The Transmuter's Daughter

by Laurence Dahners

  They both looked like Daryn. Unmistakably.

  Lindl and Kiri blurred out of focus as Morgan’s eyes welled with tears. “I’m so sorry,” he choked out.

  Lindl stepped forward and put his arms around Morgan, steadying him. He felt surprisingly sturdy.

  Adam cleared his throat and said, “Hi, I’m your cousin, Adam. I hate we have to meet this way.”

  Lindl opened his arm and gathered Adam into a three-way embrace. Morgan blinked a couple of times to clear his eyes and saw that Kiri was still sitting. “Kiri? You okay?”

  “As good as I can be on the day my dad died.” She sounded tired and sullen. After a moment, she said, “I don’t hug.”

  “Oh…” Morgan said brilliantly, “Okay.”

  While Morgan was desperately searching for something soothing to say, Kiri asked, “So, do we have any other cousins?”

  Morgan felt Adam shake his head. He said, “Nope, just me. I didn’t know I had any cousins until today.” The three-way hug started to break up.

  “Yeah, neither did we,” Kiri said. Her eyes focused on Morgan, “What was the deal between you and my dad anyway?”

  Morgan wiped at his eyes. He shrugged, “It was all my fault. I was… an unbelievable jerk. When I realized just how wrong I’d been, it was too late. I couldn’t find Daryn… or, of course, you guys either.”

  Sounding uncomfortable and a little embarrassed to be listening in on the family’s dirty laundry, the policewoman who’d brought them to the room said, “I’m going to let you guys get to know one another. If you need me, I’ll be out front.”

  Kiri ignored the woman, saying, “So, do I have an aunt?”

  Morgan had turned back over his shoulder to tell the policewoman okay. By the time he turned back around, Adam was saying, “You did, but she and my dad are getting a divorce.”

  Morgan’s eyes had dried enough for him to clearly recognize the basilisk stare Kiri was giving him. She said, “You seem to have a hard time getting along, don’t you?”

  Lindl said, “Geez, Kiri.”

  At the same time Adam said, “Arlette—your aunt and my mother—is a horrible person. We’re all better off without her.”

  To his astonishment, Morgan found himself defending Arlette once again, “Come on, she’s not horrible. She used to be… terrific.” He sighed, “But, it’s true, we haven’t been getting along recently.”

  Adam shook his head but didn’t verbally disagree. He said, “How about if we get out of the police station? Seems like it’s draining our spirits.”

  Lindl said, “Yeah, we’ve been here way too long.” Kiri didn’t say anything, but she did rise to her feet.

  Morgan thought there might be some paperwork involved in removing Lindl and Kiri from police custody, but the police seem to be satisfied by the fact that he was next of kin and had been named in Daryn’s will. The police did confirm Morgan’s contact information in some detail but then they were all free to go.

  They’d started across the room toward the exit when Morgan turned back. Leaning down close to the policewoman, he said, “Do we know what happened to my brother yet?”

  She said, “You’ll need to ask Officer Lincoln tomorrow. Do you have the phone number?”

  Morgan said he did and joined the others at the door. They all went out to the car. Adam said, “We didn’t eat on the drive up. Would you guys like to grab something?”

  Kiri said sarcastically, “You could’ve had our last couple slices of jail pizza.”

  Morgan felt embarrassed. With all the stress, he hadn’t felt hungry and hadn’t even thought of stopping to eat on the drive up. Somehow, he’d managed to worry about whether Kiri and Lindl had eaten without thinking about his own son. He said, “We could just drive through somewhere if you want.”

  Lindl said, “We can go anywhere you want. Don’t worry about Kiri. She never eats and doesn’t seem to think anyone else needs to either.”

  As it was close to the parking garage they’d put the car in, they walked down to the Early Girl Eatery. Adam ordered a cheeseburger and Morgan ordered a Reuben. Morgan looked at Kiri and Lindl questioningly, whereupon Lindl ordered a cheeseburger as well. Kiri rolled her eyes. He said, “What? I’m still hungry.”

  Kiri looked at Morgan and said, “He already ate more than half that pizza.”

  Lindl looked chagrined, “Sorry. I eat a lot.”

  Morgan said, “I was a growing boy myself once. Don’t worry about it.”

  While they waited, Kiri looked at Morgan, “What kind of work do you do?”

  “I’m a software developer…” Morgan paused, trying to think what else to say. He didn’t really want to get into everything that was going on with Matilda. “But, I’m not working right now. So, I’ll be able to spend some time trying to figure out—”

  “What to do about us?” Kiri asked, her tone implying that she and Lindl were a couple of inconvenient castoffs.

  Lindl shook his head, “Geez, Kiri, could you give it a day before you get snarky?”

  Slouched back in her chair and giving Morgan an uncompromising stare, Kiri said, “I already know how he treated Dad.”

  Adam said, “I think you should give him a chance—”

  Kiri turned abruptly to him, interrupting, “I decide who I give chances to. I’ve had a really bad day, so I’m not feeling very forgiving.”

  Anger flashed in Adam’s eyes and he opened his mouth to retort, but Morgan stopped him with a hand on his arm, “It’s okay, Adam. She’s got every right to be upset. About the day she’s had and about how I treated her dad.”

  Adam subsided. Lindl looked like he was about to say something too, but then he sat back as well.

  They all sat in silence, Morgan wondering what he could do to defuse the tension. He dithered for a couple of minutes, then decided it’d be better to address the elephant rather than pretend it wasn’t there. Besides, his limited understanding of pop psychology suggested that, during bereavement, you should talk about events. Hoping to hell that was right, he said, “So, do you guys know what happened?”

  “Yeah,” Kiri said bitterly, “I was there.”

  “Officer Lincoln said you performed CPR for a long time. He told me we should be proud of you.”

  “Yeah,” Kiri looked away, “But, I didn’t do it good enough to keep him alive, did I?”

  She didn’t say anything more, so Morgan tried to prompt her with another question. “The officer said it happened in a mine?”

  Kiri was still looking away. She reached up and swiped at her near eye with the back of her wrist, making Morgan realize she was crying but didn’t want them to know. He was about to try to turn the conversation elsewhere, when Lindl decided to try to answer for her. “Yeah, that’s why Dad bought the property. It had someone’s failed gold mine on it. He even found some tiny bits of gold up there, but mostly he wanted—”

  Lindl stopped and threw an irritated look at Kiri. Morgan had the distinct impression she’d kicked him under the table as if she didn’t want him telling them why Daryn had wanted a mine. Morgan decided not to ask. Instead, he prompted, “And your dad got shot in the mine? Does anybody know why?”

  “Some asshole probably thought we’d struck it rich,” Kiri said heatedly.

  “And you were up at the mine when it happened?” Morgan asked her cautiously. “Prospecting or something?”

  “No,” Kiri responded, in a tone that suggested she thought the mere idea of prospecting was ridiculous. “Dad was supposed to pick me up at school, but he didn’t. I Ubered home, pissed, and started looking for him so I could give him a piece of my mind. He wasn’t there at the house and I couldn’t see him on the video cameras up at the mine. But I rewound through the camera feeds and saw these two rough looking assholes enter the mine. So, I called—”

  She stopped talking when the waiter showed up with their food.

  Kiri ate a couple of Lindl’s French fries. Lindl finished the French fries and inhaled his burger. When Morgan o
nly ate half his Reuben, Lindl wolfed down the other half. Morgan thought to himself that he didn’t remember eating that much when he was in his growth spurt. However, the boy definitely wasn’t overweight. He glanced at Adam’s plate and saw he only had a few French fries left. Morgan said, “Well, shall we get you guys home then? Or,” he had a sudden thought, “would you rather stay in a hotel tonight? I mean, if you’d be uncomfortable there at the house right now?”

  “Home,” Kiri said, as if there wasn’t any doubt.

  Lindl nodded.

  Morgan signaled the waiter for the check. When it arrived, Adam handed him his debit card and the waiter walked away again.

  Kiri was staring at Adam, “You’re paying?” Her eyes flashed over to Morgan, giving him the kind of look usually reserved for people who stomped kittens.

  Adam said, “Yeah, my mom chose this day to throw him out of the house and empty his bank accounts.”

  Lindl said, “That’s harsh.”

  Kiri said, “So, I guess you need a place to stay, huh?”

  Though Morgan felt like he deserved some of it, her attitude was starting to pall. He sighed, and said, “We can stay at a hotel if you’d like. But, I think we should all stay together.”

  “Yeah, still no hotel,” Kiri said.

  The waiter came and finished the bill with Adam. Kiri got up, saying, “Let’s go.”

  They left.

  It was late when they got to the house. Kiri immediately went to her room and shut the door. Lindl took Morgan and Adam on a brief tour. From the looks of the fridge, Morgan needed to go to the store the next day. When they got near the top of the stairs, Morgan noticed a fist -sized hole in the sheet-rock on one wall. He opened his mouth to ask about it, but then decided it wasn’t important. As they walked down the hall, Kiri opened her door, eyes red again. She eyed Morgan and said, “I don’t want you sleeping in my dad’s room.”

  Morgan gave her a nod, “Okay.”

  It was a four-bedroom house, so there was one extra bedroom. Morgan turned to Adam, “You sleep in here. I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs.”

  Lindl shrugged, “I’ve got an extra bed. He can sleep in my room. We cousins can get to know one another.”

  Morgan looked at Adam who gave him a nod. Morgan set his own suitcase in the spare room.

  Friday morning

  Morgan didn’t sleep well, frequently waking and worrying about things he should’ve done the day before. After struggling to get more rest, he got up early. Not knowing the house Wi-Fi password, he was forced to set up his phone as a hotspot again.

  Using one of his backdoors, he entered Matilda again, this time searching the legal files and finding the revised contract they’d had everyone sign. I should have thought of this yesterday! he thought in irritation. He read through it, finding the devil’s clause. As expected it gave up shares in the company in exchange for a multiple of your annual salary. It was part way down the third of five pages.

  Deep in the middle of a long paragraph of dense legalese.

  Bastards, he thought.

  He forwarded the contract to Roger, asking Roger to call him when he woke up.

  While he waited, he researched contract and divorce law online, hoping to gain enough expertise that he’d at least know what questions to ask. After he’d been at it for a while, he decided that—despite how boring he found it—he was glad he’d done it. He’d had a number of misconceptions, including his incorrect belief that Arlette’s infidelity would pose a major problem for her when it came time to settle the divorce.

  Roger called, reporting that Trey’d been quite happy with the video recorded by Bill Lake. They both wondered whether there were other employees who, like Bill, still held their original rights because they hadn’t signed the contract. There might even have been some who didn’t sign it because they were gone on vacation during the period in question. The “big three,” as they’d taken to calling Alan, Norm and Terrence, had probably been happy to overlook a few of the smaller players like Bill in order to keep anyone from making a big enough stink to rock the boat.

  Shortly after Roger disconnected, Morgan’s phone rang again. This time it was Arlette. “I’m sorry I got so upset yesterday,” she said, sounding contrite. “Come on home. I’m sure we can work this out.”

  Your lawyer told you that the revised Matilda contract might not hold up in court, didn’t he? Morgan thought. Tiredly, he said, “I guess I don’t want to work it out anymore, Arlette. But I’d really appreciate it if you put some money back in our account so I’d have some resources while I’m trying to deal with Daryn’s death.”

  “If you don’t care about us,” she hissed, “I’m certainly not going to try to help you out with your problems.” She broke the connection.

  Adam’s right. She’s a horrible person, Morgan thought. Then he wondered if his opinion was only due to his biased viewpoint. Maybe not, considering how many other people seem to think the same thing.

  Morgan was in the kitchen, trying to figure out what he might be able to make for breakfast, when Lindl and Adam came in. “Hey guys,” he said trying not to sound as depressed as he felt. “I’ve been trying to figure out if I could make waffles, would that be good with you?”

  “That’d be awesome,” Lindl said. “I know where the waffle iron’s hidden. I see you found the waffle mix.”

  Lindl also found a bowl and got out the oil. Morgan found eggs and milk in the fridge and started mixing a batter. Lindl got out the syrup, butter, jam, and silverware, handing them to Adam who set them out on the breakfast bar.

  It gave Morgan a good feeling. “You guys get along okay last night?”

  They simultaneously said, “Yeah.”

  Taking advantage of the opportunity to talk to Lindl without Kiri, Morgan asked, “Last night, you were about to tell me something more about why my brother bought a property with a mine?” He didn’t say anything about how he thought Kiri’d kicked him under the table.

  “Yeah,” Lindl said reluctantly, “there’s a project up there that dad and Kiri were working on together. She doesn’t want me to talk about it so I don’t think I should.”

  “Okay,” Morgan said, dishing up a waffle and sliding it across the breakfast bar toward Lindl. He picked up a bag of pecans and slid them over too. “Adam and I really like pecans on our waffles. I don’t know if that’s something you’ve tried.”

  Lindl’s eyes kind of lit up. “Sounds interesting, I’ll have to try it.”

  Morgan had been breaking up some pecans. He scattered them on the waffle iron before he poured on batter for another waffle. When he’d closed the iron, he said, “Um, Lindl?” At Lindl’s nod, he continued, “Was Daryn…” he swallowed, “was he happy?”

  Lindl stopped chewing, his eyes wide and focused on Morgan’s. After a moment he choked down his mouthful. A tear ran down his cheek as he said, “Oh yeah. I sure thought so. He and I were buddies, you know…” His voice faltered and he wiped at his cheek, “But he and Kiri… they thrived on each other. That project they had going up at the mine, they were so excited about it, sometimes I wished I was interested in that kind of stuff.”

  His voice rough, Morgan said, “What kind of stuff were they interested in? If you, you know, wouldn’t be giving away their secrets?”

  “You know, ‘sciency’ stuff.” Lindl shook his head, “I’m more into music.”

  Which fits with your shirts, Morgan thought. Today Lindl’s T-shirt had a cartoon of a brain doing cartwheels. The caption said, “This is your brain on music…” Morgan gave a waffle to Adam and turned back to Lindl, “Do you want to tell your sister we’re having waffles?”

  Lindl shrugged, “I’d rather let her sleep. She wouldn’t eat anyway and, from what I heard through the wall last night, I don’t think she got much sleep.”

  Morgan had been worrying about how much Kiri ate. One slice of pizza and a couple of French fries last night was concerning, but this sounded serious. He said, “Do you think she’s�
��”

  “Anorexic? No. She eats plenty, but not when she’s upset. I, on the other hand,” he grinned, “I eat when I’m happy, I eat when I’m sad, I eat when I’m in love, I eat when I’m desolate…” He shrugged, “You get the idea.”

  “Okay, I’ll try not to worry about it,” Morgan said, putting another waffle on Lindl’s plate.

  Adam said, “What kind of music do you like?”

  “Pretty much anything. Mostly pop though.”

  Adam and Lindl started talking about which musicians they liked and promising to hook each other up with playlists of their favorites. Morgan served himself a waffle when Adam had finished his second and Lindl was working on his third. He’d just put his first bite in his mouth when Kiri ran down the stairs and out the back door. Despite his mouth being full, he shouted, “You want something to eat?”

  Lindl said, “No point, she’s got her earphones in. She wouldn’t hear you if you were yelling at 120 decibels.”

  “Where do you think she’s going?”

  “Out for a run. It’s pretty much an every-morning thing.”

  Out the window in the distance, Morgan saw her vanish down a trail in an easy lope. Though her stride looked unstrained, it seemed to be eating distance. She wore a black top and tights. The tights had neon pink stripes down the sides.

  Lindl spoke, sounding reluctant but resolved, “Sorry. I know she’s been acting like kind of a bitch. Give her a few days. Even minor upsets can really mess her up.” He shook his head, “She was torn up when her cat died. This though…” He sat silent and still for a couple of minutes. Neither Adam nor Morgan offered any platitudes about how it was okay she’d been difficult, somehow feeling insincere little bromides weren’t appropriate that day. Finally, Lindl stirred again, “When she gets her grip again though, you’ll see. She’s amazing.”