Exousia (Karass Chronicles Book 4) Read online

  During dinner, they chatted about Johnny, the bike path, how the work was going on Emily’s hill, and what was going to be planted in the vegetable garden now that it looked as if spring was going to stay around. For dessert they made s’mores. They had everything already to make them because when Hannah came over it was her favorite thing to do.

  After dinner, they stayed at the table, and Hank brought out the pictures that Emily had found. Melvin stared at them, and then pushed them back to Hank.

  “I can barely see the people in there, so I don’t think I can help you with who they are for sure. But still, this could be a picture of that commune that Emily’s aunt belonged to. And now that I see that picture, I agree that it was probably located on Emily’s hill.

  “Isn’t that strange? After all this time, Emily buys the very land where her aunt was buried. It’s almost as if she was led there. Well, okay, your friends are going to say that she was led there, that all of it was waiting for you to discover it and bring it to light.”

  Hank thought about it. “A few years ago I would have laughed at such an idea. Life was so chaotic, and I had no hope. But now I can look back on all of it and see how it led to this. To my friends. To meeting you, Melvin.”

  The two men laughed and clinked their beer bottles together.

  “Right now, a lot of this might be solved if we knew who owned the hill before Dr. Joe bought it, “ Hank said. “All we know is that it was owned by a trust, no names of the people in the trust, though, and we haven’t found anything to point us to who they were.”

  Melvin humphed and asked, “What did you say the name of the trust was again?”

  “Not sure I did.” Hank pulled out the papers Sam had given him and read the name. “It was Turtledove. Strange name for a trust.”

  “I thought you were going to say that. I don’t know why, but that name kept coming to me all day. I was waiting to see if the word came up somewhere. It’s weird though.”

  “Melvin,” Hank said, “what’s weird? Tell me now before you forget it.”

  “Hey, it’s not that bad, young man. But okay, it’s weird because Turtle Dove was what Dr. Joe’s wife called their son when he was a baby.”

  “What? Dr. Joe was married. He has a son?”

  “Yep. And that’s what Joe and his wife, May, called him. It was kind of a code between the three of them. His real name was Edward. He ran away a long time ago. Never came back. His mom died a few years before that. People said it was because she was an alcoholic. I don’t believe it though. Never seen her drunk. But what are you going to do, when that’s what Dr. Joe and the autopsy said? They were the experts. We were just farmers.”

  “Did anyone else know that name for Edward?” Hank asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. Only Dr. Joe and May called him that. I doubt that anyone knew it outside the family except for Sally and me, given that May shared it with her. They were quite close, which is why we both never believed the story that she drank too much.”

  “So you are saying that Dr. Joe bought the land from a trust he already owned?”

  “That’s what it sounds like,” Melvin said. “Weird, right?”

  Forty-Five

  It could have been a depressing meeting, but Grace and Mandy were determined that it wouldn’t be. In fact, they went the opposite way. They made it into a celebration.

  When the rest of the women’s council showed up at 5:30, they were greeted with a party. Balloons hung from the ceiling and sparkle lights draped down the wall. Mandy had worked her magic and turned Grace’s living room into a fairyland. All the curtains were pulled to increase the effect.

  Barbara, with Pete’s help, had made four different kinds of pizza, and their aromas filled the space and wafted down the stairway. Pete was experimenting with recipes. He wanted to get a pizza oven, and this was one way he was pushing the project forward. First, he needed the approval of the council on his pizzas then he could work on approval from Barbara for the pizza oven.

  Ava, Mira, Sarah, Valerie, and Tina all arrived at the same time and ended up clumped at the top of the stairs oohing and aahing over the transformation. Sarah had to gently nudge them forward so she could see what they were looking at.

  “Wow.” Mira finally said. “What happened here? And why?”

  Grace came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her new apron that sported lace and flowers. “We thought that a shift of perception about what was happening might be helpful. Instead of thinking of all this as a problem, we are going to celebrate that we are finding the answers.”

  No one needed to be convinced of the wisdom of a party. They each grabbed at least one kind of pizza, their favorite drink, and headed into the living room where even the most humble of chairs had been transformed into something new.

  Some of the chairs were wrapped in fake furs. Others had what might have once been a tablecloth stylishly pinned over them. The couches were wearing some shiny net material. The whole effect changed everything from something they knew to something they had never seen before.

  Sarah had to smile at the brilliance of the move. That was precisely what they needed to do. Not see themselves in a place of confusion, but one of awareness. Transforming a space was a perfect symbol and impetus towards the perception shift that they needed.

  Once everyone was finished eating, Sarah asked Tina to tell them about how she met Frank. Tina complied by giving them the short version of the story. They met in grade school. Yes, the same school where Valerie was now the principal. She told them that she thought that Frank would eventually grow up and be a good man, but that was wishful thinking on her part. She foolishly didn’t pay attention to the clues of what life would be like with him until it was too late.

  “But now, I want him to tell me what we need to know,” Tina said. “And we haven’t said a civil word to each other in so long I don’t have any idea how to start the conversation. Let alone get information from him.”

  “Well,” Valerie said. “I understand everything you have said, but I think if it was Harold that was in jail, even if he was furious with me, he might be willing to help just to keep his children safe.”

  “That’s true,” Tina answered. “He wasn’t a great father, but he did seem to love his children at one point. I’ll try that first. What if it doesn’t work?”

  “I say you lie then,” Mandy said. “Tell him he’ll get something for helping. Perhaps get you back. Maybe he’ll think he can control you that way. Or feel as if he won in the end. Or tell him that Sam will get him a lax sentence. Maybe extra privileges. Well, maybe those won’t be lies. Maybe Sam can pull some strings to get that done.”

  “So, Sarah,” Mira asked. “Is lying a good intent or a bad intent?”

  “Don’t you have the answer to that, Mira?” Sarah asked.

  Grace said, “Well, personally I think that is the kind of lie that produces good and doesn’t hurt anyone. Well, maybe it would hurt Frank, but I doubt it. Tina wouldn’t have to lie to him if he was acting with the right intentions in the first place.”

  “That’s what I mean,” Mandy said.

  “Okay,” Tina said. “I can do that. But, I am going to appeal to his goodness first.”

  “We vote for that too, Tina,” Grace said. “Either way, we are on your side.”

  “Well, I vote for an early bedtime,” Ava said as she pushed herself off the floor where she had ended up sitting.

  Everyone agreed that it was going to be a long day and sleep was a good idea to prepare for it. Barbara and Mandy stayed and helped Grace clean up the food and dishes, but Grace said she wanted to keep the room as it was for a while. After the mystery of the bodies on the hill was solved, they might need another night of a magical experience. In the meantime, she was going to enjoy it all by herself.

  Snapping
off the lights, and heading down the hallway to her bedroom, Grace caught a glimpse of Eric. She knew that he would be watching over her as they solved this mystery. And really, what more could she want. Love is love in whatever form it occurs, Grace thought as she drifted off to sleep dreaming of a magical fairyland.

  ********

  It was a long walk to the phone with leg and arm chains on, but it was worth it. Lenny hadn’t had a phone call for so long he was happy to hear from anyone. Except for Grant. He was delighted that he would never hear from Grant again. Not because he didn’t like Grant, but because he had killed him. As he shuffled through the jail towards the phone, Lenny remembered that day in the field.

  It had been easier than he thought possible to kill Grant. Everyone’s attention was on him as he ran towards Hank shouting, waving a gun. No one was looking at Lenny as he stepped out of from behind a tree and shot Grant in the back. At the same time, Grant had fired at Hank, hoping to kill him. Instead, Jay had stepped in front of Hank and saved him. Now that was a friend, Lenny thought and wondered if anyone would do that for him.

  Later, Lenny wasn’t really sure why he killed Grant. Grant would have been captured, and Lenny could have continued to run the organization that Grant had built. Instead, Lenny became a fugitive. And without a well thought out plan, he was quickly caught.

  Lenny had hopes that someday he would be paroled. Then he could start up his business again. So, Lenny was a model prisoner. It was curious, Lenny mused, that none of his cronies, business partners, or so-called friends, had ever tried to help him get out of jail, or even tried to help him while he was in prison. He had been banished. He would get back at them someday.

  On the other hand, Lenny thought, perhaps this phone call is the beginning of the help he needed. Full of curiosity and hope, Lenny answered the phone. He listened and didn’t say anything.

  In fact, there was no one on the other line. It was a recording. If someone had been listening in on the call, they would have heard a series of gibberish words with no discernible meaning.

  To Lenny, there was a meaning. He understood what he needed to do. After hearing the recording the whole way through, he said, “Okay,” and hung up.

  At the same time, across the state, Frank got the same phone call. He too listened, said “Okay,” and then hung up.

  Later, when the authorities researched what happened, the two untraceable phone calls became just one more piece of a mystery that no one understood.

  Forty-Six

  Sarah didn’t turn on the lights in the house. She knew every inch of her little bungalow by now, and could easily make her way around her home without lights. She loved the silence of the predawn and turning on lights took some of the magic away.

  In her little kitchen, Sarah made a cup of coffee and still in the darkness, made her way out into her garden. Winter had finally breathed its last breath, and spring had once again come to Doveland.

  The air was still chilly in the morning, so she was dressed in layers of clothes. As the day progressed, layers would come off. A slight breeze brought the scent of daffodils and lilacs to her, the harbingers of summer.

  As she sipped her coffee, Sarah thought about how different her life was now. Last year, she had Leif, and Grace had Eric. If Leif were still here, Sarah would be sitting with him in their garden in Sandpoint now, looking out at a forest.

  Instead, this year, she had a tiny backyard, which she had grown to love, and she was sitting alone, which she had decided to accept. After all, there really wasn’t much else she could do other than surrender.

  She and Grace had been forced to learn a new way of living, and the easiest way to do that was to let it be okay.

  One of the essential things Sarah had come to realize was that with Leif’s physical absence she needed to become more practiced at what he had been doing before he left. Listening and protecting. They went together. She needed to take up the practice of that art with more diligence. Her friends were busy today taking care of what needed to be done. She would be here protecting them.

  Most people thought protecting was taking some kind of physical action. Sometimes it was. But only after the inner listening and protection had taken place. Protection wasn’t a reaction. It was state of being.

  Sarah knew that too often, she, like most people, reacted instead of pausing to listen. And in doing so gave away their authority to people, places, things, and ideas. Instead, Sarah wanted to take action based on listening and acting from the ultimate authority of the Infinite One. Sarah changed her mind all the time about what to call that authority or One, but the name didn’t matter. The power of it did.

  Sarah had always known that there were forces of evil that claimed to have power and authority. Sometimes she found herself frightened by that knowledge. But Sarah knew that they only got their power by taking, manipulating, confusing, and distracting. It was imperative that she not let herself become manipulated or distracted. It was so easy to forget, especially in today’s world which is set up more than ever to distract and manipulate.

  Sarah knew there were many people who worked diligently to combat visible evil, and she was grateful for them. But what about the invisible evil?

  It took much more awareness to stop its action, and that was what Sarah thought they were dealing with this time.

  Grant had been terrible. He lived and acted from an evil intention. They had all suffered from his relentlessness in attacking them. But now there was an invisible evil present. Aimed at them. It had turned its eye towards them because it knew that they were searching for it. She could feel its presence in the town. Perhaps it had been there all along, but lying dormant. Now the discoveries of the bodies on the hill had awakened it.

  Someone was practicing the evil arts of mental manipulation, and Sarah was afraid that they had been doing it for years. In secret. A shadow was walking through everyone’s lives, without anyone seeing it. Invisible, except for the outcomes it caused.

  Mentally manipulating anyone, even through prayer, was always dangerous. Human will and plans are a determination to keep control, instead of letting divine Love take over.

  Instead, true prayer is the affirmation of a higher power always in charge, no matter what the human picture looks like. Prayer breaks the blindness of human perception and opens thought to the ultimate authority of love and allows us to see what is really going on, Sarah thought.

  But someone practicing mental manipulation on purpose was more dangerous than Grant had ever been, and that was what Sarah was afraid was happening. Someone was getting what they wanted, all the time. Invisibly.

  As Sarah sat in her garden, she let herself become empty. She let the hundreds of thoughts that drifted through her mind go by without attaching to them in any way. She practiced letting go.

  Then she imagined the light of the divine encompassing everyone. She saw her friends and family in the light where darkness could not enter. She imagined light filling every space, flowing over and around first her and then expanding into space. She felt the warmth and safety of that presence.

  When she felt that she had turned everything over to that light-filled presence, she breathed out and opened her eyes ready to do what needed to be done. Bring the invisible darkness into the light.

  *******

  Sam didn’t like that the women were going to see Frank by themselves. But he was on his way to see Lenny so he couldn’t go with them. When he called the prison to set up Tina’s visit, he asked to speak to the warden who was a friend of a friend. He promised to look out for them.

  Even so, as he hugged Mira goodbye, he asked her if she was going to use her spidey senses to stay safe. She laughed at him and told him she would.

  Mira was the designated driver. Even though Mandy had wanted to go with the women, someone had to stay home to take care of the coffee shop.
It was probably better anyway. With Mira, Ava, Grace, Valerie, and Tina in the car there really wasn’t any more room. Sarah said she needed to stay home and do some quiet thinking.

  Everyone knew Sarah meant that she needed to listen and protect them using prayer and meditation. She could do that best at home, in the silence.

  Sam hugged Mira goodbye, closed her door for her, and then flinched as Leif said, “Don’t worry, we’ll watch over them.”

  “Damn it, Leif. When will you stop sneaking up on me like that?” Sam said.

  “I didn’t sneak. You just weren’t paying attention, Sam,” Leif responded.

  Sam paused and looked at the two men standing by the car. “You’re right. I am distracted almost all the time. Keep doing that until I can feel you coming.”

  “Not to worry, young man,” Leif said. “I will.”

  The three men waved at Mira as she pulled away, and blew kisses at the three of them.

  As they drove away, Sam turned to the two men still standing there. “Is it a bad thing that I don’t get how you travel to other places, or where you are when you aren’t here? I mean, I’m getting used to it, I guess. After all, here you are so I can’t deny that it happens.

  “But being here and there, you both not having a body, and yet I can still see you, is so strange I can’t wrap my head around it.”

  “Honestly, Sam,” Eric said. “I don’t know if we understand it either. I keep getting told it is dimension shifting or traveling. We are all here at the same time in the same place all the time. Just in different dimensions.

  I think that the reason that we can be where the women are going without having to travel physically to get there is because we aren’t moving a body. We are just moving an idea of ourselves.”