Legacy

by Gerald Pruett

  “When I had mentioned earlier about you guys coming over for dinner, I wasn’t meaning for it to be today,” Paige uttered.

  “We didn’t come here for dinner, Mom,” Allyson said before pointing out everyone. “This is Ellen and Everett. Guys, these are my parents Martin and Paige, and my younger sister Stacie.”

  As Stacie leisurely walked towards Allyson, she asked in an identical speaking voice as her mother’s, “So why is everyone here, if not to eat?”

  A curious expression came and left Ellen’s face over the identical speaking voices during the time that it took Allyson to answer with, “We are here to talk to Claire.”

  “Okay,” Paige said in a confused tone. “We’ll watch Sonya as you three do it.”

  “I suspected that you would, Mom,” Allyson said with a grin.

  “Well, after you get done talking to Claire, you three might as well stay for dinner,” Paige urged.

  “I’ll need to call home and tell my parents that I’ll be eating with a friend,” Everett said.

  “You can do it after we talk to Claire,” Allyson told him.

  “Okay,” Everett agreed.

  “Ellen. Everett. Do you two like catfish?” Paige asked.

  “I do,” Ellen quickly replied.

  “I do too,” Everett said.

  “Well, I’ll take Sonya as you three talk to Claire,” Stacie told Ellen.

  “Okay,” Ellen said before handing over Sonya to Stacie.

  “I’ll start the catfish to fry now, Allyson,” Paige said.

  “Okay, Mom,” Allyson agreed. “Let’s go, Ellen. Everett.”

  Ellen, Allyson and Everett went next door as Stacie with Sonya in her arms, Martin and Paige entered the house.

  Allyson was the one to knock on Claire’s door, and after a short wait, a thirty-two-year-old woman with shoulder-length red hair answered the door.

  “Allyson—and friends, come in,” Claire began before backing up to allow them to enter.

  “Claire, meet Ellen and Everett,” Allyson said as she stepped in followed by Ellen and then Everett. Everett shut the door behind him. “Guys, this is Claire.”

  “Nice to meet you two,” Claire said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Ellen and Everett echoed.

  “So what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Claire asked while facing Allyson.

  “I wish I could say that this was a pleasure call,” Allyson said nervously as everyone stood in the anteroom.

  “What do you mean?” Claire questioned.

  “We came here to ask you a few things about Peter,” Allyson said in a sympathetic tone.

  “What about Peter?”

  Allyson chose her words before saying, “Some facts have come up about Sally Harman and these facts seem to be contradicting actual events…”

  “Oh, what kind of facts?” Claire quickly asked.

  Allyson glanced at Everett before saying, “I’m not sure if I should share this, but more than eight years ago Sally Harman’s father was being investigated for witchcraft.”

  “Yes, Sweetie, I know,” Claire said before gesturing towards the next room. “Let’s make ourselves comfortable in the living room.”

  Allyson nodded while saying, “Of course.”

  Claire led the way followed by Ellen, Everett and then Allyson. Once Ellen stepped foot into the living room, she saw an eight-year-old boy in the floor—not paying attention to anything around him—while drawing pictures on a pad of drawing paper.

  When Claire saw that Ellen was giving the boy her focus, she said, “That’s my son Spencer…”

  “Hi, Spencer,” Ellen said quickly followed by Everett.

  As Spencer continued drawing without looking up, Allyson informed, “Guys, Spencer is autistic.”

  “Oh… I’m sorry,” Ellen said sympathetically.

  “You’re fine,” Claire assured her. “Anyway, everyone, have a seat.”

  There was no coffee table, which made the couch accessibility easy to get to. Allyson and Everett sat down on the ends of the couch. Ellen sat between them as Claire sat in an armchair.

  “So you knew that Sally Harman’s father was being investigated for witchcraft,” Allyson prompted for Claire to continue.

  “Yes, Sweetie. Bridget Montgomery was investigating…” Claire allowed the word ‘him’ to trail off when she saw Everett acting as if he was stabbed in the heart. “Is there anything wrong, Everett?”

  Everett slightly hesitated before shaking his head and saying sullenly, “Bridget Montgomery was my grandmother.”

  “You’re Everett Delaney?” Claire questioned delightfully with a grin. Everett just nodded. “Your grandmother talked a lot about you.”

  “You knew my grandma?” Everett asked.

  “Very well,” Claire said before gesturing towards the couch. “She sat many times in that very seat.”

  “I don’t remember seeing a woman coming here,” Allyson said.

  “Bridget would come by during the day while you were in school,” Claire told her. “Anyway, Bridget had given Peter compelling evidence that Leon Stone… Sally Harman’s father was practicing witchcraft. When Bridget… died, Peter had continued that investigation. And that was why Sally had shot and killed him.”

  “Do you believe in witchcraft, Claire?” Allyson asked.

  “I do, and nine years ago was when I started to believe,” Claire said.

  “Do you believe that Leon was practicing witchcraft?” Allyson asked.

  “Again, yes,” Claire said. “I very strongly believe that Leon is a warlock. So why are you asking me these questions, and what are these contradicting facts about Sally?”

  “I know for a fact that Leon is a powerful wizard, and Sally is a powerful sorceress,” Allyson informed. “The contradicting fact is that Sally could’ve easily have killed Peter while using witchcraft and got away with it without anyone being the wiser.”

  “It seems as though that Sally had allowed herself to get caught for murder,” Ellen added.

  “For what reason?” Claire asked as everyone’s attention was drawn to Spencer as he stood up with the paper—that he was thought to have been drawing on—in his hand.

  “We were hoping that you could tell us,” Allyson said as everyone watched Spencer as he walked across the floor towards the couch while carrying the paper.

  Everyone watched Spencer as he stepped up to Ellen. Spencer held out the paper for Ellen to take while saying, “Missing pages”—Claire gasped in surprise that Spencer was talking as he continued with—“can be found within.”

  “Within what?” Ellen gently asked as she took the paper.

  Spencer stared vacantly at Ellen’s face for a second before turning and walking away without saying another word.

  “Spencer, Sweetie,” Claire called.

  Without acknowledging that someone had called his name, Spencer retook his original position on the floor and began drawing again on a clean sheet of paper.

  “Okay, now that was weird,” Everett said.

  “Yeah,” Claire agreed in an eerie tone. “Spencer hasn’t spoken for years and today he said something about missing pages to Ellen.”

  “What is on that paper that he had given you?” Allyson asked as she and Everett leaned towards Ellen to look.

  “It’s a long list of serial numbers of… something,” Ellen began. “There’s a letter ‘P’ at the very beginning of each serial number followed by a one-digit, a two-digit, or a three-digit number. Directly behind the number is the letter ‘L’ and that is followed by another one-digit or a two-digit number. I’m not sure why, but Spencer had also put the serial numbers in groups of four, five and six for the first… ten groups. After that there are six more serial numbers that are not grouped together—all together I say that there are more than fifty serial numbers and a few of them are underlined.”

  “Actually, that looks much like my note taking,” Everett admitted.

  Ellen shot Everett a curious look while q
uestioning, “Your note taking looks like a list of serial numbers?”

  Everett smirked before saying, “‘P’ for page and ‘L’ for which line on the page.”

  “Oh,” Ellen let out as she turned to gaze at the paper some more.

  “Of course you’ll need to know what book to look at,” Everett added.

  “I know which book,” Ellen told him.

  “Which one?” Everett asked.

  “You think you want to know, but trust me, you don’t,” Ellen told him.

  “Ah, I have a clue of… at least to what kind of book,” Everett said. Ellen just politely grinned.

  “Allyson, how did you three get caught up in this witchcraft matter?” Claire asked.

  When Allyson acted as if she didn’t want to answer, Everett said, “She deserves to be told the truth.”

  “Allyson?” Claire prompted.

  Allyson sighed before she and Ellen explained everything to Claire. The Phoenix stage was mentioned last and Claire gave Ellen an eerie look once it was mentioned.

  “You’re the Phoenix,” Claire accused.

  “Well, I’m in the Phoenix stage, and so is Allyson’s husband Harris,” Ellen informed.

  “No, Sweetie,” Claire began as she stood up. “The day when Peter was shot and killed, I had to claim the body… mainly for formalities. Some guy was there who was claiming his brother’s body, and when our paths had crossed he stared long and hard at me. As I was about ready to walk away, annoyed by his leering, he apologized for his stare and then told me not to throw my husband’s work related items away. He told me that at some point in the future I am to give my husband’s work related items to the Phoenix. And you’re the Phoenix.”

  “Okay,” Ellen said skeptically. “I’ll trust that you know what you’re saying.”

  In an amused tone, Claire said, “I’ll be back in a jiffy with Peter’s briefcase.”

  “Okay,” Allyson said before Claire could walk away.

  “I wonder what part of Peter’s work items that we’d be interested in,” Ellen said barely above a whisper.

  “I guess we’ll find out,” Allyson said.

  Ellen stared at the paper that Spencer had given her for a brief moment before saying, “When we get… home, I’m going to find out what these lines are.”

  Allyson glanced at what Ellen was talking about before saying, “I’m curious about that myself.”

  “You said ‘home’ as if you were being forced to say it,” Everett pointed out.

  “Before last Sunday, my home was in Kansas City, Missouri, so I’m still trying to get use to the idea that my home is with Harris and Allyson,” Ellen explained. “I like it here though. It just doesn’t feel like home yet.”

  Allyson put her arm around Ellen in a comforting manner before saying, “Most likely you’ll feel homesick for your old house in Kansas City for some time, but without really noticing when, your homesickness will have faded into nothing.”

  “When I was ten, my family and I had moved into the house that we are at now, and I remember missing the old house for a long time before our current house felt like home,” Everett shared.

  Allyson saw tears forming in Ellen’s eyes as Ellen stared at the paper.

  “It’s not just the house that you miss, is it?” Allyson asked.

  Ellen looked at Allyson before dry swallowing and saying sullenly, “I miss Mike and Tanya. My old friends. Nothing in my life right now is the same from before Mike and Tanya’s accident and I miss how things were.” As an afterthought Ellen glanced towards Everett. “Not that I regret my new life and my new friends.”

  Everett amusingly grinned before saying, “I knew what you were saying, and I didn’t take an offence to it.”

  Ellen grinned before taking and holding Everett’s hand.

  Before Ellen, Allyson or Everett could say anything else, Claire re-entered the living room with a briefcase while saying, “I told you that this would only take a jiffy.”

  “So what’s in the briefcase?” Ellen asked.

  “I have never looked,” Claire said before gesturing towards the door to the next room. “Let’s go into the kitchen so we can look at things at the table.”

  “Okay,” Allyson agreed as she, Ellen and Everett stood up.

  “Will Spencer be okay alone?” Ellen asked in a concerned tone.

  “Spencer goes to the bathroom by himself, and he lets me know when he’s ready to eat or sleep, but other than that he hardly ever moves from that spot,” Claire informed. “So yeah, he’ll be fine for a little bit there by himself.”

  “Okay,” Ellen said sympathetically as she stared at Spencer.

  As Claire went to lead the way to the kitchen, Allyson motioned for Ellen to follow. Everett followed Ellen while Allyson followed him.

  Once in the kitchen, Ellen, Everett, Allyson and Claire each took a seat at the table. Claire opened the briefcase and pulled out the eight one-subject notepads and loose papers and laid them in the center of the table.

  Ellen took the top notepad and flipped to the first page. Allyson took a notepad as well and flipped it to the first page followed by Everett and then Claire.

  Ellen read the first two pages before asking, “How wealthy are Jessica and Karla?”

  “Material-wise, they’re very well off,” Everett replied before describing the small mansion that their family owned and then verbally mapping out where it was located. “However, money-wise, what money that they have coming in is barely paying for Leon Stone’s daytime nurse, his medical expenses, the utilities, food and… and other expenses. In fact, Jessica and Karla were going to a private school before Leon’s stroke, but as you already know, the sisters are in a public school now. Anyway, did you bring that up for a reason?”

  Ellen gestured towards the notepad while saying, “According to this, Leon Stone was extremely gifted at choosing the correct stocks to purchase and selling them just before their worth declined, so…”

  “He was manipulating the stocks through witchcraft,” Everett accused while interrupting Ellen.

  “Peter thought so too, but I don’t see how,” Ellen said.

  “Why couldn’t he?” Everett asked.

  “Because I don’t care how magically powerful Leon Stone was… or is, he couldn’t magically manipulate people of an entire nation or the world to spend economically in a certain direction,” Ellen informed.

  “So you believe that he was simply gifted—to sell and buy stocks?” Everett asked skeptically.

  “There are incantations for someone who isn’t a psychic to bring about a psychic vision, and a wizard as powerful as Leon Stone is would know what they are,” Ellen said. “So I’m guessing that he made himself have a psychic vision on the stock market and bought and sold accordingly.”

  Claire chuckled without humor before saying, “Being that Leon was always three steps ahead of Bridget or Peter, Bridget had always thought that he had a crystal ball next to his bed.”

  “Are crystal balls real?” Everett asked Ellen.

  Ellen politely grinned before saying, “They are, but an incantation has to be done before they can work. And Leon Stone would’ve known the incantation.”

  “By him being bedridden after his stroke is a plus for us,” Everett said.

  “Not a plus if Jessica or Karla is hurting people to make it where he can get out of bed,” Ellen countered.

  “I didn’t think about it like that,” Everett said.

  “I really hope that our suspicions are wrong about them though,” Ellen supplied. “They seem nice.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m sure Leon Stone seems nice to some folks as well,” Everett retorted.

  Ellen shot him a smirk before turning towards Allyson and asking, “What is in the notepad that you have, Allyson?”

  “I think I have the notes on Leon’s personal history,” Allyson replied. “He’s the third child born with three brothers and no sisters. Ooh, wait! Here’s something.” Allyson then took the time to read
what had caught her attention.

  After a moment of waiting, Ellen prompted, “What is it?”

  “One second.” After a few more seconds, Allyson continued to say, “Leon’s entire family had vanished without a trace when he was eighteen.”

  “I have a good idea of what had happened to them,” Ellen said.

  “Leon performed the Dark Ritual on them and took their powers,” Everett guessed.

  “Those are my thoughts,” Ellen said.

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Claire said.

  Everyone shot Claire a curious look before Allyson asked, “What doesn’t make sense, Claire?”

  Claire indicated to the notepad that she had while saying, “According to this, the night before Sally had shot Peter, Sally informed Peter that she had wanted to come clean about things. Peter and Sally had arranged to meet at the Press to talk… but when Sally showed up, she shot him.”

  “Sally had wanted to end Peter’s investigation so she set him up and shot him,” Everett accused.

  “I don’t know if you three had noticed from the notepads, but in case you guys haven’t, Peter would sometimes make a diary-type notation in his notes,” Claire began. “With that said listen to this. ‘I just got off the phone with Sally Harman. For some reason she was troubled and fearful of her father. She asked if I could help her find one of her relatives and in exchange she will come clean about things. I told her that she had to give me something upfront before I could use the newspaper’s resources in such manner and she agreed. She also agreed to meet me—here at the Press—tomorrow. This call couldn’t have come had a better time. Mr. Simco is near the end of his tolerance with my obsession over this story, and I was at the very end of it myself just a short time ago. I had plugged in my shredder to shred my notes when the phone rang, but now, I think I finally caught a break.’”

  “So what had changed for Sally from one day to the next?” Ellen asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Claire said.

  Ellen thought for a moment before saying, “Perhaps we should ask her. What prison is she in?”

  “You want to go visit her?” Everett asked incredulously.

  “I do,” Ellen quickly replied.