Page 80 of Wasted

“I wonder?—”

Chopin’s music interrupted her reply. She dug in her pocket for her phone and pulled it out.

“That ringtone is so you.” Cillian grinned.

She gave him a half smile, then looked at the screen. “It’s an unknown number.”

“Better take it. Might be a tip or something. Or Briscoe’s lawyer.”

It was true, Victoria hadn’t added him to her contacts yet, though she had called him back to set up a meeting to go over the terms of her inheritance this coming week.

At least she didn’t have to remove her gloves to answer the call. She used the touchscreen finger, then pressed the phone to her ear. “Victoria Weston.”

“Hello, Ms. Weston.” The female voice was familiar. But not in a good way. Brenda Fellsworth.

“This is Thomas Briscoe’s niece.”

“Mrs. Fellsworth, yes. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Are you?” Gone was the faux politeness Brenda had adopted with Victoria before. Now sarcasm and destain dripped from her tone. “My loss is your gain, it seems.”

“Mrs. Fellsworth, I?—”

“Save it for court, Ms. Weston.”

Court?

“I’m calling to tell you to stay away from my uncle’s estate. Don’t touch the money, the house, anything that is rightfully ours.”

“Mrs. Fellsworth, Thomas did will his?—”

“That’s preposterous. Clearly, he was out of his mind, and you took advantage of him. Our lawyers are securing an injunction right now. You can’t touch any of it, and we’re taking you to court.”

“But—”

The line went silent. Brenda had ended the call.

“That was the niece?” Cillian’s eyebrows pressed together as he watched her. “She threatened you?”

Victoria slid the phone into her coat pocket and gripped the shoulder strap of her purse. “She says she and her brother are going to take me to court, and in the meantime, they’re securing an injunction that will prevent me from accessing Thomas’s house or money. Not that I have any desire to touch his money anyway.”

“So they don’t have the injunction yet.”

She looked up at him. That tone made her uneasy, as did the glint in his eyes. “Why does that matter?”

“Because we can still go to the house right now.”

“Why would we do that?”

“This Brenda and her brother clearly don’t want you there, which must mean there’s something they don’t want you to find. Maybe her brother is the one I chased away that night when the office was ransacked. I need to check what kind of car he drives.”

Victoria blinked. “But we can’t.”

“Why not?”

“First, lawyers are getting an injunction to prevent me from doing so and second, which is actually the first consideration,” she glanced back toward the house as she lowered her voice, “Detective McCully threatened to arrest us for interfering in a police investigation.”

Cillian followed the direction of her gaze, then brought his focus back to her. “In case you’ve forgotten, the detective is going to lock you up for murder if we don’t find out who really killed Thomas. He’s building a case against you, Vicks. He’s not looking at anyone else. And he won’t unless we force him to.”