Morgan got in the passenger’s seat and Adam immediately started the car rolling backward. Arlette came out through the back door looking angry. “Adam!” She shouted, “Get your ass back in here. You’re not going anywhere with that son of a bitch!”
Adam pressed harder on the accelerator and they bumped hard into the street. He hit the brakes and shifted into drive, punching it hard enough that the wheels squealed. “Jeez, Adam,” Morgan said, “we didn’t just rob a bank, you know.”
Adam snorted, “That’s true, but we’re still making a getaway. There’s no way I want to hang around and see if she can talk you into leaving me there.”
Morgan blinked and wondered if his son was justified in thinking he was such a milquetoast.
Adam asked, “What hotel are we going to?”
“Let’s try the Suites by Marriott, I don’t think it’s very expensive.”
“I thought you were about to make a bunch of money selling Matilda?”
“There might be a problem with that. That’s one of the reasons your mother’s so mad.” Morgan found himself hoping the loss of the sale of Matilda wouldn’t be something that drove a wedge between himself and Adam as well as Arlette.
“Figures,” Adam said, sounding disgusted. Morgan hoped he was repulsed by his mother, not disappointed that there were problems with the sale.
Of course, Morgan had done his best to keep his son from knowing just how much they thought they might make from the sale. Adam might not think of it as a terribly big deal financially. Trying to get them on a different topic, he said, “Um, I just got a call about my brother. I’m going to try to call them back while you’re driving, okay?”
“Wait, what? You have a brother? So… I have an uncle?”
“Yeah,” Morgan said, feeling embarrassed. “We’re estranged.”
“Estranged? What’s that mean?”
“It means we don’t get along. Since before you were born. For the last ten years I’ve been trying to find him in hopes we could reconcile, but I haven’t been able to locate him. It’s like he fell off the edge of the earth. Now I got this call…” Morgan felt a little guilty not saying that the call was from the police. But if he might be able to reunite with his brother, it might be nicer if Adam didn’t know the re-introduction had come through the police.
“Call him!” Adam said, sounding excited. “It’d be way cool to have an uncle.”
Pulling out his phone, Morgan realized Adam might be concerned about their relative dearth of family. Morgan’s parents had been killed in a car accident and Adam didn’t even know Morgan had a brother. Arlette was an only child and her parents hadn’t liked Morgan—they’d always been distant. Lacking family, Morgan and Arlette had actually had to ask his friend Roger to be Adam’s guardian in the event of their death.
Morgan shook his head to stop his woolgathering. Looking at the phone, he found the police officer’s number and tapped it. Though he received them, he never made phone calls when he was driving. So, it caught him by surprise when the ring tone came over the car’s audio system. Morgan didn’t want Adam listening in on the conversation in case Daryn was in serious trouble with the police. In consternation, Morgan searched the car’s infotainment system for a way to disconnect the call from the audio system. Failing that, he tried to hang up the phone. However, before he managed to hang up there was a click and he heard the same voice he’d heard the first time, “This’s Officer Lincoln of the Asheville Police Department, how may I help you?”
Morgan had his finger poised to hang up and thought about doing it anyway, but decided he’d just as well go ahead. “Um, yes. This’s Morgan Djai. You called about my brother?”
“Sir, it sounds like you’re driving. You should pull over before we continue this conversation.”
“It’s okay, it’s my son who’s actually driving.”
“Then he should pull over. I’ll wait.”
Morgan rolled his eyes and waved Adam to the shoulder. As they rolled to a stop, he said, “Okay, we’ve pulled over.”
The man’s tone suddenly became somber, “Sir, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
Heart precipitously in freefall, Morgan said with trepidation, “What happened?”
“Sir, at about 1500 hrs. this afternoon there was a shooting in your brother’s mine. Your brother was hit.”
Though he knew in his heart the answer would be negative, Morgan still felt compelled to ask, “Is he going to be okay?”
Gravely the policeman said, “I’m afraid not… Your niece, and then the paramedics, they did CPR for almost an hour, but your brother didn’t make it.”
“Oh my God…” Morgan said, curling forward until his head hit the dash and moaning hopelessly. Because of all the intervening years, he couldn’t remember exactly what his last words to his brother’d been.
But he knew they’d been horrible.
Morgan felt Adam’s hand on his shoulder, uncertainly rubbing and patting.
Distantly, he heard the policeman saying how sorry he was.
Morgan gasped, “I’ll call you back,” and then started stabbing blindly at his phone, trying to hang it up. Adam gently prized the phone from his fingers and disconnected the call. Then he tugged at Morgan, turning him into his arms. Father and son sat, clinging to one another for several minutes as Adam said, “I’m sorry,” over and over.
Morgan heard a tapping on the window and Adam let go. Morgan heard the driver’s window whirr down and he leaned forward to try to see what was happening. After rubbing at his blurred eyes, he was able to recognize that a policeman stood outside the driver’s side window. With a disgusted tone, man said, “You guys can’t be parking here on the shoulder.”
Adam spoke calmly, “I’m sorry Officer. We just got a call telling us that my uncle’s been killed. The policeman who called my dad told us to pull over onto the shoulder before he’d give us the news.”
The cop leaned down. Seeing their wet cheeks, he swallowed and said, “I’m so sorry. I’ll just stay back here behind you with my flashing lights on until you feel up to moving your car.” He turned and walked back to his vehicle.
Morgan leaned forward again. Propping his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees, he stared down at the carpet, trying to make sense of the disaster this day in his life had become.
His nose was running and he kept sniffing, wishing he had a Kleenex. Adam touched his arm, “Dad. Here.” When Morgan looked up, he saw Adam holding out a white sock, evidently from one of the bags he’d packed. “Blow your nose,” Adam said, sounding like a parent talking to a child.
Morgan blew his nose, then sat up and looked around, feeling disoriented. “You feel up to pulling down off the main road so the policeman can get back to work?”
“Sure,” Adam said, starting the car.
Morgan found his phone laying on the console and pulled up Officer Lincoln’s contact information again. Adam pulled into a parking space at a gas station, Morgan dialed again. “This’s Officer Lincoln of the Asheville Police Department, how may I help you?”
“Um, this’s Morgan Djai again. Sorry about before.”
“Completely understandable. I hate being the bearer of bad news. I’m sure you have some questions.”
“Yeah,” Morgan said, then stopped, a frog in his throat making it hard to talk again. “Sorry. I’m afraid my brother and I were estranged. I hadn’t seen him for nearly 20 years and though I made several efforts to reconnect, I hadn’t been able to find him. I hate to have to ask this, but I think you said my niece did CPR?”
“Yes sir. Kiri Djai.” Morgan could hear the respect in the man’s voice, “The paramedics were quite impressed with her.”
“Even if it’s too late…” his voice broke, but he forced himself to resume even though his voice rasped, “to… to reconnect with my brother, I’d very much like to connect with Daryn’s family. Are you able to give me their contact information? And, perhaps, tell me his wife’s name and whether he had
any other children besides Kiri?”
“I’m sorry sir, his wife’s deceased. Apparently she died of cancer many years ago. Kiri has an older brother, Lindl. Um, one of the reasons we’ve been urgently trying to reach you is that his children have just been orphaned. His will designates you as their guardian. Do you think you’ll be able to assume those duties?”
More tears welled up as Morgan thought, If Daryn decided to trust me with his children, maybe he stopped hating me before he died. Then, realizing he’d left the policeman hanging, he said, “Yes, of course. I’ll come right away. Where are they?”
“Right now they’re at our police station. How long’ll it take you to get here?”
“Um…” Adam tapped his shoulder. He was holding out his phone. He’d pulled up a Google map for a trip to Asheville. “We live in Chapel Hill. Our phone says about three and a half hours.” He thought, At least I’m already packed.
“Okay, we’ll hold on to them.”
“Oh. There isn’t any place else for them to stay?”
“No sir. The kids say they don’t have any friends whose families are close enough that they could stay with them…” The officer’s voice dropped a tone, “Actually, I think they each individually have friends they could stay with, but they don’t want to be separated like they’d have to be if they stayed with different families. What they want is to be dropped off at their empty home, but I don’t think that’s a good idea right after their father’s death.”
“Can’t someone stay with them?”
“Sorry sir, we don’t have personnel for that.”
“Okay, please tell them I’ll get there as soon as I can.” Morgan got the location of the station and hung up. He turned to Adam, “I guess I should get some gas while we’re here at the station. Then,” he winced a little at an unpleasant thought, “I guess I should take you home.”
“No way!” Adam said, looking horrified. “I’m going with you. I can’t stay with Mom.”
“But you have school tomorrow! Besides, Mom can’t be that bad to be around, is she?”
“Oh, my, God!” Adam stared at him for a moment, “She’s… It’s… indescribable. If you won’t take me to Asheville with you I’ll try to find a friend to stay with, but surely, meeting my cousins is more important than a day of school! Besides, it’s a Friday, so even if it takes more than a day, I won’t be missing anything the next day either.”
Morgan thought for a moment, then acknowledged the truth of Adam’s point with a shrug. “Can you pull over to a gas pump then?”
In answer, Adam started the car, still shaking his head as if in disbelief at his father’s thought processes.
When Adam pulled up to the pump, Morgan got out and walked around. He put his credit card in the pump while Adam removed the filler cap and pulled out the nozzle. When nothing seemed to happen, Morgan looked back at the screen on the pump. It said, “Your credit card was declined, please try another.” As he got out his wallet, Morgan tilted his head curiously, wondering why in the world the card’d been declined. The card had an $8000 limit and they certainly hadn’t spent that much this month. Putting away the first card, he got out another and put it in instead. A minute later he was looking at the same message.
He had a sinking feeling as he got out the debit card he mostly used for ATMs.
It produced the same message.
Evidently wondering what was taking so long Adam had just come up to look over his shoulder. “That bitch,” he hissed. “She’s closed your accounts, hasn’t she?”
Morgan closed his eyes. He didn’t have’s the slightest impulse to urge Adam not to badmouth his mother this time. “I guess,” he said resignedly. “Let me call the bank.”
Not only had Arlette reported his credit cards stolen, she’d cleaned out his accounts. I’m penniless, he thought bemusedly. “Can she do that?” he asked the bank officer.
“They’re joint accounts, so she has the right to withdraw. She reported your credit card stolen so you’ll get another one of those in a few days.”
“Delivered to my address of record, right?” Morgan asked resignedly. And she’ll just cut it up when it arrives, he thought bitterly.
“Yes sir,” the officer replied, apparently not recognizing that the delivery location might be a problem.
“Can you just open new checking, savings, and credit card accounts, in my name alone? We’re getting a divorce.”
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. You’re certainly welcome to come down and open new accounts. Um… you’d need to be able to make a deposit?”
The interrogative nature of the man’s statement indicated he understood Morgan might not have any money to deposit.
When am I going to get some money? Morgan wondered. It was May 29 and he’d normally get a paycheck on the thirty-first, but he suspected that Matilda wouldn’t be sending out paychecks this month. His $1.4 million severance bonus might come in soon, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it took months. They’d want to have the money from the sale of the company in hand before they paid out on the bonuses. Morgan tilted his head back, staring unseeingly up at the canopy over the gas pumps. This could be a huge problem!
“What’d they say?” Adam asked.
Morgan sighed, deep into the mental work of trying to solve the problem and not wanting to stop to explain. But, Adam’s in this too. He deserves an explanation. Morgan described what the bank officer had said and how he had essentially no access to funds at present. Somehow, he thought that, as he walked Adam through the issues, a solution would become evident. To his dismay, when he finished the explanation, he still had no ideas. “I guess I’m going to have to ask Roger for a loan. But I doubt he has much cash on hand. That’s gonna make it hard for us to get to Asheville in four hours.” He turned to look at Adam, wondering if Adam might have an idea. Maybe if Adam asked, Arlette would give him some money?
Adam was pumping gas. “How’d you get it to work?” Morgan asked, frowning.
“Tried my debit card. Apparently mom didn’t clean out my accounts.” He paused, then said darkly, “Yet.”
“We don’t need to…” Morgan began, then realized, Yes, we do. “Sorry. Thanks. How much do you have in your account?”
“About $2,000. From my job last summer.”
“Thanks, I’m proud of you.”
“Let’s go meet my cousins.”
Adam was happy to drive which was good because then Morgan could think and make calls. He tried calling Arlette, thinking that even if they were getting divorced, she couldn’t really have intended to leave him penniless. Surely, if she knew what’d happened with his brother, she’d put some money back in his account. She didn’t take the call, so he left her a voicemail explaining what was going on.
Adam said, “She won’t care.”
“Come on, your mother’s not a monster.”
“I’m not so sure. I hate being the one to break this to you, but she’s been having an affair.”
Morgan didn’t know what to say, so he settled for a quiet, “I know.”
“She would’ve asked for a divorce already, except she’s afraid it might reduce her share of the Matilda sale.”
“I know,” Morgan said, not wanting to appear completely clueless by admitting he’d just found out about the affair and Arlette’s plans that afternoon. He did wonder how Adam knew all this though.
Adam answered that as he went on, “I heard her and her boyfriend talking. They were laughing about all the ways her lawyer said she could screw you over.”
Now Morgan felt hurt. Adam knew all this, but didn’t tell me? “Um…” he started, but then didn’t continue as he couldn’t think what to say.
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you,” Adam said. He gave a sad little laugh, “If I’d known you were going to take it this calmly I’d have told you as soon as I found out.”
Morgan thought, I don’t feel calm inside. “How long have you known?”
Adam shrugged, “Since las
t week.”
Maybe Adam’s not the only one who can’t tell how I’m feeling, Morgan thought. That might be why Arlette’s always accusing me of not caring or being emotionless. To Adam he said, “Sorry. I know having your parents divorce is really rough on kids.”
Adam snorted, “It’ll be a lot better than living with her.”
“Um, what if the court says you have to stay with her?”
“I’m way ahead of you there. I checked and, in North Carolina, kids over the age of ten usually get to decide who they live with.”
“Oh…” Morgan sat for a minute, feeling particularly clueless. “Well, I guess that’s good then. We still have some big financial issues though. I’m going to call Roger.” He got out his phone. This time he turned off Bluetooth so the call wouldn’t come up on the car’s audio system.
Roger answered with, “Vic lined us up with Treyvn and Associates. They’re a relatively new corporate law firm that’s been building a good reputation. I talked to Treyvn himself and he thinks we’ve got an excellent shot at enforcing the original contract. He does say that it’d be really helpful if we could find documents or other evidence showing how people were fooled into signing the new one. Have you had any luck there yet?”
“Um, I’ve sent an email to all the employees who’ve contacted me, asking for anything they might have. I, uh, haven’t really had time to check for replies yet.”
“Come on Morgan. This’s important. We need to be getting on this stuff.”
“I’ll start checking my email as soon as we’re done here—”
Roger interrupted to say, “Well, let me hang up so you can do it. Get back to me as soon as you’ve looked through—”
Afraid Roger was about to hang up on him, Morgan interrupted him in return. “Wait! I’m having some problems of my own.”
“Aw, crap!” Roger said, already sounding sad, “It’s Arlette, right?”
How does everyone but me seem to know she’s a huge problem? Morgan wondered. He said, “Yeah. She wants a divorce. I was hoping you could give me Vic’s contact information.”
The Transmuter's Daughter Page 6