, vigorous and optimistic.
5.
Elisabeth flew into Des Moines on the red-eye from LA. Her bachelor uncle had died a few months earlier. Elisabeth couldn’t make time for the funeral but she sent a card and wired flowers. Six weeks later, in the mail, she found a letter from her uncle’s lawyer advising her that she was the beneficiary of a business trust that the deceased had established and that she should arrange to discuss the details with the attorney. A ZOOM call could be arranged, but Elisabeth hadn’t been home for almost five years and, so, she took the opportunity to fly into town, visit some old friends, and confer with the lawyer.
6.
The lung cancer had shrunk her to skin and bones. Karen could no longer drive and, so, her sisters brought her to the lawyer and helped her maneuver her walker up the ramp and into the office. There were a number of details to which the lawyer had to attend.
7.
Mr. Lawcort, Esq. said to his associate that estate planning was like looking into the sun. You couldn’t do it very long without becoming blind.
8.
Karen was frail and her skin looked grey. Mr. Lawcort wondered if she would survive the conference. Her sisters were robust and talkative. After taking notes about her situation, Mr. Lawcort said that he would prepare a Last Will & Testament for Karen, an Advanced Health Care Directive, sometimes called a Living Will, and a Transfer on Death Deed with respect to Karen’s house out-of-state in Bullhead City, Arizona. The Transfer on Death Deed would have to be approved by an attorney in Arizona.
9.
Karen was concerned that her two nephews and nieces in Sacramento were spendthrifts. Nonetheless, they were blood-kin, the children of her deceased brother and, because they were always poor and in need of money, Karen told the lawyer that she wanted them to share in the inheritance but on the basis of a trust that paid them $500 a month as their share of the bequest. After the meeting with lawyer, Karen felt better about things and, outside the office, lit up a cigarette as she stood in the bright sun on the wheelchair ramp. Her sisters made disapproving noises about the cigarette and pursed their lips.
10.
There was no buy-sell and, so, Morton’s shares in Loch Ness Holding LLC passed directly to his sole heir, Emily, a collateral relative in Montana. Loch Ness Holding LLC was the company through which Morton had operated his life’s work, LUST Anodizing, an electro-plating company in a suburb near Minneapolis.
11.
When Mr. Lawcort saw Karen puffing on her cigarette on the ramp outside his office, he told his secretary that they had better make haste in drawing up the estate documents for this client. Lawcort was shocked when he wrote down Karen’s date of birth and reckoned that she was almost ten years younger than him.
12.
Approaching 80, Loretta lived alone except for her family of three cats. She didn’t have much of anything but the fate of her cats after her death bothered her. She made an appointment with a lawyer so that some arrangements could be made for her pets. She felt that something was wrong with her and had been feeling odd twinges of pain in her belly for a few months. She didn’t go to the doctor. Sometimes, she took her cats to the veterinarian. One of the old animals was diabetic.
13.
Lea had lived on an Indian reservation with her second husband. Her son was a celebrated “Fancy Dancer” on the pow-wow circuit and had won many cash prizes. Shane, Lea’s half-Lakota son, didn’t approve of his mother’s new boyfriend, a man who had been Lea’s high school sweetheart and, later, briefly famous as the drummer in a rock-and-roll band. When Lea went into hospice care, there was a quarrel about her car. The drummer had been using the car as if it were his own and he wasn’t inclined to surrender it to Shane or his half-sister, Bekka.
14.
When Billings said that he wanted his boss’s boss, Roundway, appointed as the guardian for his children in the event that he and his wife died at the same time (for instance in a car- or plane-crash), he again stated that he desired that his son and daughter be protected by someone who “shared his values.” But the lawyer had another file in his office concerning Roundway. It was a divorce file and some of the allegations pending between the spouses were troubling. Of course, the lawyer was bound by attorney-client confidentiality and couldn’t say anything to Billings about what he knew, or at least, had been alleged, about Roundway’s “values.”
15.
Lea went into a coma, lingered for a couple weeks, and, then, died. Among her effects in the hospital, Shane found a handwritten note signed by his mother and witnessed by two nurses. The note said Shane’s half-sister, Bekka, should be given several boxes of Barbie dolls that Lea had accumulated during her lifetime. The dolls were at the apartment that Lea had shared with her boyfriend, the elderly rock and roll drummer. Because his relationship with Lea’s boyfriend was poor, Shane didn’t know how he would be able to retrieve the dolls and deliver them to Bekka. She lived in a Chicago suburb, five hours away.
16.
Loretta made an inventory of some suitable past lovers, writing their names on a sheet of paper. She considered the list, looking at it carefully. Would one of these men be willing to serve as the Personal Representative of her estate? The lawyer told her that she had to nominate someone willing to serve in that capacity. Some of the men were dead, others married, divorced, and re-married again. She had parted with some on bad terms. Finally, she settled on four possible candidates for the position. Using the internet, Loretta compiled contact information.
17.
Mr. Bentley was Lea’s cousin. He was the CEO of an asbestos-removal firm, Asbestroless. Lea was buried in a rural cemetery in the farm country where she had lived as a little girl. Mr. Bentley stood by her grave as words were spoken. The old country church, with its unflinching white steeple (crowned by a cross-shaped lightning rod) and grassy graveyard with eroded stones inscribed with fading Norwegian words, was “pretty as a picture” – or, so, Mr. Bentley. After the Lutheran pastor had retreated to a larger, more modern church in town, Shane put a small deer-skin pouch containing some objects in the grave and, then, distributed Pendleton blankets after the custom of his father’s people. Mr. Bentley observed these ceremonies with interest and thought that they were also “picturesque.” Cars lined up on the dirt track between the graves and, then, departed for town where a luncheon was being served in the other church’s basement.
18.
In the fields, combines were harvesting corn and beans. The Summer and Fall had been dry and the big farm implements were enveloped in mournful shrouds of dust. Behind the combines, big black birds swooped into the field and gleaned the stubble. Mr. Bentley said that Lea’s only worldly possession of any value was the collection of Barbies. Mr. Bentley’s wife snorted and said that the whole situation was “sad and pathetic.”
19.
In the church basement, ham on buttered buns was served by church ladies. There were bowls of potato salad, baked beans, and Jello with fruit embedded in it. Mr. Bentley talked to Ted, Lea’s boyfriend. Ted had not attended the graveside ceremony to avoid an encounter with Shane. By mutual, if tacit, agreement, Shane had not come to the luncheon at the church. Ted smelled of cigarettes and there was a faint whiff of booze on his breath. Mr. Bentley said that he would pick up the Barbie dolls at Ted’s apartment and, then, drive them to Bekka in Chicago. Bekka was poor and couldn’t afford the gas money to drive to the graveside. She had spent four days at her mother’s bedside two weeks earlier and was all tapped-out with respect to finances. Mr. Bentley said that it was not an inconvenience to make this trip because his company, Asbestroloss, had a client in Calumet City, near where Bekka lived and he needed to meet with that customer.
20.
Mr. Lawcort directed his paralegal to prepare papers necessary to implement Karen’s estate plan. Then, he went on a cruise departing from Miami and touring the Caribbean. He expected to be back at his office in two weeks when he would finalize the documents, get them approved by Karen, and, then, have local counsel in Arizona also endorse the legal instruments that his office had drafted. Mr. Lawcort’s paralegal was involved in a car crash about four days after the lawyer left for his vacation. She wasn’t hurt too badly, but suffered a broken ankle and, of course, her car had been totaled. She couldn’t return to work for about three weeks and had not yet dictated the estate planning documents for Karen.
21.
The night after her “red-eye” flight to Des Moines, Elisabeth went for drinks and pizza with an old friend from college. The two women met at a restaurant a couple blocks from her hotel near the airport. Elisabeth’s friend had small children and, also, worked as an administrator at a hospital. Although Elisabeth didn’t say anything about her friend’s appearance, she was surprised to see that the young woman looked care-worn and that there were lines on her face around her eyes. Elisabeth’s friend said that she couldn’t make a long night of it, because she had to get up early to take her children to day-care before driving to work. “It’s not like college any more,” Elisabeth’s friend said. “Early to bed early to rise...” Elisabeth replied: “Remember, it was like we were majoring in sex when we were in school.” “Speak for yourself,” Elisabeth’s friend said with a laugh.
22.
The appointment with the lawyer was at 9:30. Elisabeth sat in a conference room with a window overlooking a small pond between the freeway and its off-ramp. The pond was lined with grey-brown reeds. The lawyer greeted her and they chatted a little about the unseasonably dry and warm autumn weather. The lawyer was an old man, dressed informally in blue blazer and a polo shirt open at the neck. He told her that she had inherited a profitable business called Greenway Eco-Services. The enterprise had a recycling plant located about four hours from Des Moines in the northwest corner of the State. “It’s was on the market a couple years ago and several large businesses were very interested,” the attorney told her. He added that her uncle wasn’t willing to part with the enterprise at that time. “I can contact those firms,” the lawyer said, “And I’m confident that someone will make a very strong offer on the business.” Elisabeth said: “I think I should take a look at the property before we commit to anything.”
23.
Loretta had testamentary documents prepared by her attorney. But the designation of Personal Representative for the care of her cats was left blank. She sent an email to the man who was first on her list. She inquired about his health and arranged to meet him. His wife had recently died. Mr. X– was old, frail, and sad. He told Loretta that he had recently been diagnosed with something quite serious and, so, he didn’t think he could help her. “My memories of you are fond and warm,” he told Loretta. She nodded but didn’t reciprocate the sentiment.
24.
The Des Moines lawyer told Elisabeth that it was a long and tedious drive to the small town where the Greenway Eco-Services facility was located. “If your uncle hadn’t been so stubborn,” the old attorney said, “he would have sold the shop years ago.” Elisabeth said that she had some experience appraising businesses and that she planned to drive up to the Northwest corner of the state to see the place. “You know, I don’t really recommend that,” the lawyer said. “It sounds mysterious,” Elisabeth replied. “Now, I am really intrigued.”
25.
Once, LUST Anodizing had been on the outskirts of a suburb that was itself on the far outskirts of the City. The electroplating business was built on land zoned industrial, but as the suburb had grown and expanded, the factory was absorbed into residential and commercial neighborhoods. Emily was surprised to see that small houses with even smaller detached garages and lawns with mature shade trees entirely surrounded the two-acre tract where the plant was located. The commercial real estate agent told her that the electroplating plant was “grandfathered” by the city zoning committee but that no additions or significant capital improvements could be made on the site. “This is a problem,” the broker told her.
26.
Emily possessed a controlling interest in LUST but there were two Persian brothers, Behrouz and Kamran, who each had 15% stock ownership in the firm. Morton had borrowed money from them and repaid the loan with equity in the company. They were now operating the plant. When Emily called the anodizing firm, Kamran was officious but said that they were very busy with production, filling a large order for the Department of Defense, and that outsiders were excluded from the plant for security reasons. Kamran said she could tour the facility in a couple of months and that he would send her a message when the time was right. Emily said that she operated a ski resort in Montana and that it would be inconvenient to return in the Winter to see the place. “Well, there is nothing to be done,” Kamran said.
27.
After Lea’s death, her three siblings set up a meeting with a lawyer to discuss ownership of the family’s lake cabin in the north woods near the Canadian border. Title to the cabin remained in the surviving sibling’s mother. The old woman was in a nursing home and had been unwell for several months. At the conference with the lawyer, the eldest sister suggested that the cabin and lake-front property be sold at auction and that the proceeds be divided four-ways with equal shares payable to each child with Lea’s proceeds distributed to her offspring. The old woman was participating in the meeting by a Zoom link on her laptop computer. She vetoed this plan: “Your father would not want the cabin sold to someone outside of the family. He put in the dock. He built the driveway and the shed and the boat-house. It was his pride and joy.”
28.
Mr. Bentley parked his car at the rear entry to the old drummer’s apartment building. It was unseasonably warm and some of the grills on the balconies precariously adhering to the rear of the structure were fired-up so that the air smelled of burnt meat, propane and charcoal. When Mr. Bentley rang the bell, Ted buzzed him in. He lived in a cluttered basement apartment. Apparently, he had been working on his pickup, but was afraid to leave anything in the lot by the disabled truck (it might be stolen) and, so, the small, dark rooms were full of car-repair tools and auto-parts in boxes. Everything was impregnated with the stench of cigarettes and the Barbie dolls in their cardboard containers smelled like an ash-tray. Ted said that he had emphysema and that he was too weak to help carry the dolls out of Mr. Bentley’s SUV. Although they smelled bad, the dolls in the two boxes were very light.
29.
Mr. Y– said that he would consider serving as Loretta’s PR. He asked her to visit him in his condominium by the lake side. Not surprisingly, the place was called “Lakeview Estates”. Mr. Y– was drunk when he met Loretta at the door leading to his place and his gait on the steps was unsteady. His rooms were filthy and Loretta was happy she had used the toilet at the Kwik Trip down the block before coming to see him because his bathroom horrified her. Mr. Y– had several cats himself but it appeared that he had not cleaned their litter box for several weeks. The animals had rheumy eyes and matted fur. Mr. Y– was very fat and his clothing was dirty. When he tried to kiss her with his wet, slobbering lips, Loretta pushed him aside and fled.
30.
Mr. Lawcort became ill when he was on the cruise. He feared that he had COVID, but concealed his symptoms in the hope that he could board the plane and fly home. But he collapsed in the airport and had at to be taken to the hospital where, after several days, he was intubated and put on a respirator.
31.
The electro-plating plant had cement-block walls painted white. A disheveled copse of trees extended along the building’s flanks and there was a tiny lagoon the color of rust with a red sign posted NO SWIMMING. A couple of semi-truck were parked against the shattered masonry of the loading docks. The place made an unearthly humming sound as Emily approached the office from where the realtor had parked and was waiting for her in a space marked by a battered VISITOR sign. Behrouz met her in the small suite of rooms at the front of the building. In the office, there was a dead rubber tree shedding fibrous strips of bark on the floor. The air smelled of acid. Behrouz said that he couldn’t let her into the plant because of Defense Contractor regulations. He offered to show her the government documents. “But I’m the majority owner,” Emily said. “We didn’t ask to be your partner,” Behrouz said. Kamran stood in front of the inside entry to the plant next to the restrooms in the corridor. “I didn’t ask to be your partner either,” Emily said. “We will have to work this out in court,” Kamran said in a loud voice. “Indeed,” Emily replied.
32.
The country in NW Iowa was rolling with small round hollows beneath tree-lined ridges. Corn fields slanted up and down the hillsides. The road passed through many small villages that seemed either impoverished or abandoned. It was warm and the air conditioner freshened the inside of the rental car and Elisabeth saw that the woodlots had turned yellow and gold between brown fields of row-crop.
33.
Billings got into a fight with Mr. Roundway at the country club. Roundway accused him of cheating during their round of golf and Billings had ignored the slight so long as they were on the golf course. But, at the country club grill, he couldn’t restrain himself and began to badger Roundway. The two men went out to the parking lot to fight but cooler heads prevailed. The next day, Billings called his lawyer and made an appointment to change the guardianship provisions on his Will to remove Roundway as the person appointed to protect his children in the event that he and his wife died. “I need someone who aligns better with my values,” Billings said.
34.
Mr. Bentley exited the freeway at Calumet City. The roads were all ripped-up for construction and he drove along an endless line of orange cones next to a sheer drop-off down to yellow sand strewn with river-rock where the adjacent lane had been removed. The old elementary school from which asbestos insulation was being extracted stood on an acre-and-a-half of asphalt. The place looked like a giant burnt-red brick that had been hollowed out. The contractor’s men were standing in sockets of the doors to the building, wearing hooded Tyvek coveralls with respirators. Mr. Bentley put on a face-mask. He thought that he knew some of the workers but they were hard to recognize in their white suits, masks, and safety glasses. Near the openings in the building, fans powered by sputtering generators were sucking air into the structure.
35.
Calumet City was full of burned out houses half-hidden by unkempt, drooping trees. Sidewalks led to nowhere. The project was going as well as could be expected, but Mr. Bentley thought some of the roll-off dumpsters were overfilled and might draw a fine. He mentioned this to the project foreman. The man was a little evasive about the recycling site to which the asbestos insulation was being hauled. The world was full of the toxic stuff and Mr. Bentley expected to spend the rest of working life profiting from it. Someone had to clean up the mess.
36.
Loretta contacted Mr. Z–. He was enthusiastic about serving as her Personal Representative. They met for breakfast at a Perkins Restaurant near the freeway. He said that he had become successful selling Amway products and that she could achieve all her dreams by working in sales with him. Loretta said: “I’m 77. It’s a little too late to chase after my dreams.” “Oh my goodness,” Mr. Z– said, “It’s never too late. “I don’t have any dreams left any more,” Loretta told him. They talked about old times as they ate. Mr. Z– paid the bill and left a large tip. When Loretta mentioned her cats, Mr. Z– changed the subject. They shook hands and he drove off in his shiny black BMW. Loretta suspected that Mr. Z–‘s vehicle was leased and that he was not as prosperous as he claimed. From the days of their romance, she remembered him as charismatic, irresponsible and a charming liar.
37.
Mr. Lawcort was still a little foggy when he returned to work at his law office. It seemed to him that he had forgotten something, but, try as he might, he couldn’t remember what it was. After his hospitalization, the world looked spectral to him, half-dissolved in its own toxins.
38.
He suspected corruption with respect to the asbestos remediation, bribes to city officials, perhaps, and kickbacks. But, it was best not to inquire too closely into the situation. Mr. Bentley thought that what he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. The cigarette smell in his car made him a little dizzy. He should have stopped at a Walmart along the highway and bought a box of baking soda. He texted Bekka’s address into his phone and followed a zigzagging course through the ruinous city to a quadrangle of bleak-looking townhomes, subsidized housing where children were playing in the parking lot and some women shrouded from head-to-toe in black burkas sat at a picnic table next to the complex’s rental office. Probably, the women were watching him suspiciously, but, of course, their eyes were not visible.
39.
Elisabeth’s cell-phone rang, startling her as pulled into Quimby, a hapless village surrounded by the old round pillars of grain elevators. A stream ran through the town, spanned by several narrow iron bridges that seemed haphazardly welded together. Some greenish water leaked over the top of a small, algae-stained dam. On the phone, the lawyer in Des Moines asked about her progress. Elisabeth said that she had just reached the town where Greenway Eco-Systems was headquartered. “The offices are right across from the courthouse square,” the lawyer said. “The plant is out in the country about five miles but there’s no need to visit that place. I’ve talked to the manager and he’s looking forward to meeting you in the office uptown.” Elisabeth said that she wanted to see the physical plant. “I don’t recommend that,” the lawyer replied. “But suit yourself,” he said.
40.
When the call was transferred to his office by his secretary, Mr. Lawcort recalled what he had forgotten. The woman on the line asked about the legal documents that Mr. Lawcort had agreed to draft for her sister, Karen. Mr. Lawcort apologized and said that he had been very ill. “Well, Karen died sometime last month,” the woman said. “They had to break into her house here in Bullhead City. She was dead in her recliner with the TV still running. Apparently, it was a mess and they aren’t sure when she died.” Mr. Lawcort said: “She didn’t look too good when I saw her in my office. I bet she passed right after she got back to Bullhead City.” The woman said she was disappointed that nothing had been drafted and that the estate plan couldn’t be implemented. “These things are unpredictable,” Mr. Lawcort said. “I’m so disappointed,” the woman told him.
41.
Emily looked at the tract index at the County Courthouse. Apparently, there were consent decrees recorded on the property’s title arising out of environmental litigation involving LUST Anodizing. The pollution control agency was supervising groundwater contamination remediation measures underway with respect to leaking underground storage tanks containing solvents and electrolyzing agents. There were also claims that the firm had improperly disposed of electroplating byproducts. Emily called her Montana lawyer and had her draft a quit-claim deed on the property. Even though it was unclear whether divesting herself of all legal interest in the premises would exculpate her from liability, nonetheless, she thought it prudent to make the attempt. Her lawyer was skeptical: “by recording the quit claim deeds, you’re just highlighting that you once had a legal interest in the place.” Emily said that she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.
42.
The offices for Greenway Eco-systems were on the second floor of a downtown building that housed a café and tavern at street-level. The steps leading to the suite of rooms were long, steep, and arduous. The offices were not handicapped-accessible and Elisabeth wondered about local ordinances, making a mental note to address this subject once her control over the corporation was confirmed. The manager was a haggard-looking man casually dressed. He said he could show her the profit and loss statements and customer lists but that there was no need for her to drive out into the country to see the plant. “It is what it is,” the manager said, sighing a little. Above the reception desk, the company logo showed an open hand with the tendrils of several small green trees growing out of palm and from between fingers. “I don’t recommend you go out there,” the manager told her. “You must understand that we are environmentally conscious. Our business, you know, is history’s first recycling enterprise.” “This business?” Elisabeth asked skeptically. “No this kind of business in general.” The offices were brightly lit with spotless white walls.
43.
Bekka came to the door wearing a track suit. She had a broad flat face framed by dull, blonde hair. In the kitchen, Mr. Bentley could see several small children eating macaroni and cheese from microwaveable plastic cups. The TV was playing and, on the flat screen, two monsters were clumsily battling one another. Mr. Bentley brought the boxes of Barbie dolls to the front door. Bekka sniffed at them. “I think we should put them in the garage.” They carried the cardboard containers from the townhouse threshold to the garage door that Bekka raised by tapping a code into the controls on the wall panel. The veiled women across the parking lot tilted their shrouded heads to watch Mr. Bentley and Bekka piling up the boxes along the garage wall.
44.
Mr. Bentley was relieved to get the dolls out of his car. He drove back to the freeway with his car windows rolled-down. The weather was mild although the trees were shedding their leaves. He pulled into the drive-through of a Jimmie Johns’ sub sandwich place and bought something to eat in his car: a Hunter Club with turkey, bacon, and roast beef, a diet Coke, and a big dill pickle.
45.
Karen’s two sisters met with Mr. Lawcort. It was a contentious meeting. One of the sisters wept. The other shouted at Mr. Lawcort and said that he had neglected his duties. Mr. Lawcort accepted the criticism stoically. He subscribed to the view, confirmed by the Bible, that “a soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (When he was a young man, his senior partner had told him to abide by this rule.) The angry sister said that the spendthrift nieces and nephews in Sacramento would now receive a windfall. They would have to hire an Arizona lawyer to probate the house in Bullhead City. There would be expense and delay. Mr. Lawcort had no response to these assertions. He said that, if sisters desired, he would find them a lawyer in Bullhead City who could handle transactions involving the house. “We can’t trust you to do anything right,” the angry sister said. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Mr. Lawcort replied.
46.
“One approach to the cabin is that the person who will make the most use of it, borrows money, and cashes out the other heirs at fair market value.” No one responded to the lawyer’s suggestion. The old woman, participating by Zoom, tried to speak. But she had muted her microphone. The lawyer and the siblings in his conference room looking at the computer saw her lips move but didn’t hear her words. Finally, a nurse leaned into the picture on the laptop and, unmuted the computer; then, she said: “She tried to tell you that she doesn’t want anyone to borrow money to purchase the cabin. Their father would not have wanted any of the kids to go into debt over the lake cabin.” The lawyer shrugged. “Then, she will have to make a transfer-on-death to one of you,” he said. “Or several, but past practice shows that a group of people can’t manage property like this equitably.” “So what are you suggesting?” one of the sisters in the conference room asked. “Well, it’s often the case in estate planning that there are winners and losers,” the lawyer said.
47.
Emily drove out to LUST Anodizing. Again, Behrouz and Kamran met her in the office. They told her again that Defense Department regulations prohibited them from taking her among the barrels of chemicals and energized cathodes where the parts were electroplated. Emily said that she didn’t need to see the process since she was quit-claiming the plant to the corporation and canceling any shares of stock in the enterprise that she had inherited. Behrouz said that there were certain liabilities that ran with the property that she couldn’t simply sign away. “We can discuss this in more detail when your ownership in the corporation is confirmed,” Behrouz said. Emily was quiet. There was no point in arguing with the Persian brothers. She shrugged and went out to her car. Then, she called a friend in Kalispell who had a friend who knew someone working as security for a First Nations casinos near Edmonton.
48.
Billlings met with Kettering, the manager at the company who was Mr. Roundway’s boss. Ostensibly, the conference was about supply-chain issues. But, then, Billings said that he had always admired Mr. Kettering’s business acumen. He knew Kettering was on the church council of the congregation of which he was a member. “I would like someone with values that align with mine to serve as godfather to my children,” Billings said. To his surprise, Kettering seemed flattered and said that he would consider such an appointment if Billings would draw up the proper legal documents. “But is your wife on board,” Mr. Kettering asked. “Very much so,” Billings replied.
49.
Billings drove home, excited to tell his wife that Kettering had agreed to serve as the contingent guardian for their children in the event that some catastrophe eliminated the two of them. But his wife and children were nowhere to be found. An orange moving van was pulled up to the driveway and two Hispanic men were carrying children’s clothing and boxes of shoes out to the vehicle. A tall man who looked like a retired cop stood sentinel over the moving operation. The tall man apologized to Mr. Billings when he handed him the divorce papers.
50.
The last name on Loretta’s list was Ted, a retired rock and roll drummer. Loretta recalled him as an exciting lover, but, also, a heavy drinker with a drug habit. She had not seen him for twenty years or more and was surprised that he was still alive and, in fact, living a few hours from her home. She sent Ted a few emails and asked him to consider agreeing to be her Personal Representative. Ted responded with interest and so she agreed to visit him at his apartment. He told her that his girlfriend had just died and that he was a bit lonely.
51.
A pre-dawn fire destroyed LUST Anodizing. The city police went from house-to-house in the neighborhood urging people to evacuate. The plume of smoke from the blaze was poisonous with industrial chemicals. When the sun rose, a tower of orangish smoke stood over the ruined plant and streams of green vitriol flowed down the driveway and hillsides coloring the little pond near the electroplating facility. Kamnen said that Behrouz had gone to the Anodizing plant early in the morning, before the fire was reported. His body was never found. Authorities speculated that he had fallen into one of the acid baths and been dissolved, skin, hair, and bone.
52.
Construction closed two of the four lanes on the expressway skirting Chicago. Traffic was congested but moving at about forty miles per hour. Mr. Bentley was eating his Hunter Club sandwich wrapped in white paper that had unraveled under the bun. The wrapping was in the way so that he bit down on the edge of paper. This wasn’t acceptable and so Mr. Bentley rotated the sandwich turning it over. The loose paper wrapping beneath the Hunter Club was now in front of his eyes, blocking his view of the road. Momentarily blinded, he lost control of his car, braking so that he fishtailed. When he flung the sandwich aside, he saw that a truck ahead of him had slowed, brake lights flaring. Mr. Bentley pumped on the brakes and skidded sideways onto the shoulder of the freeway, narrowly missing the back of the truck, now rolling to a stop ahead of him. Horns blasted from the column of cars. Mr. Bentley took a deep breath. He looked at the sandwich lying open on the seat next to him. The roast beef and turkey and bacon looked up at him with a vaguely apologetic expression. His car was mostly off the road and it was hard to merge back into traffic.
53.
Mr. Bentley pulled off at the first rest stop past the state line. He sat in the car for awhile. He was panting as if the wind had been knocked out of him. On the sidewalk leading to the toilets, an old woman was laboring up the slight incline, pushing her walker a head of her. Mr. Bentley watched her shuffle toward the rest rooms. Death is all around us. Best to plan for the end. You never know when your time will come. Leaves slipped from trees and glided down on the pavement.
54.
Ted’s apartment was dim with wan light coming through basement windows. He apologized for the odor, telling Loretta that the place sometimes flooded. She didn’t smell anything but the stink of cigarettes. Ted sat in a recliner connected to a green yard-long oxygen tank. Loretta noticed an ashtray full of cigarettes on the small end-table next to the recliner. She made small talk about the weather and they remembered bars where Ted had played in the long twilight of his career. Loretta asked about the others in band – all of them were dead or dying. When she talked about her cats, Ted showed no interest. He was more intrigued by the money in her bank account and some real estate that she owned. “Do you even like cats?” Loretta asked him. “No, I think they’re sneaky little critters,” Ted replied.
55.
Bekka sprayed the Barbie dolls with Febreeze. She put several of the dolls naked in the bathtub and ran water on them. Later, her kids sat in front of the Tv eating peanut butter sandwiches and playing with the Barbies. They rubbed the naked Barbies together and said that they were kissing.
56.
During her efforts to locate a Personal Representative for her estate, two of Loretta’s three cats died. The oldest cat, Angel, suffered from feline diabetes. Loretta asked the lawyer what she could do if no one was willing (or able) to be her P. R. The lawyer said that he could appoint someone from a Trusts and Estates department in a bank to serve in that capacity. “That’s expensive though,” the lawyer said.
Loretta was in better health than her old cat and, so, she resolved to outlive the animal.
57.
Mr. Lawcort received an indignant letter from one of Karen’s sisters. She accused Mr. Lawcort of neglect and malpractice and said that, unless he corrected the problems that he had created, she would hire an attorney to sue him for malpractice. Mr. Lawcort sent the letter to his malpractice carrier. A claims attorney called him. “She can’t sue you,” the claims attorney said. “Your client is dead. You weren’t representing the heirs. There is no attorney-client relationship with the heirs and the dead don’t have standing to sue.” Mr. Lawcort was glad to hear this.
58.
It was warm and Elisabeth rolled down her windows. The two-lane county road wound over the rolling hills, inscribing big S-shaped curves in the landscape. Elisabeth saw the Greenway Eco-systems plant on a tumulus of loess, a pyramid-shaped knoll with clay banks exposed above a small pond enclosed in hedges of red sumac. Through the brush, Elisabeth saw that the pond was covered in a yellowish foam, greasy stuff the color of tallow. The air darkened with a bad smell that intensified until Elisabeth was choking. Some vats on rusting iron stilts stood next the concrete block walls of the facility. Brownish fluid was oozing through cracks in the walls and there were chest-high heaps of dead animals next to the driveway. The animals had melted into one another and so it was hard to identify them but she saw several cows on their backs, huge taut balloons with upright legs, a few dogs and cats on the edge of blackened pile and a dozen rotting pigs with deer carcasses among them. Closer to the building there was a dark irregular mass. When the flies lifted from the mass, hovering in a great throbbing cloud, Elisabeth saw the pile was comprised of putrefying offal.
59.
A man wearing hip-waders came from a shadowy alcove where there was a greasy-looking loading dock. The man wore rubber gloves and a rubber apron. He approached the car and politely asked Elisabeth if he could help her. “No,” she gasped. “Do you need us to make a pick-up?” the man said. He pointed to a corroded truck with two dumpster-like bins on its back. Elisabeth saw a some feathers in one bin, pale like hydrangea blossoms, apparently dead chickens, and a small, green poodle was visible in the other black compartment. “No pick-up,” Elisabeth said. Her impulse was to roll up the window, but this would trap the stench in her car. “So how can I help you?” the man with the rubber apron and gloves asked. “You can’t,” Elisabeth said. She put the car in reverse, turned around, and drove away from the rendering plant.
60.
The room in the nursing home was steamy and smelled bad. An old woman rested on a hospital bed that had been inclined upward so that she could sign the documents transferring the lake cabin on her death. The lawyer had brought a newly hired associate with him so that he could learn practical aspects of the trade. A nursing assistant with tattoos on her wrists and pony tail stood next to the bed. The senior lawyer set the documents on a sort of plastic tray slanted across the old woman’s chest. “What is this?” the woman in the hospital bed asked. “It’s the documents about the cabin we discussed in the meeting?” the lawyer said. “What meeting?” the old woman said. She seemed very drowsy and her eyelids kept closing.
61,
The lawyer asked: “Do you understand what you are signing?” “No,” the old woman said. The lawyer handed her a pen with the name of his law firm printed along its side. “Do you know what you are signing?” he asked again. “I think so,” the old woman said and, with shaking hand, she wrote her name on the paper. The nursing assistant wrote and, then, printed her name as a witness. The junior associate hesitated for a moment, but, then, he wrote and printed his name also. The transfer-on-death-deed required two competent witnesses.
62.
In the car on the way back to the office, the associate asked if the old woman had the mental capacity to execute the deed. “Of course,” the senior lawyer said. “Otherwise the deed would be unenforceable.” The associate ran his teeth over his lower lip. “It’s for the greater good,” the senior lawyer added.
63.
Elisabeth stopped in a Burger King near the freeway that led to Des Moines. She couldn’t eat but ordered a Diet Coke. In the toilet, she washed her hands for a long time.
64.
The senior lawyer told the young man that, when someone died, assets secreted money. “You find it in the mattresses, under the floor boards, in the attic, it bubbles up out of the drains like sewage. It’s just there for the taking, money for nothing. So make sure you get paid for your work.”
65.
The old man used a walker to ascend the handicap-ramp at Mr. Lawcort’s office. He had bushy eyebrows and the beard of a Civil War general. He was only a few years older than Mr. Lawcort and had been in college with him. “You know, I majored in drinking beer and smoking dope,” the old man said. “It seems like just yesterday. The heart doesn’t grow old. The body ages but the heart stays young.” Mr. Lawcort agreed with him.
66.
In the mountains of Montana, the first snow fell, powdery, white and clean. Emily’s crew inspected the ski-lift. It was in good order.
67.
The dock was solidly built and had outlived its maker. It was early in the morning and mist rose over the cold, motionless water. A loon warbled, hidden in the distance. The people in the cabin were still sound asleep. They didn’t see a bright fish gulp at the surface of the lake a couple yards from the end of the plank dock. Concentric ripples spread across the water, softening as they expanded.
