Murder in a Small Town

[Zediah47]

“Well I hate to interrupt your boring conversation, but our father didn’t have a lot of money or the lake, so you can make a tourist spot out of the sheriff’s office since you never seem to bring anyone there. Come on, Ava.”


He motioned over to her, and quickly made his way around the sheriff. “Freakin’ vultures, I tell you. A good man died less than a week ago, and all they can do is pick apart his carcass. I wonder how long they were waiting to get a piece of him. Most people in this town seem like they’ll kick the bucket any day, I’m surprised they don’t keep tabs on everyone.”


Louis felt Morgan’s words tear into him, but not for the reason he knew. It had been a few hours since he had thought of his father’s end, and now to be reminded of it in such a way made him anxious for the night to end.


‘We just have to put up with this for a bit, and then we can close this.’


“What do you think about what he said, Ava? Why would dad give them anything?”

 

[Platipoo]

Morgan stepped aside and let them through. Ava could still hear him cursing as the siblings entered the house, and she just shrugged, "Well, Dad was the mayor, so he hung out a lot with the council folks, I guess? Wouldn't be that weird if he gave them some good cigars or even a nice boat," Ava was silent for a few seconds, then she stole a quick look back at Morgan, "I know Dad was nowhere near poor, but I didn't think that he had enough to warrant this kind of formal legal event. Now I wonder.. Why did Morgan talk about Dad's inheritance as if our old man own the whole town?"


They could hear a low hum of chatter and the clatter of dishes from behind an open door that seemed to lead into the lawyer's dining room. Ava groaned, unconsciously leaning her head on Louis' shoulder, "I hate this night already, I just want this to be over.."


"Is that you, little Ahava?" an silver-haired man put on his glasses, just walking out of a bathroom and now making his way closer towards the siblings. He was a lean man with small build. Ava was barely over Louis' shoulder, and maybe it was because the old man was slouching, but the lawyer only reached Ava's ears at best, "I spoke with Louis on the phone, but you might not remember who I am. I'm Michael Jefferson, your father's lawyer. I'm terribly sorry for your loss, child. Aaron was a very good friend of mine," Jefferson patted Ava's shoulder before continuing, "We were just finished with dinner, I was waiting for you both to arrive before I start announcing Aaron's will."

 

[Zediah47]

Louis looked over the old man’s shoulders and spied others through the open door. Littered around the table were a herd of aging souls, most of them far past their prime. It was a small sea of gray hair with a little color sprinkled in here and there. Louis recognized family as well old friends. A majority of those present were people Louis had not seen for a very long time; on some part, he had hoped to keep it that way, but things never seemed to go in his favor.


‘I wonder if everyone else is gonna be like ol’ Thomas Jefferson here…’He really wasn’t looking forward to this. He really hoped to ignore all of it until he could.


He looked up and accidentally made eye contact with an old cousin of theirs. He didn’t have time to look away before he heard,” Louis!”.


‘Too late to run now.’

 

[Platipoo]

Ava decided to like Jefferson when the latter clicked his tongue in disgust and said, "I was hoping to do this in a peaceful manner, but it seems like you've been made, Louis. Let's get inside and be quick about it, this lot full of honey-tongued beggars isn't good for you kids, or for anybody, truthfully," he motioned the siblings to follow him into the room and announced, "Good evening everybody, the Grey children are here, so let us all take a seat.. You two can sit next to me," he pointed at the three consecutive empty seats.


Ava eyed the person who exclaimed her brother's name with a raised eyebrow, "Um, who's that, Lou?" She was only a few years younger than Louis and while she didn't enjoy them, she hadn't exactly been avoiding family gatherings. Unless their extended family suddenly decided to meet more often in her absence, it must've been a very long time since that cousin even showed their face around for Ava not to recognize them.


Ava could see that the other guests were now silently scrutinizing the siblings' every move from their seats. There was one person in particular that bothered her for reasons she couldn't explain - a man, probably in his late sixties who looked like an older, somewhat pudgier version of Lucas Morgan.

 

[Zediah47]

“Do you remember our cousin, Laura? Remember, she was a bit of a bitch growing up. Tall one, with black hair; always had a snippy attitude?”


‘And remember how I didn’t find out she was our cousin till after we made out?’ he wanted to add, but decided not to go down that shaky path.


He looked over to Ava for confirmation, but saw her eyeing someone else.


‘Where is she…?’


A hand pecked Louis’ shoulder. “Boo.”


Louis jumped slightly.


“Would like some embarrassment with your side of surprise?”


He turned an eyed the demon he remembered as Laura. She looked like he remembered her: beautiful, with a hint of bitchiness and an edgy attitude. The years had been kind to her (though they seemed to have done little to her attitude), but she had always been one of the younger family members, and even in this age that did not seem to change. She wore a black dress, darker than her hair, and stood as the queen she believed herself to be. Louis tensed.


“Hello, Laura. Old age has been kind to you. Do you remember my sister, Ava-Ahava?”

 

[Platipoo]

At the mention of her name, Ava snapped her head and flashed a small smile at the supposed cousin, "Hello Laura," she greeted politely. Now that Laura was so close and Ava managed to get a good look at the woman's face, Laura did look somewhat familiar. For some unknown reasons, though, Ava seemed to have remembered Laura as one of Louis' exes instead of a family member. From what little bits she could recall about Laura, Ava didn't think this particular cousin would be pleasant company, though, so she grabbed Louis' arm and slightly tugged at him to get seated, "Thank you for coming, Laura. It has been awhile since I last saw you, I believe."


Jefferson looked impatient as he called for a blonde younger woman - his assistant, perhaps? - and asked her to fetch a sealed envelope from the top of an antique drawer. After the lawyer dismissed her, the female attendant stepped back and stood behind him. Jefferson cleared his throat, then, staring at a few other guests who were taking their time getting seated.


Ava kept her smile afloat as she made her way to the two chairs Jefferson had allocated for her and Louis. A man who was sitting right next to those empty seats suddenly decided to switch to another empty seat on the other side of the long dining table, leaving enough space for another person to take. Ava's smile stiffen a bit, it didn't seem like it was going to be easy shaking off Laura, so she might as well make some conversation, "How have you been Laura? Lou was right, you look nice."

 

[Zediah47]

Laura leaned in close to Ava so Louis could not overhear what was said.


“Enough with the compliments, Ahava, I have no need for your false subtleties. We both know why we’re here, and I’m not going to leave until I take my chunk of the settlement. What you and your OBSCENE ass of a brother do afterwards is none of my business, so I recommend shutting your trap so I don’t grow bored of you and find a way to make this an even worse night for you than it already is.”


“Did you say something, Laura?” Louis asked. Ava’s composure dropped suddenly.


“Not at all,” she smiled. More light radiated from her good looks than the actual lights. “I was just wishing our dear Ahava well. I know it must be hard for the both of you. With him being gone… it feels like a small piece of me has left as well.” Laura’s shoulders shrugged. Sadness poured forth like a river. Louis found himself startled. Had he really meant so much to her?


“I’m sorry,” Louis muttered, patting her shoulder. He would have never believed his cousin felt as she did. “It’s a hard blow for all of us.”


“Ha, hard blow,” she muttered low enough for only Ahava to hear.


Louis looked up. The crowd seemed to grow energized.


“I think it’s about to begin.”

 

[Platipoo]

Now Ava remembered why she didn't register Laura as a cousin. A hazy memory of Ava going down the stairs one summer break only to run into a high school-ish pretty girl who - for no apparent reason - started spouting garbage about middle school Ava's choice of wardrobe resurfaced. Ava was still too sleepy to even try dealing with the stranger, so she just rolled her eyes and climbed back the stairs to her bedroom. Ava heard the mystery older girl suddenly cooing sweetly in answer to Louis popping his head from another room's door, so all this years Ava assumed the girl was just another morally-questionable girlfriend Louis had caught somewhere in town. Ava groaned silently, she wished she could trade seats with Louis so she wouldn't have to suffer from Laura's whispered jabs.


Jefferson coughed to silence the crowd and recited the contents of Aaron's will. He started with personal belongings distributed for friends and distant relatives who their father believed could appreciate the small gifts more than their monetary values. Faces lit up in the room, though some others didn't seem to try masking their disappointment. A plot of land in town was to be utilized as an orphanage. The retired elementary school headmistress, Ms. Baker, was appointed as the project manager.


The lawyer then proceeded to grants of money, first the meager ones, then the larger amounts. The less fortunate townsfolk, struggling local businesses, schools, public services.. As Jefferson went on and on, Ava started to get a feeling that something wasn't right. She wasn't really counting, but this far the total amount of money her father was giving out could easily reached the millions. When Jefferson read the final monetary grant, about ten years' worth of the average family income donated for the town council (to be managed by the smiling Morgan senior), Ava was more than baffled. She knew her dad had money, but not this much. Ava smiled at her suspicion that their father was giving away his whole net worth for charity and leaving his children on their own feet. Both Ava and Louis made decent money anyway, so instead of feeling betrayed, the thought comforted Ava as she whispered with amusement to Louis, "Dad was loaded.. I never would've guessed he passed the millionaire mark."

 

[Zediah47]

Louis clenched his knuckles. ‘There’s no God damn way.’


All of this income could not belong to his father. There was no explanation for it. All his life Louis had grown up believing they had come from a modest family, but to be given all of this…


“There’s no possible way…”


If he his father had handled this much tenure, why had he never spoken of this? Their father had told him that he only enough money to send one child to school, and because of this Louis had turned down the offer in favor of Ava: she had always been the one with a dream, not him. He had restrained himself for years. His father had never funded any of his expeditions, and all the monetary value he held he had made on his own. He had given his father money when he said he was short on funds, and even now there was money he had never paid back. Mayor of a town gave little capital, so how, how had he done this? There was no explanation.


“You son of a bitch,” Louis muttered.


He felt sick. He could fell himself falling. He was drowning, the very air was drowning him.


‘You lied to me. You freakin’ lied to me.’


Louis wasn’t sure to describe how he felt. Mad? Stupid? He had been duped. His father had duped him.


‘Did these vultures know? Is that why they’re here? Where they on this joke with him?’


He looked around. All he saw was an ashy sea of grey, each person flowing as much as the next. Ava seemed caught up in all the noise, and beside him Laura stood attentive.


‘Did they know? Did they really know?’ His stomach churned. ‘I really want to go.’

 

[Platipoo]

Jefferson picked up a separate list and announced that he will now start reading Aaron's gifts to family members. Morgan Sr. interrupted, "Wait, Mike, you're done with Aaron's gift to the town council? What about the lake?"


"It's a formal event, Mr. Morgan. Please refer to me as Mr. Jefferson, and be quiet as the list is still quite long," the lawyer looked irritated. Some distant cousins received a decent sum of money, several kids whose names Ava wasn't sure she had heard before received college funds.. And then Laura won herself a plot of land in what passed for Greylakes' downtown along with some money. Ava had to turn her gaze away from her cousin as soon as the latter started dabbing her eyes with tissue, faking a solemn tear.


It was then that Ava noticed that Louis looked strange, so she reached towards his arm and asked gently, "Lou? You okay?" Jefferson called her name, then. Her father had left Ava with their old family house and another house on a tiny island in the middle of the Grey lake, including a small boat and dock on the lake to reach the island. Ava was surprised she got the family house instead of Louis, but she was even more shocked from the fact that her father actually own a whole - albeit small - island.


Jefferson kept on talking, not giving time for Ava to react, "The rest of the deceased's monetary estate shall be split equally between his living children," he seemed to take a deliberate halt before he dropped the bomb, "And ownership of the Grey Lake, including the detailed land surrounding the lake, shall fall into his firstborn son, Louis Grey." That was it. Owning an island was one thing, but owning the whole gargantuan lake was an entirely different level of absurdity. All Ava was able to do was turn slowly to look at Louis face in disbelief.

 

[Zediah47]

Louis stood up, the screech of his chair attracting every eye. The room was silent. Guppy eyes stared back at him. In the crowd he could already spy a few vultures. Blank stares were undressing his body with their eyes, first his clothes, then his skin, and finally his money. He felt dirty. He wanted to wash off this filth. He moved, only to realize he had been caught. His swiveled, and saw his body attached to the visage of his sister. She looked worried. He gave a dry smile.


“It’s a little too stuffy in here for me. I’m going to get some fresh air.”


He shook off Ava’s hand, and silently walked out. He opened the doors to the balcony and collapsed on the railing. He let out a deep sigh, the moisture from his breath materializing if only for a moment. A thin breeze muffled his hair, and all around him the night sky glistened. Down below young crickets gave their song. He wished he would have brought his cigarettes. He really should have brought his cigarettes. He found it ironic how he didn’t want his sister to judge him for smoking, yet there were so may bigger things she did not know about him.


He let his head fall over the railing. He was sure he heard footsteps coming from behind but he ignored them. He really did not feel like caring at the moment.