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she asked instead.

“I’m afraid that you have to come and claim it yourself. I

can’t do anything with it. There’s a clause against it. You

would have to come get it yourself and then you can do with it

whatever you like.”

Dallas felt like her legs were about to buckle and she

leaned even harder against the wall. “Jeez. Did you help him

put in all those crazy clauses? Since you helped him make the

will? Or is it some random law that says if I’m out of state, I

have to come there and get it myself?”

“I’m afraid that I can’t say much, considering the client

privacy privilege, but I will tell you that Mr. Smyth was very

adamant that you come back to Topeka. It’s a clause and not a

law. I can give you our address if you know when you’d like

to come. The money is safe, as I know you probably can’t get

away immediately. You don’t have to worry about it going

anywhere.”

“Even if I never come?”

“Even if you never come.”

“That’s ridiculous.” The lawyer on the other end clearly

had no idea what to say to that and the line went silent.

“Sorry,” Dallas said and heaved out a hard breath. “Yes, will

you call me back and leave a message with your information

so that I have a record of it? I don’t have anything with me to

write anything down at the moment.”

“I can certainly do that.”

“Thank you. For calling. Um- yes. Thanks. I’ll see when I

can make it there.”

“Take care.” The lawyer ended the call without waiting for

any further exchange of forced pleasantries or any other details