HEIR TODAY… story excerpt:

     “I look forward to seeing more of Mrs. Alper,” Kim said with a smirk. A sheen of perspiration coated his forehead.

     “As soon as she and your boss come back, we’re out of here,” Max said. It was an assurance he didn’t feel.

     Kim shook with a roar of laughter. “You are a stupid man.”

     “Don’t count on it,” Max said. He couldn’t help wincing at the repetitious crunch of Kim’s knuckles. “Besides, my wife and I pose no threat to you.”

     The man waggled a plump forefinger at him, as if chastising a fractious child. “That is most certainly true,” he giggled. “We only want the journals. If they are found at the bank, then your usefulness ends.”

      “What if there are no journals in the safe deposit box? What then?”

     Kim shifted uncomfortably in the chair, caught between its restricting arms. “Then your fates will be decided by others. I do not possess that information.”

     Max shrugged. “We only came here for my wife’s inheritance.”

     “You should have stayed in San Francisco and accepted the offer of the heir tracers. Now, you and Mrs. Alper—and her sister—will die for your foolishness, just as that interfering captain had to die.”

      “What are you talking about? Are you saying Jock’s death wasn’t the result of a hit-and-run accident?”

     “It was a final payment for his cowardly larceny.”

      “But why Paige and Sheryl? They barely knew the man.”

     "Some debts are passed on as an unexpected part of an inheritance.”