Exousia (Karass Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  “Probably helped increase Harold’s anxiety. He couldn’t tell us he knew Grant, and he knew Grant went after Johnny on purpose.”

  “Damn,” Pete said.

  “Hon, what’s got you so upset,” Barbara said coming in from the kitchen. Both men looked up and smiled at her. She was a breath of fresh air.

  “We need to ask the women,” Pete and Hank said together.

  “Well, whatever you are going to ask us, it’s about time you all learned to do it,” Barbara said, smiling and hugging both Pete and Hank.

  “Let me get my apron on, so I can be ready for customers, and you two can tell me what you want me to bring to the council.”

  *******

  Emily sat in her living room moping and feeling lost. She knew there had been a meeting at Ava’s the night before, and she knew she hadn’t been invited. The logical part of her brain understood that it was a group who knew each other, and she was the new girl in town.

  But she still felt hurt and left out. After all, this had to do with her. It was her aunt that had died on that hill. Besides, she thought she had found some information that might be useful.

  As she was trying to decide whether to call someone or not, the decision was taken out of her hands when her phone rang. Glancing at the phone, she saw it was Sarah.

  For a split second, she thought about being petty and dismissing the call. Instead, she answered and was happy to hear that Sarah wanted to know if Emily could come to coffee with her that morning. Although Sarah lived north of Your Second Home and Emily lived to the west, they were about equal distance away.

  It was early, but both of them were already dressed for the day, so they agreed to meet in fifteen minutes. Emily grabbed the information she had found in her searches, slung her purse across her body, and walked out the door into a beautiful late April morning.

  She tried not to think about the fact that they were weeks behind in getting the center ready for the summer camp. There were worse things going on than that.

  Emily was surprised to see that all the women in the council were already at the coffee shop seated around some tables that Grace and Mandy had pushed together. Emily’s heart did a flip-flop. She wasn’t left out. She was part of a group that promised to help her and here they were.

  Sarah stood up, smiled and hugged Emily, motioning to the empty seat beside her. “We thought we’d all have coffee together this morning,” Sarah said. “Kinda informal because Grace and Mandy also need to be minding the store, but we wanted to hear how you are and share what we learned last night.”

  “We also invited Valerie and Tina to have coffee with us too. You three need the council for different reasons, but we need you too. We think that together we can solve this mystery, and then all three of you can move on with your lives.”

  Ava jumped in, “I was the one in need last year, Emily, and Mandy too. Grace and Sarah need us more this year. So it’s equal. We share. Is it okay with you that Valerie and Tina are included today?”

  Emily clapped her hands together in delight. “Absolutely!”

  Sarah sent a text on her phone, and a few minutes later, Valerie and Tina walked in the door together. Everyone, including Emily, got up to hug them. Both women were in tears by the time the hugs were over, and Emily was beaming. She had a mission. She had help.

  “Okay, ladies,” Sarah said. “Let’s see what we can do about this mess.”

  They all lifted their coffee mugs into the air and said, “Hear, hear!”

  Forty-Two

  Emily passed the picture around. Going through the files again, she had found it stuck to one of the other papers. At first, she didn’t think much of it, but looking at it again she realized what she had found.

  It was a faded photograph from a newspaper article she had stumbled across while looking for news of her aunt. It showed a group of people posed in front of what appeared to be an A-Frame house. The caption was hard to read, but using the magnifying glass Emily had brought with her, the word “Doveland” could be made out.

  “See that tree in the background,” Emily said. “I think that’s the white oak that is up near what will be the parking lot on my hill. Much smaller of course. And down at the bottom of the picture, it looks like the edge of the stone that I love to sit on.”

  The picture made the rounds until it came back to Emily, accompanied by a slight hum from each person as they squinted at it.

  “Of course I could be making this up because I want so much to find the answers, but what do you think?”

  “Well, the masthead looks like it says Doveland, and the date is June 1972, so it’s possible it’s your hill,” Sarah said. “Let’s assume that it is. Do you recognize your aunt?”

  “I wish I could say that I do, but these faces are so blurry. They must have made microfiche of the paper when it was already old, and then printing it out made it worse.

  “The thing is, there are two men in this picture. Maybe one is younger? Could that be Harold, Valerie?”

  “I don’t know. I met Harold when he was over forty, so I have no idea what he looked like as a young man. He didn’t have any pictures of himself or his family. Now I realize how strange that was, but I just accepted it. When I asked him why he said his family never took pictures.”

  “Okay. Let’s assume that is Harold. Who is the other man? And what are they doing in front of that house? It was the Seventies. We know that there were communes around here then, maybe that was one of them,” Tina said.

  “I know the other person couldn’t be Frank since he wasn’t born yet. But it made me wonder. Do you think Frank and Harold knew each other back then, Tina? Did you ever hear Frank talk about him?” Sarah asked.

  “I knew Frank since grade school and I don’t remember Harold at all. Harold was probably gone by the time we were growing up here. To answer your question though, no, Frank never mentioned Harold.”

  “That’s the thing about this. It spans a few generations.” Grace said. “If the killer is still here, he was probably here when Frank and Harold were both growing up. And Grant was visiting here too, so that may be how he and Frank met. A long time ago. Not only last summer.”

  “And that might mean that Frank knows who the man is, even if he doesn’t think he does.” Tina paused, looked around at the circle of women and said, “I guess I am going to have to do something I really, really don’t want to do. Go talk to him.”

  There was a moment of silence while everyone thought on how hard that was going to be for Tina and then three women spoke up at once. “I’ll go with you,” said Grace, Mira, and Valerie.

  Tina looked around the table in astonishment. “Why? Why would you all go with me?”

  Sarah laughed and reached across to hold Tina’s hand. “Welcome to what women do together, Tina. We need to plan this out, so let’s meet together at Grace’s tonight and go over what you are going to say to him. I’ll let Sam know so that he can set up an appointment for you.

  “Let’s review one more thing before we break up this morning. Barbara was asked to bring something to us by Sam and Pete.”

  Barbara beamed at the group. She was still getting used to having a circle of friends who did things together and supported each other. She kept telling Pete that the best gift he ever gave her was bringing her to Doveland so she could be part of it.

  It was odd to think that it was actually because of Grant that it happened. If he hadn’t arranged to have Pete pick up Ava when she was hitchhiking to Los Angeles a few years before, none of this would have been possible. Hank and Pete started off on opposite sides, and now they were the best of friends.

  “Barbara?” Sarah prompted.

  “Oh, sorry. I was thinking about how it was Grant’s actions that resulted in my being here with you. It’s true isn’t it, that people do find eac
h other if they pay attention.”

  “It is,” Sarah agreed.

  “Well, this is about you, Valerie, because it involves Johnny. No, not a bad thing,” Barbara added as the color started draining from Valerie’s face. “It’s just that Pete and Hank said they want to be even more involved in Johnny’s life as he works through this. I think they also mean Lex too, but it was Johnny who met Grant last summer.

  “Anyway, they asked me to bring the question to the council about how to do that without being too obvious or doing the wrong thing. Does anyone have any ideas I can take back to them?”

  The group had just started buzzing with ideas when Mandy looked up and noticed that Dr. Joe had come into the shop and was standing at the counter looking for coffee.

  Seeing that Mandy had work to do and the shop was starting to get full, Sarah said, “Let’s break this up for now, but keep thinking about ideas to answer Barbara’s request and the other things we discussed.”

  As everyone returned their chairs to other tables, and Sarah and Grace pulled the two tables apart, Grace whispered to Sarah, “What’s up with you and Dr. Joe? Every time he’s around, you get weird.”

  Sarah laughed. “You are such a nosy busy-body. Do you think anyone else notices? I don’t know what that’s about, but thank you for calling it to my attention. Shall we be at your place tonight around 5:30?”

  Grace said, “Perfect.” Sarah grabbed her purse off the back of the chair, and as she turned to go, she stopped and went back to Grace.

  “I know I don’t have to say this to you, seeing how you can’t keep your nose out of anything, but will you watch him and see what you think? I know the town loves him. He’s handsome and very charming. So it could just be me.”

  As Sarah left, Grace looked over at Dr. Joe talking to Mandy who was smiling back at him. I don’t think it’s just you, Sarah, she thought. Maybe we just aren’t easily charmed anymore.”

  Forty-Three

  Joe thanked Mandy for the coffee and headed to his favorite table thinking how much he loved this coffee shop. He knew that Mandy and Grace had designed the store, and he admired them for it. With its walls lined with books and the quiet feeling of the room, Joe thought it was precisely what a coffee shop should look and feel like.

  Sipping his coffee, Joe watched the store fill up. Many people were picking up coffee to go, but others stayed. He saw people with laptops working. He knew Grace was hoping that a few books would be written in the store. There were couples sitting close together on the benches whispering things to each other.

  Others were reading while drinking their coffee, and a few had set themselves up to watch out the window at the unfolding day. The summer table and chairs had been brought out a few days before and set out on the sidewalk, but no one was in them yet. Still a little chilly in the morning for that, he thought.

  When Joe was younger, he used to practice his art in places like this all the time. It wasn’t art that was visible. To Joe, the fact that no one could see his art made it even more enticing. If no one noticed what he was doing, but he could see the result of it himself, he marked it a success. Entirely invisible and yet it changed things. Like the wind.

  Over time, Joe had stopped practicing in public unless he was in a new town. Years before, when he was first starting out, everyone seemed to respond well to what he was doing. But over the years he heard people say that when he came into a room, it felt weird.

  It was a good warning sign, and he was smart enough to stop what he was doing in places where people knew him. He had become a master at his art by then, so there was no need to gratify his ego by practicing unnecessarily.

  Doveland had been off limits for a long time. He had learned that lesson years before. The fact that he had to start again worried him. It bothered him that both Grace and Sarah acted differently around him. They did their best to hide it. Probably thought it was impolite not to treat him like everyone else did, so they attempted to be normal.

  But part of Joe’s art was reading people. In fact, it was the basis of his art. And he was confident that the two of them had a feeling that something was wrong. He would have to do something about that. Not with them. He knew they were probably not easily manipulated. It would have to be something else that caught their attention and moved it away from him.

  At that moment, Grace stopped by his table and asked him if he would like a refill. He nodded, “yes,” and smiled up at her. It was a smile as real as Joe could make it. He let everything go and let himself be as transparent as he knew how to be. Grace smiled back and patted his hand.

  Anyone else would have thought it had been a warm and friendly exchange. Joe was sure Grace tried to make it feel that way. But it wasn’t. Without meaning to, Grace had warned him.

  The question now was, what to do. It was more than Grace and Sarah, and that worried him. It was the whole community they had formed. What if they shared their feelings with them? Joe knew they were a quietly powerful group, with gifts and talents that they kept to themselves as much as possible. Much like his art, most of it was invisible.

  When they started moving into town a few years before, they brought a breath of fresh air. Somewhat too fresh for some of the old residents. But it was hard to complain when they did so much good. They did most of it as invisibly as possible, but gossip would leak out about what they were doing. They had funded, and were building the bike path, renovated the church, and gave money to the city for needed repairs. Never taking credit, just being part of the community.

  It was when Joe noticed that they seemed to know things they shouldn’t know, he started thinking about retirement. When they took care of Frank, Lenny, and Grant last summer, he knew it was time. Joe didn’t even have to use his art of mental suggestion, or manipulation, on the doctor in the group. Craig already wanted to move to town. So a few apparently random meetings, and a few simple statements that he was ready to retire, brought the discussion to a head right away.

  Joe thought Craig would be the perfect doctor for Doveland. It pleased him to know he was leaving the town in such good hands. Joe loved Doveland. He loved that Doveland loved him. Joe didn’t want to do anything that would disturb his legacy. Perhaps I don’t need to do anything at all, he thought. I’m already packed. I could go at any time.

  Satisfied that he had found the answer, Joe left money on the table for Mandy and smiled at Grace on the way out. He would meet with Craig later and tell him he was tired and he was going to leave this week. He knew Craig would understand.

  Mandy and Grace watched Dr. Joe until he turned the corner towards his home. Neither spoke until he was completely out of sight.

  “Something is wrong, isn’t there?” Mandy asked.

  “I think there is. When Joe comes into a room, something else comes in with him, and it doesn’t feel right,” Grace answered.

  “Should we say anything?” Mandy asked.

  “Well, Sarah has already noticed too. Maybe it has nothing at all to do with what we are working on right now. Maybe he is just slightly creepy.”

  “Maybe,” Mandy said. “But I am watching out for him, and I am going to mention it to Tom, just in case.”

  After leaving Your Second Home, Joe turned the corner to his house, and then turned around and came back. Without being seen, he watched Grace and Mandy as they stood at the window.

  He sighed. He had wanted to let it go. But it didn’t look like he could. He didn’t like it, but something would have to be done. The choice was up to him what it would be. The choice as to how bad it would be was up to that group.

  Turning, he started home again. He had some plans to make.

  Forty-Four

  Hank kept his word. He stopped at the grocery store and bought two huge steaks and a packaged salad. Before pulling away from the store, he called Melvin to remind him to get the barbe
cue started, and to tell him he had some information to show him.

  Melvin had merely grunted and said, “I haven’t forgotten. Already primed and ready to go.” And then before hanging up he said, “Drive safe, boy.”

  Hank laughed at being called a boy and hung up seeing the picture of Melvin standing in his kitchen talking on that old phone. Hank wondered if he would be able to get Melvin to use a new smartphone, or at least a simple flip mobile phone. Hank made a mental note to look into one for Melvin. He could guilt him into it. Tell Melvin that it gave him peace of mind knowing Melvin had one. Hank sighed. He knew Melvin was thinking about his own death all the time now.

  Sarah had made copies for him of the pictures that Emily had shown the council that morning. He also had notes about the trust that Sam and Evan had discovered. Hank was hoping that something would trigger Melvin’s memory.

  Hank thought that Melvin, in his own way, was a gatherer of information the same way that Grace was, and that he probably had a wealth of information and memories tucked away that just needed to be teased out.

  As Hank pulled into the driveway to Melvin’s, he smiled at the sight. Melvin was sitting on the front porch swing, a beer beside him, and a cooler on the porch. It wasn’t that warm out yet. Although it was late April, the air still had a touch of chill in it. But Melvin was in full summer mode.

  Hank picked up the cooler and the two of them headed behind the house to the picnic table and the barbecue that was heated up and ready to go. After seasoning the steaks, Hank slapped them onto the grill, set a timer, grabbed a beer and settled down across from Melvin.

  While the steaks cooked, Hank caught Melvin up with what had been discussed the night before at Ava’s. Melvin listened and drank his beer. Telling someone else helped Hank hear the patterns in what he was saying, so it was good for both of them.