Tombstone Courage by J. A. Jance Read Free Book Online

on his head, turned on his heel, and hobbled back to the Scout with a real sense of purpose. Talking things over with Emily always gave him comfort and direction.
    At the cemetery's gate, he paused long enough for old Norm Higgins from Higgins Funeral Chapel and Mortuary to make a left-hand turn through the entrance. No doubt Norm was on an errand to scope out the location of some soon-to-be-used burial site. Harold supposed Norm and his boys had some poor old coot stashed in the cooler up at their place, waiting long enough for the deceased's far-flung, out-of-town relatives to arrive on the scene before setting about the grim ceremonies of putting him in the ground.
    "Go to Hell," Harold thought, as Norm's shiny gray limo squeezed past the disreputable Scout on Evergreen Cemetery's narrow main track, at least it isn't me they're burying. He had his casket all picked out and paid for, same as his plot, but it wasn't time to use it. Not yet.
    Norm Higgins and Harold Lamm Patterson had known each other for sixty-some-odd years. In passing, they exchanged the kind of casual half wave/half-salute with which men of long acquaintance greet one another if they want to say hello but don't want to make much of an issue of it. Both men waved and nodded and went on by.
    Harold headed uptown, past the Lowell Traffic Circle and on up to Old Bisbee. Talking it over with Em really had helped prepare him for what he knew would be a knock-down, drag-out confrontation with Burton Kimball-his nephew as well as his attorney.
    Some people around town discounted Burtie; thought of him as your basic pushover. But not Harold Patterson. The man who had raised Burton Kimball from a baby-the kind uncle who had taken an orphaned pup to raise and knew better than to dismiss either the younger man's abilities or his tenacity.
    Harold might use Burtie to further his own purposes, yes. But underestimate him?  No. The coward's way, of course, would have been for Harold to go ahead and do what he was planning to do without mentioning a word of it to Burtie. But Harold Lamm Patterson had never walked away from a fight in his whole life.
    At eighty-four, he decided, it was too damn late to start.

 
    Chapter Five
    AS PREDICTED, Burton Kimball's reaction was nothing short of astonished disbelief. "You're going to do what?"
    "You heard me. I'm gonna offer Holly whatever the hell she wants. But she's gotta agree to see me.
    Alone. No lawyers on either side. Including you."
    Kimball shook his head in disgust. "Uncle Harold, let me point out that you've already paid me a bundle of money on retainer to handle this case for you. Why would you suddenly want to go it alone at the very last minute?  And why on earth would you suddenly agree to settle with that un mitigated bitch?
    "Let's go to court, Uncle Harold. Please. We'll have the home-court advantage. People in this county know you. How many times have you served on the school board. Five. Six?  You've lived here all your life, while Holly left town thirty years ago and only came back now to make trouble. Given a choice, who do you think the jury will believe?"
    "That's what I'm trying to tell you," Harold said. "I don't want a jury."
    But Burton Kimball continued undeterred. "No one from around here is going to fall for this 'Forgotten Memories' bullshit. It's all going to boil down to her word against yours, and she's not going to win. People like Holly Patterson may be big news in People magazine and in New York and California, but Bisbee's a part of the real world. I tell you, Uncle Harold, it isn't going to wash here.
    ''If you settle, Holly gets whatever you give her, but if you win-if the jury finds in your favor you won't have to pay that woman one thin dime.
    Which one of those sounds like the better deal?"
    "I still mean it," Harold said. "You call her up and tell her I want to see her. You know where she is, don't you?"
    "I know," Burton answered, "put as you know, I'm under a court order not to