Centuries Ch. 03

"So much for Belton's plan to sell out to the Railroad." Teresa whispered to me as our food came and we began eating.

"He was a major obstacle to those trying to get things done out here." I said. "We may have done them a favor... and we may have beaten them to the punch in taking care of that business, if you get my drift."

"I do." Teresa said. "And the whole town is so much happier now, it seems. It's the first time I've ever felt anything resembling hope, here. Maybe we should've waxed Kenny the last time we were here."

"But you would not have learned the truth." I said. "And not just about Alexis, but everything else... which I hope we'll be able to talk about at some point later today."

"You are sure being secretive about that." Teresa chided.

"With good reason." I said. "If it's what I think it is, and it works out, then it's all good. If not, then I didn't get your hopes up about it."

Teresa sighed. "You're just teasing me now, aren't you?"

"Not on purpose." I said. "I leave that stuff to Todd." That got the heartiest laugh out of Teresa that I think I'd ever heard.

A few moments later I said "Todd, how is Apple Grove, and your grandmother?"

"Grandma is doing very well." Todd said. "She just moved into her retirement home, and is making new friends as well as seeing some old ones. Apple Grove is beginning to grow, in a pretty controlled fashion. I told the Council Leader here, who will become Mayor now that Belton is dead, to get in touch with Apple Grove's leadership about growing in a coordinated way instead of just pell-mell."

I nodded. "And that fire at BOW Enterprises? Not as bad as you'd originally been told?"

"I heard not much gets past you, Uncle Don." Todd said with a grin. "Yeah, it wasn't bad, just an electrical fire. Once new wiring and fuses were put in, we were back up and running. And yes, Uncle Don, I don't need to be Grandma or Carole to see that it was a distraction to lure me up there while you and Teresa were 'gallivanting' around out here."

Teresa said "You think that's what that was about?"

I nodded. "When that photo of your mother's headstone came to your phone, the first thing I thought about was the fire in Apple Grove that took Todd away. But it didn't stop you from having an airplane to use, and coming on out here..."

Part 14 - Brothers In Arms

After we ate, Sheriff Griswold got a text. He said "I would like for you all to come to the cemetery for a small ceremony." No more would he say, but we piled into the cars and drove over, parking at the library parking lot.

A moment later, yet another Escalade pulled up. This one had tags denoting it belonged to the United States Navy, and on the front was a red placard with four stars, which indicated that a Flag Officer was aboard.

I made the deduction, but most of the others were surprised when the man got out of the back seat, bedecked in the formal white Navy uniform of an Admiral. Medals glittered on his chest, including the Navy Cross, and above them was pinned the Army Parachutist Badge (the formal name for Airborne wings).

"Dr. Cordell!" Teresa called out as she went up to him. They hugged, and Teresa asked "Did you come... to visit my father's grave?"

"Yes." said Admiral Leonard R. Cordell, USN (Ret.), emotion already in his voice. "I've been meaning to do this for years, but would always say I'd do it 'tomorrow'. Well, I don't know how many 'tomorrows' I have left. And when I heard of your mother's headstone being damaged, I knew I needed to come on out."

"I'm glad you did." Teresa said. "I'll take you there." She took Admiral Cordell by the arm and they walked towards the cemetery as the rest of us waited near the library and watched.

As they walked, I noticed that a very attractive woman with a mane of blonde hair had gotten out of the Navy vehicle, with a small but very good videocamera. She was Alison McFarland, Executive Publisher of the Town & County Examiner. She came up to us and said "Dr. Cordell is allowing me to do a piece on his life. I didn't expect this, though."

"Start filming." I said. "This is big." Alison began filming.

About 50 feet from the entrance to the cemetery, Teresa stopped, and held her hand out, letting Dr. Cordell go forward alone. I could feel the emotion, and Cindy felt it even more, as we watched Dr. Cordell approach the resting place of his Captain, whom he had not seen since that day he pulled the man out of enemy fire on the wrong side of a politically drawn line. (Author's note: 'A Tiny Slip', Ch. 01.)

For long moments, Admiral Cordell stood before the gravestone upon which the words 'Medal of Honor' were inscribed, remembering their time in war, when and where bonds of brotherhood were forged that could not be made anywhere else.

After several moments, Admiral Cordell went forward and put a dime on the headstone, next to the quarter that was glued down. A dime meant he had served with the deceased, and these men had served together with great distinction in combat. And within the hour, that dime would be superglued next to the quarter by the same guy that glued down the quarter Teresa had left on her father's tombstone... Todd Burke.

Admiral Cordell came to attention and saluted his Captain, and I saw Cindy recording the event on her iPhone as Alison recorded on the videocamera. The Admiral came back to Teresa, who escorted him back to the rest of us. I could see that tears had been running down the old man's face.

"Admiral," I said quietly in the silence, "did you know a man named Wilkins in Viet Nam?"

"Yes... he was in our unit. Sergeant, one of the squad leaders." said Cordell, searching his memory. "I think he was from this town, or this part of the country. I believe he died over there, in Viet Nam, but I don't really remember. Is his grave here, too?"

"No sir." I said. "He's buried in Arlington Cemetery. His name came up while I was researching what's been going on here."

Well, that was technically true. And in his own unique way, Sergeant Wilkins had done his duty to his Captain, by guiding me and Teresa over the years to the Truth...

Part 15 - Ancestors and Heiresses

11:00am local time, Sunday, April 12th. We were all gathered at Teresa's rented house. After he changed clothes into civilian attire, we filled Dr. Cordell in on what had been going on, except for the Clan events at the Belton Mansion, of course. The Admiral alternated nodding his head and shaking his head as certain parts of the story were discussed.

"No, he never mentioned his wife's full name." said Cordell. "Just her first name: Sarah. He looked at her picture a lot, but he didn't talk about her much to the rest of us, not even me."

Just then we heard the crunch of tires on gravel as a car pulled into the driveway. We looked out to see a Police car on the road; it had led an expensive Audi to our location, and the car was parking. A man in a suit got out.

"That's the lawyer that took care of my father's estate." said Teresa as we looked out the window.

"Yes, it is." I said. I turned to Alison and said "If Teresa permits it, you should record this.

Alison spoke to Teresa as I went out to greet the legal eagle. "Is it good, or better?" I asked him.

"I think it's going to be the best possible news." he said. I ushered him inside, and everyone found seats to hear his story.

"My name is Arthur Blankenship." said Arthur Blankenship. "I was the attorney for Teresa's father's estate, and helped her make her claim to his estate. I'm happy to report that I looked into something at Commander Troy's request..."

All eyes went to me, then he continued: "... and I've found that Teresa's mother's full name was 'Sarah Lenora Belvedere'. She was the third of three daughters of Charles and Clara Belvedere, the Bessemer Cookie magnates."

Blankenship: "Sarah fell in love with an Army Officer, and when her family objected to her marrying him, they eloped. Apparently she used her middle name, which was her mother's maiden name, and they ran away from Louisiana to this town, avoiding being found."

Blankenship: "Charles Belvedere had no sons, so he sold off his estate and created three trusts, one for each of his daughters... including Sarah, with instructions to maintain the trust and hand it over to Sarah or her heirs when they came forward or were found. We've finally found that heiress... you, Teresa. And once we prove you're the heiress, you'll inherit the trust fund... which is now worth over one hundred million dollars."

Almost everyone gasped. Teresa looked over at me, a look on her face I hoped to remember for the rest of my life, and said "I can help! Now I can help!"

"Thoughts become things." I said, remembering her words at University Hospital just days before. I was very happy that Teresa's first thought upon learning she was a super-wealthy heiress was to help sick children. For all the bad said about her, I knew that Teresa had a wonderful heart... and she was showing it.

Arthur Blankenship said "Charles Belvedere's oldest daughter, Clarissa, is still alive, and she has already given us a DNA sample. If her mitochondrial DNA, which would come from her mother and your grandmother Clara, is the same as yours through your mother, that will be sufficient proof for the Court. We just need to have a doctor obtain a sample."

"And I'm your doctor, right here." said Doctor Cordell, standing up. He went to get his medical kit.

"Congratulations!" Cindy said, hugging Teresa. Everyone else added to the accolades, then Cindy said "Any idea what you are going to do with all that money?"

"Oh yes." Teresa said. "And I'm going to need your accounting skills, and I'm going to need some damn good financial lawyers."

"What do you have in mind?" Cindy said. She glanced over at me, and saw that everyone else was a couple of steps behind my vision...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"So that's what this was all about." Cindy said as we talked after the lawyer Blankenship had left, with Todd and Teresa having given him a $100,000 retainer, and Dr. Cordell giving the Police Officers Teresa's DNA sample, to be kept under two-man control until they got to the hospital to have it tested.

"I believe so." I said. "I'm no legal expert, but someone found out that Teresa's mother was the missing heir to the Belvedere fortune, and got dollar bill signs in their eyes. Sarah's will left everything to her husband, and they probably found his will that left everything to Alexis... who preceded her father in death leaving no will. So they intended to make a play for the fortune, then found out that you, Teresa, had been granted legal inheritance of your father's property... which now included that fortune."

I went on: "To have a chance of getting it, they had to try to make a pitch that with her father dying intestate, the Federal Government could make a claim on the money. Some wanted to just kill Teresa, while others hoped to do it without having to kill her. Either way, they hoped to find a way to make that claim without Teresa being able to interfere."

"How?" asked Cindy. "The records are in Court now."

"Yes, they are." I said. "They hoped to bypass those, or they could find another way... if you remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Hound of the Baskervilles, the villain Stapleton was a potential heir to a fortune, and was killing those in front of him to get at that fortune. When asked how he could've made the claim, Sherlock Holmes said he was smart enough to find a way."

I said: "So I think it was something like that... they'd get rid of Teresa, then find a way to make their claim. These rogue Feds like forging documents, as we know from what they tried to do to Governor Jared and to me, so maybe they'd have forged a will. But the key was to get Teresa out of the way, either by killing her or keeping her at home and far away from this place."

I continued: "The perps that wanted to kill Teresa destroyed her mother's tombstone, and sent it through the Police Chief's iPhone to get her to come out here. They set fire to Todd's factory in Apple Grove to draw him away, and I'm halfway expecting to hear of a crime in our County that should've kept me busy. And as soon as you got here, there was Kenny and two Deputies, ready to shoot you right then and there... until they found out how much it hurts to absorb a crowbar beatdown."

"So Kenny was behind it?" Teresa asked. "And his father, too?"

I said "I'm sure Kenny was. He was a bad actor, and he was starting to stray from his father's orbit and being in league with some bad people... Swamp Frog kind of bad people. When his initial ploy didn't work, Lindsey Black and two Federal Marshals were sent to arrest her, after Teresa failed to heed Black's orders to stay in our County."

"You think Lindsey Black was in on this?" asked Jack Muscone angrily. "I'll have her ass strung up in ten seconds flat------"

"Hold on, hold on." I said. "I'm not sure Agent Black intended Teresa harm... just to keep her away from here. I suspect, I strongly suspect, that Robin Isley and the Rovers BAU Hit Team... yes, I'm aware of the words I just used to describe them... were involved. Isley probably wanted Teresa out of the way without having to be killed, while the Rovers BAU makes decisions that do not take into account the value of human life."

I then said: "And as I've been suggesting, there may have been more than one group at work, here, competing for the same prize. And after the confrontation at the Country Music place, I realized something, then looked it up. Do these guys look familiar to you?" I showed everyone two photos on my Police iPhone.

"They are the two guys that were with Kenny and Harmon Belton at the Country Music Bar." said Cindy. "Not the Deputies, but the other two guys in the Western outfits."

"Right you are, Green Crowbar." I said. "Anyone remember seeing them anywhere else?"

"Yeah, they look familiar," said Jack Muscone, "but I'm not placing them at the moment."

"I've seen them, too." said Tim Jenkins. "But I don't remember where, nor in what context, other than at the bar." Eduardo Escobar said he had not seen them, except at the bar.

"Their names are Gil Cox and Gary Fenton." I said. "Two of the worst of the rogue Navy SEAL Team led by LT Jeff Bayport. I didn't remember that while we were at the Bar, and if I had, I would've done whatever it took to make sure they didn't leave alive. Opportunity missed, but when I did remember, it made me realize that there were some big-time players involved in this."

"And while Lindsey Black was doing what she said she was doing... trying to get the thing done without having to kill Teresa," I said, "this other group fully intended to kill Teresa, and perhaps any of her friends that got in their way."

"Lord have mercy." growled Sheriff Griswold. "We were lucky again, weren't we?" I understood what he meant.

"Yes sir, we were." I said. "I don't know if they were acting on their own, or for someone else. But in any case, a hundred million dollars or more is a prize certainly worth going after."

"Oh yeah!" Jack Muscone exclaimed. "That's what Mort Springer said! They were going after a big cache of money, but it wasn't gold!" (Author's note: 'Power of Love', Ch. 03.) "And Springer and Drew were part of the same Rogue Team as Cox and Fenton!"

"Exactly." I said. "But let me get this train of thought out of the station. I believe it was Fenton and Cox that were going to help Kenny and the Deputies... yeah, I know, that sounds like a name for a country music band... they were going to gas us and come in and kill us. Lindsey Black and the two Marshals interrupted their plans, so maybe they're not part of the same team, n'est pas? And after that went wrong, Fenton and Cox have gone into hiding; we haven't seen them since."

Teresa, Griswold, Todd, and Teddy knew what I meant... the two rogue SEALs weren't at the 'party' at the Belton Mansion the previous night.

I went on: "So Harmon Belton is nearing retirement, or even death, as he was a raging alcoholic. He also showed some disdain for his own son while at the bar." I did not mention that he had also shown disdain for Kenny when we were about to kill him.

"Kenny was in with these very bad seeds." I said. "I don't think his father was, though. Harmon had a completely different motive: to prevent the truth about Alexis's murder coming out."

"We'll be talking a lot more about this, Jack," I said, "but your half-brother was set up to take the fall for Alexis's death. Kenny drove the car, which was concrete-reinforced, into Alexis's car, whose airbags system had been defeated. Harmon Belton knew about that; indeed, it had been on his orders when he thought his grip on this town was slipping, because Teresa had whipped Kenny in personal combat."

"Harmon intended to cause Teresa's father the pain of losing his daughters." I said. "Teresa was supposed to have been in that car with them, and Kenny approached the car to make sure both daughters were dead. But Teresa wasn't in the car. The plan did work to the point that Teresa's father had to be committed to Shady Acres, and Harmon was free of his main antagonist."

"Question." said Tim Jenkins. "What made Teresa's father Harmon Belton's problem?"

"I can answer that." said Sheriff Griswold. "The FBI colorized a photo for me, that Don had me go look for. I swear I don't know how you do it, Crowbar."

The Sheriff handed Tim a photo in a frame. It showed ten-year-old Alexis, smiling. To her left, the picture's right was eight-year-old Teresa, with that introspective, inscrutable look we'd seen on her face at times as an adult. Behind them, his right hand on Alexis's shoulder but his left hand not touching Teresa, was their father... wearing the uniform of a county Sheriff.

"Your father was the Sheriff of this county?" Cindy gasped when she saw the photo. Teresa nodded, and Cindy said "Why didn't you tell us? Dr. Cordell, did you know?"

"I never knew that." said Cordell. Cindy looked at Teresa.

"As you know, I've never been comfortable talking about my father." Teresa said. "And as a little girl growing up, my idea of a Sheriff was... my father, a man who never spoke to me. During that time, a lot of Sheriffs on TV and the movies were shown to be corrupt, and while I knew my father wasn't corrupt, I grew up thinking I'd be anything but a law enforcement officer."

"Also," Teresa went on, "I think I always knew in the back of my mind that my father being Sheriff was part of the reason Alexis was killed. And I blocked out a lot of stuff about that time. The policewoman that helped me that night at the hospital made me realize that Police were good people after all, and that's when I first thought of being one myself. And of course I realized Sheriffs weren't all bad after Sheriff Griswold got elected to be one."

"Har!" barked Sheriff Griswold. "Good asskissing skills." He petted Teresa on the shoulder, his mustaches twitching merrily. "What I want to know is how Crowbar figured it out."

"I knew for sure after Teresa slipped during her confrontation with Kenny," I said, "and she said 'there'd been no Sheriff since'... then stopped and said 'for 20 years'. I think it hit me then that her father was the Sheriff, and there had not been one since that Christmas Eve night. I checked and found that he was indeed the last Sheriff, and that the position had been done away with after he committed to Shady Acres. And of course Teresa's father being Sheriff explained why he and Harmon Belton were adversaries, as well."

"And I also have realized," I said, "that just as your mother rejected Harmon Belton... Alexis rejected Kenny. And that's why Kenny was bullying her when you stepped in and made him your bitch."