Snow Going Back

Chapter 7

SEVEN

After breaking the news that she’d been urgently called away to everyone – and dealing with her mother’s very vocal disapproval that she’d even consider leaving the country so soon after being proposed to – Kate had finally managed to slip away from the party and head back to London, with the excuse that she needed to pack. Faced with two hours alone with Lance in the confines of his car, she’d exaggerated her exhaustion and pretended to fall asleep a few minutes into the drive. She didn’t actually sleep a wink on the long trip back, her head too busy spinning to rest, as she tried to process the events of the day. But she kept up the pretence until Lance had dropped her off at her flat, as she just couldn’t face talking about it all any further.

Her flight the next morning passed in a wonderfully peaceful blur, and after landing in a grey, rainy Boston, Kate taxied to her hotel and took some time to freshen up. By the time she was ready to get to work, she almost felt normal again.

Grabbing her phone from the table by her window, Kate placed a call to Bob, one of the senior partners in their Boston office and the man she answered to whenever she worked on this side of the pond. She looked out across the skyline as the US dialling tone hummed in her ear. The rain had finally stopped, and flight trails were now the only thing graffitiing the clear blue skies over the city.

Bob picked up on the second ring. ‘Kate, hi. You here? Flight OK?’ He sounded tense.

‘Yes, all checked in. Where shall I meet you?’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Have you eaten? Want to catch me up over lunch?’

‘I figured you’d be hungry, so I’ve ordered in,’ he replied. ‘Chinese food from that place you like. It just arrived, so head on over while it’s still hot.’

Kate frowned suspiciously. Bob hated Chinese food.

‘OK,’ she replied. ‘I’ll be right over.’ She put the phone down and picked up her jacket.

A year or so before, Sophie, her counterpart in the Boston office, had upped and left without notice, after dumping the contents of all her case files in one big defiant screw you pile on the floor of her office. It was her parting gift to Derek, a slick-talking junior partner she’d been dating, after finding out that not only had he cheated on her with one of the interns, but he was also married with two children. Kate had worked closely with Sophie, their international clients often needing services on both continents, which made her the only person who knew enough to piece all the files back together correctly. It was supposed to have been a temporary arrangement for Kate to fix the files and just keep things ticking over until they recruited Sophie’s replacement, but as time went on, Kate had realised she really enjoyed the variety of working between the two offices. And as she was happy to continue that way, Bob had been in no hurry to change things.

The office was just two buildings down from the hotel, so a few minutes later Kate let herself in and made her way up to Bob’s office on the sixth floor. She knocked and then walked in.

‘Kate!’ Bob held his arms outwards with a wide winning smile. His unnaturally white teeth gleamed against tanned leathery skin, and his blue eyes twinkled with a sharpness that belied his years. ‘You look well. How are you?’ He beckoned her further in. ‘Come. Sit, sit, sit. You must be tired.’

‘I’m great, thanks,’ Kate lied, allowing him to gently push her towards the lounge area of his office, comprising of four sofas facing inwards in a neat square.

The coffee table in the centre was covered in unopened boxes of food along with two tumblers filled with ice and a dark amber liquid she suspected was probably whisky. Raymond, one of the other partners, lay casually back on the sofa facing her, his arms draped across the back, one leg crossed over the other. The relaxed stance didn’t fool her.

‘How are things here?’ she asked, looking at them both in turn.

‘They’re good – things are good,’ Bob replied brightly, nodding as he sat down next to Raymond. ‘But we’ll get to all that. Come – take a load off. Let’s have some food and catch up first. Can I get you a drink?’

He stood back up, but she halted him with her hand.

‘With all due respect, Bob, and I really don’t mean to be rude, but I’m not having a drink until you tell me what’s going on.’ She looked at them both in turn. ‘All Simon told me was that I had to jump on an emergency last-minute flight, out of the blue, with absolutely no explanation attached, and I did . So now I’m here. On a Sunday.’ She placed her hands on her hips. ‘I think it’s about time someone told me why. Before trying to soften me up with alcohol.’

Raymond let out a low chuckle. ‘I told you she wouldn’t let you beat around the bush.’ He looked up at Bob with an amused smile.

Bob sighed and sat back down, scratching the almost bald – save a few white hairs that were still clinging on – top of his head. ‘OK, we’ll get right to it then.’

Kate nodded and sat down opposite them.

‘How much do you know about when this company was started?’ Bob asked.

Kate frowned. ‘The basics, really. That it was started here in 1962 by Jacob Morris. Philip Schuster became a named partner in ’75, and then he opened the London office in ’81.’

‘OK.’ Bob nodded, then leaned forward onto his knees and laced his fingers together. Kate eyed the boxes of food on the table as her stomach grumbled at her. They smelled amazing.

‘Please, eat,’ Bob urged, following her gaze.

Raymond sat up and reached for one of the boxes. ‘ Yes ,’ he agreed, with feeling. ‘Please do. I’ve been daydreaming about the Kung Pao chicken since we ordered. I so rarely get to order it here, with Bob around, and my wife has me on a seemingly lifelong diet.’ He shot her a pained look.

Kate laughed and reached for the nearest box. She tonged some noodles and waited for them to continue.

‘Coreaux Roots was one of the accounts you took over when Sophie left,’ Bob said, picking up his drink. ‘They likely haven’t called on you for much, but are you familiar with their business?’

‘Yes,’ Kate said, mentally sifting back through their brief encounters. ‘Timber company. Up in Vermont?’ Bob nodded. ‘Medium-sized enterprise that turns over pretty decent profits, if I remember rightly. A lot of land assets.’

‘That’s right,’ Bob said. ‘What you may not know is that they were Morris’s first-ever client.’ He took a sip of his drink. ‘Jacob Morris came from very humble roots. Family had nothing. He was smart though. And driven . Got himself a full scholarship to university, studied hard and graduated top of his class. He made a friend there, who stayed in touch after he returned to Boston.’

‘Let me guess – the founder of Coreaux Roots?’ Kate asked.

‘One and the same,’ Bob replied. ‘When Jacob started this firm a year or so after college, his old friend William was first in line. He signed up on a retainer for the firm to handle all legalities related to Coreaux Roots, and ’ – Bob paused – ‘himself and his wife, too.’

Kate frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘From what I gather, William didn’t trust lawyers. But he trusted Jacob. Asked him to take all of it on, not just the business,’ Bob told her with a grim shrug. ‘Jacob was just starting out. He needed clients… So while his firm officially only dealt with corporate law, he agreed to William’s request, too, as a favour.’

Raymond cleared his throat. ‘They worked out quite a specific contract which included us being legally responsible for their affairs after they passed.’

Kate’s eyebrows briefly shot up. That was unexpected.

‘William died a few years ago and it was pretty straightforward, as he left everything to Cora,’ Bob continued. He shifted in his seat and fiddled with his glass. ‘But last week, we got a call informing us Cora had passed.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Kate offered.

‘Oh, we didn’t know her. But, as I said, the contract was very specific,’ Raymond replied. ‘It states that in the event of the second of the two passing away, whoever officially holds their account here has to take up temporary residence in their home within one week and personally log all assets and possessions, then divide everything according to the terms of the will. In the absence of clear named parties, that person must make an informed decision about how everything is divided after spending no less than six weeks in their home and around the people who were in their lives.’

‘ What ?’ Kate exclaimed, looking back and forth between them. ‘You can’t be serious?’

‘Very much so, I’m afraid,’ Bob replied.

Kate shook her head. ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘Bob, I can’t . I have cases coming out of my ears. I can’t just drop everything to go and fanny about listing frilly curtains and fine china. With all due respect, that’s something you can send a junior to do. They can be spared, and it all sounds straightforward, if a little odd…’

Bob held his hand up and cut her off. ‘Kate, I already thought of that, and that was the initial plan.’

‘ Was ?’ Kate echoed warily.

Bob sighed heavily and pulled a newspaper out from under the food-laden table, passing it over. ‘ This is why we can no longer switch you out.’

‘Of course you can,’ Kate countered, taking the paper from him. ‘As long as we put the right people in place, it won’t matter that it’s not me . Who would even know?’

‘ Oh , quite a lot of people,’ Raymond said heavily.

He pointed at the paper in her hands, and she looked down.

‘Oh.’ As she stared at the bold black headline and the pictures underneath, her hopes of getting out of this suddenly plummeted.