The Coup de Grâce
“Oh, father, it’s nearly two o’clock now. The relatives should be coming in a few minutes! I’m so excited!”
Carson Drew, who stood in the living room of the Drew home smiled indulgently at his daughter as she fluttered about, arranging chairs.
“I believe you’re more thrilled than if you were inheriting the fortune yourself,” he remarked.
“I am thrilled,” Nancy admitted. “I can scarcely wait until the will is read aloud. Won’t everyone be surprised? Especially the Tophams. Do you think they will come?”
“Oh, yes, the Tophams will be here. And, unless I am mistaken, they will bring a lawyer with them. Just as soon as they learned that another will had come to light, they began to worry.”
“Are you certain the will can’t be broken?” Nancy inquired anxiously.
“Of course I can’t be certain, Nancy. But I have gone over it carefully, and so far as I can tell it is technically perfect. Josiah Crowley was peculiar in some ways, but he was no one’s fool. I’ll promise you the Tophams will have a difficult time of it if they try to break the will.”
After locating the Crowley will in a safety deposit box at the Masonville National Bank in the town of Masonville, Carson Drew and his daughter had read it carefully. Without disclosing the contents to anyone, they had called a special meeting of the relatives at the Drew home.