Burial of the Dead

CY PRES - Statement of Manny Whitman

STATEMENT OF MANNY WHITMAN

My name is Emmanuelle Whitman. I am known as Manny Whitman. I am twenty nine years old. My permanent residence is at 312 Oak Avenue, West Hartford, Connecticut, however for the past several months I have been living in a lodge on Punter’s Pond. Mrs. Emma Kost O’Neal was my great aunt. At the request of Detective Mark Moraski I am writing this statement regarding what I know about the circumstances surrounding my great aunt’s death and events that occurred before and after she died. I am cooperating with the police investigation into my Aunt Emma’s death because I believe that she was murdered and for reasons which will become clear, I believe that Robert Sullivan committed that murder.

At the memorial service my aunt’s lawyer, Mr. Cal Stevens, and his assistant, Ann Dillon, offered their condolences. Mr. Stevens was a friend of my aunt’s and he was saddened by her death. I’m guessing he’s in his late 70’s. He’s a tall, thin man with horned rimmed glasses. He always wears a bow tie, white shirt, a real patrician. I think he went to Yale Law and comes from an old and well respected family. Ann Dillon is probably a little older than me and she’s definitely the brains of that outfit. After we shook hands she asked to see me in private because there was something she wanted to discuss.

We settled in a side room where Billy James had made a fire. I’d been crying all day and I must have looked tired and worn out. She said a memorial service probably wasn’t the best time or place to discuss legal matters, but Mr. Stevens asked if I wouldn’t mind, since there were things about the estate I needed to know sooner rather than later.

So I listened. At first she spoke in a stilted, overly formal way, as if she were trying out for a part, and this is what she thought lawyers were supposed to sound like. I told her to relax and start again. I said: Please, Ms. Dillon, I understand your concerns, so just tell me whatever it is as if you were speaking to a friend. That way it’ll be easier for both of us. At first I thought maybe I’d offended her, but then she relaxed a little.

She told me that the week before they’d received a letter at the firm from my aunt addressed to me. It was sealed with directions not to be delivered or opened until after her death.

I told her I didn’t know anything about a letter.

She said my Aunt Emma had also sent a second letter to Mr. Stevens, and that this letter outlined instructions as to how she wanted to change her will.

This was the first I’d heard of my aunt’s will, let alone her desire to change it.

She said the letter to Mr. Stevens informed him that according to the instructions in Aunt Emma’s letter to me, Aunt Emma wanted to make me the sole beneficiary of her estate. She instructed Mr. Stevens to draw up the necessary papers and that she’d be in on Monday – which turned out to be the day after she died - to sign everything.

I was dumbfounded.

Then Ann Dillon handed me the letter from my aunt. I read it and started to cry again. Ann Dillon stood up and leaned over and put her arms around me and comforted me until I could stop crying.

I asked her what it all meant, since my Aunt was dead, since she’d died before she had a chance to sign anything.

Ann Dillon told me that that was where things got complicated. She told me she’d been working on a legal memorandum for Mr. Stevens to analyze all the legal issues as to how the property should pass in accordance with Connecticut law.

I told her I wasn’t expecting anything. I told her how much I would miss Aunt Emma. That was when she took my hands in hers and leaned in very close and looked around the room to make sure nobody was listening in on our conversation. Then she told me that Aunt Emma had made her appointment to see Mr. Stevens last Tuesday. She told me that she had called my aunt last Friday to confirm her appointment. She told me that the problem was that when she called my aunt on Friday, she’d been unable to reach her by phone. She said a man had answered the phone and that she spoke with him. She told him who she was and why she was calling. The man said: “You’re telling me the old lady’s got an appointment with her lawyer for Monday.” Ann Dillon said: Yes, that she was just calling to confirm. Then the man said, and I think this is significant – he said: “What’s she meeting with him for?” And Ann said she couldn’t talk about that because it was privileged information. And he said: “It doesn’t have anything to do with that crazy niece of hers, does it?” That’s when Ann Dillon hung up the phone.