Monkey on a Chain by Harlen Campbell Read Free Book Online Page B

know?”
    “Who inherited?”
    “The family. His parents and his sister.”
    “What was the size of the estate?”
    “A million two, book value. Twice that in the right market.”
    “Who is his personal representative?”
    “His mother. I’m representing her.”
    “What was her reaction to the will?”
    “She was satisfied.”
    “How was it split?”
    “Half to the parents, half to the sister.”
    “Was April mentioned at all?”
    “She was mentioned. She was specifically excluded. It wasn’t like she was cut out recently. This is an old will. But it was reviewed less than two months ago.”
    The girl made a small noise deep in her throat, as though she had been cut inside.
    “And no one else? No women? No friends?”
    “No women. He had no friends.” But something in his eyes made me suspicious.
    “There was nothing else?” I asked. “No codicil? No special bequest?”
    He hesitated, then decided it wasn’t worth a lie, whatever it was. “One thing. I don’t know what to do about it. It wasn’t even in the will.”
    “Tell me.”
    “About a month and a half ago he brought me a letter. He told me I’d know who to give it to. There is a name on it, but no address. A rather strange name.”
    April made another noise. She was looking at me. Pearson looked at me too. “Can you guess the name?” he asked softly.
    I felt like I was back in April’s bedroom, looking at the grenade. “Rainbow,” I said.
    The lawyer nodded slowly. “I guess it’s yours.” He touched a button on the phone and asked his secretary to bring the envelope from the Bow file in the safe.
    When she came in, April stood abruptly and rushed out. Pearson took the envelope from the secretary’s hand and put it directly in mine. I stuck it in my breast pocket and started after April. Pearson stopped me. “Mister…ah, Rainbow!”
    I looked at him.
    “What happened here…the irregular aspects…I’m going to overlook them because of my feelings for April. About what Bow did, I mean.”
    “You’ll overlook them because you don’t want to think about the alternative,” I told him coldly.
    After a moment, he nodded. “Nevertheless, I do feel badly about this.”
    I left the secretary looking back and forth from her employer to me with bright, curious eyes.
    April was not in the reception area. I found her leaning against the wall by the elevator. I pushed the button and stood silently beside her. Her cheeks were still wet and her face was very white.
    When the elevator arrived, she moved woodenly into it. Then she stumbled and fell against me. She threw an arm over my shoulder so that her face was against my chest, and her knees buckled. I held her and she began to sob, but by the time the door opened, she could stand again. A man waiting for the elevator glared at me as I led April off.
    When we reached the parking lot, she leaned against the car. She didn’t want to get in. “I’m sorry,” she said.
    “You have nothing to apologize for.”
    “I lost it. I just lost it all.”
    I waited for her to continue. I thought I knew what she was talking about. Her self-control. I was wrong.
    “I had a father, and I lost him. And now I lost him again. And it was all because of me, because I wasn’t satisfied. I had to try to find my real father. And then Dad…he cut me out. I hurt him.”
    “You were never in,” I told her. “Get in the car.”
    She nodded. I held the door for her.
    When we had been on the road for five or ten minutes, she said, “The envelope. What was it?”
    It had been burning my chest. I’d been ignoring it. I pulled into the parking lot at the next strip center and took it out. The writing on the envelope was in Bow’s hand, of course. I tore it open. It held a single sheet of yellow lined paper with just four sentences. I read them once, cursed, and read them again. Maybe my face was white. I didn’t feel like I had an ounce of blood in me.
    “Well?”
    I wasn’t sure it was the right thing,