Smokin' Six-Shooter. B.J. Daniels

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       Chapter One

      “There must be some mistake.” Dulcie Hughes shifted in her chair, anxious to flee the lawyer’s office. “We’ve covered everything my parents left me in their estate.”

      “Not this particular part of your inheritance,” he said and cleared this throat. For years Lawrence Brooks, Sr., had been her parents’ attorney, but upon his death his youngest son, Herbert, had taken over his father’s law practice.

      Herbert was in his early thirties, only a few years older than Dulcie herself, a tall, prematurely balding man with tiny brown eyes and a nervous twitch.

      Today though he seemed even more nervous than usual, which made her pay closer attention as he handed her the documents.

      “What is this?” she asked, frowning. Her elderly parents had discussed all their financial arrangements with her at length for years. She’d never seen this before.

      “You’ve been left some property in Montana.”

       “Montana?”

      He tried to still his hands as he waited for her to read the documents.

      “My parents never mentioned anything about having property in Montana.” She read the name. “Who is Laura Beaumont?”

      “You don’t know?”

      She shook her head. “I’ve never heard the name before. This is all the information you have?”

      “Apparently Laura Beaumont’s estate was being held for you in a trust until their deaths, taking care of the expenses. That’s all I can tell you.” He stood abruptly, signaling an end to their business.

      Dulcie didn’t move. “Are you saying this is all you know or this is all you’re allowed to tell me?”

      “If you want to know more, I would suggest you obtain an attorney of your own to look into the matter further,” he said, tapping his fingertips on his desk as he waited impatiently for her to leave. “Or go to Montana yourself.” He made the latter sound imprudent.

      “Maybe I’ll do that,” Dulcie said, rising to her feet and tucking the papers into her shoulder bag.

      “As your parents’ attorney, that completes our business,” Herbert said, sounding glad of it.

      For the past four months, she’d been grieving the loss of her parents and not in the least interested in dealing with the financial aspects of that loss.

      As the only heir of Brad and Kathy Hughes, she’d known she would be inheriting a sizable estate. Not that she needed it. Straight out of college, she and a friend had opened a boutique that had taken off.

      After establishing more than a dozen such shops across the country, she and Renada had sold the businesses six months ago and made enough that she would never have to work again if she invested the money wisely, which of course she had.

      She’d been trying to decide what to do next when her seventy-two-year-old father had taken ill. Her mother had never been strong, suffering from a weak heart. But to lose both of them within a few weeks had been crushing.

      Now, months later, she felt even more at loose ends.

      As she left the lawyer’s office, her cell phone rang.

      “So it’s over?” asked her friend and former business partner tentatively. Renada had wanted to come along with her to see the lawyer, knowing how hard this was for her. But Dulcie had needed to do this on her own. She needed to get used to doing a lot of things on her own.

      “All done,” she said, patting the papers she’d stuffed into her shoulder bag.

      “Up for lunch?” Renada asked.

      “Absolutely. I’m starved.” And she was, she realized.

      It wasn’t until after they’d eaten and she was feeling better for the first time in months that she told her friend about the Montana property.

      “It’s very odd,” she said, digging out the papers the lawyer had given her. “I’ve been left property in Montana from someone named Laura Beaumont.”

      “Seriously? How much?”

      “Apparently a hundred and sixty acres just outside of Whitehorse, Montana.”

      “Where is that?”

      “I haven’t a clue.”

      “Aren’t you СКАЧАТЬ