His Name is Bruce

"Do you think she has a case?"

"No, simply because the will was made eight years ago and she won't be able to prove that he was crazy back then, after all, she did stay married to him."

While I went about my work for the rest of the week, I found my mind drifting to the farm and Mary. It was all I could do to stop myself from barring up and embarrassing myself.

Friday eventually arrived and went. I went to bed early so that I was fully rested when I got up in the pre-dawn greyness. I packed the bare essentials and left early enough to reach the city outskirts as the sun woke up.

It was mid-morning when I drove up to the house. The door opened and, with a squeal of pleasure, she launched herself across the intervening ground and hit me with such force that it knocked me off my feet.

"My Darling, you're home." She managed to get out before smothering any chance of conversation with her lips clamped on mine.

"Jeesus girl, anyone would think that you missed the man." Bruce commented as he stepped down from the veranda.

Free at last from her demanding lips, I managed to get a word in before the next onslaught. "I missed you."

She nuzzled my neck. "I missed you too, I thought about you all the time and my finger wasn't up to the task. Now I can experience the real thing."

"I have to tell you that my hand and cock have renewed their acquaintance. I played myself to sleep thinking of you and your magnificent welcoming pussy."

"Come with me, we'll welcome you home, my pussy and I."

"Don't you think that we should catch up on the latest news, there's plenty of time for the other later, you have the whole weekend ahead of you."

"Don't you hate it when the old fart speaks sense?" Mary said as we scrambled to our feet. The smile of Bruce's face told me that this was part of the familiar teasing that went on between them.

What a weekend. We managed to get some sleep although the energy expended was far greater than the sleep needed to replace it.

Sunday afternoon brought with it some radical changes to my life. "Darling, I want to come back with you. I don't want to spend another week like the last one, continuously desiring you and not being able to have you. Can I come with you, please, pretty please?"

I thought back and thanked myself that I had tidied up before coming up to the farm. "Sure my darling, I'd love that. We can test-drive the bed to see if it squeaks or not."

"Goody." She raced back inside and returned within thirty seconds with a back-pack that she'd prepared earlier.

By Monday morning we concluded that, no matter how hard we tried, we could not induce even the slightest squeak. That settles it, the bed will be moving up to the farm.

I had some bad news waiting for me when I arrived at work. "Jim, I had a call from the Probate office, it seems as if the good lady wife has come up with a newer will that leaves everything to her."

"Can we get a copy of it?"

"I don't see why not, what do you have in mind?"

"We should get it tested for authenticity. I wouldn't put it past her to manufacture one."

"Is this your lawyer view-point, or have you allowed your personal interest to affect your judgement?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mate, if you don't want the world to know what you have been doing with Bruce and his grand-daughter, I'd suggest that you don't mention it to Jeffrey, he couldn't hold on to a secret unless it had handles."

"I didn't tell him anything other than what great people they are."

"Where did you spend the weekend?"

"Um, well, I spent it with them."

"You were just keeping them in the loop, is that it?"

"Yes."

"Be careful, don't give the opposition any ammunition."

"Who is the opposition?"

"Why the widow of course. She is not at all happy about missing out on all of that money. If she gets so much as a sniff that you are siding with Bruce she'll cry foul."

"So, her grand-daughter moving in with me may cause problems, then?"

"I suggest that you pack her off back to the farm until this will passes through Probate."

"Mary is not going to be happy."

"Explain to her that, for the greater good she, and by extension, you, are going to have to make certain sacrifices."

"I may have a solution, I had planned to introduce her to my parents sometime this week, I may as well bring the meeting forward to tonight. With luck, Mum might suggest that she stay with them until the Probate hearing on Friday. In the meantime, I think I might find a hand-writing expert to compare the two wills to see if the latter one is a forgery."

Back in my office, I rang Mum and she professed to be anxious to meet the woman that was to become her daughter-in-law.

I rang Mary at home. "Hi Darling, the reason I'm calling you, apart from the fact that I miss you big time, is to tell you that we have been invited to my parents' place for dinner tonight."

"But I have a special meal planned for tonight, just the two of us."

"Can it wait until tomorrow?"

"It probably could, but, think about this, it will be the first time that I am able to cook just for my wonderful husband to be. I want it to be perfect."

"I have an ulterior motive for this, I'll explain when I see you."

"Can't you tell me now?"

"It'll have to wait, I need to speak to others about it first."

"Oh, all right, but it had better be good."

My next call was to Bruce. "Bruce, it's Jim, listen we may have a problem. It seems as if the grieving widow has come up with a more recent will."

"It's a fake, don't worry about it."

"How can you be sure that it's a fake?"

"Call it intuition."

"There is another problem and I need your help."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Call Mary," I gave him my number. "And see if you can get her to come home."

"Why would I do that, you're not sick of the girl already, are you?"

"Good God no, My boss has suggested that we need to not reveal our relationship before the Probate hearing on Friday. He thinks that, if they find out about it, they could claim that we are biased in our handling of the process and that we have a vested interest in ensuring that she gets nothing from it. I don't see the problem, but he insists that we play it safe."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. Listen, I want you to take a copy of her will, you do have a copy don't you? Take it to this bloke I know, he's a hand-writing expert, get him to prepare a report that proves it to be fake."

"You seem very sure that it is a fake, how can you be so sure?"

"I'll explain it on Friday. Now, you want me to convince Mary to come home and come down with me on Friday, is that it?"

"Yes. I do have a fall-back position that, if I were to be selfish, would be better, but I have to make certain sacrifices for the better good."

"I'll see what I can do."

Mary was waiting for me when I got home, a strange look on her face. "I had the strangest phone call from Grandpa this afternoon, it seems as if there's some disaster happening on the homefront that requires me to be there, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."

Fat lot of good he was, I thought. "There is a reason for that and I confess that I am to blame." That was taking a while to sink in. "My boss doesn't want your grandma to find out that we are together, she could claim that we are no longer impartial in our dealings in the matter, and will be somehow biased. I don't see it to be a problem because we are merely the executors and not involved in any legal challenge to the validity. The only reason to contact us is so that we can halt the process until the matter is resolved. I do have a solution of sorts."

"And what has my wonderful man come up with?"

"We are going to my parents' place for dinner and so that I can show you off. I will convince Mum to let you stay with them and that way I can visit often, or stay with you there should you so desire . . . " I was blatantly fishing for the right response here.

"You are a devious person, do you know that?"

"How so?"

"You take me to meet your parents, have me stay with them so that we get to know each other quickly to see if they think that we are right for each other and, at the same time we get to be with each other, that was your plan all along, wasn't it?"

"There's no getting anything past you, is there?"

We could have spent hours throwing questions back and forth but we had to get ready to meet the olds.

"Mum, Dad, this is Mary, Mary, this is Mum and Dad, otherwise known as Bob and Jane."

"I'm Bob and this is Jane, in case you were wondering." Trust Dad to come up with something like that.

"Pay no attention to Bob, he's just being silly, as usual."

"You two carry on just like me and Grandpa, you'll love Bruce."

"So, tell us, how did you two come to meet, and how long have you known each other?"

"We met ages ago, it must have been last week, when Jim came to see grandpa about his brother's will. There was an instant attraction and here we are."

"This attraction that you talk of, it wasn't just that you were a woman, a beautiful woman let me add?" Dad asked.

"No, it goes much deeper than that."

"James has asked, for some reason that he hasn't yet explained to us, if you can stay here with us," Mum said. "Next he will ask if he can stay too."

"I want him to." Mary said.

"I guess that means that I won't have to make up the bed in the guest room because his bed is big enough for the both of you to sleep comfortably."

"That will be good," Mary said as she kissed me. "I was beginning to think that I would be on short rations for the duration of my stay."

To say that my beautiful Mary and my parents got on like a house on fire would be an understatement. By Friday Mary had invited, and Mum and Dad had accepted an invitation, for them to come up to the farm on Saturday when this will business had been finalised.

On Friday there was an eclectic mix of participants assembled for the probate hearing. On one side there was Mabel and her lawyer, Then there was myself and my boss representing the Executors, and then there was Bruce and his lawyer who I recognised as Dave the publican from the local pub. With him was his wife who was introduced to us as Diane. With them was the man that we had contacted to give evidence that the will that Mabel would produce was a forgery.

To me, this seemed odd until we were informed that Dave had known him and had used him from time to time in his previous time as a working lawyer.

I gave evidence that the will, that we believed to be the legal will, had been drawn up and lodged with the Public Trustee.

Mabel's lawyer called on her to explain the existence of the 'new' will.

"After my husband, Alfred Thompson had passed away, I was going through the contents of his home office when I discovered an envelope containing this will. When I was contacted by the Public Trustee to be informed that they were in possession of a document that they claimed was his last will. I immediately lodged a challenge to that and told them that I was in possession of a later will. I have here this will. As you can see, the date of this is more recent than the will in their possession. This will leave the entire estate to me."

Bruce's lawyer interrupted. "If I may speak, I am David Roberts and I represent Mr Bruce Thompson, Mr Alfred Thompson's brother. I have a few questions of Mrs Thompson regarding the authenticity of this supposed will."

"You may put your questions to Mrs Thompson." My boss said.

"Mrs Thompson, where did you find this envelope?"

"It was in one of his books. When I took it from the bookshelf the envelope fell out."

"Do you remember which book it was?"

"No, what difference will it make what book it was?"

"Because I can tell you exactly which book it was. It was a book on taxation reforms released by the Australian Taxation Office in 2015."

"So?"

"I know this because Alf said he would put it there."

"So what? I have had it checked out and it is Alfred's last Will and Testament."

"No, it's not."

"Yes it is, it has his signature and that of a witness. My lawyer informs me that this is a valid document."

"We have here in this court, an expert witness who will testify that the signature on that document is a forgery. It was not signed by Alfred Thompson. Oh believe me it is, to a layperson, a good signature, but it is nonetheless a forgery."

"Prove it!" Mabel suddenly saw her claim to the money disappearing down the gurgler and was not happy.

"I will ask Mister Nathan Fitzgerald to offer his expert testimony."

A slide was projected onto a screen set up for all could see. "I have here the 2012 document that is in the possession of the Public Trustee. You will notice the signature, how at the end of the stroke, the line tapers as the person signing it lifted the pen from the paper. Now, compare it with the signature on the more recent document, you will notice that the line ends abruptly. This is the result of someone tracing or copying a genuine signature. It is virtually impossible for a forger to finish the stroke in the same manner as the original. You will also notice that, if I were to overlay this signature with the original, they are identical, something that I, as a handwriting expert, would not expect. If you got someone to sign their name twenty times you would get twenty distinct signatures, sure they would be close and identifiable as genuine signatures, but no two will be identical."

"Thank you, Mister Fitzgerald. Now let me explain something to you. Two years ago Alfred Thompson contacted me in my official capacity as Bruce Thompson's lawyer. It seems as if there existed at the time a certain animosity between the brothers and, Bruce refused to talk to Alf. Alf came to me with a scheme that was designed to seek revenge on his wife who, he told me, was making his life a misery. He also told me that he was feeling remorseful about, as he put it, stealing Bruce's wife."

"The plan was that he had a will on file with the Public Trustee. I was to draw up a bogus will, that he would place somewhere, where his wife would not find it until after he died, and she was clearing his papers. He told me which book he would hide it in. After his visit, I spoke with Bruce and told him what had just taken place, and expressing Alfred's desire to patch up the relationship between the two brothers. This was successfully achieved and the two of them got together whenever Bruce went to Adelaide for a medical appointment."

Mary was just about to tear into Bruce for keeping this bit of news from her, but he hushed her. "Later." He whispered.

"You'd better believe it." She whispered in return.

"The reason that I know that this document is a forgery is simple, I created the document and forged Alfred's signature. And the reason that I did it was on instruction from Alfred. 'I know she won't be happy about not getting everything. We'll let her think that she's going to get the lot and then we'll pull the rug. I wish that I could be there to witness her expression when she sees the money that she was hoping to get, slip from her grasp.' He would have loved to be here."

Well, that was it, Bruce got the money and Mabel got the house.

Bruce was heading back to the bush with Dave and Diane. "We need to get back tonight," Dave said, "because the rush will be on early tomorrow and I told Deb that we'd be back so that she didn't have to cope on her own. When are you coming back up Mary, I'm thinking that I can offer you a job seeing as how Diane will be out of action in a couple of months." He patted her expanding bump.

(If the names Dave, Diane and Deb sound familiar to you, I refer you to 'The Bush Publican'. CM)

"We, Jim and I will be up first thing in the morning, we'll bring Grandpa in for a drink. I get the impression that he will want to discuss this bequest with you, something about setting up a family trust in my name and investing the money so that I will be able to live on the earnings."

"How did you know I was going to do that?" Bruce said.

"I know you, probably better than you know yourself."

Mary and I spent the night with Mum and Dad and the four of us headed out at sparrow fart for the trip up North. Mary was right, Bruce did set up a trust in her name and Dave and Diane showed her the ropes of running the hotel. I took an interest in this. "Dave, I have a proposition."

"Let me guess. You are going to chuck your city job in and move up here with Mary and Bruce. Then you are going to offer to become the part-time relief manager of the hotel so that Diane and I and Junior will be able to get away for a break from time to time. Am I close?"

"What is it with you country people, do you take mind-reading classes or something?"