Afterthoughts by Lynn Tincher Page B

exception of the
house in Gellendale Estates, was to be auctioned off with the
proceeds going to The Tree House, an orphanage where Sarah had been
volunteering over the last six years.
    The house was to go to Richie or to
the next remaining family member.
    That, of course, was Paige.
    On more than one occasion, while
cleaning out the belongings from the house, Paige became ill. At
one point, Aileen thought of taking her to the hospital but Paige
resisted. David had been a tremendous help to Paige and Aileen,
taking care of business whenever they became too emotional to
handle it. He offered support whenever Paige felt vulnerable and
gave her space when she demanded it, which was quite
often.
    Ian Messing, the director of the
orphanage had stopped by on several occasions to see what he could
do to ‘help’. He was a mousy man, with thinning gray hair and deep,
stormy, gray eyes. He always seemed to wear clothing to match them.
Paige was always a little nervous around him because his
personality didn’t match his appearance. He was strict and
demanding with the orphans at The Tree House and this personality
was spilling over to the handling of the Estate. Paige’s lawyer,
Timothy Roman had to step in and put him in his place on a regular
basis. Ian was a very distrustful person and it seemed that even
though all of the proceeds were going to be given to the
orphanage,
    Ian would not believe it unless he saw
it with his own two eyes. Paige considered requesting a restraining
order against him so he would leave them alone. She figured he
probably would not abide by it and it would give Paige great
pleasure to arrest him.
    Jay stopped by to find Ian rummaging
through the garage. “Just what are you doing in here?” Jay inquired
as he walked up behind Mr. Messing.
    Being caught off guard, Ian quickly
responded, “Just checking to see if there is anything here I want
to personally bid on in next week’s auction.” Ian rubbed his hands
together as if to hide the fact that they were shaking.
    “ I think you should wait
and go through that when either Paige or Aileen are here with you.
Or, hell man, wait for the auction! Come inside with me,” Jay
demanded as he prodded Ian along in the house like ‘shooing’ a cat
away from the dinner plate. As they entered the kitchen they found
Paige and Aileen going through the silver and chatting about what
to do with the house after the auction.
    “ Paige, can I see you for
a moment?” Jay asked her, leading her away from the kitchen and
leaving Ian with Aileen.
    “ Sure thing, partner!” she
beamed at him. By the distressed look on Ian’s face, she could tell
that Jay had just ruined Ian’s day.
    They walked out onto the deck at the
back of the house. “How’s Aileen holding up?” Jay asked
her.
    “ She’s okay. Staying busy
helps, although it’s unbearable going through Sarah’s things. There
are just too many memories.” Paige let out a huge sigh and fought
back the tears that were beginning to swell.
    “ I can’t imagine.” Jay put
his arm around her. “How are you feeling?
    Aileen told me you’ve been pretty
ill.”
    “ I’m fine. I’m able to
keep food down now. I’m a tough cookie. You don’t need to worry
about me. I’ll be as fit as a fiddle and back to work after this
auction is over; just wait and see. Then I can get to the bottom of
what happened. I have to do that for Sarah. I made her a
promise.”
    Paige said matter-of-factly and walked
to the end of the patio to look over the rail. Rage was beginning
to overtake the sorrow.
    “ That’s part of why I came
by today. The investigation into the Steckler’s murder case is
closed. The Chief believes Richie killed Anthony and then committed
suicide and that witnesses from the funeral service said Sarah
stepped out in front of the bus on her own, probably because she
couldn’t handle it anymore.”
    Paige felt like she had been slapped
in the face. She was silent for a moment. “They’re wrong.