Insatiable Appetites Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Voilà,” he said.
    “How the hell did you do that?” Herbie asked.
    “Eduardo sent me a note with the combination included. He just neglected to say in which direction to start.” He closed the door and relocked it, then closed the bookcase.
    “Don’t you want to see what’s inside?”
    “Not yet,” Stone replied, returning to the desk. “I’d rather do it when Mary Ann isn’t around.” He sat down and looked through the items she had been removing from the drawers when he had arrived. There was a checkbook showing a balance of more than $150,000, a desk diary and an address book, a gold pocket watch, a gold cigarette case, and a gold Dunhill lighter.
    “I didn’t realize Eduardo smoked,” Herbie said.
    “I think he must have quit a long time ago,” Stone replied, “but he didn’t throw away these elegant accoutrements. I want you to call the office and ask Bill Eggers’s assistant to recommend someone to come in and catalog everything in the house. Have them start first thing tomorrow morning.”
    Herbie got out his phone and made the call.
    The door opened and Mary Ann entered. “I’ve spoken to the cardinal. There will be a high mass said at St. Patrick’s Cathedral a week from today at two PM,” she said. “I have other arrangements to make, so I will return to my office in the city and make them there. Please begin your work here.”
    “Mary Ann,” Stone said, “I’m getting everyone together for dinner at my house tonight at seven. We’d be delighted if you would join us.”
    “I’m not sure Dino and his wife would enjoy that, but I’ll come if I can. May we leave it that way?”
    “Of course. It will be very casual.”
    She nodded and left, closing the door behind her.
    Herbie closed his phone. “Eggers’s guy is on it. He’ll have a team here tomorrow. Shall we take a look in the safe?”
    “Give Mary Ann a few minutes to clear the house,” Stone said, “then we’ll open it.”

    They heard a car door slam and the sound of the vehicle driving away. Stone went to the bookcase, released the catch, and opened it. He entered the combination, spun the wheel, and opened both doors of the safe.
    “Very neat,” he said. There were shelves and drawers filled with files and a case containing a watch winder behind a glass door. The watches were slowly rotating. On a shelf at waist height was a row of red envelopes, perhaps a dozen of them. “Get a legal pad and let’s start making a list of the contents,” he said to Herbie, who complied.
    Stone started at the left end and removed an envelope. “Last Will and Testament of Eduardo Bianchi,” he read aloud, then he returned the envelope to the shelf. He went through the rest of the envelopes: half a dozen of them contained codicils to the will; the others contained up-to-date financial documents: brokerage account statements, a deed to the house, and a financial statement among them.
    “The man had an orderly mind,” Herbie said, noting each on his pad.
    “It looks to me as though Eduardo was preparing to die,” Stone said. He took the last envelope from the shelf. “This is addressed to me,” he said. He sat down at Eduardo’s desk, broke the red wax seal, and removed some sheets of paper. “There’s a letter,” Stone said. He read it aloud.
     
    My Dear Stone,
    My life is drawing to an end. I can feel it coming, and this letter is to appoint you as the attorney for my estate, at your firm’s usual fees, and to appoint you as co-executor with my daughter, Anna Maria. Also attached is a letter to Anna Maria, informing her of my decision. You may call upon other members of your firm or outside companies to assist you in the work. Attached to this letter is a list of the other documents in red envelopes in the safe. The attached financial statement is an accurate list of all my holdings, of every kind. I know you will deal with my estate and my heirs impartially, according to the instructions in my will.
    I wish to