Another Mixed Up Day

A nervous and hassled morning. Not a restful start to the day or week. I am worrying too much about the state of our septic system. I worry that we will have to have the chicken yard and the garden plot removed and the back yard dug up to expose the drain field and then have the drain field replaced. I am worried that this will cost more then $15,000 and be a giant hassle.

Oh well, I need to focus on writing and let the rest of the world go by. I can't control other parts of the world so I shouldn't try and I definitely shouldn't worry about it. I will write and make my hands move and get on with what I have to do today. I will let the rest of the world go by. I will focus on what's right in front of me.

My hands will become limber and warm and comfortable. All the other annoyances are only that. I will focus on my part of the world. Beyond that, I have no control and without control, I have no responsibility. Since I have no responsibility, I cannot worry about it. That is the meaning of the serenity prayer.

For today, I will write on the story and it will be continuing to look through the house and going to the visitation. What purpose does the visitation have? At the funeral home, he will meet Val the daughter of Lucine and he can give her the box of things of her mother. He can invite her to come by the house and look through the things and take anything she wants.

I think that he will find the money from the robbery and decide that he will keep it for himself. But what can be inside the safe box that can't be traced to Joel besides cash. Cash can't grow in the box so as an investment, it doesn't work. It can't be property, it can't be bonds, I don't think.

Maybe what he finds in the safe box is papers showing that Joel made a contribution of $400k or something like that to someplace that would have some connection to his mother or brother. Maybe the hospital that she worked at and Stan went to after his accident. Maybe he donated the money to that hospital to have it out of his life.

Not matter what, there would have to be paperwork leading it back to Belinsky in order to explain it. I'm just not sure how that would work. Maybe he needs to find a lead to the money in one place and so he's expecting to find it in the box and then, in the box, he finds that Joel has given the money away to some charity. That was he can see that his father wasn't free while he had the money and he really had no need for it.

Maybe at the funeral, he sees a big spray of flowers and a card remembering Joel Probert for his kind and generous contribution and that's when Gene puts it together that the money's gone. So that means that Gene has to find a hidden file at the house that explains that Belinsky had contacted him. If Belinsky was 30 in 1929, then he would be in his mid 80's in 1985. Not an impossible age for him to take care of business. Maybe Belinsky made Gene the beneficiary of his will or just made a bequest to him in his will assuming that he would die before Gene. If Gene receives it from his will then it's tax-free. Is that true?

I looked it up and it looks correct. Basically, in this case, it would transfer the risk and burdens to Belinsky who would fold the money somehow into his assets and invest it. Maybe he would be able to find a way around paying taxes on it. He was a lawyer after all. Then since he was in no hurry to get it back to Joel he would keep the money in his accounts and make a bequest somewhere along the way. Either when he was contacted by Joel or he got older, or in this case he left it to Joel in his will.

Joel may have been contacted by Belinsky after he was released on parole and told him to hold onto the money until he needed it or he made up his mind what to do with it. So Belinsky put Joel into his will for the money and when he died he left Joel part of his estate. Joel may have put the money aside in an account, money market or CD's that were both paying over 10% in 1980. Both of those would have been discovered by his estate because they would have been under his social security number.

So maybe they do find the CDs or whatever they are and Gene finds the file that explains what the account is. Then he has to decide what to do with his part of the money, because the account would be added to the parent's estate.

I think I'm getting closer to it.

More later,


(Photo by Chris Davis)