Fallen Stones (28 page)

The house and the land were incredible, and he desperately wanted his family to be able to start their new life enjoying the property as soon as possible. The last thing any of them needed was to look out from a relaxing chaise lounge on their gorgeous patio or deck and know just a few hundred yards away, a century old family plot existed with unknown ancestors moldering away to nothing below the surface.

Jason was now certain he had made the right decision. And if there actually were bodies buried under the headstones, then they could stay there and fester for another hundred or even thousand years. But the headstones and any other indication that a cemetery ever existed would be gone forever. Before moving day, before they spent a single night in the house, all traces of the Livingston family plot would vanish, and Jason would make sure of that.

"Are you ok?" Stephanie asked as Jason approached them near the spa building. "You look upset."

Jason replied as casually as he possibly could, "Uh...yeah...I'm fine... It's just...you know me...I am not used to dealing with dead stuff...and nature...you know?"

She responded, "Yes. I know how you are about stuff like that." Then she gave an involuntary shudder. "Me too, I suppose." She would not have liked to even be standing on the same grassy area as the dead thing.

Then Sammy raised his hand and pointed back to toward the place where Jason had found the graves and stunned Jason by asking "Daddy...see...boys?"

Jason stood staring at his son uncomprehending. "Boys?" He thought to himself, Sammy had been saying 'boys' back near the woods. That was the mysterious b-word." He had been smiling and saying 'boys' over and over again. Jason wondered what boys Sammy was talking about; there were no boys back there. Then Jason realized with gut wrenching horror that there actually had been two boys back there besides Sammy and Jeremy, but those boys were buried deep in the earth and had been moldering to dust for almost one hundred years. Beads of sweat began to form on the back of Jason's neck and trickle down his back.

Stephanie said, "I have no idea what he is talking about. He's been smiling and talking about boys since we left that clearing. The only thing I can think of is being back there must have reminded him of some boys he must have seen somewhere, some other time, maybe at the playground. I really don't know."

But Jason thought he knew exactly what Sammy was talking about but could only hope to God he was mistaken. He understood how perceptive and sensitive Sammy was. Surly the boy couldn't have seen what Jason feared he had seen. Surely, he couldn't have seen those two boys, the long-dead Livingston boys.

The instant he had the thought, Jason realized just how ridiculous it sounded. He was obviously exhausted from their long and busy day and was on edge as well because of his discovery of the cemetery. His mind must be playing tricks on him, getting him to think impossible thoughts and believe they could actually be real. No. Sammy had not seen any long-dead boys. In fact, he had seen nothing. He was simply a happy little boy with a very active imagination. Jason knew the boy fantasized things all the time; things that never made sense to anyone but him. Jason thought back to the day Sammy was looking into space and saying "doggie". There was no dog present, it was all his imagination, but to Sammy it was as real as if the dog had actually been there.

Sammy looked a bit confused. He didn't know what was wrong with everybody. Why didn't his mommy or daddy or Germie or Dindy say "Hello" to his new friends? Why didn't they ask the little boys to come and play? His mommy always was nice to little boys and girls; his daddy was too. But they didn't say anything to the new little boys. Sammy wanted the boys to come down from the grass place where Daddy was to play, but they wouldn't. They just stood there looking at him smiling at him. So, Sammy smiled back. Sammy didn't know the boys, but he liked the boys. He tried to call to them, but he didn't know their names. He kept saying "boys, boys, boys" but no one could hear him, and the boys didn't come down to play. They just stood looking at him and smiling.

At first, they scared Sammy like that lady in the big glass in the house because they looked like they might be sad and looked a little sick. Their faces were very white, their lips blue and their eyes had dark rings around them. But then they smiled, and Sammy smiled back and he felt much better. Sammy knew good things and Sammy knew bad things. The boys seemed to be good and nice. That lady in the big glass was not nice.

Sammy looked back to see if the boys were still in the grass, but they were gone. He felt bad about not being able to play with the boys. Maybe some other time they would come back and play with Sammy.

Stephanie noticed Jason holding his right hand away from his body. "What's wrong with your hand? You seem to be holding it out weirdly. Did you get hurt?"

"No," Jason said feeling a bit weak and perplexed, "I...um...lost my footing back there and well...I slipped and...had to catch myself with my right hand... I figured with that dead deer and all the bugs and stuff, I had better keep it far away until I get a chance to wash it off." He wisely chose to spare her the details of how his fingers sunk down deep into the creature's cold rotting insect-infested entrails. Stephanie looked carefully at her husband and could see he was being bothered by more than finding the dead dear remains. But she chose to give him his space and not pursue the matter; at least not for today.

Armstrong interjected, "Inside the spa, near the tub is a cabinet with all sorts of cleaning supplies and towels. In fact, I believe I saw an unused bar of soap on a stand near the tub when we were inside." The lawyer knew for a fact there was a bar of soap on a stand because he had given specific instructions to have it put there. He also knew there was a small dark wooden cabinet about thirty inches high with a twelve-inch square top. A fresh, unused bar of soap sat in a ceramic dish atop the cabinet within reach from the tub, and behind it was a small vase filled with several wild flowers. The cabinet had a dowel-rod attached to the side from which hung a hand towel monogrammed with the letter "W". It originally stood for Washburn, but could just as easily now stand for Wright. He simply chose to feign ignorance to not appear as manipulative as he actually was being.

"That sounds good to me," Jason said glancing at the wristwatch, which he always wore on his left arm. "Steph. Why don't you, Mason and the kids work your way back to the house? I will be there in a minute and we can wrap this up for today. I suspect Mason has other business he has to attend to and we did promise the kids that coal mine tour. What do you think, Mason?"

The lawyer replied, "Yes, that's probably a good idea. As soon as you are finished freshening up, we can go out front and finish up our business."

Jason washed and dried his hands thoroughly in the spa tub using water as hot as he could stand it. Steam billowed into the air surrounding him. Suddenly Jason felt like someone was watching him. He looked around the room but could see nothing but his own reflection in large mirrors as well as the rising cloud of steam. Perhaps the movement of the steam reflecting in the mirrors had created the illusion of someone watching. However, even with this explanation the feeling was still unsettling.

 He finished his business and left the building, stopping once to look behind him as if expecting to see someone, but of course, he remained alone. Jason closed the door tightly behind him and headed to meet his family back at the main farmhouse. Back inside the spa the surfaces of several of the mirrors rippled wildly as maniacal laughter echoed from deep within the glass walls.

Chapter 16

 

"It's official," Stephanie said, her face beaming with an ear-to-ear smile, as Jason walked into the kitchen where she, Armstrong and the kids stood waiting. "Look. Mason gave me the keys to the house. It's all ours now." She held out her hand palm up to display the two sets of jingling keys. Jason noticed each set was attached to a key ring with a gold fob emblazoned with a stylish "W". Like the monogrammed towel he had used in the spa building, he wondered with uncertainty was that "W" for Washburn or for Wright; or did it even matter?

Stephanie said, "He suggested we take a few days to let all of this sink in and then start planning our next course of action. This is all so exciting, I feel like I am becoming a bit scatterbrained."

"That's to be expected," the lawyer said. "And remember, during the time you are away from here, if there is absolutely anything you folks need from me do not hesitate to call me. That also goes for any time in the future. As I mentioned earlier, I hope you are satisfied with the job I've done so far and will consider using my services for all of your future legal needs."

"Um... Yes," Jason responded a bit distantly. He was preoccupied, still unable to get the distracting image of the small tombstones and the family graveyard out of his mind. Also the way Sammy had seemed to see something in the cemetery. Not to mention, that strange inscription 'Taken From Us Too Soon, By The Hand Of Evil'. That message troubled him terribly as it kept repeating inside his head. "I think we need some time to absorb everything that's happened in the past two days, and also I'm sure there'll be many, many things I'll need to take care of at work as well. I think after the next week or so, we should have a good plan in place."

He looked again at the keys in his wife's hands and inquired of Armstrong, "Are they the keys for the house as well as the rest of the outbuildings?"

"Actually," the lawyer explained, "all of the doors on the property, front back, side as well as all of the outbuildings are keyed exactly the same, so you only need a single key to get inside any of the buildings. The other keys on the rings are for the Ford pickup and the tractor in the barn. There are no keys needed for the garage as they work with the automatic garage door openers. The four remote openers for the garage are in the top drawer of that cabinet over there." He pointed to one of the base cabinets along the wall. Jason walked over, opened the top drawer and saw the four garage openers.

The lawyer continued, "That reminds me, I should have pointed out each of the garage doors also have keypads mounted to the sides of the doorframes with keyboards, which all use the same four digit number combination, 1-2-3-4 to open them. Now that I think about it, I should probably recommend you change the combination to something you will easily remember, and something that's not quite as simple for someone else to figure out. Right now, I am the only other person alone who knows the current combination, so as soon as you reprogram the openers the number will be safe, secure and exclusively known by you and your family alone. And of course, there is no need or reason for me to know the combination any longer as the house is now yours."

"Yes. You're right. Thanks, Mason," Jason responded. "That's a good idea." As he looked at the lawyer, he thought he saw a momentary dark expression pass across the man's face. He could not put into words what it was about the look that didn't sit well with him, probably because it had appeared and then disappeared so quickly as if Armstrong had inadvertently let down his guard. It was like the lawyer knew something Jason didn't, and the man was keeping that mysterious knowledge from them. For a moment, Jason thought he actually might have misinterpreted the look, but the expression had been so intense and gave him such an uneasy feeling, deep down in the pit of his stomach, that he was certain there was something to his suspicions.

Because of these strong sensations, an idea unexpectedly entered Jason's mind; something, which at first seemed to be a bit paranoid to him, but which was an idea he couldn't seem to shake. Although Stephanie now held what were supposed to be the only sets of keys to the property, he wondered if perhaps there might be another set; one which the lawyer had made especially for himself. If the man did have his own set of keys then he wouldn't care one bit if the garage door opener combinations were changed because he could still gain access to the property whenever he chose to.

Jason didn't know why he suddenly had this idea, as he was usually not so mistrustful of people, although he would be the first to admit he didn't particularly care for lawyers. And Armstrong hadn't really given Jason any reason to distrust him. But when he combined the gut feeling he was experiencing with the strange look he thought he had seen pass over the lawyer's face, he began to wonder if he might actually be correct. As such, his level of mistrust of the man was beginning to increase by the second.

If the lawyer had made his own set of keys, it would mean whenever the Wright family was away from the property, Armstrong would be free to enter the house and could do whatever he chose to. Jason had assumed the lawyer had already been given such free reign to an extent before the death of Stephanie's uncle, and likely even more so since then. Jason also had made the logical assumption the man might not readily want to relinquish such access even though he and Stephanie had taken possession of the property.

What if, in his role as ad hock caretaker, Armstrong had started treating the property as if it were his own, believing he could come and go as he pleased? Jason thought about the self-deprecating joke the lawyer had made in the spa building about how frightening it might be to see his large naked figure reflected in the mirrors. He suddenly started to wonder if the lawyer had helped himself to several relaxing baths in the huge claw-foot tub. The image, which under normal circumstances might be somewhat humorous, made Jason's stomach cramp with disgust. Had Jason known what unspeakable event had actually occurred inside that same spa only a month earlier, he would have collected his family and fled the property, never to return. But unfortunately, he didn't know and could only analyze what he saw before him. The more Jason thought about the lawyer, the more he became certain of his distrustful feelings.

Then he began to wonder, what if Armstrong had stolen paintings or jewelry or other such possessions from the property and had already sold them? In the living room, Jason had seen some paintings on the wall that even to his untrained eyes seemed to be quite valuable. Stephanie's uncle had been dead for over a month and that had given the lawyer plenty of time to steal a few valuable items. Jason recalled how that morning at the meeting the lawyer had given him a complete inventory of the estate accounting for virtually every item in the house. He hadn't looked at the list very carefully as he was overwhelmed by the value of the estate. However, he would be going over the accounting in detail as soon as possible. He suspected such documents could have been altered to hide certain thefts, but he didn't know and maybe never would know for sure. Since neither he and Stephanie had known anything about Washburn prior to his death, they had no idea about the extent of his possessions. As such, it would make any thievery relatively simple to hide.