Chapter 1
Dallas
“Hello?” Dallas’ hand gripped her phone harder than
necessary.
She figured it was a stress reaction triggered by
answering the call from an unknown number. She usually let
those ones go to voice mail, so she could decide what to
answer and what to leave. Usually they were telemarketer calls
that she was happy to delete without listening to.
Unfortunately, she was in the middle of walking down the
sidewalk on her way to the gym during her lunch break and
she’d pulled her phone out of her bag without thinking.
“Hi, I’m looking for Dallas Tenison?”
“This is,” she replied, growing more edgy since she
didn’t know who the deep male voice belonged to on the other
end. It was brusque and businesslike. She wondered for a
second if she’d forgotten to file her taxes or something, but no.
She remembered getting her refund in the absurd amount of
two dollars and thirteen cents and having to cash that silly
cheque.
“My name is Jim Johnson. I’m a lawyer with Johnson,
Kashinsky, Ferrison, and Mayler.”
“Umm… Alright.” Dallas’ heart beat wildly. What the
heck was going on? Was someone suing her? If they were,
didn’t they have to serve that stuff in person? Could a lawyer
do it over the phone? Who the heck would want to sue her
anyway? She tried to be a good neighbor. She was a decent
driver. No fender benders lately that she recalled.
“I’m calling on behalf of my late client, Willford
Smyth.”
Now Dallas’ heart wasn’t beating at all. It ground to a
painful stop like an old car dying in the middle of heavy
traffic. Putt, putt, putt, clunk, bang. She imagined the smoke
flooding out of her tail pipe and the honks behind her. She
looked quickly behind her, left, then right, and tucked up into
the corner of an alley between two towering older buildings.
“O-okay,” she stammered. She could hear better out of
the wind and away from the rush of traffic. Even though it
wasn’t far, the buildings blocked out a lot of the extra noise.
She was almost certain she’d heard the guy wrong.
“I know this might be a shock to you, because I
understand that you haven’t been in contact with the family in
years.”
“You could say that,” Dallas rasped. It felt like there
was something blocking her airway, but she was still able to
gulp in a breath around it.
“The reason for my call is that Mr. Smyth left you a
substantial sum of money when he passed. Of course you