by B Branin
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From Fiona Ambrose’s memoirs: Daughters of All and Nothing
It seems that the harder I try to discover what really happened to Faye, the further I get from the truth. Even after Mr. Broker informed me that he himself had seen her in the flesh, I was doubtful. Now I didn’t even know what to believe! The cult was throwing so many obstacles in our way that I was mentally exhausted trying to piece them together.
The latest complication that the cult threw at us was called Killington.
The name Fredrick Killington didn’t mean much to me but I was assured by Mr. Broker that it was a big deal. Apparently the…gentleman…everyone called Buggy had claimed the name was important so everyone agreed that it must be so. Even Mr. Noland and Mr. Cross were unable to gripe about the strange informant’s resourcefulness.
Mr. Broker quickly explained that Buggy had looked up the names on those adoption papers we found during our…experience in Hell Scratch. According to what Mr. Buggy had discovered, each one of the girls had been adopted by high profile individuals. Corporate CEOs, old money moguls, oil tycoons, etc.
Which brings me back to the name Fredrick Killington.
Of all these high profile adopters, Mr. Killington was the only individual who lived in this city. Apparently the entire area known as the Dock District had been his idea. He used to have a monopoly on everything being shipped or stored in the city but several decades ago he retired and seemed content living off the millions he had made during his prime.
According to what information could be found from those adoption papers, Killington had begun the adoption process earlier this month and was getting all the details ironed out. This wasn’t too strange with the rich and famous. Apparently the well-to-do viewed adopting a child as if they were getting a new pet. However this adoption was…how did Mr. Broker put it? “So fishy anyone could smell it from a mile away.”
The first strange instance in this adoption is that Mr. Killington chose a seventeen year old girl to take into his household. Of course this would usually never fly since the girl was practically a legal adult as far as the law was concerned but Buggy had said that Mr. Killington was the kind of man who could smooth over such things. Personally, I am worried what an old power-hungry man would do with an adopted seventeen year old girl, even if there wasn’t a bizarre cult involved!
And it gets even stranger. Despite his wife of fifty years giving him two sons to father, Mr. Killington was already arranging it so that his business and all of his assets be turned over to his new daughter upon his death. Simply unheard of!
Mr. Buggy told us that once Mr. Killington’s new will would become notarized, that this adopted daughter would be worth several million dollars at a low estimate. Now since this daughter was found…incapacitated at the Hell Scratch, which might mean that Mr. Killington and his adopted daughter were the victims of a kidnapping scheme. However Mr. Broker assured us that was unlikely because why turn over millions of dollars worth of inheritance to a girl you weren’t yet legally responsible for?
So now were on our way to the Killington estate, exhausting the last lead we had when it came to the Daughters of All. We needed to arrange a meeting with the old millionaire, which meant either relying on smooth talking or the more…brash approach which was exactly why Mr. Broker brought the Twins along.
