Episode 12
“Oh my God!” Said Fox.
“Oh my God!” Said Simone.
“Oh my Gawd!” Said Essme.
“Oh my God!!!” They said in unison.
“Can you recognize who that is?” Asked Fox.
“No.” Said Simone
“Its hard to tell with all this icing.” Said Essme. “Here let me see.” She stuck her finger in the icing around Jared’s cheek, brought it up to her mouth and licked. “Em, not bad.”
“Essme!” Said Fox.
“I’m just sayin’.”
“Essme, Please step away from the body while I call 911.”
“I’m going to call my Mom and see if she has any news on Whitney.” Said Simone. “I’ll be out in the solarium if anyone needs me.
“Essme, see if you can get one of the servants on the house phone over there.” Directed Fox.
“Roger Dodger.”
“Yes, this is Fox Crane. I’d like to report a dead body at the Crane mansion. Can you send an ambulance or whatever’s needed to deal with something like this? Yes, the Crane mansion. Thank you.”
“You needed to talk to one of the kitchen staff sir?”
“Yes Bentley, I need to know where that cake came from.”
Bentley went white when he saw the body on the floor. “Oh my, I’m sorry Mr. Crane I had no idea.”
“It’s alright Bentley; I just need to know about the cake.”
“I- -I…”
“Calm down man.”
“It was delivered to the loading dock about half an hour ago.”
“That was cutting it awfully close wasn’t it?”
“Yes it was supposed to be here first thing this morning but we received a call saying it would be late.”
“Do me a favor and call the bakery and see if they actually made that call.”
“I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Clarkson!!! Where the devil have you been?!”
“I just came from the hospital sir.” Said Vincent. “Adam and I were covering the Harris wedding when the bride fainted and had to taken to the hos- -.”
“Yes, yes, I know all about that.”
“You do? How?”
“The Intruder’s been tapping into Alistair Crane’s network of video cameras almost as long as the old codger’s had them in operation.”
“Then you saw the entire ceremony?”
“Of course not, it seems even Alistair Crane had some standards. He never placed cameras inside the church.” Vincent realized that this meant Mr. Jamison had no way of knowing about the picture Adam had taken and then erased. “But we had a clear view of the parking lot from the camera in the vacant lot across the street so when we saw the paramedics pull up we knew something was up. Which reminds me: Where the blazes is Lennox?”
“He’s still at the hospital, trying to get info on Whitney.”
“Well you’ll just have to call and tell him to hightail it over to the Crane Mansion. We just picked up a bulletin on the police scanner about a dead body falling out of a cake there.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Since the plots against his family never came to fruition, Vincent didn’t recognize the significance of a body stuffed into a cake, but it would certainly raise questions in Adam’s mind later.
“Wait couldn’t you just use Alistair’s cameras again to see what’s going on?”
“We could except that the cameras inside the Crane mansion are the only ones we’ve never been able to access. Crane Security must have extra buffers on them or something. Now would you please stop wasting time, find Lennox and get over there?”
“Yes sir.”
Sam and Jessica took Marty and Sarah to the Bennett house, because they didn’t know Chad and Whitney’s reception had been cancelled and they didn’t want to subject the kids to the media circus any event at the Crane mansion naturally drew. On the way there, they had called Sheridan to tell her that Marty was safe and sound and she could come and pick him up.
“Well what do we have here?” Said Sam, eyeing the package that was sitting on the porch. He bent down and read the return address. “Its from Grace…She mailed it from Greece.” He and Jessica held each other’s gaze for a moment.
“Who’s Grace?” Asked Sarah.
“She’s…She’s my Ex wife honey.”
“Why do you sound so sad?”
“Sarah, how about we go inside and introduce your new pet rabbit to his new home?”
Sarah picked up the cage, walked over to Sam, still kneeling by the package, and put her free hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll be inside in just a minute sweetie, OK?”
When he was alone, Sam opened the package and found a letter from Grace at the top of some packing material that concealed whatever else was in the box.
Dear Sam,
As you know, I have been living with David in England since I left Harmony. Four weeks ago we went on a vacation to Greece, planning to return to England in time to celebrate Christmas with John, during his break from Oxford. David went missing two weeks ago and I have been scouring Greece looking for him to no avail. I contacted John and he was supposed to fly out and help me search but I haven’t heard anything else from him either. I’m starting to worry for my own safety as well. During my search I came across the object you will find in the box. I am forwarding it to you for safe keeping. I can’t go into it now but I believe this object holds the key to my past and has some kind of tie to Harmony and Alistair as well. I will explain everything to you when I see you. I plan to arrive in Harmony the first week in January.
Love
Grace
Sam hurriedly picked up the box and rushed inside.
“Jessica where are you!?”
“Dad? What is it?” Said Jessica coming down the stairs. “I was just showing Sarah and Marty her new room I figured she could have Kay’s old room and I could sleep in the guest room.”
“I have some marvelous news; your Mother is coming home!”
“Oh Dad, that’s great!”
“Knock Knock.”
Sam and Jessica turned to see Sheridan standing in the door with James.
“Did I here your message correctly Jessica? Is my boy home?”
“He’s right upstairs let me call him for you. Marty!”
Marty appeared at the top of the stairs and when he saw his Mother, rushed into her arms.
“Oh Marty I was afraid I’d never see you again!”
“What’s in the box Dad?” Asked Jessica.
Sam realized that he was still holding the box in a death grip.
“I don’t know.” He quickly opened the lid and pulled out a sculpture of a man’s head except that this head had two faces; one in front and one in back.
Sheridan looked up from Marty and saw the sculpture. “Oh my God, Father used to have a statue just like that one, years ago. It always gave me the willeys but Julian loved it. Father broke it in a rage one night. We never knew why. It’s the head of the god Jannus.
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End of Episode 12
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