Long Live the King

Six

Regina was already waiting in the park when Adrienne arrived. She was perched on one of the picnic tables with her feet resting on the seat. She looked ridiculous, like someone posing for a picture, except there wasn't a camera in sight. After inhaling deeply--and promptly spitting out the muggy air--Adrienne strode over to the table.

"Hey," she said.

"Oh." Regina looked up. She seemed startled, which made no sense considering the meeting was prearranged and Adrienne was exactly on time.

"Well, I'm here," Adrienne said unnecessarily, putting in no effort to hide her impatience..

"You are," Regina agreed eagerly. "I thought maybe you wouldn't show. I'm glad you did. Do you want to sit?" She scooted over, opening up space on the table. Adrienne waved a hand to decline the offer.

"Tell me why I'm here."

"Okay, sure. Did you ever hear about Elizabeth Jensen? She was from a pretty well known family but they had this kind of dramatic fall from grace after a scandal and Elizabeth just kind of lit out, somehow managed to disappear from the public eye altogether. Ringing any bells?"

"I think I remember hearing something about that. It was a long time ago though. I was a kid. So were you, come to that. What do you know about it?"

"Yeah, I was." Regina nodded. "I know about it because thing is, Elizabeth Jensen hooked up with my uncle Paul. She had a daughter--Johanna. We hung out a few times. Anyways, Elizabeth ran out on him and took all his money. I remember because he kept ranting at me about it. He told me she ran off with my inheritance. I was too young to care of course."

Adrienne raised a hand to stop her. She frowned. The story of Elizabeth Jensen was coming back to her now and although the detail might be hazy she was pretty sure of one thing.

"Wasn't Sturm charged with the murder of Elizabeth Jensen?"

"Well, yeah." Regina admitted this with a shrug. "He went looking for her because of the money and when he found her it's said that he got pissed and killed her. He wasn't convicted though so who knows."

"It sure wouldn't surprise me. Can we get to the part where this concerns me?"

"Johanna took her mother's money and she paid someone to hide her away. She came back into the country briefly and had a daughter--it was big news--but then she disappeared again. No one knows where she is. Nobody except your brother, that is."

"What?" Adrienne suddenly sorely regretted coming to this meeting. "This sounds even more farfetched than your original theory."

"No, hang on." Regina began to speak very quickly. "The guy that Johanna paid to hide her was Raymond's boss for a time. But then after that Raymond was his own boss, right? And the guy that I talked to said Raymond put away millions into an account he referred to as Jo. Coincidence? Probably not. Obviously Johanna has the money right now... but if we were to find her, she owes your brother a huge debt. She'd probably pay us something, don't you think?"

"I think I'd like to know what drugs you've been taking," Adrienne said, "because frankly this all sounds ridiculous and yes--coincidental."

"But isn't it worth looking into?" Regina's face crumpled. "I mean, what other shot do you have at finding anywhere close to two million dollars?"

"Even if I wanted to help you, I couldn't. I have a job Regina. I can't just slack off on that for this mess. The bills won't pay themselves. I'm sorry but I--"

"Well, what if you didn't have to slack off?"

"Regina, I'm trying to be nice here, but I really can't help you."