Found: A Matt Royal Mystery by H. Terrell Griffin

asked.
    “Good,” said Betty.
    “I’m not so sure about that,” said George.
    Betty turned to him, a look of consternation on her face. “Now George, you don’t have any basis for that opinion.”
    “You’re right, honey. It’s just a feeling, but I think there were some problems that Katie never mentioned to us.”
    “What makes you think that, Mr. Bass?” I asked.
    “I’m not sure. She just didn’t seem happy. There’s nothing tangible I can put my finger on.”
    “I think it was just the normal ups and downs of marriage,” said Betty.
    “It was more than that,” said George. “I think maybe she was being abused.”
    “George,” said Betty, anger tingeing her voice. “Jim would never have hurt Katie.”
    “I don’t mean physical abuse,” said George. “But Jim was an intense guy. I think he was pretty controlling. Katie wanted children, but Jim wouldn’t have anything to do with that. Wouldn’t even discuss it.”
    “He worked hard,” said Betty. “His job put a lot of pressure on him. If the marriage was as bad as you think, George, Katie would have divorced him.”
    “Maybe not,” George said. “Katie would have seen that as a failure. And, more importantly, she would have thought that we would have seen it as a failure. She never wanted to disappoint us.”
    I changed the subject. “Did Jim’s parents leave him any money?”
    “No,” said George. “They had a small citrus operation over near Avon Park, but I don’t think it amounted to much. They made enough to live on, and that was about it. Jim went to college and law school on scholarships.”
    “Were they growers?” I asked.
    “In a small way,” George said. “They owned a grove, but I heard from someone that it wasn’t very productive. Jim inherited it when his parents died, and he had some people running it, but I’m sure it didn’t bring in much income. A hurricane came through there several years ago and took out most of the trees. The land must have had some value because Jim sold it just before he died.”
    “Who stands to inherit Jim’s estate?” I asked.
    “Jim’s will left everything to Katie, and if she didn’t survive him, it would come to us. I hired a lawyer over in Sarasota to probate the will and everything’s just sitting there. Jim had named a lawyer in his firm to be the executor, and he sold the house. Turned everything into cash in accordance with the will. Now the cash just sits in a bank until there is some determination that Katie is dead. I guess we’ll get it sooner or later, but we’re going to give it to charity. Maybe set up a scholarship in Katie’s name.”
    “Do you know how much cash there is?” I asked.
    “Something over twelve million dollars,” George said.
    That was a bit of a shock. A lawyer in Jim’s league would do okay, butI didn’t think he would have accumulated twelve million dollars in cash in the ten or twelve years he’d practiced law. “Would you mind telling me how that much cash came to be?”
    “The house sold for almost a million, and I was told that the grove in Avon Park went for about ten grand. I think all the other money was from cash assets.”
    “Were there any stocks, bonds, mutual funds, that sort of thing?”
    “No. I went through all that with the administrator. Just the house, the grove, and cash.”
    “Do you have any idea where all that cash came from?”
    “I assumed he made it. He was a pretty prominent lawyer.”
    Not that prominent, I thought. “Do you know who was running the grove for Jim?”
    “Yes. Hold on and I can get you the name and a phone number.” He stood and left the room.
    Betty sat quietly for a few moments and then looked at me with tears welling in her eyes. “George may be right, you know,” she said. “About Katie and Jim. She wasn’t happy during the last years. She was coming here more often and staying longer. Never more than three or four days, but before that she’d only been staying for one