Chapter 11: The Ex, The Will, and The Riches

Everyone had gathered around in the den. Alex sat furthest away from everyone so that although he still participated in the conversation he didn't have to fully engage in the social interaction. Sam had chosen to stick close to Alex even though he preferred interacting with others.

Courtney, Tracy and Luke were all reading over the old documents that Alex had found in the safe and Courtney had given Alex her phone where she downloaded the articles she'd found on Vivan which he was trying to read with Sam peering over his shoulder.

“I wish there was better service. I barely got it to work to find the articles I downloaded,” Courtney sighed.

“At least now we know the motive. They wanted her money. I mean she was freaking rich. She owned her own successful company that made a killing every year,” Luke had put it bluntly. Everyone else was thinking it though.

“Maybe it was Robert, her ex husband,” Tracy suggested.

“It also could have been one of the kids in the will,” Alex looked up at everyone before continuing, “It's best not to make any assumptions. We should leave no stone unturned in this investigation. If one of them felt cheated out of something they felt they deserved then that would be just as good a motive as any.”

“He's right. We should look into every possibility. I'd hate to get it wrong and be stuck here forever,” Sam didn't want to leave anything to chance, especially not when their freedom was at stake. He'd decided that the others weren't that bad. Especially not now that he'd gotten to know them a little better.

“I know he was a millionaire when she died but what if it wasn't just money they were after,” Tracy suggested, her brows knitted together in concentration.

“True… It could have been anything from a business deal gone south to an angry employee,” Luke moved to sit on the couch by the boarded up fireplace.

“Or maybe this Robert guy was still upset that she divorced him,” Courtney shrugged, scratching the back of her head.

“I mean that would make sense because he didn't get anything from the divorce. Vivian had an iron-clad prenup,” Alex seemed lost in thought as he followed the conversation.

Courtney got up, grabbed her phone back, and left to continue her own research. Tracy followed her not wanting to let her go off on her own. Meanwhile Luke looked like he'd settled in for a nap and no one moved to bother him. He didn't see a point in helping the ghost who apparently loved to throw him at the ceiling. He was bored of all this and he didn't care if they wanted his help he wasn't in the mood for all this today.

Alex grabbed Vivian's will and read over it for the third time. Vivian had three kids, Julia, Steve, and Beatrice. Beatrice had gotten the most from the will. She'd had the most to gain from her mother's death. Julia however had gotten practically nothing although Alex didn't get why. Maybe she hadn't been the favorite or her mom deemed her too immature to leave in control of any substantial funds. She could have felt angry because she got the short end of the stick, that would have been a good enough reason to kill. Steve however hadn't gotten the most or the least so Alex couldn't see him killing his mom. Not unless she were the world's worst mom.

Alex began to pace the floor as his train of thought continued. Robert could have felt wronged having gained nothing from the divorce and being written out of the will. Anger was a reasonable motive. Although so was jealousy. If Vivian had found somebody new and Robert hadn't gotten over her he could have snapped and decided that if he couldn't have her then no one could.

The entire thing was a confusing mess. No wonder the case had gone cold all those years ago. There were too many plausible motives and too many obvious potential killers. If anything Alex would say Steve was the one who did it just because everything else was far too obvious. On the other hand though the most obvious solution was oftentimes the correct one which would mean he was back at square one. There had to be something they were missing; he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Alex almost bumped into Sam who had suddenly got to his feet and made a beeline for the door. If he hadn't taken a quick step to his left he would have run into him head on. “Where are you going?” Alex followed him not wanting to be left alone with sleeping beauty back there.

“To find the piano. I left the sheet music there and your pacing was starting to make me anxious. Playing helps me think more clearly anyways,” Sam headed for the living room.

Pov Change

The girls had headed upstairs to research somewhere quiet and Tracy remembered Sam mentioned a library the day before. It was the perfect place in the sense that it was quiet. There were no windows so none of the books had gotten sun damaged nor had the old paintings. Courtney sat in one of the old armchairs propping her feet up on the old table. She was trying to get her phone to work fully. She only had one bar of service which was barely good for anything.

Tracy had curled up in the arm chair on the left of Courtney. She was rather enthralled by the opportunity of solving the case. Tracy loved detective stories and murder mystery shows and now here she was getting to solve her own case in real life. She'd always hoped to be a detective one day and maybe this could be a step in the right direction.

Tracy had left her phone in her pocket this entire time because she could barely pick up a signal which was annoying to say the least. That also meant that wherever they were was barely in range of the nearest cell tower which meant that they were most likely in the middle of nowhere not she hadn't already guessed that.

She couldn't wait to get home and she knew the same held true for the others. She wanted to get back to her dad's homemade cookies and her papa's offkey singing. She learned to be back at the old garage she spent her evenings after school fixing up cars with her fathers. She missed helping her little brother Jake with his homework too surprisingly.

Tracy sighed, closing her eyes the current headache making her feel nauseated. The situation was enough to give anyone a migraine not to mention her allergies were acting up with all the dust in the air here but at least she wasn't in it alone. For some odd reason Alex's calm demeanor had been somewhat reassuring despite his constant distance from the group and all things considered he could get why he'd be wary. They were all just strangers after all. It didn't take long for her thoughts to fade as she dozed off into a dreamless sleep.