London Harmony: The Pike (6 page)

The redhead grinned. “Great, that's as good to hear as a Rastafarian opossum on a tin drum.”

My face scrunched up in confusion and Itsy asked in a bewildered state, “Huh?”

Zoey made a rolling motion and said, “Just nod and roll with it.”

We nodded and rolled with it.  She was bent, but in a good way.  She stepped to the door and held it open for us and we went out into the crowded space, Leigh shuffling like it was a death march.

I sighed and hugged the twins, I was running late for the seven AM meeting.

Harrison said, “Go, Zoey, I've got this here.  I'll drop the twins off at the Pike later this morning or early afternoon.”

I smiled at my man.  He had taken the day off from work to watch the children, not that they needed a babysitter anymore.  When had they grown up?

I sighed and gave him a peck on the lips then looked at him and the kids and said, “Don't get into too much trouble and no sweets until after lunch.”

He said with a chuckle, “I can handle the kids Zo, get that cute caboose in gear or you'll be late.”

With a teasing smirk over my shoulder, I turned to the door, “I wasn't talking about them.”

He tried to swat my butt as I hurried out the door.  I giggled. “Too slow old man.”  I loved to tease him that he was a year older than me.  I looked back to see him grinning and growling as he closed the door to our house.

I looked at my car in the drive, then to my empty shoulder where a purse with my keys should be.  I rolled my eyes, spun on a heel and marched up to the door.  It opened a crack and Harrison's arm stuck out of it holding the strap of my purse.  I chuckled. “Smart ass.”

He opened the door a crack more so I could see his handsome grinning face with his five o clock shadow.  I swear he took the day off just so he didn't have to shave, and it looked gooood.  He said in a mock wounded voice, “The children dear, their innocent ears.”

I snagged my purse and blew him a kiss then said with a voice full of sarcasm, “Yes, the two innocent ones who hang with June, Mandy, and Eve?  They've never heard a bad word in their lives.”  I was rewarded by the children giggling as Harry shut the door.

I turned back to the car as I dug out my keys then my smile left me as I exhaled and prepared for another reminder that I had lost someone I cared about.  I punched in the address for the lawyer.  I had never had an occasion to meet Mrs. Z's lawyer.  She had switched from Gilbert and Jameson after McKenzie's father had passed.

I looked at the map on the screen on my dashboard as it picked up my destination from my iPhone.  I nodded and headed out to meet with Kincade L. Stenson, Esquire.  It only took a few minutes to arrive, and I parked in the parking lot and looked at the address again as I looked around for a professional building.  This couldn't be right.

I figured I had just written the address down wrong when McKenzie gave it to me.  So I did a quick internet search for Stenson, it showed the same address.  I got out of the car and just stared at the little strip mall.  What kind of lawyer works out of a  strip mall?

I paused a moment then exhaled and started toward the building.  I grinned when I saw a woman in a wheelchair, and another woman who's hair was dyed a brilliant red, enter a plain, unassuming door that was sandwiched between a dry cleaners and a tobacco shop.  If Reese and Sarah were here, then this was indeed the right place.

I hustled over to the door and looked at the letters stenciled on it, that read Kincade L. Stenson, Esquire.  I had to grin and shake my head, Mrs. Z's lawyer was indeed in a strip mall.  I took a cleansing breath, steeled myself, opened the door and stepped in.

I still wasn't sure why I was here, I wasn't family, and we had never finalized our partnership agreement.  I assumed that McKenzie was going to liquidate the business since she already ran a successful business that took up all her time and she wouldn't be able to run the Pike as well.

She was never a person to hide from anything, so I believed I was here so that she could tell me face to face that the Pike would be closing.  Heartbreak after heartbreak, first I lose Mrs. Zatta, now the Pike.

I passed a restroom in the bland entry hall which had cheap linoleum tiles on the floor and white walls  There were people crowded into a relatively large one room office that looked like it belonged in the back of a seedy gambling house.  There were rows of mismatched chairs in front of the little Formica-covered desk, which was almost totally surrounded by overstuffed filing cabinets.

There were stacks of papers and files on every possible horizontal surface.  You couldn't have made an office look more disorganized if you tried.  I had to pause at that thought and looked again.  It was too much of a caricature, and it looked a little staged now that I looked closely.  I nudged a folder on top of the stack at a small knee-high table by the door, and it slid aside to reveal blank papers and menus from various restaurants.  What the heck was going on here?

I looked at all the people in the room.  I thought Kenzie was Mrs. Zatta's last surviving relative.  Almost everyone from the wake yesterday was here.  I knew why Crystal was here, Mrs. Z saw her like a daughter and Crystal did so much for her to ensure the Pike was successful.

She called all the people she had pictures of on the wall of the Pike, “Her Girls.” And here they all were with few exceptions.  McKenzie shuffled through the group, coming from where she had just got Reese and Sarah situated.

She offered her hand, and I shook it.  She had been out of the military for years, but her grip was still strong as iron.  I could tell she was careful not to grip too hard and hurt me.  I have to say, I'm straight as an arrow, but I freely admit that the pictures of her in uniform on those recruiting posters always made my heart beat just a little faster, and they didn't do the woman justice.

She always looked directly into the eyes of the person she spoke to, it was something that made you respect the woman.  Mrs. Zatta had explained to me after I first met McKenzie, that her granddaughter strongly believed that you could take a measure of a woman or a man by what you saw in their eyes, and the eyes never lie.

She said, “Zoey, I'm glad you could make it.  Kincade is running a few minutes late.  He'll be here in a minute.”

I nodded and gave her a sympathetic smile. “I wouldn't have missed it.”

She glanced around, all the seats were taken.  She looked at the little table I had examined, and she put the faux stack of papers on the ground then set the table by the last row of chairs, beside Roberta Valentine, then made an ushering motion with a silly grin.

I inclined my head, trying to hide my grin, she was so gallant.  I sat as she scurried off to make sure everyone else was comfortable.  I leaned over without looking to bump Roberta's shoulder, saying, “Bobbie.”

She grinned and retorted, “Runt.”

We exchanged smiles, and I nodded at Blake, who smiled and tilted her head in acknowledgment.

I was about to ask if they knew why we were there but closed my mouth when a reject from an old nineteen seventies disco cowboy movie walked into the office.  The look on McKenzie's face told me this was the man we were waiting for.

He appeared to be a cross between a used car salesman and an urban cowboy in his terrible green plaid suit with a bright green shirt and a red bow tie.  I saw it wasn't a clip-on, but an honest to God bow tie.  His belt buckle was a huge silver horseshoe, and he wore what looked like ostrich skin cowboy boots.

He had thick white hair streaked with darker grey, which was slicked back and draping down to his shoulders in the back.  His worn leather face looked like a road-map of Utah, broken up with a multitude of wrinkles.  I give the man this, though, he did have a great smile under the walrus-style mustache hanging below his crooked nose.

His eyes were a little too sharp, a little too intelligent as they flicked around the room, assessing each person.  I glanced back at the papers on the ground then started to grin.  It was all an act.  He was showing us what he wanted us to see.  This whole office was one big prop so that he could catch people unaware.

His eyes stopped on me when he saw my grin.  He gave an almost undetectable shrug and grin before he moved on.  He shook McKenzie's hand as he passed by her to the small disorganized desk.  He exhaled and pulled a large stack of papers out of a drawer.

He just stared down at them sadly for a moment before he seemed to compose himself and looked up and around the room again and his eyes stopped on where Kenz stood, leaning against the wall with Katie beside her, who was holding Kenzie's upper arm like she would her real one.

Then he stood and said,  “Thank you all for coming.  Emily would have appreciated it.  I'm sorry that the quarters are tight.  We have to do this in shifts.  You are the first of two groups.”

I blinked, there were that many more people that Emily wanted at the reading?

Then he introduced himself.  “Not many of you know me, I'm Kincade Stenson, Mrs. Zatta's attorney.”  He looked down, his eyes reflecting genuine remorse as he added, “It falls upon me to relay Emily's wishes on this somber occasion.  First, let me offer my deepest sympathies to all of you over the loss of such a gentle and loving soul.”

The man may look like a stereotypical ambulance chaser or used car salesman, but it was easy to see he spoke in earnest.  I studied his look and then the office and knew that he was just showing people what he wanted them to see, it was all set dressing to set a particular tone.

He reached a hand out to where McKenzie stood unblinking, unbreathing at the wall.  She grasped his hand as he gave her the look of a kindred spirit.  She nodded once, and he dropped her hand and looked around the room.

He pursed his lips then seemed to deflate in his chair and picked up a large yellow envelope and opened it, pulling out some papers.  He said, “First, let me start with the reading of the will.”  He paused and looked around the room, his eyes lighting on me for a moment before breaking his gaze to look at McKenzie.

Then he started reading. “I Emily Elise Zatta, being of sound mind...”

I sort of tuned him out a bit, dwelling on the fact that even after the funeral, it still felt so surreal, like this were just a drama being played out and she really wasn't gone.  But this reading, in her own words, hit me as hard as the initial news of her death.  This seemed so final and made it so real now.  I couldn't help it as I cried as the man read.

The woman was generous in life and was just as generous in death.  She left what little monies she had gathered in her life to various charities, most going to Sandra Callahan's foundation to help the homeless and children in the burn and cancer wards of the city, and to Crystal's iFork projects.

She named each of the people in the room by name, along with a group that was not there, who must have been in the second group that Stenson mentioned.  She wanted us all to know how much we enriched her life and was sorry she didn't have more time to spend with us.  She said she viewed us all as her girls and loved us all.  There wasn't a dry face in the room as she reminded us to always follow our hearts and we would aspire to great things.

She left her house to McKenzie and instructed her to keep whatever she wanted and to liquidate the rest of her belongings and give the proceeds to the Callahan Foundation and the iFork.

Then she spoke of the Pike, leaving it to McKenzie, telling her again to follow her heart on how to proceed with the bakery.  She spoke of this perky young thing that she hired to help her out and how she saw such great potential in her.  I had to cover my mouth to stop my silent tears from becoming blubbering crying.

She must have written her will a couple years back when I had just started working for her, before our talks of a partnership.  She saw something in me I didn't see myself.

Kincade paused after that and looked between McKenzie and I and added, “Emily had scheduled a meeting with me next month on this particular issue, I think after the reading is concluded, I need to speak with the two of you.”

McKenzie silently inclined her head.

He wrapped things up, having those who had been bequeathed part of Mrs. Z's estate sign some legal papers.  I thought poor Sandra was going to have a nervous breakdown as she signed for her foundation.  That woman had one of the biggest hearts, and she proved it every day with the devotion to people less fortunate than herself.

Before long, the office seemed so empty, with only Stenson sitting on the front corner of his little Formica desk, facing McKenzie, Katie, and I.

Katie gave us all a grin, then gave Kenz a peck on the lips and said with a hint of her southern accent, “I'll let you three talk shop.  I'll wait in the car.”  She winked at McKenzie and said, Valkyrie One out.”

This got the smile from Kezie that I think she was shooting for. Then McKenzie walked to sit beside me in front of the lawyer.

Kincade picked up another stack of papers from the desk behind him and sat them beside himself.  He had let his bumbling charlatan act drop as soon as he had started the reading.  His eyes got this intelligent intensity as he seemed to measure and evaluate each person as he progressed.  Then he was miraculously super organized as he efficiently gathered the relevant signatures from those he needed.

He saw no need for his act anymore as he got as serious as a balloon in a tack factory.  He clasped his hands, looking between us, determining where to begin.  He finally made the decision and turned his gaze on McKenzie as he pulled out some paperwork from the stack.  “This is the transfer of ownership paperwork for the Pike as per Emily's will.”

He just held them and said, “You can do with it what you will.  Back when she wrote the will two years ago, she mentioned that you would most likely liquidate the business because you were already running your stables.”