Clawback by J.A. Jance Read Free Book Online Page A

proper heirs and beneficiaries is a mess that will take years.”
    Ali’s husband, B. Simpson, and High Noon Enterprises, had been involved in the problem from the get-go. Ali and B. had been together in Governor Dunham’s Sprinter the night of The Family’s bloody shootout. Since then, B. had devoted plenty of the company’s pro bono time and effort toward tracking down the cult’s purloined funds.
    Finding the money had proved to be the easy part. Figuring out who should inherit was another issue entirely. In a polygamous community, the question of who was related to whom and how wasn’t always clear-cut. The records from the family Bibles weren’t always complete, either, since daughters who ran away or even attempted to do so were simply stricken from the record. Several of those supposedly errant daughters may have been disavowed by their families, but the rule of law outside The Family’s compound meant that, in the absence of properly drawn wills, they were still legitimate heirs.
    â€œWhen it comes to sorting that stuff out,” Ali said, “better you than me. Besides, my total focus right now is making sure all the school-age kids are enrolled in suitable situations by the time September rolls around.”
    Ali’s phone buzzed in her ear. A glance at the screen identified the incoming call.
    â€œMy mom’s calling,” she said into the phone. “I need to take this.”
    Governor Dunham laughed. “You have one of those, too? While you talk to her, I’ll tackle the governor of New Mexico.”
    â€œFair enough,” Ali replied. She ended the call and switched over to the other line. “Hi, Mom.”
    â€œHello yourself,” Edie Larson said. “Have you heard from your father?”
    â€œNo, why? Has he gone missing?”
    Ali intended her comment as a joke, but for Edie this wasn’t a laughing matter.
    â€œHe and that rusty bucket-of-bolts Bronco of his were MIA by the time Betsy and I got back from water aerobics first thing this morning,” Edie complained. “He went off in such a hurry that the TV was still on and the remote was on the kitchen counter along with a half-empty coffee cup, which he didn’t bother to rinse out, by the way.”
    Ali’s parents had run the Sugarloaf Café together for years with very little squabbling. Now that they were retired and living in a small two-bedroom unit at Sedona Shadows, Ali had noticed that, on occasion, they tended to get on one another’s nerves in what B. referred to as a perpetual case of cabin fever.
    â€œI’m in charge of this month’s birthday list,” Edie Larson said, continuing her rant. “Bobby was supposed to pick up Wanda Farmer’s birthday cake from the bakery at Safeway and have it here before lunch. So here it is, almost lunchtime. Bobby’s nowhere to be found and neither is the cake. I’ve been calling and calling, but he doesn’t answer. I finally called the store to check. Turns out the cake is still there. That means I’m going to have to fire up the Buick and go get it myself. You’d think I’d know better than to trust a man to do a woman’s job.”
    Ali knew that her father served as the self-appointed guardian to a homeless enclave in the Mogollon Rim woods halfway between Sedona and Flag. Many of the guys who lived out there were veterans with medical and or mental issues. Ali understood that if one of “my guys,” as Bob Larson liked to call them, was in some kind of difficulty, her father would move heaven and earth to fix it. Considering how long her parents had been married, it shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise to Edie that on Bob’s list of what was and wasn’t important, a scheduled birthday cake delivery might easily have fallen to the bottom.
    â€œOne of his pals is probably in some kind of difficulty and he’s up on the rim helping out