Dearly Departed by Hy Conrad Read Free Book Online Page B

her most recent entry—“in your bra and panties, playing backgammon with a sexy albino waiter on the Trans-Siberian Express?”
    â€œWell, the nights are long in Siberia. We have to do something.”
    â€œActually the nights are getting shorter.”
    Fanny waved him away like a fly. “Oh, that’s just the kind of mistake TrippyGirl would make. It adds realism.”
    Marcus wasn’t sure how to respond, which was just as well, since the house phone had decided to interrupt them. Fanny checked the display. She was about to pick up but changed her mind and let it ring.
    â€œIt’s Amy,” she said in a half whisper.
    â€œWhy are you avoiding Amy?”
    â€œI’m not avoiding her. I’m just not here. I stepped out.” Even Fanny knew this deserved more of an explanation. “I picked up a copy of Paisley MacGregor’s will at the lawyer’s. Amy wanted me to scan it to her, but I forgot.”
    Marcus understood. “We’ll do it right now.”
    Since the brownstone was divided into two separate apartments—Amy’s lone stipulation before agreeing to move back into her childhood home—they had to go out to the landing, climb up two flights, and unlock Amy’s front door. An interior set of stairs led them up to her bedroom and the sunroom/office at the top-rear of the house. Marcus switched on the computer and the copier, which was on a small side table.
    Fanny was less familiar with machines than Marcus, so she fed him the pages—a copy of the will itself, a few codicils, a handwritten letter from Paisley MacGregor, all notarized. There was a homey feeling to these documents, Fanny thought, a reassuring indication that there had been a real person behind all the planning and the demands. Within a minute they had a system going: from the file folder to the scanner to a neat pile on the seat of a chair. Fanny had handed off about a dozen pages—legal size, letter size, single sided, double sided—when there was a stop in the supply chain.
    Marcus reached out behind him. “Is that all?” Then he turned to see. Fanny was at the desk, looking curiously at a handwritten letter. “What’s up?”
    â€œLetter from Paisley,” said Fanny, looking a little somber. “She wants it read aloud in Hawaii before they dump the last of her.”
    â€œIt’s nothing bad, is it?”
    â€œBasically just thanking them for making the trip, for all the years that they let her be a part of their families. A little odd,” Fanny added as she scanned the page a second time. “Not that I want to criticize the dead.”
    â€œLet me see.” Marcus took it. It was one page long, written in tight block letters on fine, heavy stationery. He felt slightly guilty, even though it was a document meant to be read. He, too, had to read it a second time. “She’s implying a lot in this little ‘thank-you.’ Some of it not very nice.”
    â€œGood. I thought it was just me being sensitive.”
    â€œNo, it’s definitely her.” Marcus set it aside, as if it might be radioactive. “I don’t know these people, but even I can figure out . . . she must have known all their secrets.”
    â€œFrom what Amy says, they were very dependent on her.”
    Marcus pushed out his lips and frowned. “That must have been an odd kind of life, don’t you think? Living through other people. Do you think Ms. Paisley was happy?”
    â€œMaybe. In her own way.” Fanny gave it a few seconds of serious thought. “As happy as you can be when your job includes cleaning toilets. She was a part of their lives—big houses, smart, successful people confiding in her—with very little downside. No actual family to deal with. She could always leave and move on to the next.”
    â€œBut she still loved them.”
    â€œIt’s easy to love someone when you can leave.” Fanny