Con Artist Legacy

Chapter Two: The (Almost) Arrest

“No.” I heard myself reply and because I didn't know what to do next....I slammed the door in his face. Yes we were friends, but I had always had a sixth “sense” about people that I couldn’t really explain. I knew that whatever Nate wanted to ask…we didn’t want to answer. He started pounding on the door. I tried to mentally shhh him and maybe send him away. Wasn’t there a song for that?

 “C’mon Olivia, open this door!” He starting yelling and pounding on the door, “Open this door or I will come back with an arrest warrant for both of you.” I might have opened the door had he asked nicely, but now I really didn’t want to.

“Olivia, what is going on?” I whirled around to see my mother and Tere coming towards me. A glare from my mother always reduced me to a scared five year old. I wasn’t the type to be scared of anyone or anything but that woman was the exception. She didn’t even have to say anything else. I unlocked the door and felt myself moving away slowly.

Nate walked through the door looking pretty mad. Paul followed pretending to look mad, but his goofball smile gave him away. The perks of a small town are many.  

“Well is someone going to tell us what is going on?” Tere asked. She was a tall imposing woman. Several people commented that she was the female version of my grandfather.....which was a scary thought. 

“Tere, I came here with direct orders from our new sheriff. I have some questions that I would like to ask in private.” Nate explained with Paul nodding in agreement. “For some reason Olivia slammed the door in my face and refused to let me in.”

He sold me out! Man, I need better friends.

Tere looked between us and just sighed. She didn't understand our relationship, she didn't understand me and she never liked things she didn't understand.  

“Very well, please follow me into my study Nathaniel,” she finally replied. She turned around quickly before anything else happened.  She was no more than five feet away when she glanced over and said, “Oh and please excuse my niece. You grew up with her, you know how she is.”

Ouch. 

Nate nodded politely and followed her, but he wasn’t done either. “Well at least one of us grew up,” he muttered under his breath as he passed by me. Humph!

...and then I was left alone with my mother, something I tried to avoid at all cost.

“You know now would be a good time to go down and visit Mr. Potter,” my mother began. Oh not this again. I was named after my grandmother and my own mother was worried that crazy was contagious. She feared I would be affected because we shared a first name. She felt so strongly that she tried to get me to a lawyer once a day. Like if I became Elizabeth, I would become sweet and angelic…and normal.

“Hmm, maybe later mom,” I began. “I need to talk to Victoria. I heard she was having some boy problems…” My mother was gone before I even finished. She hated men more than crazy people. She would be distracted for a while. I didn’t even think Victoria was home.

I waited until I was sure she was gone and I made my way towards Tere’s study. The room was soundproof, no noise coming in and no noise coming out. It was a pretty good place for secrets and privacy. So it was silly to think you could stand by the door to listen. That is unless you knew that in the room next to it there was a painting that hid a recording machine, which was connected to a listening device in the study. I knew this because I like to know things.

I pressed play and listened carefully to the conversation.

“I am sorry Tere, I know that it is painful but the new sheriff wants to make a big impression. What better way than to solve the only cold cases we have and the most infamous?”

“Twenty years is a long time. I don't understand what makes Sheriff Clark think he can do anything now......they had no leads even then."

“The evidence was saved all these years, technological advances can help us discover new information and a fresh pair of eyes has been known to be essential in solving numerous cold murder cases.”

 My heart starting beating faster…murder?

“You think I murdered my husband?”

“No Ma’am.”

Yes he did! Yes he did! Nate’s voice always got a little higher when he lied. He thought my aunt killed her husband twenty years ago. It was almost too much too take, because it made no sense. I was always told that Carlo had died in a car accident and that it had devastated everyone. Even grandpa wouldn’t discuss it and as horrible as I thought Tere was….a murderer? I was so lost in thought that I also missed the last part of the conversation and I kind of wish I had.

“So you don’t think I killed Carlo, but you are reopening the case and have no other suspects?”

There was no answer.

“And you also suspect Elizabeth for the disappearance of Olivia’s father?"

It was silent for a few minutes and I thought they had left, when my aunt spoke again. 

"I see this conversation is only one way. Next time you come into this house, you come with a warrant.”

I heard footsteps in the hall and I let myself slide to the floor. My father? My mother had told me she didn’t know who he was, that she had bribed the nurses in the hospital so that I could have a different last name. She needed someone to transfer the blame too….an imaginary man that left her worked. I just couldn’t believe she lied to me.

No secrets in this family? These women were kidding themselves. I saw the danger…I saw it everywhere.

I grew up with murderers and now they were all going to jail.