Three Suitcases Left in the Rain and Nineteen Million Dollars in Cancun

The wet white lily in my hand was losing its petals to the damp grass before the minister finished the final prayer. The minister’s voice had been a low drone against the hum of the nearby highway.

Sable, thirty-four, my daughter-in-law, was not looking at the casket. She was looking at the gold watches on the wrists of Gordon’s old business partners. Her red fingernails tapped a rapid, impatient rhythm against the brass clasp of her purse.

“We should invite the Millers back to the house for coffee,” I said.

“They have a three o’clock flight to Chicago,” Sable said. Her voice was high and clipped, cutting through the quiet murmur of the cemetery. “And we have a very long afternoon ahead of us.”

My son, Nathan, stood beside her with his hands jammed deep into his trousers pockets. He did not look at me. He looked at the muddy toes of his leather shoes, his shoulders hunched against the damp air.

I rubbed my gold wedding band, twisting the warm metal around my knuckle.

“Your father would have wanted them to come by,” I said.

“We have to think about the estate now, Mother Reed,” Sable said, her eyes scanning the departing crowd. “The probate lawyer is already waiting for the filings.”

The central question of the entire estate was one she did not yet know to ask. What was the total balance of the probate estate?

Nathan did not offer me his arm as we walked back to the car.

The Mercedes trunk clicked open in the driveway of our River Oaks home at exactly one o’clock. The air smelled of damp earth and the heavy exhaust of the limousine that had dropped us off.

Sable checked her gold watch and stepped toward the house, leaving Nathan to unload the boxes of Gordon’s personal papers.

“Nathan, put those files in the study for now,” I said.

Then I saw them.

Sitting on the wet driveway, just past the rear bumper of the car, were my three brown leather suitcases. The corners of the leather were already turning dark from the damp ground.

“What are these doing out here?” I asked.