The Living Room (23 page)

“You changed it after we talked to Natasha, didn’t you?” he asked. “It’s different from the other one. How many times have you changed my will?”

“A few, but only when you wanted me to. Mr. Dominick, I need you to tell me in your own words who you want to receive most of your estate.”

“My wife,” Mr. Dominick replied and motioned toward Natasha. “Her.”

“Do you mean Natasha?”

“Yes, yes.” The old man yawned and rubbed his nose.

“What about your children and grandchildren?” Mr. Phillips asked. “What do you want them to receive?”

“It’s all in there,” Mr. Dominick replied, touching the will. “They get some money, but I want my wife to have everything else.”

“Is anyone making you set up the will this way?”

Mr. Dominick looked puzzled again. “No.”

“Have you been subject to undue influence?”

“I’m not under the influence. I haven’t had anything to drink since a glass of wine last night with dinner.”

“Mr. Dominick, in your previous will, you left most of your estate to Selena. Now that you’re divorced from her, do you want to change that?”

“Yes.”

Mr. Phillips looked relieved that any remaining affection Mr. Dominick felt toward Selena wasn’t going to taint the current estate plan.

“And how do you want to change it?”

“So most everything goes to Natasha.”

“Did Natasha pressure you to do this?”

“She asked me about it quite a few times, but I haven’t been feeling too good and didn’t come down to see you until the other day. When was that?”

“Last Wednesday. What day is it today?”

Mr. Dominick shook his head. “You got me there.”

Mr. Phillips glanced toward the camera. “Mr. Dominick, are you signing this will because it’s what you want to do or what Natasha wants you to do?”

“Yes.”

Mr. Phillips waited, but Mr. Dominick seemed satisfied with his answer and showed no indication of explaining. Mr. Phillips cleared his throat and glanced at the camera before focusing on Mr. Dominick.

“Do you have any questions?” he asked the elderly gentleman.

“No.”

“Are you ready to sign this will in front of these witnesses and Mrs. Clarke, who is a notary public?”

“Yeah, let’s get this over with. I’m hungry. It’s time for lunch.”

Amy watched Dominick initial each page, then sign the last page of the will, which was then witnessed and notarized.

“Do you want me to keep the will for you in our office?” Mr. Phillips asked.

“No, I’ll take it with me.”

Amy knew this was not according to the script. Mr. Phillips liked to keep wills in the firm vault to ensure they weren’t lost, destroyed, or tampered with.

“Wouldn’t you like to keep it safe here at the law firm?” Mr. Phillips asked again.

“No.” Mr. Dominick took the will and handed it to Natasha. “Let’s go. I’m starving. And talking about wine has made me thirsty, too.”

Mr. Dominick got up and left the room. Natasha and Freddie trailed along behind him. Natasha was talking to Mr. Dominick as the door closed, but the microphone didn’t pick up the conversation. Mr. Phillips looked at the camera and motioned to Amy.

“Turn that thing off.”

Amy walked over to the camera, and the picture went blank.

fifteen

T
he CD of the conversation between Mr. Phillips, Mr. Dominick, and Natasha lay on the top of Amy’s desk. Chris wanted her to transcribe it, but she’d spent enough time with the Dominick family for one day. She slipped it into a drawer and opened a new item of dictation to transcribe.

Late in the afternoon her phone buzzed. It was Chris.

“Can you come to my office for a minute?” the young lawyer asked.

“As soon as I finish a letter that Mr. Phillips wants to send out in the afternoon mail.”

Amy printed the letter and took it into the senior partner’s office.

“Here is the settlement letter for the plaintiff’s lawyer in the Worthington case,” she said.

Mr. Phillips read it while she stood before him.

“It galls me to no end to offer money on this case,” he groused, “but the client doesn’t want to fight. Did you read the answers to our discovery requests?”

“Just enough to make sure I had the names right for the letter. It looks like a nuisance suit.”

“That’s exactly what it is, and I hate to reward a gold digger.”

Amy’s mind immediately went to Natasha Dominick, but she kept her mouth shut. Like many lawyers, Mr. Phillips had no qualms about applying a different standard of morality to his clients than he
did to the people on the other side of a lawsuit. He scribbled his signature at the bottom of the letter and handed it to Amy.

“Maybe they’ll get greedy and reject the offer,” he said. “That will force Bob Worthington to spend the money to fight. It may cost him the same in the end, but at least a victory will protect his reputation. I don’t want word to get out that he’s an easy mark.”

Amy folded the letter on the corner of Mr. Phillips’s desk and slipped it into an envelope.

“I’m going upstairs,” she said. “Chris wants to see me in his office.”

“What do you think about our new associate?”

Amy knew this question would be coming, but she hadn’t expected it so soon. Mr. Phillips wouldn’t be satisfied with an evasive answer.

“He’s smart and not easily intimidated by a challenge. And I don’t think he’ll give you any pushback—”

“Not if he wants to work here.”

Amy stopped.

“Go ahead,” Mr. Phillips said.

“He’s an accurate typist. His notes of the meeting you went to last night at Plaxo Industries were detailed and clean.”

“That’s surprising considering how messy the meeting was. Print the notes and give me a copy before you go upstairs.”

Amy pointed to a stack of papers on the corner of Mr. Phillips’s desk.

“They’re in there. Do you want me to pull them out?”

“No.” Mr. Phillips waved his hand. “But check back with me before you leave to go home.”

“Yes, sir.”

Amy took a steno pad with her. She didn’t know formal short-hand but had developed her own style of abbreviations that worked well if she didn’t wait too long to transcribe them. The door to Chris’s office was open. He motioned for her to come in and sit down. His face didn’t reveal any emotion.

“Did you get a chance to watch the DVD and transcribe the CD in the Dominick will case?”

“I watched the DVD this afternoon and made a few notes but haven’t listened to the CD. I’ll try to get to it tomorrow.”

“It’s more of the same. What did you think of the video?”

“Since I don’t remember anything that happened before the camera started recording, I can’t help out there. Mr. Dominick came to the office off and on for years, so I was around him quite a few times. He was a smart but impulsive man. It was obvious in the video that he was declining.”

“Mentally?”

“Yes.” Amy nodded. “His mind was jumping all over the place.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”

“But he knew Natasha was his wife and wanted to leave most of his estate to her.”

“That’s the only part Mr. Phillips focused on. He thinks the video will prove the case. I’m not so sure.”

Amy decided to take a chance and offer a perspective on the senior partner.

“Mr. Phillips knows there are issues in the case. Saying that to you is his way of putting pressure on you to deliver what he wants.”

“I already feel it.” Chris touched a brown mailer on his desk. “And this didn’t help. I received a packet of information today from a Georgia lawyer who represents a man claiming to be Dominick’s illegitimate son.”

“Mr. Dominick had a reputation as a womanizer.”

“This is the third notice that has floated in from illegitimate children—two putative sons and one putative daughter,” Chris said.

“Has there been any DNA testing?”

“Dominick was embalmed using formaldehyde, which contaminates any sample. One of the claimants wants to have him exhumed anyway. Another is seeking hair and fingernail samples. Natasha isn’t very happy with either request.”

Mr. Dominick had a full head of snow-white hair in the DVD. If there was a hairbrush of his remaining in the house, it would be a treasure trove of chromosomal data.

“Can they search the house?” she asked.

“I’m not sure, but the illegitimate offspring don’t pose the only challenge to the will. There are also caveats from two of his legitimate children.” Chris paused. “And a competing will supposedly executed after the one prepared by Mr. Phillips.”

“What a mess.”

“That’s what happens when twenty million dollars is at stake.”

“Twenty million dollars?” Amy raised her eyebrows. “I had no idea there was that much money involved. Where did it come from? I knew Mr. Dominick owned a couple of houses, but I never knew how he made his money. He spent most of his time being a war hero.”

“The majority of his assets are from an import/export business he started after he got back from the war. His main job was to schmooze with clients. Apparently, he was very good at it.”

It was slightly past five o’clock when Amy left Chris’s office and walked downstairs. She went in to see Mr. Phillips.

“You wanted to see me before I left for the day?” she asked.

“Yes.” The older lawyer motioned for her to sit down. “I saw Mildred Burris when I was eating lunch at the country club today. She mentioned that you’ve been spending time with her.”

“Yes, I’ve visited her a couple of times in the past month or so.”

Mr. Phillips cleared his throat. “Now that you’re working here again, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Amy’s mouth dropped open. “Why? She’s been extremely kind to me.”

“I don’t want to jeopardize client confidentiality or have an appearance of impropriety.”

“I would never say something to Ms. Burris or anyone else that violates the rules. We talk about our faith, not what happens here.” Amy paused. “And she’s a client of the firm.”

“Was a client,” Mr. Phillips responded with a slight grimace. “I’m going to send her a letter ending our professional relationship. It’s not something I want to do, but I don’t see a way around it. Given your
recent personal contact with her, I didn’t want you to be surprised when it shows up in your queue.”

“Why?”

Mr. Phillips cleared his throat. “She’s going to be an adverse witness in the Dominick estate litigation.”

“What does she know about it?”

“It seems she and Sonny were romantically involved many years ago, and when his health declined, she started visiting him and recommended the home health nurse who stayed with Sonny when he couldn’t care for himself. My information is the two of them convinced him to execute a new will shortly before his death. The lawyer who prepared the will came to the house where it was executed.”

“Who gets Mr. Dominick’s estate under that will?”

“Most of it goes to his children and grandchildren. Natasha still receives a life estate in the condo in Florida where she lives, but not much cash. Upon her death, the condo reverts to the estate. There is also a sizable bequest to a nonprofit organization that Mildred supports. I think she’s on the board of directors. The home health nurse, a woman named Beverly Jackson, also gets a tidy sum. The will was prepared by a sole practitioner about fifty miles east of here. I have no doubt Sonny wasn’t competent by then. The last time we met, he had trouble remembering my name. And we’d known each other for almost thirty years.”

Amy was stunned. By everything. She especially had trouble imagining Ms. Burris involved in a romantic relationship with Sanford Dominick.

“I don’t want to risk anything that would create an ethical issue or a conflict-of-interest problem for the firm,” Mr. Phillips continued. “When church people get together to talk and pray, it can be an information download.”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Mr. Phillips stared at Amy. Her anxiety shot up as she anticipated his next statement.

“Just make sure your name doesn’t come up in this case except to
bolster Sonny’s competency to sign the will I prepared and you typed. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”