Corey Fallon worked full time at a Cloud 9 superstore. Of course, Corey had expertly convinced them that he was already enrolled at Berkely, and needed two off days a week in order to study and attend classes. The manager of the Reseda store was too kind to smell bullshit, and thus the Fallon boy had been getting away with it for months. It was on one of those off days that he was so thankful to Glen, his manager, for that he was perusing the history books in the family library-slash-his mother's office for anything that he could find on the Karkaroff family or their house. Ringo might have been ready to give up on the gold, but Corey wasn't. It would make a great stand-up routine when he graduated law school and gave up on the frivolousness of YouTube.
Corey reached for the top shelf, pulling down one of his father's books on historic houses in the West Valley area. He'd already tried Reseda Urban Legends, the paperback lying by his feet. In that one, there was a three page mention of the house. He was underwhelmed, hoping that the classic houses book would provide a better judgement.
He scanned the pages quickly, shuffling through them like he did when he was sorting the magazine stand at work, for anything that looked like the old, imposing house or shared the same plot of land. After a minute or two, he found it. At least, Corey thought he did. The address was the same. . . but it wasn't the Karkaroff house. It was bigger, grander. Older. Victorian style, if he had to guess.
"Holy freakin' shit." He muttered, sitting down at his mom's desk
"That's a quarter for the swear jar!" A chipper voice shouted from behind him.
Cursing again, Corey jumped, the harcover book falling out of his hands as he bumped his knee on the underside of the plexiglass desk. "Jesus Christ, Freddie!"
Freddie Fallon grinned, a copy of a Death Note comic book he borrowed from Ian tucked under his arm. "You're up to a dollar fifty now. What're ya doing in mom's office."
"None of your-" Corey stopped himself before he could curse again "-business."
"If it's nothing special, why don't you let me have a look?" Freddie pushed, reaching for the large book on the floor.
Corey panicked, trying to stop his youngest sibling from getting the book and finding out what he was up to. "Freddie, it doesn't concern you."
Freddie's face morphed into confusion. "What's so important about Crispin Manor? It says here that it was torn down in the nineteen forties to make space for those ugly art deco houses that are there now."
Nineteen forties. When Ian and Ringo had first researched the house with Robby Keene, they found that the house had first been built in 1946, after the second world war, and that there had only been two owners before Stasia Karkaroff and her family.
Shoving Freddie out of the way, Corey grabbed the open book and rushed down the stairs, leaving two dollars at the desk.
"Keep the change for yourself, the rest goes in the jar!" The Fallon boy shouted as he ran, leaving a confused Freddie at the top of the stairs.
Corey rushed down to the basement, rummaging through Ian's dank bedroom for the plans of the Karkaroff house. Nobody had any clue where Ian Fallon had gotten to that morning, but his aunt and uncle were just glad that the Canadian was out of the house for once.
After finding the floorplans underneath Ian's mattress ( along with a bag of marijuana, an old set of nunchucks, two rolled joints and a battered copy of The Great Gatsby from some high school library in Banff ), Corey spread out at the pool table, comparing the plans Ian had to the plans form the original Manor House.
Crispin Manor had been twice the size of the Karkaroff house, and most of Crispin's back half had been a part of what was now Kyler's family's backyard. According to the original floor plans, there was a second cellar, one that wasn't accessible by the servant's entrance, like the area that was now the main basement of the house. The second cellar was marked as a wine cellar, and on the original plans from 1946, it was partially still in use, outlined very clearly on the plans from when the home was first built, and owned by an American army corporal who lost the use of his legs. When the house was customized for him and his family, that whole area became an accessibility ramp with extra wheelchair storage underneath. Corey guessed that a guy like that probably had an outdoor chair and an indoor chair, and a hot maid to boot.
Drawing a circle around that spot on the map, Corey flipped through the plans again, looking for the renovations made in the mid-seventies. Three pages later, Corey Fallon found it.
Stasia Karkaroff had demolished the wheelchair porch and turned it into a patio.
Right around the time that her inheritance from the old country vanished.
Corey Fallon had founf the location of the Karkaroff fortune.
Ringo was going to love this.
If only she would ignore her accounting teacher and pick up the damn phone.
NOTES!!
two, maybe three chapters left guys !!
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