by Doug Welch
Chapter 9
Lawyers and Love
By a small amount of pleading and groveling, I was able to convince Harvey I needed more bereavement time by assuring him I would continue to complete the work required for the project.
Of course, it helped that my idea was going to save more money than I’d estimated, and Tom had spread the news at work that I didn't need the job.
I felt a small twinge of guilt for not returning to work, but the thought of having the time to explore my relationship with Elizabeth and the opportunity to solve the mysteries surrounding my parents eliminated that.
I’d finished the work Harvey required by depriving myself of sleep and burning the majority of the day to complete it. In addition, I’d gone beyond that, to complete material that I could deliver to him in small doses to keep him happy.
Therefore, I’d bought myself some time to try to solve my other problems. The question was what to do next. Of course, Elizabeth was the main priority. The other problems could wait.
So I called her at the hospital to make another date.
By now, based upon the previous reception I received, I imagined the whole hospital knew I was interested in Elizabeth. My suspicions were rewarded when, at the mention of my name, the phone call was put through.
“Doctor Rowan here, how can I help you?”
“Hi Beth, its Paris.”
“Oh. – Hi.”
“Just calling to see if you're busy tonight. I have in mind to take you out for that decadent dinner we talked about.”
“Oh. Tonight?”
“Sorry, is there a problem?”
“We had a hard day today. I really want to see you again, but I don't think I have the energy to handle a dinner date.”
“It's okay. Listen, I have a shoulder if you need it.”
There was silence for a minute. “I think I could use that.”
“Are you coming back to town?”
“No, I think I'll stay at the B&B,” she said.
“I'll meet you there.”
“Give me a few hours. I have some more patients to see, and I won't be there until about, oh, six or seven.”
“Okay, I'll see you at seven. I guess I'll have to get used to a doctor's hours.”
“Used to? As in future? I've got to warn you, it only gets worse.”
“It's worth it, for the time you have.”
“Oh. Paris, this is getting serious, isn't it?”
I sighed. “I don't know if you know how serious.”
“I guess we'll talk about that when you get here,” she replied. “This is scary, Paris.”
“I know, but it feels wonderful.”
“Yes it does, but it's still unsettling.”
“We'll talk about it when I get there. See you soon.”
“See you – bye.” She disconnected.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon in impatient anxiety, wondering what had affected Elizabeth so badly. I thought of whiling away the time trying to tackle the computer that held so much of Dad's secrets, but didn't have the ability to concentrate. I took a shower, spent some time choosing what I would wear, and reflected upon the fact that I was going to have to expand my wardrobe. Alex was gone for the day, undoubtedly casting her net for Caesar, and I was alone in the house. The phone rang and I jumped.
“Hello.”
“Paris? This is Silas.”
“Hi, what's up?”
“Just calling to keep in touch. I am also informing you that I have withdrawn funds to match what Alex spent on the new car. Do you want me to deposit the funds in your bank account or deliver a check?”
“I don't need the money.”
“Nevertheless, you both are share and share alike on the bequest, and I must provide a like allotment for you. What do you want me to do with it?”
“I don't know – invest it?”
“If you want, I can put it in an IRA, but I'll need some information for the government.”
“No thanks.”
“Truthfully, Paris, it's better to spend it, the IRA will be complicated, and you won't be able to access it without a substantial penalty. If you could use the funds in the near future, you should just deposit it.”
“Whatever you think is more advantageous.”
“Good, give me your bank account information, I'll do a direct deposit.”
I retrieved my checkbook and read off the account numbers. “Is that all?” I asked.
“No, there's one more item. As I promised, I’ve been urging the Jamestown police to investigate your parents’ accident. They've learned something new. It seems that the automobile that was suspected of being involved in the hit-and-run has been found.”
“Good. Have they found the persons responsible?”
“No that's what puzzles them. The car registration is false, and they can't identify the owner.”
“What? – How's that possible?”
“It's possible if you've got enough power and organization,” Silas said.
“Silas, are you trying to tell me something?”
“I don't know. For now, I would like you to call me on a regular basis. Say, Monday of each week. I am going to make further inquires, and perhaps hire bodyguards. – If you don't call, I'll have the police check your property, and if necessary, conduct a search.”
“Now you're worrying me.”
“Just being cautious.”
“Well no bodyguards for now. Things here are under control.”
“The police said that you called them twice about trespassers.”
“Yes, that's true.”
“Care to tell me about it?”
“That depends. Is what I say covered under attorney-client confidence?”
“Yes.”
I related the incident of the two people dancing at the front of the farmhouse, and my actions. I also pointed out that the police were powerless to prevent it. “Silas, if a trained policeman can't see them, how can a bodyguard see them?”
“That's a good point, but I may be able to help. If you shoot one of them, be sure to wound, not kill. I think I need for you and your sister to visit me as soon as you can.”
“Why?”
“Not over the phone.”
“Oh. – Okay, how about tomorrow?”
“I have enough time at one o'clock,” he replied.
“Okay, we'll be there.”
“See you then.”
“Bye.” I hung up.
I hated that the conversation had dampened my good mood. I wanted to be in the best frame of mind when I saw Elizabeth, but I couldn't help but brood.
What the hell was going on? This sounded more and more ominous. A parent who was not a parent, a crazy group of people who insisted on trespassing on the property, an unexpected inheritance, missing persons who might be my siblings, and now, in my mind, the certainty that my parents had been murdered. How did it all link together, and what, if anything, could I do about it?
I called Alex on her cell phone.
“What's up Paris?”
“Where are you?”
“You checking up on me, Big Brother?”
“No, nothing like that. I just ended a phone call from Silas. He wants to see us at his office tomorrow at one PM. Is that okay with you?”
“Wait; let me check my busy schedule.” She laughed. “Is it important?” There was the sound of muffled voices over the phone. “Yeah, I can be there.”
“Thanks Alex – and be careful. Something doesn't sound right about it. If Caesar is there, tell him I said to guard you.”
“Paris, I can't do that,” she whispered over the phone.
“Yes, you can. Isn't he an ex-Seal? If necessary, tell him why. Or, put him on the phone, and I'll tell him.”
“You're starting to scare me. Okay, I'll explain why you're worried. Are you going to tell Elizabeth if you see her?”
“If I can. She's had a rough day. I may be listening more than explaining.”
“A
lright. I'll probably see you tomorrow at the lawyer's office.”
“You going to be late tonight?”
“No,” she said, “early to bed and early to rise, if I'm going to be there at one. I've got things to do tomorrow.”
I thought about calling Silas, and requesting a bodyguard for Alex. “Do them with Caesar.”
“Paris, lighten up. I'll see you tomorrow.” She disconnected.
I did a little more brooding, and then deciding that my bad mood was useless, jumped in the car and drove to Russell Springs.
I arrived at five o'clock, and realized that I had two hours to kill, so I went shopping.
Why doesn't life come with an instruction book? I thought. Couldn't there be a chapter on what to buy a beautiful woman who is in a bad mood? Why didn't parents have the sense to tell their young sons what made women happy? Was it jewelry, chocolates, a trip to the Bahamas? Was it the expense of the gift? Was it good to buy something practical?
I kept looking. I finally stopped at a shop that sold antiques, and browsed around. Certainly, I could find something here. I sifted through some of the antique jewelry.
Suddenly, I saw what I felt was the right gift for her. It was an old, ornate necklace made of gold. It had an intricate rendition of a doe in an oval onyx pendant suspended from it. The deer had amber chips in the place of eyes. The hooves were made of silver. Whoever formed the piece had lavished loving care upon it. I looked on the back of the disk. Except for the maker's mark, it was blank.
Perfect. I thought. I'll get it engraved with her name later.
I took it to the clerk who named a price that, at other times; I would have choked at. “For that price,” I complained, “you should gift wrap it in gold.”
“It's a valuable antique, sir, and the price is fair. I tell you what, I'll do something better.” She fetched a plush, velvet lined jewelry box from another display case. “There you go. No charge.”
I sighed and used my credit card. I hoped that Silas would deposit the funds soon, because this would strain my credit limit, and I still might be able to encourage Elizabeth to go out this evening. I decided to hit the ATM for some cash.
Fully armed with gift and money, I set out for the Kentucky B&B, and promptly became lost. After some fruitless driving around, I went to the hospital and tried to retrace the route that Elizabeth had traveled when we had lunch. I finally found the place, after asking for directions at a service station, and arrived one minute before seven o'clock. I rushed into the entrance and looked frantically around. I finally found her huddled at the corner of one of the big sofas in the living room. She looked wonderful, but a little forlorn. I crossed over to the sofa and sat beside her.
“Hi. Why the sad face?”
“I had a really tough day at the hospital.” She looked away from me at the living room window.
I turned her around to look at me. “Want to talk about it?”
“Maybe – no, I guess it comes with the job.”
“Well, perhaps this will cheer you up.” I handed her the jewelry box.
“What's this?” she asked with apprehension.
“A little piece of our secret place in the woods.” I smiled at her.
She opened the box and stared incredulously at the necklace, and then she started to cry.
I didn't know what to do. I had imagined smiles, not tears. I hoped I had not done something stupid, so I did the only thing I could think of. I put my arm around her, and laid her head onto my chest.
“I'm sorry. I thought it would make you happy.”
She pulled back. “Wha – You big, sweet, lunk-head. Of course it makes me happy.” She was laughing and crying at the same time. “It's just that – everything that happened at work, and now this – it was just overwhelming.”
“Okay, what happened at the hospital? Tell me.”
She became quiet and sad again. “I had an emergency patient this morning. It was a little girl. I couldn't save her. It was a clear case of child abuse. I had to report it, and the parents tried to stop me. The security guards got involved, and it turned into a big mess. The parents were arrested, and it got on the news.”
“Oh. That's hard. No wonder you're distressed.”
“The worst of it is how I felt. I was enraged at what they had done to that child. I wanted to punish them. That is one aspect of being an emergency room doctor that I have difficulty in being objective about. Unfortunately, it happens all too often. I don't know if I can bear it again. I may have to change specialties.”
“From the way that the people at the hospital talk about you, it's clear to me that they respect you a lot.”
“Paris, I was so angry I could have killed those monsters, those, so-called parents. How does that make me better than they are?”
“I suppose it makes you human. We all have a monster lurking inside us. I saw it more than once in Iraq. People, who under normal circumstances are rational and humane, devolve into raging animals under extraordinary stress. You're not a bad person, quite the opposite, in fact.”
She stayed in my arms, obviously thinking. “Why do you make me feel so good?”
“I could ask the same of you. Here, let me put on your necklace.”
I removed the necklace from the case, and brushed back her fine shining hair from her shoulders. My fingers contacted the satiny skin of her throat as I fastened the pendant around her neck. The touch of her skin made my heart speed up. My throat was tight, and I had trouble breathing.
“There. It looks beautiful on you,” I said with a husky voice.
She clutched the heavy weight of the chain around her neck. “Paris, this is too expensive. I can't accept this.”
“Why not? If it's not now, I'll just give it to you later. It's for you and only for you, no one else.”
“Paris, you may make a good salary, but even a good salary has limits. I thank you, but I think you should take it back.”
“Beth, is there anywhere here where we can walk and talk? I mean, away from an audience?” I looked at the people who were glancing at us, some with an amused expression, and some with a wistful one.
'There's a flower garden walkway out back.”
“Good. Let’s go have a private conversation in the garden, and if you still want me to take the necklace back, I'll hold it for another time.”
“Okay.”
We went out as the sun was setting, and strolled down the flowered walkway at the back of the building, toward the pasture.
“You're right about one thing,” I said, “if it was just my salary, I never would have been able to afford that necklace. Even so, I would have bought you something as nice. There's no difference in my intentions, just the cost of the gift. What you don't know, is that our parents left Alex and I a substantial sum of money when they died, much more than we will ever need. If I can't use the money to make someone happy, then, what's it for? Besides,” I stopped and gently turned her to face me. I looked into her eyes. “It's what the gift means to us, Elizabeth, not the cost.”
Her eyes lowered, staring at my chest. “Paris, I don't believe this. We've only known each other for – what is it? – four days. How can this be happening? How can I feel the way I do? I don't know you and you don't know me. Yet I feel I've known you for a long time.”
I gently lifted her head with my finger so I could look into her eyes. “There's one way to solve that. A lot of time together, as much time as we can squeeze out, to get to know each other.”
I dropped my hand and we continued toward the pasture. “So, in the interest of full disclosure, I need to tell you a few things. Maybe after I get through, you'll run screaming back to the B&B.”
“I don't think so, tell me.”
I told her everything. All about the letter from my father and the strange people haunting my house. I told her that I suspected that my parents’ death was murder. I related the strange events that had been happening, and the information I found on Dad's computer. I also mentioned t
hat I wanted Caesar to guard Alex.
She was silent for a moment. “You don't have to worry about Caesar protecting Alex. He's hopelessly in love with her. I just hope she reciprocates. That's strange, too. They've only known each other as long as we have.”
“Oh, you don't have to worry about that. She's besotted with him. She's going to be insufferable for a while until she calms down.”
“Like us?”
“I'm definitely not calm around you,” I said.
“And I'm not, not around you,” she replied.
She gazed at the pasture. “We're like those thoroughbreds out there, skittish, and ready to shy at the slightest noise or disturbance.”
“In this case, Beth, I want to be like a plow horse. I want to walk a straight furrow, and never falter.”
She touched her new necklace. “I'm feeling better. I'm up for dinner, let’s go back in the B&B and eat.”
“What? No decadent dinner?” I laughed.
“Not tonight, I'll take a rain check.”
We went, laughing and holding hands, back to the B&B for dinner.
After dinner, she said that she was tired, and needed sleep, since she was on call at the hospital. We parted at my car. An innocently intended brief kiss goodnight turned into quite a few passionate kisses, which left me breathless.
“You do make me feel good, Paris Fox,” she said, smiling and pulling away.
“I do? Then I want more time for us,” I replied.
“I promise. There will be time,” she said.
We parted reluctantly, after making plans to get back together by the next day or two, and exchanged cell phone numbers.
I drove back to the farm in a state of euphoria, remembering the feel of her lips and the closeness of her body.
After arriving back at the farm, I searched for Alex, and found her in her bedroom. She was getting ready for bed. I knocked on her door.
“Sis? You got time to talk?”
“Sure. Wait a moment while I get decent.”
After a while, she opened the door. “Come on in.” She hopped up on her bed. I sat beside her.
“Just like when we were kids. Remember?” she asked.
“I remember.”
“So, how did your date go?”
“Fine. More than fine. Elizabeth was in a bad mood, but she got over it, and we talked about a lot of things.”
“Things, what things? Tell me everything.”
I related the events of the evening, including my gift to Elizabeth. “Do you think she likes me, Sis?”
“What's not to like, Paris. You're so thick at times. Did she say anything about Caesar?”
“I don't know if I should say. It's really up to him.”
“Do you want me to torment you to death? Out with it, Big Brother.”
“Well, she did say that he's hopelessly in love with you, but you know how it is, she could be wrong.” I grinned at her.
She threw a pillow at me. “You’re such a shit.” She threw herself back on the bed giggling and kicking her heels wildly like a flighty teenager. “I knew it. I'm so happy.”
She finally calmed down. “What's this about seeing Silas tomorrow? Is something wrong?”
I told her about what Silas had learned. “He wants to talk to us, but not over the phone.”
Alex grabbed a pillow, hugging it. “What does he want to talk about?”
“He wouldn't say. – I think it’s about Dad. I think he wants to reveal some of the details he was holding back.”
She frowned. “Why now? Didn't he say it was a confidentiality issue?”
“Yeah, but he did say that in a life or death situation, the rules might change.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What could have happened to make him change his mind?”
I shrugged. “He only suggested meeting after I told him about the trespassers and the strange information we've turned up. I think he's worried.”
Alex flopped onto her back, still hugging the pillow. “I don't need to think about this right now. I'll sleep on it and we can worry about it tomorrow.”
“Okay, good night.” I rose and walked to her door.
Her voice halted me at the threshold. “Paris?”
I turned my head to look at her. “Yes?”
“I wish this would all go away – disappear. I have this feeling that I've got a chance for something good, something that will last for my whole life, and I don't need this crap messing it up.”
I nodded. “Me too, Alex – Me too.”