The Testament Read Online Free PDF Page A

earlier. Under it was a file on World Tribes Missions.
    They gathered what they could carry, then found Snead and made him lock the office. “What’s in the testament, that last one?” he asked. He was pale and his eyes were swollen. Mr. Phelan couldn’t just die like that without leaving him something, some means to survive on. He’d been a loyal servant for thirty years.
    “Can’t say,” Stafford said. “I’ll be back tomorrow to inventory everything. Do not allow anyone in.”
    “Of course not,” Snead whispered, then began weeping again.
    Stafford and Durban spent half an hour with a cop on a routine call. They showed him where Troy went over the railing, gave him the names of witnesses, described with no detail the last letter and last will. It was a suicide, plain and simple. They promised a copy of the autopsy report, and the cop closed the case before he left the building.
    They caught up with the corpse at the medical examiner’s office, and made arrangements for the autopsy.
    “Why an autopsy?” Durban asked in a whisper as they waited for paperwork.
    “To prove there were no drugs, no alcohol. Nothing to impair his judgment. He thought of everything.”
    It was almost six before they made it to a bar in the Willard Hotel, near the White House, two blocks from their office. And it was only after a stiff drink that Stafford managed his first smile. “He thought of everything, didn’t he?”
    “He’s a very cruel man,” Durban said, deep in thought. The shock was wearing off, but the reality was settling in.
    “He
was
, you mean.”
    “No. He’s still here. Troy’s still calling the shots.”
    “Can you imagine the money those fools will spend in the next month?”
    “It seems a crime not to tell them.”
    “We can’t. We have our orders.”
    ________
    F OR LAWYERS whose clients seldom spoke to each other, the meeting was a rare moment of cooperation. The largest ego in the room belonged to Hark Gettys, a brawling litigator who’d represented Rex Phelan for a number of years. Hark had insisted on the meeting not long after he returned to his office on Massachusetts Avenue. He had actually whispered an idea to the attorneys for TJ and Libbigail as they watched the old man being loaded into the ambulance.
    It was such a good idea that the other lawyers couldn’t argue. They arrived, along with Flowe, Zadel, and Theishen, at Gettys’ office after five. A court reporter and two video cameras were waiting.
    For obvious reasons, the suicide made them nervous. Each psychiatrist was taken separately, and quizzed at length about his observations of Mr. Phelan just before he jumped.
    There was not a scintilla of doubt among the three that Mr. Phelan knew precisely what he was doing, that he was of sound mind, and had more than sufficient testamentary capacity.You don’t have to be insane to commit suicide, they emphasized carefully.
    When the lawyers, all thirteen of them, had extracted every opinion possible, Gettys broke up the meeting. It was almost 8 P.M.

FOUR
_____________
    A ccording to
Forbes
, Troy Phelan was the tenth richest man in America. His death was a newsworthy event; the manner he chose made it downright sensational.
    Outside Lillian’s mansion in Falls Church, a cluster of reporters waited on the street for a family spokesman to come forth. They filmed friends and neighbors as they came and went, tossing out banal questions about how the family was doing.
    Inside, Phelan’s four eldest children gathered with their spouses and their children to receive condolences. The mood was somber when the guests were present. When the guests were gone, the tone changed dramatically. The presence of Troy’s grandchildren—eleven of them—forced TJ, Rex, Libbigail, and Mary Ross to at least try and suppress their festive feelings. It was difficult. Fine wine and champagne were served, lots of it. Old Troy wouldn’t want them grieving, now would he? The older grandchildren drank more