According to Legend

by Gerri Brousseau

  I dreamed—at least I thought it was a dream—of a doe. She seemed to have a glowing, opaque look about her. The doe spoke to me.

  “Takshawee. I am your Manitou, your Spirit Guide. I am Shaweetoo, and my spirit will always be your guild.”

  “Welcome, Shaweetoo. Can you help me? Evil magic surrounds me and enemies pursue me. I’m so afraid.”

  “Yes, child. I know you are afraid, but there is much truth in the words of Moheeladeck. You do not need to have fear in your heart. You are the child of mystical parents and you possess much magic.”

  “I possess magic?”

  “Yes.”

  “I know nothing of this. What magic do I possess?”

  “You are able to change transform into any creature under the sun. Because of this, you hold the power to hear the thoughts of every creature, to know their feelings, to know their spirit.”

  “That’s incredible.” That must be why I hear Half-Breed.

  “You also possess healing powers.”

  “Healing powers?”

  “Yes, great magic lives in you, child.”

  “How is it that Moheeladeck can sense the future?”

  “You, too, possess this ability. Rise and awaken the magic sleeping within you. ”

  The doe turned and left the sweat lodge. I rose and followed her. As I fell into step beside the doe toward the cool stream that ran beside the lodge, the cool night air refreshed my face and the warm earth was a comfort beneath my feet. I lowered my gaze to the ground and was astounded when instead of my feet, I saw hooves. I also had an opaque glow around me as I stood in the shallow of the stream. I was also a doe.

  “Remember this lesson, Takshawee. You will need to use this ability one day, but do not fear. My spirit will always be with you,” she said as she vanished into the mist rising off the water.

  Chapter 26

  The next morning, I woke up in my own bed. My mouth felt as if it was stuffed with cotton and my head was pounding. I stretched my arms out before me and was disappointed to find myself back in human form. Half-Breed stretched his enormous paws and yawned widely enough to reveal all of his fierce teeth, but made no move to get out of his comfy warm spot.

  Did you have an enlightening evening?

  Half-Breed, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

  You would be surprised.

  I’ve got to get up and take something for this headache.

  You have had your first transformation?

  You know about that?

  The wolf laughed but offered no reply.

  I got up and headed toward the bathroom for some aspirin and a shower. I was supposed to meet David at Town Hall to see if we could find his birth records. Today could prove informative or could turn out to be a disaster. I hoped for the former.

  While we were there, I was going to ask David to get a copy of his mother’s death certificate. It normally listed a cause of death and that would be a good place to start.

  “He’s spending a lot of time with her,” Williamson said into the phone as he sat with his feet up on the desk in his office at the police station. “I hope he’s not getting too attached to her because she doesn’t have a very long future.” He snickered as he pushed the clip into his gun. “I know he wants to give her time to trust him and lead us to the cave, but I think that’s a mistake and a huge waste of time. How long are you willing to wait? Yeah, I know it’s been hundreds of years. What’s a few more days, give or take?” He laughed. “Okay, I’ll stay close and keep an eye on them. No worries.” He stood, and as he hung up the phone, he shoved the gun into the holster on his belt.

  Williamson was leaving the police station when he saw Pam and David rushing across the street toward Town Hall. I wonder if they’re going to get a marriage license. Lover boy must be pretty anxious to get into her pants.

  He followed the pair into Town Hall at what he thought was a safe distance, but was unaware that Half-Breed was watching from the bed of David’s truck.

  Princess, you have acquired a tail.

  A tail?

  Someone is following you.

  Who is it?

  That dirty cop.

  Thank you, Half-Breed. Please keep your eyes open for any other signs of trouble. I turned to David. “I think we’re being followed.”

  “You know, I had the same feeling,” he replied. We turned and saw Officer Williamson sneaking up the hallway behind us. When he saw us, he ducked into an open doorway as we turned around.

  “Is he one of your partners in crime?” I asked David.

  “Former,” he said with a little smile. “Just follow my lead. If he comes up to me I’m going to act as if I’m trying to play the game and convince you to trust me enough to lead us to the cave.”

  I’m trying to convince myself to trust you, too, I thought.

  We continued to walk into the Vital Statistics Office to get David’s birth certificate. Williamson was still sneaking up the hallway and hanging in our wake outside of the office.

  “You stay in here and start going through the records. I’ll go and find out what he’s up to,” David said.

  I agreed and he left me to the search.

  David exited the door and almost bumped right into Williamson.

  “What the heck are you doing?” he hissed at Williamson in a forced whisper.

  “I was just about to ask you the same question. What are you doing, getting a marriage license?” he asked with a smirk. “Ice Queen harder to crack than you thought? I knew you were desperate to get into her pants, but marriage?” he taunted. He knew he was getting to David, but he didn’t care. In fact, he enjoyed it.

  “I’m working on gaining her trust,” David answered. “Not that it’s any of your business. Now, if it’s all the same to you, I would like to get back to this.”

  “It is my business. Everything that has anything to do with her and that treasure is my business. I’m keeping tabs on her and apparently that includes you. Don’t let this drag on and don’t get too attached to her. You know there’s no future in that,” he said, patting the gun hanging at his side.

  “I know what I’m doing. Don’t you have work to do somewhere else?” David asked.

  “Who do you think you are?” the cop asked as he took a step forward in a threatening stance.

  “I know exactly who I am, and so do you, so I suggest you keep things in perspective and remember your place in this.”

  The officer stepped back. “Okay, I’ll back off. For now.”

  “I know you’re anxious and you do enjoy the kill, but you are going to have to learn some patience, my friend,” David told him. “Now let me get back to my job and I suggest you get back to yours.”

  Williamson turned around and left without another word while David returned to the record’s office. Williamson hated having to take orders from anyone, especially David. He agreed with Mr. Harvey from the museum, who thought David was a wimp. But Williamson forced himself to keep his focus on the prize. He would do as he wished with the girl and deal with David in his own way once they had the treasure.

  The search for David Conner proved fruitless, however there was a birth record for a male child named David Conner Warren, born on the same date to Agnes Conner Warren. The father’s name was not listed.

  “David, do you think that Mrs. Warren could be your real mother? Remember she said you were her responsibility and she should not have entrusted you to her sister?” I asked.

  He sank into the plastic chair at the table in the Vital Statistics Office as we stared at the information on the computer screen. “I don’t know, Pam, I suppose anything is possible,” he answered, raking his hand through his shaggy hair. “I always remember Aunt Agnes as being old, though. Even when I was a kid, I remember her being an elderly, white-haired woman, far too old to have a child.”

  “That’s odd. Something isn’t right here. While we’re here though, you should get a copy of your mother’s death certificate.”

  �
��Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he replied. “I guess you’re right. We’re here. I don’t think anything else could surprise me now.”

  We requested a copy of David Warren’s birth certificate and a copy of Marion Connor’s death certificate from the woman at the window. Red tape, even in death, I thought.

  With the copies of the documents in hand, we went out to the lobby of the old building that housed Town Hall. David sat on a bench in the cool marble lobby, and I sat beside him. Frowning, he stared off and his breathing seemed ragged. I saw he was struggling and I didn’t push him. He held his mother’s death certificate gently, almost lovingly, in his hands. Emotions moved like clouds across his face. Finally, he allowed his eyes to rest upon the document.

  “My mother’s death certificate lists the cause of death as heart failure,” David said in a soft voice choked with emotion.

  “Who is the doctor that signed?”

  “Doctor Benjamin Harvey.”

  “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  “I’m all right,” he replied. He took the copy of the birth certificate of the male child born to Agnes Conner Warren and held it for a moment before he allowed himself to look at it. Pain etched on his face, and my heart ached for what he must be going through.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” he finally said.

  “What is it?”

  “The doctor who signed my mother’s death certificate is the same doctor who signed my birth certificate. Doctor Benjamin Harvey.”

  This situation was becoming more twisted with every new discovery.

  After a moment of silent contemplation, I asked, “David, do you know Mr. Harvey at the museum?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Do you know what his first name is?”

  “Albert, I think, but I could be wrong. What are you thinking?”

  “Well, I can’t help but wonder if this Dr. Benjamin Harvey is any relation to him. Do you know anything about Mr. Harvey, from the museum, I mean? Do you know if he has a son?”

  “No, I don’t know too much about him. All I do know is that he has been at the museum about as long as Aunt Agnes has.”

  I knew Mr. Harvey was involved in all this, but how? I had to get to the bottom of it.

  “Well, if we could find this Dr. Harvey, maybe we could find out more about your birth and your mother’s death. Do you remember your mother ever seeing any doctor?”

  “No, as I said, she was never sick a day in her life,” he said. “I think we should go to the museum and search Mr. Harvey’s office.”

  “Do you think all this is related?” I asked. I thought it had to be.

  “Yes, and for some reason I think the key is in the museum.”

  I wonder why David seems so anxious to get into the museum.

  “David, do you know if Mr. Harvey is married?”

  “I think he’s a widower, but again, I may be mistaken. I really don’t know much about the guy. This is all information I gathered from following Aunt Agnes around the museum. I did spend a lot of time there as a kid.”

  Maybe that’s why he’s so anxious to go there. Maybe something is triggering an old memory.

  “That must have been pretty boring,” I said.

  “Actually it wasn’t boring at all. Do you know that the museum has tons of hidden passages that lead to other rooms? It even has tunnels running underneath it?”

  “Tunnels?” I said. “Where do they lead?” Now he’s got my interest.

  “I’m not sure. I was never allowed to play down there. Aunt Agnes said it was too dangerous.”

  “I agree with you. We should visit the museum, but before we do, we should probably do some research. My laptop is in my car. Hey, maybe since we’re here at Town Hall, the Clerk’s Office would have a blueprint or floor plan of the museum on record. We should check it out.”

  “Yeah, I’m the nephew of the curator so let me go into the Town Clerk’s Office and you go out to the car and fire up the laptop.”

  “Okay, I should be able to get a Wi-Fi signal here in the center of town. I’ll try to get some information while I’m waiting for you.”

  David went to the Town Clerk’s Office and I headed out to the car. Half-Breed was happy to see me return without David.

  How did you manage to ditch the dirty dog? he asked as he jumped out of David’s truck bed and trotted over to my car.

  When I opened the car door, Half-Breed hopped into the back seat. I got into the driver’s seat, grabbed the laptop and turned it on.

  “Half-Breed, this whole thing is getting so tangled. You’ll never guess what we found out,” I said over the laptop’s whirling noises as it connected to the Internet.

  Tell me.

  I told Half-Breed the whole story of what David and I had discovered.

  That’s good detective work, Princess. What’s next?

  “We’re going to the museum. David’s in the Town Clerk’s Office trying to get a copy of the floor plan of the building and I’m going to look on the laptop to see if I can find something,” I said as my fingers flew over the keyboard.

  Going into the museum? Isn’t that going into enemy territory? Half-Breed asked.

  “I didn’t think of it that way Half-Breed, but yes, I guess you’re right.”

  Didn’t Moheeladeck instruct you not to leave the safety of your circle?

  “Yes, but this might be important.”

  More important than your life, Princess?

  Just then the passenger side door opened and David got into the car.

  Chapter 27

  The old mansion that now housed the town museum was once used by the Underground Railroad to aid runaway slaves on their journey north, but, after everything I’ve been through, I also wondered if the tunnels led to anything else, like the cave. But going in there I was about to jump right into enemy territory, and Moheeladeck would probably not approve.

  Should I have sent David alone to scope it out? Yes, I probably should have, but I was too curious and too deeply involved now not to go along. I had to get to the bottom of this. We left David’s truck at Town Hall and I drove the two blocks over to the museum.

  David was engrossed in studying the blueprint in his hand.

  “Do you think we can sneak Half-Breed in?” I asked him.

  “Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll go into the museum. You and Half-Breed go around the side and wait there. There is an external door here,” he said, pointing to the side door indicated on the blueprint spread out on his lap. “I’ll come to the door from the inside and let you both in.”

  “Okay, I know where that is. That’s where your aunt let me out the night that she first rescued me from Mr. Harvey. See, David? None of this makes sense to me. Why would she have helped me that night if she were involved in some plot against me?” I asked as I pulled the car into a parking space across the street from the museum.

  “I don’t know the answers to that, Pam, but I agree with you. It all revolves around that stone and Harvey seems to be in this up to his neck.”

  The catcher vibrated softly over my heart and I held my breath for a moment. Try to focus and stay calm, I thought. “Okay. Let’s do this,” I said as we got out of the car.

  David went to the front door while Half-Breed and I continued down the street and around the corner to the door on the side of the museum. A few minutes later the door opened and David ushered us inside.

  “Shhhh. Let’s try to be as quiet as possible. I think it’s best if we can move around the museum undetected,” he said.

  “I agree.” It didn’t dawn on me at that point in time that every entrance, exit, and passage, hidden or otherwise, would either be secured by an alarm or under surveillance. It never occurred to me that our presence in the museum would never go undetected.

  “Was your aunt at her desk up front?”

  “No, she’s out today, something about having gone up to the capital in Hartford to meet with the grant committee.”

  “Is Mr. Har
vey in the museum?”

  “Yeah, he’s on the phone in his office,” he answered as he pulled the blueprint out of his pocket.

  Still standing in the dimly lit hallway near the side door, David said, “If I remember correctly, the third door on the right here in this hall leads to a passageway that goes down to the underground tunnels. Since Harvey is in his office and we can’t check that out, do you want to start here?”

  “Sure, it’s as good a place to start as any.”

  When David opened the unmarked door in that dark hallway, a cool draft rushed in and brought with it the smell of dampness.

  It was pitch black on the inside, but David reached up and groped around until his hand came in contact with a pull cord. He pulled it and a single light bulb hanging overhead came on casting a dull glow over the damp ground leading down the passageway.

  “I’ll go first and Half-Breed, you go behind Pam, and, everyone, stay alert,” David said.

  I don’t like this. Half-Breed’s thoughts entered my mind.

  I don’t like it, either. But, Half-Breed, we have to find out more about these tunnels. I know it has something to do with the cave.

  As you wish, Princess, Half-Breed replied.

  “If I remember correctly, there’s a shelf down here somewhere that always had some flashlights on it. According to the blueprints, electricity doesn’t run much farther down the tunnel,” David said.

  I wondered how he would have known this. I thought his aunt didn’t allow him to play down in the tunnels. Maybe as a boy he did sneak down here. Maybe that was it.

  “Do you know where this tunnel comes out?” I asked.

  “No. I knew about the tunnels since I was a kid, but as I said, I was never allowed to play down here.”