Chapter Six: A Sherlock Holmes Situation
The twins slept almost all day, so Bella could work out and I would read the handiness books. She would have more time off from work for her maternity leave. Life relaxed a little again. I stayed home, avoiding my search for my father. Most days then none, though, I attempted to put the puzzle pieces together. I knew real estate had thousands of dollars beneficial to whoever invested, but there had to be something more to his scheme.
“He probably just wants more money.” Bella drank some water after her workout.
“No, it’s not that simple. There’s something more to what he’s doing.” I scratched my head and then Zeus started to cry. Bella picked him up out of the crib and fed him a bottle, rocking him back and forth and then sat beside me on the couch.
“You don’t think he’s trying to buy out all of the big corporations in town, do you?” she continued to feed Zeus his bottle, who had stopped crying.
“If he is, I wouldn’t know why other than to have a big check come in every week.” Then Poseidon began to cry, so I gave him his bottle too.
A couple of years went by; Bella got a promotion at work, as did I, we also saved up enough money to buy all the books and toys for the twins, but we had to get rid of Sapphire. We went out one morning and she had dug at least 20 holes in her fenced-in area. We tried to train her to stop, but failed miserably, so we gave her away to the adoption service. We also were able to buy a clothes washer and a dryer, and an extra potty chair.
Zeus’ and Poseidon’s birthdays were to be anticipated in the week to come and we were anxious to see who they looked like. We planned to change their cribs to match their personalities and possibly save enough cash to renovate the house, that way we would have an extra room for the boys.
We planned to invite family, but then I got a call from Mom.
“Hey sweetie, I hope you aren’t busy.” She sounded excited for some reason.
“We’re just planning for the boys’ birthday party. What do you need?” I held the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could set up the balloons.
“I just have some news for you.”
“What’s that, Mom?” I went into the living room and Bella set up the rest of the party.
“I’ve got a new boyfriend!”
“That’s great, Mom! Who is he?”
“His name is Sam Cool. We’ve been dating for a little while now.”
“That’s wonderful, Mom. I’m glad you’ve found someone else! Oh, hey, are you going to be here for Zeus' and Poseidon’s party?”
“Of course!”
“I’m glad to hear that, Mom. Tell Sam he’s invited, too!”
“Thanks, baby. I’ll see you Saturday.” When we hung up, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Ever since my birth, Mom never had an easy life. She went through multiple break ups and a failed engagement. Her fiancé died in a fire a few years ago, a true tragedy; we all took it hard. I guess I felt happy about her new love life, but this man would technically be my step father if she married him. I would have to wait to meet him.
“Ares, there’s a man in the backyard.” I went to the kitchen and stood by Bella as we peered out the window. Sure enough an eccentric man wearing a top hat with long brown hair stood in the backyard.
“Don’t worry, hon. I’ll handle this.” I went out and met him at the side of the house.
“Can I help you, sir?” he suddenly looked up from his dazed appearance.
“Hello, my name is Gunther Goth.” He did a bow that reminded me of Willy Wonka, “Did a Zelda Mae stop by recently?”
“Yes, but not recently. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, at least two years actually.”
“I want to take the opportunity to fill you in on some very secretive information about her relationship with Mr. McGraw. Will you allow me your time?”
“Sure, come inside, please.” He followed me indoors and we sat at the couch, “Bella, will you make some coffee for Mr. Goth?”
“Sure.”
“Now what’s this about?” I turned to Gunther who had taken off his top hat and had it resting on the arm of the couch.
“Mr…--”
“Rocker.”
“Mr. Rocker, my client has had some…predicaments…in previous years…some of which I will not discuss with you. One in particular, however, caught my eye a year ago when I sat at the Doo Peas Corporation headquarters. I worked late that night; we were having some infiltration issues within the company and had been in the process of sniffing them out.” Bella walked in at that moment and handed Gunther a cup of coffee, “Thank you. As I was saying, whoever these people were, they were up to no good. They had been invested in the company for decades, but we didn’t have the resources or time to have an investigation done so we could fire the traitor.”
“What does this have to do with Miss Mae?”
“I’m getting to that. Now Zelda had been in a partnership with our company for years, at that time though, I was not the CEO as I am today; I was a mere drone of the corporation. I knew something was up though, budget cuts and increase in security is never a good sign. They were trying to find out who still remained loyal to the Doo Peas Corporation. One afternoon, however, I found Zelda at the vault of the company. I asked her what she was doing there, but she insisted that she was just checking the savings amount as her manager requested. I knew at that moment that she was up to no good. Two years later, she teamed up with Stiles, who had just recently joined our small business ‘family.’ I pleaded with the previous CEO to fire her and then they’d see who was stealing all the money we had worked so hard to earn, but they refused.”
“None of this makes sense though, Zelda was warning me about Stiles…she told me he was a liar and to not search for him...”
“She was probably covering their tracks.”
“What about Vita Alto?”
“Hm, I do remember Vita; she was a good friend of the corporation. Why do you mention her?”
“Zelda said she probably had something to do with the strange happenings.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that, but I would definitely go find Vita and ask to see if she knows anything about the fraud.” He rose, shook my hand, bid me a farewell, then left.
“Wow…” Bella came in from the kitchen, “I guess there are some things we still don’t know about this town.”
I grabbed my notepad off the coffee table then sat back down beside Bella:
- Taking large amounts of Simoleons out of the
bank and
Doo Peas- Could have something to do with
real estate fraud- Investing in corporations
-
Partnership with Zelda- Sleeps with lots of women
- Dated Mom, Vita Alto,
blonde woman Zelda Mae, then Emma Hatch
-
Traits: Insane, Kleptomaniac
I felt like Sherlock Holmes as I blankly stared at my notes. My father had transformed into a crook and a liar. I didn’t know what to do with the information that Gunther had provided for me, should I confront Zelda? Probably not, too much drama obviously occurred enough in this town. I decided to just continue with the boys’ birthday party, seeing as that would be all I could focus on at the moment.
Mom showed up when the week ended with her new boyfriend, Sam. I knew he would treat her well when I greeted him. We celebrated the party, Bella’s family and my own. Themis had gotten so big, the last time I saw her she still pooped in her diaper and slept in a crib. Asclepius and Apollo had finally graduated and moved into houses of their own. My younger siblings were growing too fast.
I held up Poseidon and blew out the candle; Bella did the same for Zeus. They had grown handsomely. Zeus resembled me when I had been that small, but Poseidon looked so much like Bella even though he had my nose. They both had jet black hair, which could have been predicted since both Bella and I had black hair. We all chatted about our week and ate cake together and after everyone had left, Bella and I immediately started teaching the boys how to walk and talk and use the potty. Zeus learned quickly, while Poseidon had a little trouble with the walking.
We changed the beds to match their personalities; Zeus seemed to be attracted to the color blue, and to match the Greek god he had been named after, we changed the crib to dark blue with thunder clouds inside. Poseidon liked green, and we matched his outfit with Zeus’ and changed his crib to an underwater theme with green water and various colored fish.
When we put them to bed for the night, Bella and I crawled in bed next to each other.
“Our boys have gotten so big…” she sighed.
“Yep, before you know it, they’ll be in high school dating girls and learning to drive.” Bella laughed.
“Yeah…well good night baby…” then out went the lights.
That night, I tossed and turned in my sleep as a nightmare in which a knight in full armor sat atop a death black stallion. He snorted smoke from his nostrils and his eyes burned red with hatred, with his tail waving like a dark flag behind him. His hooves looked bloody and the feathering appeared matted. Then the horse pawed at the dirt and the knight raised his longsword into the air and charged at me. No matter how hard I tried to run, I couldn’t get away; I could hear the horse neighing ghostly, eerily behind me as they neared my every step. Then I tripped and when I turned around, the horse reared up onto its hind legs. The knight no longer saddled on top, but a man in a black suit. I couldn’t see his face, but he laughed manically. Then I awoke, coughing violently as if I swallowed a bucket of sand.
What did this dream mean? Who was the man on the horse…?