Serendipity By Rocky

CHAPTER 15

The day had begun in a dark purple haze as the rising sun fought its way through heavy clouds filled to bursting with rain. Murray raised his arms over his head in an attempt to stretch away the kinks, while he stared numbly through the all too familiar windshield at the house across the street. Spatters of rain soon turned to a steady down pour and thundered on the roof of the car. 'Christ! How in the hell can he sleep through all this noise?' Murray wondered, letting his gaze fall to where George slept on the reclined passenger seat.

"George?" Murray reached over to rub the thigh of the sleeping man. "Georgie!" He said, raising his volume over the sound of the rain beating down on the roof.

One brown eye opened and looked up. "Morning." George's voice was raspy with sleep as he smiled sheepishly.

"Yes it's morning." Murray looked back out the windows at the gray, soggy sky. "Not that a body could tell in this weather." He leaned over to steal a quick kiss before running a thumb over the stubble on George's chin. "Time to get up dream boy."

George ran a hand through his hair followed by a jaw-cracking yawn. He shifted and raised the seat back. "Damn!" He complained, "I'm glad this is the last day, my ass is asleep."

"Bitch… bitch… bitch! …You should have born a woman." The P.I. teased, giving George a friendly slap on the shoulder.

The warm smile that started to form on the ex-security guard's face fell away to be replaced with a gape faced look of shock. "Oh-oh…" He whispered. Following his gaze Murray turned to see the small blonde woman they had been watching for the past week, standing outside the car in the rain, peering in the side window.

"Oh shit!" Murray murmured as he eased himself back into the driver's seat. The smug look on Amy's face said that she had seen him waking George up. She knocked politely on the glass and pantomimed the window rolling down. Murray obliged her and with a grim smile said, "Yes?"

Amy tipped her umbrella back so she could lean in the car window. "Is your name Hodgekiss?" She asked, biting back a Cheshire grin. Murray sighed and nodded. "You two better come with me to the house. I think we need to talk." Giving each other a puzzled look, the two men exited the sedan, and trailed reluctantly after the bobbing purple umbrella.

When she entered the front door Amy paused to shake and collapse the umbrella before dropping it into the stand under the coat hooks. "Hang up your wet coats here, will you?" She said gesturing to the hooks. "Rory is waiting in the kitchen."

Looking up from her laptop, Rory acknowledged the two men as they made their way into the kitchen. "Have a seat gentlemen." She said, wafting a hand at two chairs across from her. Shutting down her computer and removing her glasses, the exec leaned forward with her elbows on the table. She caught the slight nod from Amy indicating the Private Investigator was the man with the receding hairline. "Before we say anything else, I want you to know that I have a copy of all your firm's computer files…" Rory directed at him, and then paused to let the statement sink in. "Blackmail is such a dirty word. I would hate to have to lower myself to that."

Two Adam's apples bobbed up and down. Finally, Murray cleared his throat. "H… how?"

"Tit for tat, Mr. Hodgekiss, someone from your firm tried to pull my personnel file. Unfortunately for you the young man responsible for those very files takes great exception to someone trying to pilfer them. Consequently he is like a dog with a bone. I now, instead, have a copy of all of yours." Rory's lip twisted up into a very nasty smile. "Don't worry, I have no intention of doing anything with them, and one word from me and that copy will cease to exist."

The other shoe hovered above the floor for several moments.

Murray's mind raced a mile a minute; he had no doubt that what the woman on the other side of the table said was true. The question that he was trying desperately to read from her face was, 'What did she want?' "Mrs. Winters," He began, "I hope you realize this is nothing personal. I'm just doing a job the same as anyone else. As for the computer thing…" Murray bravely looked Rory right in the eye. "It's not something I'm proud of but I was hired to find everything I could about you and that is one of the ways."

Rory steepled one brow and leaned forward to rest her chin on her clasped hands. "It is also illegal as hell Mr. Hodgekiss. I have you, pardon the expression, by the proverbial balls. What do you propose we do about it?"

The private investigator squirmed in his chair. When he couldn't stand the cool blue stare any longer, he looked over at George who shrugged and replied, "She's got us Murray. It's the last day, you might as well come clean--Stafford's an asshole anyway." George bit his lip and looked over to Amy. "Present company excepted, of course." He reached up to rub at his ear. "No insult intended ma'am."

"None taken…" Amy circled the table and set coffee mugs in front of everyone, including one for herself. She frowned. "Aren't you the guy I hired to watch the house?"

The ear he was tugging on got warmer as George felt his face go flush. "Yes Ma'am that was me. I don't work for Hansen's any more though." He gave Murray a little sideways grin. "Mr. Hodgekiss gave me a better offer."

Amy smirked as she circled the table again, this time with the coffeepot. When she got to Rory she leaned down and whispered in her ear, causing the tall woman's brows to leap up. She eyed the two men cryptically and said, "I see…"

The small blonde woman seated her self beside the ex-security guard and watched him stir some sugar into his coffee. "Your name is Riley, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yes Ma'am, but please call me George."

"Okay George." She grinned and held out her hand. "Thank you 'George' for arresting my mother."

George was stunned. He didn't know quite what to say as he shook her hand. "…You're welcome Ma'am…"

"…Call me Amy"

The big man grinned. "…You're welcome Amy. I was just doing my job."

"Well George, you managed to get my mother to talk to me. That's more than I've been able to do in six years."

A look of broken empathy fell over the big man's face. "When I told my folks, they didn't talk to me for almost ten years. If it's any consolation, I have dinner with my Mom every Sunday now."

Rory tilted back in her chair, stretching out the leg with the cast, regarding the other three people in the room. "Now that we've established that we're all family here." She paused to smile and shake her head almost in disbelief. "The fact remains that we…" She glanced up at the clock. "…have to be at the reading of a will in a few hours and I need a couple things clear in my mind before we do."

Murray ran one hand over his head and sighed. "What do you want to know?"

Rubbing her hands together Rory began. "The first thing I want to know is, if the file is tagged for Carson Stafford why is the billing notation for the account 'State Unity Banks?"

The Private Investigator relaxed visibly. It wasn't going to be the inquisition that he thought it was going to be; at least this question didn't tax his professional ethics. While it wasn't common knowledge, it wasn't exactly a secret either. "We've been on retainer for State Unity for the past three years. My firm researches clients looking for large loans, find and do collections on delinquent loan payments." Murray shrugged. "Checking up on people is what we do. …Oh and we research prospective talent, frankly I thought that's what this job was about until Mr. Stafford started ranting that he wanted us to do surveillance on you too."

"So Stafford had you do surveillance on me on Unity's dime?" Rory stated rhetorically, and ran the tip of her index finger over her lower lip as she absorbed the information. She trapped Murray in her sights to gage his reaction to the next question. "What made you decide to investigate Stafford?"

Murray felt the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile in spite of himself. His estimation of the woman across the table from him was soaring. "Lady you are too much." He chuckled. "His 'holier than thou' attitude has stunk from word one. Stafford would disappear for hours; at times entire weekends, and then would chew me out because he didn't get his reports. So when he went all 'phobe over you and his daughter, my gut said 'Check this out' …so I did. With the help of George here."

Amy looked over at George. "So you've been following my Dad?"

Nodding, the big man shrugged uncomfortably like his skin didn't fit. "Yeah Murray asked me to follow him because he's never met me. You've seen my report huh?"

"Rory showed it to me when we got up. …So it's true, he's also married this other woman, besides my mother, and has a son with her?" A sinking feeling settled in the middle of her chest, the disappointment in the man she had called 'Dad' all her life, was numbing.

"Yes it's all true." George replied quietly.

Amy got up and walked over to look out the window into the back yard. It was like she hadn't accepted the news until that very moment. The depth of her sorrow surprised her. After all, hadn't she just found out that the man wasn't even her father? The last words she had heard from him, angrily ordering her out of his house and out of his life still echoed in her memory. Damn it! It still hurt. Why? She realized then that she was confusing the estrangement of her parents with the discovery that the man she had loved and looked up to, was an utter cad. It hurt to discover that 'Daddy' was in fact an 'asshole.'

The Exec watched her lover slip off into a place somewhere inside herself. "Thank you for being frank with us. This whole thing has been very hard on Amy." She glanced over to the blonde woman who gazed out of the window seeing nothing. "Would you please show yourselves out, I think we need some time alone here."

The two men nodded and left the two women in the kitchen. When they got back to the car George looked back up at the house they has been watching for the past week. "Poor kid." He observed.

Murray pulled open the driver's door of the sedan and waited for George to slide in the other side. "Yeah. Good thing she's got Ms. Winters." He clasped the big man's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Let's get out of here. I'll buy you breakfast."

"Aren't you supposed to report to Stafford before nine?"

Murray expelled a snort of disgust and turned the key in the ignition. "Fuck'm!"

George laughed. The dark car rolled off into the rain in search of coffee, steak and eggs.

Lisa topped the carafe with coffee and set it onto the tray with the teapot and cream & sugar, a hand full of mugs followed. Using her usual care, she transported the whole thing across the hall to the smaller of the two conference rooms, the one with the oval table. She nodded to the two women seated there, and with a smile and turned to go back to the reception desk.

"Thanks Lisa." Amy called to the receptionist.

"Sure thing Amy." Lisa grinned tossing up a hand to indicate that it was nothing. "Just holler if you need anything else." She genuinely liked the blonde woman and was very intrigued the woman on crutches who had arrived with her.

The receptionist felt uneasy as she turned into the hallway that led to the front area, sort of an itching at the base of her scalp. Coming around the corner the feeling was made evident by the sight of the rest of the Stafford clan grouped around her desk. Mrs. Stafford had a bewildered 'Lucille Ball' look on her face. A young woman stood behind her, who had to be her daughter, had the countenance of a smuggler who'd just been captured by the KGB. …And then there was Carson Stafford who had all the stony charm of a monolith.

"Good Morning, Mr. And Mrs. Stafford …and of course Miss Stafford." Lisa greeted them pleasantly. "If you will follow me I'll take you to the reading."

The Stafford clan trooped along behind her without a word like visiting royalty, following in slow measured steps. Lisa stopped and indicated the conference room. "Please go in and have a seat. There is tea and coffee, and if you require anything else simply press the button marked 'reception' on the conference room phone. Mr. Twist will be with you shortly." Lisa turned and left as quickly as she possibly could without seeming to run.

Carson entered the room first and then stopped so abruptly that his wife almost piled into his back. There, sitting at the table was the woman from the file… Rory Winters. His scowl deepened and he fired a blazing look of disgust at his estranged daughter sitting beside her. The frown turned to a look of surprise when her green eyes met his glare with a patronizing look of contempt. Shaken, he quickly moved to the end of the table and sat turned so he no longer had to look their direction.

Still lost and bewildered, Eleanor scooted into the chair beside him and made an industrious production of searching for something inside her purse leaving her youngest daughter with a choice of three seats, all of which were across from her sister. In a quiet statement of neutrality, Sherri chose to sit in the middle with an empty chair on either side of her.

The air in the conference room was stale and empty, only soft noises of office machinery and muted voices could be heard. Amy felt a larger warm hand encompass her own beneath the table. She sat and studied the face of her sister who was in turn studying back. Finally she tried a small smile. Wonder of wonders, Amy received a shy little smile back. The warmth that had started at her clasped hand spread over whole being and the sense of dread that had floated over her heart was pushed a tiny bit further away.

Larry Twist entered the room and stopped to shake hands with each the people at the table. When he reached Carson, the man gripped his hand a touch too tight and hissed angrily through clenched teeth. "What is 'she' doing here!"

The Lawyer looked over his shoulder at Rory and then back at the angry banker. "Ms. Stafford has requested Mrs. Winters' presence as counsel, and since she is executor to the York Estate, it is well within her rights."

Releasing the tall man's hand, Carson stood and glared at Rory. "You're a Lawyer?"

Rory blinked calmly back at him. "Why… Mr. Stafford, were you so busy looking for skeletons, that you didn't you notice my educational history when you had the private investigator dredge up my past?"

Carson's jaw snapped shut. His eyes black with anger, stared holes in his daughter and her lover, and he dropped back down into his chair.

Larry continued around the table shaking hands. When he reached Rory, he grinned. "Nice to see you again." And gave her a conspiratorial wink. Reaching the chair next to Amy he opened the thick file that lay on the surface in front of him. Looking up to catch the eye of each of the people in the room, he began. "Thank you all for coming to day for the reading of the last will and testament of Christen York."

As the Lawyer passed out copies of the document to Amy, her mother and her sister, the blonde woman watched her sister's face carefully. The smile they had shared gave her hope for the future of their relationship. Her sight gently caressed the familiar features, the soft chocolate brown eyes, the up-turned nose with its sprinkle of barely discernable freckles, and the determined chin that was so much like her own. Was the little girl who had looked up to her and followed her everywhere, still in there?

"You were informed by mail of the bequests that were performed previously by Amanda Stafford and myself. What you have before you, is a copy of the will in its entirety, with the areas pertaining to each beneficiary highlighted. Now, would you like to have a moment to glance through the document? Or, would you prefer to go ahead with the formal reading?" Larry Twist asked, looking up to take in everyone at the table.

The air grew thick with anticipation. Carson having absconded with Eleanor's copy of the will, cleared his throat, and rapped the table in impatience. "Let's just get on with it."

"As you wish," Larry looked at the women. "Is this alright with you?" Receiving nothing but nods and a blank look from Eleanor, he continued. "Fine…" and ran through the preliminaries before coming to the final distribution of the estate. "…To my Sister Eleanor Stafford/Nee Ross, I leave the ring that belonged to our Grandmother, and eight dollars cash…"

"That's preposterous!" Carson roared.

Larry had expected some kind of reaction and simply set the document down crossed his arms and addressed the angry man. "Mr. Stafford, please keep your comments to yourself until the end of the reading. You are 'not' a beneficiary and I will ask you to leave if you can not keep quiet." He stood and waited until Carson returned to his seat. "Now let us continue. …Ellie, the ring is the ugliest thing Grand Mama left to us and you insisted I have it. Now I insist that 'you' have it."

The Lawyer pulled an envelope from the pile in front of him and handed them over to Eleanor. Opening it she found a gold ring studded with semi precious stones and a crisp five and three singles.

"The money is to cover a parking ticket that you once paid for. I do not wish to enter the next life beholden to you for even a single thin dime."

Eleanor sat there gaping like a landed fish, but she said nothing as the reading continued.

"To my niece, Sherri-Louise Stafford, I leave in trust; a fund of one hundred thousand dollars. This fund is to be portioned out annually in the amount of no more than twenty thousand dollars per year, for a secondary education. 'Provided' that she seeks this education in a school that is at least a hundred miles away from her parents. Sherri you are an adult now, time to stop living under your mother's thumb and your father's foot."

Larry glanced up at the youngest woman, and noticed that she was trying to hide a surprised smug smile. Clearly she had not expected this at all. Her sister on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear, obviously pleased at Sherri's good fortune.

Carson looked as if he was going to explode but somehow he managed to simply sit and seethe, his eyes shooting back and forth between the lawyer and his daughters. A large purple vein at the side of his temple pulsed as his brow grew deeper and deeper scowl lines. He patted his pockets until he found his ever-present roll of antacids.

Finally Larry looked up to Amy and nodded before reading the last portion of the will. "Lastly… To my niece Amanda Stafford, I leave my home, all its contents and the property that it sits upon. Amy, you are the daughter of my heart if not my body, I only wish that I could have given you more." Larry tried to keep the smirk off of his face as he turned to face the executor. "She also left strict instructions to give you this safety deposit box key at the end of the reading." He held out a small brass key and a slip of paper.

Eleanor was still looking blankly at the ring. "I… I don't understand. This is all that Chrissy left me?"

Carson snorted. "What did you expect El? She and that bum of a husband of hers must have blown all their money on those trips they were always taking."

The words had barely left his lips when a flying blonde terror came hurtling across the conference table. Amy was crying and screaming hysterically at the same time, pelting her father with wild open handed slaps. It happened so fast that he was driven backwards up against the back wall before Rory and Larry could come to his rescue. Of course, neither one of them was really in any rush.

"You BASTARD!" She cried between slaps. "Don't you ever say anything about them ever again." Carson had his hands up to protect his face as the rain of blows continued with the tirade. "You dirty miserable, two-timing, liar." Finally Rory leaning on one crutch, and the Lawyer managed to pull her away. Amy fell sobbing into Rory's arms.

Carson staggered away in shock to the far side of the room holding a handkerchief to a bleeding split lip.

"Amanda!" Eleanor cried in dismay. "Why on earth were you hitting your father?"

"How have you managed to live this long and be this clueless Mrs. Stafford?" Rory asked angrily. "This waste of skin you call a husband is a both a liar and a cheat -- we have proof. His attack on your sister and her husband was cowardly and I don't blame Amy in the least."

Amy turned in the tall woman's arms and regarded her mother. "Mother don't even pretend you don't know where their money went. We found the contract that you signed. As far as I'm concerned you're just as big a liar as he is, you two deserve each other--the extortionist and the bigamist."

Luckily for the small redhead there was a chair right behind her as she blanched and collapsed. Sherri rushed to her side and held her mother up so she wouldn't fall out of her chair. The younger daughter took it all in; her mother in a half-faint in a chair, her father cowering in the corner, and her sister standing there with tears running down her face. She looked pleadingly to the tall lawyer. "Do you know what's going on?"

Larry shrugged and took off his glasses, peering through them at arm's length for a moment; he removed a flannel cloth from his pocket and polished the lenses. "Miss Stafford I have a few suppositions as to the situation but it's not up to me to voice them. Better you should talk with your sister, in fact why don't you two go to my office and I'll stay here and try to calm things down with your parents."

(c) 2000 S. Day

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