by Leona Fox
“We've called this meeting because we'd like to get your plans for the mill down in writing. I'm sure you're aware that this whole affair has caused much consternation among the people of the town. So it would set everyone's mind at ease if we had some concrete information to feed back to them,” Lisa began.
“I see your small town mindset doesn't preclude you from getting outside help,” Charlotte said bitingly. “As for my plans, well, I've made no secret of them. I really have no plans to stay here any longer than I have to.”
“Yes,” James interjected, “she knows who deserves to own this mill.” Charlotte glanced sideways and a wicked smile appeared on her face.
“Well, I always said I would sell to the highest bidder and I actually had a call last night from another interested party.” The look on James' face was priceless and Ellen had to suppress a smile.
She knew Charlotte couldn't be trusted and James had made that fatal mistake. There was no honor among thieves, something he should have known for a long time, and for the first time Ellen felt hope. Even if Charlotte did sell to someone else there was a chance, however slim, they would understand the mindset of East Pender and actually respect the way of life. James, looking betrayed, was at a loss for words. He laughed nervously and bent Charlotte's ear for a private word. While they were speaking, Ellen glanced across at Andy and Kelly, and all of them shared a buoyant look, although Ray still looked on edge. He would have to take whatever news came out of this meeting back to the people at the mill. Given the tension that was rife throughout the town, there could be an outburst of anger and rage if the news was dire.
“This is not the time to discuss this. And I never made any promises to you. I am not responsible for any assumptions you have made, everyone in the business world knows this,” Charlotte said sharply, and James looked suitably scolded.
He had been shown for what he truly was, a mid-level businessman who scraped by clinging onto those with more skills than he himself possessed. Charlotte had taken advantage of him, just as she looked to take advantage of East Pender itself. James had been too blind to see it and now he was seeing the result of allying with a serpent.
Charlotte turned back to look at the others, “It is quite simple. I am Michael van De Lay's rightful heir and for all these years the money the mill has made should have been in my family. It is my birthright. So to make up for all that I have lost, I shall sell the mill and reap the profits. That is my plan.”
“You can't do that! What about all the people at the mill? What about everyone who lives here? The mill is part of the town, part of our history. You can't just sell it to whomever pays the most money.” It was Ellen who spoke up, and the others were surprised it was not Ray.
“I can, and I will,” Charlotte said.
“You keep talking about your claim to van De Lay's estate but do you even know anything about the man? I've read his journal. He loved this town. He spent the best years of his life and a lot of money improving this town, building it up to make it a haven for people to come and live, to have a good, wholesome life. He even said that although he wasn't born here, East Pender was a true home to him and he wanted to see it flourish and grow. Now you want to tarnish that legacy? You want to take what he left you and twist it, corrupt it? If you were truly his heir then you should want to respect his feelings and do what he would have wanted, what he thought best. I can guarantee you that if he were here now he would be disgusted by what you're doing.” Ellen's words had become harsher and more emotional as they flooded out of her.
Her cheeks were flushed as the burning anger simmered in her blood, and Charlotte seemed taken aback, her usually implacable expression shocked at the virility of Ellen's passion. Just as when the mob had gathered outside the cafe, baying for blood, Charlotte looked scared. Kelly pulled Ellen down, for during her speech the amateur detective had risen to her full height. There was a moment of silence as everyone let the impassioned speech sink in. Lisa was the first who broke the silence. Her words were calm and measured, the complete opposite of Ellen's.
“Ms. Thatch does bring up a good point. If this is your inheritance, then you should use it in a manner that stays true to Mr. van De Lay's intentions. But first I would like to see your claim to the mill. I understand you have shown it to the mayor's office but I think it would help everyone here to see it for themselves, in the spirit of being open. And it's only fair, because if someone wants to challenge it then they'll need to know what they're up against.”
“I thought you might say that, but nobody is going to challenge this. Nobody can,” Charlotte said.
She reached into her bag and pulled out a number of photocopied documents, then slid them over to Lisa, who took them and arranged them so all the others could see. Ray craned his neck to look at the highlighted areas while Charlotte sat back and folded her arms with an air of smug satisfaction. And there it was, as clear as day. A straight line drawn from Charlotte to an ancestor, who had indeed married someone with the last name van De Lay. It must have been a distant relative of Michael's, but it was still his blood and the closest thing he had to a living heir.
“I always was told of my family history and how we had a lot of wealth. It turned out Michael van De Lay was looked upon as the black sheep of the family. He had this idea of pouring his money into some small town, and everyone laughed at him for it. He was used as an example by my parents of how not to handle money. One never spent money on things like that, one invested money to make more of it. It's a simple equation and one that Michael lost track of. I never paid him much attention really, because I had more important things to dabble in. Then I read that article and I knew I could make up for his mistakes, reclaim the wealth he spent, and bring it back to where it belongs. You have it there in black and white. I am his descendant, his only living one, and I believe the term is checkmate. You can keep those, by the way, in case you need to prove it to anyone else.” With that she rose, confident of her victory, and strode out of the cafe with her head held high.
She held the fate of the town in the palm of her hand and she sought to tighten her grip, to bleed the town dry and leave it as the husk of what it once was. James followed, calling out to her, hoping to get back in her good graces so he could be the beneficiary of her plot. Meanwhile, the others remained sitting in silence, looking at the cold, hard facts. It was indisputable she had a rightful claim, none of them could deny that.
“I guess that's that then,” Ray said, his tone weary and beleaguered.
“Is it?” Ellen asked, turning to Lisa, “Is there nothing we can do to stop this?”
“Not unless you can find someone who has a better claim than hers. If there was a direct descendant then their claim would be superior, but given what I've seen it looks as though he died before having any children. So, I'm sorry to say it, but you might have to start planning for people to be losing their jobs.”
Ray coughed and made his exit, the revelation of the day taking its toll on him. But Ellen was determined to find out who Michael van De Lay's mysterious lover was, because that was the key to saving the town.
“Come on Kelly, we have work to do,” she said.
Chapter 8
Ellen was loathe to leave Lisa and Andy together but she had to trust in the feelings that she and Andy shared for each other. Besides, there were more important things to deal with. The threat of Charlotte was becoming more immediate, and since there wasn't anything Lisa could do to stall the inevitable, the race was on. Ellen redoubled her efforts at the library, combing through the records again to see if there was any trace of this mysterious lover. All she needed was one picture of Michael van De Lay and a woman together, or an article from a newspaper at the time that reported on their courtship, and she could start forming a line down to whomever was living today. Meanwhile, Kelly and Matthew continued interviewing people. The next person on the list was Martha Gordon, one of the oldest residents in the town. She had been just a little girl when Michael van De L
ay had lived, and although her memory was hazy, she was still sharp for her age.
“I know, it's terrible what that woman is doing. That mill has stood the test of time and it represents the best of this town. I can't imagine it being sold off. It's like selling the soul of this town to the devil,” Martha said after Kelly and Matthew had introduced themselves.
“That's why any help would be appreciated. I know it was a long time ago but if there's anything you remember from your childhood that could help us we'd really appreciate it,” Matthew said.
Martha placed her hands in her lap and tried thinking back through all the years. She had seen so much in that time and it was difficult to search through the misty fog of memories.
“There have been so many things that have happened. You know, sometimes the past seems like a dream. It was so long ago it's difficult to tell if it really happened or not. I know that back then there were still a lot of celebrations and my mother used to take me walking to the market. She used to point out Michael van De Lay to me. He was practically a celebrity in these parts and she always spoke of him with awe. I remember bits and pieces...sometimes my mother and her friends would gather for afternoon tea and they would gossip with each other while I played. They mentioned something about him being involved in some sort of scandal. Of course, I wasn't aware of the ins and outs of it, but from what I could gather it was a bit of a thing. Then he died, of course, and it was such a shame. For all his faults as a man he did this town no end of good and everyone was miserable, especially that girl.”
“Do you remember her name?” Kelly asked excitedly, glad that all their hard work finally had paid off and they had a lead in the case. But it was tempered when Martha shook her head and sighed.
“It was so long ago,” she admitted, and just as quickly as the hopes had been raised they were dashed, and to Kelly it seemed as though everything was futile.
“But,” Martha added, “I do still have a lot of the papers and things from that time. My mother liked to keep them just in case, you know. She said it was important to mark the passage of time and it became a habit I followed. I can tell you my children found it annoying. There were so many times they tried to get me to clean out everything but I knew that one day it would come in handy.”
While Martha searched through her hoarded documents Kelly's phone vibrated. It was Ellen. She had sent her a few picture messages of women who had been seen with van De Lay. Ellen asked Kelly to see if Martha recognized any of them. It came at the perfect time as Kelly could compare these to whatever Martha had. She scrolled through the pictures and found it strange to think that many of the women probably were deeply in love with van De Lay. Yet, he only had eyes for one of them. But which one? It could have been any number of them.
Martha returned with a big stack of papers, and it took the three of them a long time to go through all of them. “You might be interested in these as well. They're from his funeral, and I set these aside especially because, well, it was a big occasion. Such a shame that there was no body but they still had a coffin, just for appearances' sake. I remember that everyone looked sad but back then I didn't think he was really dead. He was that kind of person, larger than life. I imagined he had gone to the center of the Earth or found Atlantis or something like that. Even when you lot found the body I didn't truly believe it, but I suppose, in the end, he was just a man, and suffered the same fate as all of us.” She spoke with a wistful tone, as though she was well aware she, too, was coming to the end of her life and, soon enough, would just be a memory, like Michael van De Lay.
Kelly snatched the papers about the funeral from the old woman and gazed at the picture. There was one girl who looked especially sad, and from the look on her face Kelly almost could see the tears pouring down her cheeks. She was not the only person who looked morose, but there was something else as well. In some of her pictures only her face was visible, but in others her whole body could be seen, and in those it was clear she had been pregnant. Upon seeing this Kelly gasped and showed them to the others.
“Oh yes, that was her alright, that was the girl he loved. He would have done anything for her, even braved the judgment of others.”
“What do you mean?” Kelly asked.
“Well, he was a man, fully-grown. She was just a child, barely had turned seventeen when they started courting not that that was much of a big deal back then. Why, my mother married a man almost twenty years her senior. No, much worse was the fact she was from the streets. She was the daughter of a homeless man. People just thought she was only after him for his money, and all the rest of his admirers couldn't believe he would choose her over them. She had no prospects and really nothing to offer, but he loved her, and I suppose he saw something in her that nobody else did.”
“What was her name?”
“It should be in there somewhere, everyone knew her. Amelia I think it was, I don't quite recall her surname. She left not long after that. Couldn't deal with the shame. People were unkind to her, and I suppose staying in the town was just too painful, too much to bear.”
“Thank you Martha, thank you so much for all your help. I think you might have just saved the mill!” Kelly exclaimed.
She and Matthew ran out of the house and into the car, then they drove at full speed to the library. They burst in, not caring about the sharp glares that were cast their way because of the noise they were making. Ellen looked up, surprised to see them. Kelly slapped the picture down in front of Ellen, along with the name.
“Please tell me you recognize her?” Kelly said.
Ellen herself was surrounded by as many records as Kelly and Matthew had been at Martha's. Indeed, she had seen the face before but never had had it confirmed that it was van De Lay's beau. Kelly filled Ellen in on the story behind the romance and why there were not many records of her. To society at that time she had been invisible, and the only reason she was anyone of note was because of her association with Michael van De Lay. But now they had a name and they could trace it all the way through. Hopefully they would find that there would be at least one living relative, and that they would see van De Lay's vision for the town, unlike Charlotte who was blind to it. Ellen, Kelly, and Matthew scoured the records, filled with a vibrant energy that came to them from knowing that hope was gleaming for them. They all remembered Charlotte's confidence. So all of them wanted to see the look on her face as they pulled the carpet from underneath her and pulled off an unlikely victory for the small town of East Pender. There was still a long way to go but it was within their grasp.
Meanwhile, Andy and Lisa had been occupied with other matters. After the meeting at the cafe the two of them had gone over some legal matters, just to make sure there was nothing else they could do to forestall the deal. They had returned to Andy's home and Lisa was sitting uncomfortably close to him, continually making references to their past and it was all Andy could do to keep the conversation focused on the present. At one point Ellen sent him a text to tell him of their discovery, and he relayed the news, but Lisa seemed unimpressed. She had made him dinner, just as she used to, and Andy wasn't blind to the fact she had made his old favorite. The plates were empty now, though, and they were trying to relax.
“Be honest with me Andy, what is it you even see in her? She's got a lot of spirit, I'll give her that, but she's small time, just like this town. You know you don't belong here? This place isn't you,” she said.
“It's become me. It's a good place, Lisa. I'm happy here. I'm happy with Ellen. You might not be able to see but I am, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.”
Lisa pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes. “I know this isn't you. You miss the bright lights of the city. I still think of you, of our time together. No one ever has been able to replace you.”
“Yeah, well, you were the one who ended things.”
“Because I lost you!” Lisa exclaimed, then tried calming down again.
“You're such a frustrating man. I've tried to forg
et you, tried to move on, but it just hasn't worked. Come back with me. Forget this life. Is this what you really want to spend your time doing? Trying to save some old mill so a few people can keep their jobs? It's beneath you.”
“They're good people, Lisa. If you can't see that then I won't be able to make you understand. But that's the problem with you, with most people in the city. You see this place as an anachronism, as a place that has been lost in time, but it's not. It's a good place. It's a good home and a lot of people are happy here. The city isn't better just because it's bigger and flashier.”
“But that's where your life is, where you belong, with me. Come on, you know you miss it, all those nights we'd stay up talking, those long drives, looking out at the city from your porch. The world was ours. You can't say you don't miss that,” she said, running a hand over his chest.
For a moment he almost was tempted to give in. The temptation of the past was strong. There had been a time when it was perfectly natural for her to be running her hand over his body. Her lips yearned for his, but he loved Ellen. He grabbed Lisa's wrist and forced her hand away.
“I don't miss it. I'm happy, Lisa, and if you truly felt anything for me you'd understand that and let me be,” he said.
Lisa's face flushed with anger and she almost screamed. Rage lay within her eyes and she jerked her hand away. Then she gathered her things and stormed out of the house without saying a word, slamming the door on her way out. Andy exhaled deeply, closed his eyes, and pinched his nose.
He didn't know how long had passed when Ellen called him.
“Hey, I'm really sorry but I think I messed up the case,” he said.
“What happened?”
“It's Lisa. We...we had a fight and she's left. If there was any legal loophole, I won't be able to find it on my own. I'm sorry. I guess it wasn't a good idea to call her in the first place.”