November 7^th

Calla slept a few hours and then was up and using her mind to communicate with Nicholas back in Colorado.

No, Ma. It’s only 9:30 here. He grumbled.

Oh, Ma, just relax. They won’t be home until late this afternoon. You and Dad got plenty of time. Nicholas assured her and was very satisfied by the nervous but relaxed tone in her voice. Mom was looking forward to bright and better things in her life for a change and that was good. Annie started to stir in his arms and he held her a little tighter. She settled back to sleep.

Calla wasn’t just awake, she was up and ready to face to the world with a renewed hope and vigor. Daniel was sleeping and she was trying to be quiet so as not to wake him. She wanted to get on with her life…right now. She’d been too long away from all of them. We’ll be home in plenty of time.

If you’re not, Gods forbid, Cole and Lilly will understand. Nick encouraged. In fact, they’ll probably be happy about it.

Yes, Colleen would definitely take that as a good sign just as Nicholas clearly was. Maybe it would be all right if they were just a tad late in greeting their new granddaughter when she came home. All right, I love you. Kiss Annie for me.

Love you too, Mom. I will. The line between them clicked off.

With a light heart, she sat on the edge of the bed watching her Husband sleep. He looked so peaceful and happy. Please, God, let it last. Let this be the end of it. She took one of the blankets from the bed, wrapped it around her body and walked out onto the balcony into the chilly Scottish afternoon. The sun was hazy and it was hard to see the horizon, Dunvegan and the Isle of Skye were completely out of sight. Just like the future, you can only see so much and then it all gets murky. Still, I know something good is out there I don’t have to be afraid. Calla turned to look through the glass doors at her Husband once more. No, I don’t have to be afraid so long as he’s with me. Gazing down at the closer ground, she took in the gardens below her and remembered how beautiful they were when they were in full bloom in the summer. It looked as though someone had been keeping up them up with a loving hand. Even they were faded now, come this summer they would be beautiful again.

“What are you doing?” Daniel asked in a sleepy voice while he walked out onto the balcony to stand behind her.

“Thinking.”

“About what?”

“The Future.” She said in a dreamy tone. “Our Future.”

Daniel put his arms and his own blanket around her. “I think it looks bright, what about you?”

“I hope so.”

“Doubts, Kitty?” His voice was soft and full of concern but his heart sped up.

“I just…I don’t want to fuck this up again, Daniel.” Kitty shook her head against his shoulder.

“You won’t. Neither will I. Come downstairs with me.” He led her off the balcony, back through the bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen. Daniel got the lock box from the pantry and opened it to show her the contents. Calla backed away from it immediately. “I want you to do something for me.”

“Wh…what?” She stammered and was relieved when he closed the box.

“I want you to come outside with me.” Daniel picked up the box and handed it to her, Kitty didn’t want to take it at first but he insisted and finally she took it from him. She held it out in front of her at arms length and turned her face away from it as though she were smelling some wretched stench. The two of them wrapped up in their own blanket they walked across the grounds, down a long patch of rolling green grass and to the Cliff top. “I want you to toss it in.” Daniel told her and handed her the key. “You don’t have to. It’s your call. You can open it or throw it away.” He stepped back from the edge to watch her. One final temptation, perhaps it was cruel on his part but there was a symbolic quality to this act and he wanted her make the choice.

Calla didn’t hesitate she put the key on top of the box, drew her arm all the way back and heaved it off the cliff into the sea below. “All gone.” She said as she turned to him.

“No regrets?”

“None. Daniel,” she began and then stopped as she looked for the right words to say, “I got no pleasure from them, they only got me through from one moment to the next. I only did those things to kill the pain of losing you.”

Daniel cleared his throat. “Y—yeah, I, ah, I drank a lot while you were away.” He admitted.

“No you didn’t.”

“Ah, yeah, I did.” He held his arms out to her. “A lot.”

Calla came to him. “Why?”

“To try and forget you because it hurt too much to remember what I lost.”

In the absence in the other, it seemed they both had their little problems and little crutches with which to deal with them. “We’ll be all right.” She snuggled against him.

Daniel couldn’t tell if that was a question or a statement. “I think we will.” Squeezing her tight, he changed his mind. “I’m sure of it.”

“It’s not too cold out here.”

Again, he couldn’t say if that was a question or a statement. “No.” The air was crisp but the sun was gently warm.

“Want to take a walk in the garden?” Calla invited. “Perhaps stop by the Wishing Well?”

“You are incorrigible, Mrs. Jackson.” Daniel chastised with a grin. “We haven’t even showered.”

“No sense in wasting good water.” She returned. Wrapping her arm around his waist, Calla started to lead them back toward the Manor House and the gardens. “I mean, you know, if you’re just going to get dirty again that is.”

They did have two blankets with them. One to lay on the ground and the other to lie beneath that would keep the chill away. Now that she mentioned it, he could go for another round. Funny, just a little while he thought he’d never move again and now he felt very vigorous. “After this we have a shower.” He said and looking down at her, he saw the cute little pout on her face. “Calla! I’m filthy!” Daniel laughed.

Calla laughed as well as blushed. “My fault so sorry.” She continued to giggle.

“No you’re not.” He chided as they walked through the wrought iron gate into the garden. Daniel watched her lay he blanket down by the Wishing Well. There she was, standing there naked in the bright autumn sunlight her hair dancing with passionate fire in its glow just like her eyes. He put his blanket over hers, knelt down and pulled the corner back. “Ladies first.” Calla slid in between the blankets and he followed her. “Now, just what did you have in mind?”

“Nothing too….strenuous…” she purred as she ran her fingertips across his bare chest. “Just a….long….slow…..comfortable…”

His lips were over hers before she could the last word out.

It was long after the sun reached its descending stage when they were finished making love and headed back into the house for a long hot shower. Washing him clean and then licking him to wakefulness once more, Calla coaxed him into another round while they stood soapy and warm under the hot jets of water. “You are going to kill me one day.” Daniel told her as they dried and dressed.

“There are worse ways to go.” Calla told him and pulled a sweater over her head.

“Much worse.” He agreed. “They’ll never get the smile off my face. What do you say? Are you ready to go home and greet our new granddaughter?”

“We will come back soon?”

Yes, they would, but not as soon as she’d probably like. “Sit down with me for a minute.” He patted the side of the bed. “We need to talk about your paintings.”

“What about them?” She asked as she sat down.

Daniel filled her in on what Jack told him and then told her that she had to go to the opening at the New York Museum of Art but she didn’t have to go to the auction at Sotheby’s if she didn’t want to. He already knew what was coming…

”I don’t want to go, oh, please, Daniel, I don’t want anything more to do with it!”

“I know, honey, but” he took her hands in his, “I’ll be there with you and you can’t hide from the world not right now. They need to see you then you can fade away into obscurity if you want.”

“I made a really really fine mess, didn’t I?” She grumbled in Stan Laurel’s voice.

“Yeah,” he remarked with a smile, “but it’s almost over. Just this little bit left.”

“I don’t want to sell the portrait of you and the children. Do I have to?”

Daniel told her about setting a reserve price high enough that it was out of reach but there were no guarantees that someone wouldn’t meet it and/or exceed it. “You can paint another one if it sells, one with all of us in it, including you and Annie, and Lilly. You won’t have to sell that one.”

“No more painting.”

“Don’t say that.” Daniel said in a strong but encouraging voice. “You’re very talented, Calla and it seems to be very…cathartic for you, so don’t stop. You don’t have to show or sell if you don’t want to but don’t stop painting because of this.”

Calla knew he wanted her to agree with him and promise that she wouldn’t stop but instead she offered a compromise. “Perhaps I’ll get in touch with the school and see if I can get my job back.”

“Perhaps you’ll open another gallery.” He countered. “I know you liked having your own little business.”

“Perhaps.” Yes, maybe she would do that. Calla adored her little gallery, it wasn’t anything big or fancy, but she enjoyed it just the same. “Ready?”

“Let me call Mr. McGee and tell him we’re leaving.” Daniel picked up the phone and hit *9, he informed Mr. McGee they were going and to please clean up the house. “Ready.” He said as he turned back to her.

Calla zapped the suitcases back home and then took his hands, the two of them disappeared from the Scottish retreat and reappeared in the living room of 1 North Cemetery Drive. Coley and the baby were already home but that didn’t seem to spoil the rest of the day. In fact, as Nicholas said, everyone seemed genuinely happy that Doctor and Mrs. Jackson arrived fashionably late.

There was very strange and welcome news in Greenbrier the next day. Andrew F. Hartley’s rental car was found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, how it got there no one knew. The police dusted the car for fingerprints, they lifted several and in order to determine which ones belonged to Mr. Hartley and which might belong to some nefarious wrong-does, they ran all the prints they found through several databases. What do you know? One of the fingerprints matched those found at the scenes of the deaths of Thomas Dyer and Antwone Booker. Turned out, said prints belonged to one Andrew F. Hartley. This led them to compare the few strands of long blonde hair they found in the car to ones found at both scenes. A perfect match.

Insofar as the Colorado State Police were concerned, Andrew F. Hartley had murdered both men.

Case closed.

That should have been good but it sent the media into a feeding frenzy. If Hartley killed both of them then surely he’d done it for the lovely Callestah. While suspicions weren’t cast upon her aspersions were. The phone started ringing, Daniel took it off the hook, called the phone company the next day and had it changed to an unpublished number. They could all just suck eggs until she was ready to go out there again.

Lying together in bed that night she turned to her Husband. “I still can’t believe it was Andy. I’m sorry, Daniel, I know you don’t want to talk about this but….murder?”

There were still a few more confessions to be made and now looked like a good time. “Kitty,” he began with a sigh. “I don’t know why he did it but he killed them.” He said in an uncertain tone. “Hartley, he…” Daniel stumbled and cleared his throat, “the tech boys, they’re all sure it was Hartley,” another throat clearing, “who…put calliendanny.com back on the web.”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah, they were able to get information on him.” Daniel explained but didn’t go into detail regarding the dossier Hammond gave him. “Seems Hartley had…some…ah…prior web experience.” That was putting it very nicely and there was no need to tell her how they’d tracked down ancient receipts from when David ran the site and come across Hartley’s long ago credit card payments to David. “He did it, Kitty. He killed them, he put that site up and….” One last thing, spit it out, Danny. “Hartley owned the rights to Dyer’s photographs, Kitty. He was going to make a lot of money off them.” Daniel could tell her other, more personal, things Hartley had done and she was unaware of but looking at her, he knew that was a bad idea. “Come here, honey, it’s all right. He’s dead, he can’t hurt you or us anymore.”

In the room down the hall, Lilly began fussing.

“And all the while he sympathized with me over them. I’m an idiot, Daniel.” She didn’t come to him. “Why didn’t I see it?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He soothed still holding his arms out.

“Andy set out to break us apart and I let him! I am so stupid!”

“No you’re not.” Daniel didn’t wait any longer he scooped her up and brought her in close. “Hartley was a consummate conman, Kitty and he did set his sights on you. He was very good at what he did, he was charming, told you everything you wanted to hear, gave you everything you needed…whatever it was. You’re not the first one he did this too, Calla. It’s not your fault.” Though he didn’t know to what extent Hartley had suckered those other artists and all the other people he’d come across in his long colorful life. Daniel kissed the side of her head. “The good thing is that the police know who did it now they’re not going to be looking at you or Nicholas anymore. That’s all going to fade away.”

“I hope you’re right.” She sighed.

“Now, I want to stop beating yourself up over this, ok?” Daniel asked. “You know, you haven’t said much about what started all this. About what I did.” He coaxed. “You haven’t yelled at me at all. I deserve a good tongue lashing at the very least.” Daniel offered.

She tilted her head to look up at him as they lay together in their bed. Calla smiled. “Oh, yes, you always deserve one of those.” She ran her tongue over her top lip.

“Later. Right now I’m serious, Kitty.”

“You didn’t yell at me either,” she reminded him. “I don’t want to fight I just want to be with you. I was never angry just hurt.”

There was a tapping on the bedroom door. “Come in,” Daniel said. Lilly’s cries were louder now and Coley walked into the room with the baby in her arms.

“She won’t stop crying. Mom, what am I doing wrong?” Colleen stood holding her daughter and looking totally wiped out. “I’ve tried feeding her, changing her, singing to her, rocking her, she won’t quit.” She held Lilly out to Calla.

“I’m sure you’re not doing anything wrong,” Calla soothed but didn’t reach for the baby. “Give her to your Father, he was always much better than I was when the two of you were fussy.”

“I was?” Daniel asked. He didn’t seem to remember it that way. No, the way he remembered it he was all thumbs when it came to the twins at that age. Lilly fussed and cried, Daniel held his arms out for her. “I’ll take her, you go get some sleep.”

Colleen frowned and looked as though she were about to burst into tears. “Why don’t you hold her?” She demanded to know. “Don’t you like her?”

“Colleen!” Calla said aghast. “I love Lilly and you.”

“Then take her, please, Mom help me. You’re the only one who hasn’t held her yet and she’s three days old.”

“My arms are still weak….”

And so is your excuse. Daniel dropped his arms back to his side. Now that he thought about he’d seen her with the baby, rocking the cradle or carrying her around in her little seat, he’d seen her playing with the baby side by side on the floor or again in her seat on the couch but he had not seen her holding the baby. He could attest to the fact that her arms were plenty strong. Daniel leaned over to her; “Bullshit,” he whispered in her ear. Daniel knew what as holding her back. It was the memory of those slender arms shaking uncontrollably combined with the creeping the idea in the back of her mind that perhaps she didn’t deserve a granddaughter or to be this happy. After all, she had done very bad things and she had not been punished for them. Daniel was going to see to it that she never was. “Hold our granddaughter.”

“I don’t want to drop her.” Calla said quickly. Yes, Calla did remember the way her arms shook and that was only a few days ago. If something like that should happen while she was holding Lilly, the results would be disastrous.

“You won’t drop her.” Daniel encouraged.

If everyone is going to make a big deal out of it. “Come to grandma,” Calla said as she held out her arms for the fussing little bundle. Coley smiled and gently laid her Daughter in Mother’s arms. The baby was soft and warm, she smelled good and made Calla feel tingly. Her arms did not lose their strength. “You know, when you and Nicholas were fussing I used to sing to you. Do you think that will help?”

“Try anything, Mom.” Colleen begged and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Let’s see if I remember how that song went,” Calla pondered it for a moment before she started singing. “Some say love it is a river that drowns the tender reed, some say love it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed, some say love it is a hunger an endless aching need. I say love it is a flower and you its only seed.” Lilly began to quiet down. Calla sang The Rose while she rocked the little girl in her arms and soon Lilly was fast asleep. “Why don’t you drag the basinet in here? We’ll watch over her tonight while you rest.”

“Thanks Mom.” A tired Colleen walked out of the room and came back a few moments later dragging the white wicker basinet behind her.

Daniel climbed out of the bed and put the small crib at the foot of the bed. “Get some sleep, pumpkin.” He said kissing his daughter and holding his arms for his new granddaughter.

“Night, Mom. Night, Dad. Night Lilly.” Colleen said and then made her out of the bedroom for the night.

“She’s asleep.” Daniel said. “I’ll put her in the basinet.”

“Can’t she sleep with us?” Calla asked gazing down at the sleeping baby.

Typical Calla, two minutes ago, she didn’t want to pick Lilly up and now she didn’t want to put her down. “No,” Daniel said. “She needs room to stretch out and so do we so give her to me.”

“All right,” Calla sighed and handed the baby over, she watched Daniel put her down for the night. “I always did like to see you with the children. You’re a very good Father, Daniel.”

He climbed back into bed with her. “Yeah, well, you made that easy.” Daniel said and cuddled up with her again. “I was always gone you did most of the work with Nick and Cole when they were little.”

“It’s nice to have a baby in the house again.”

“It is. Let’s get some sleep.” Daniel turned out the light. There wouldn’t be any love making tonight, not with Lilly three feet away even if she was only three days old, Calla would never allow it. That was a good thing, he was wiped out but tomorrow, well, tomorrow he’d be fully recharged and that, too, was a good thing.

End of Chapter Three
Tarnished Heroes: Keep the Fire Burning
Continue to
Chapter Four