Chapter 14 of The Half Life of Dragons

by Sonja Hakala

PREVIOUSLY IN THE HALF LIFE OF DRAGONS: It’s been seven years since Timmen Eldritch, lead singer of the mystical rock band Calliope, disappeared. To this day, most people believe he died. But there are enough conspiracy theories swirling online to keep his ardent cult members hopeful of “Timmens’ return .”

Eldritch and Calliope recorded their last album in an old farmhouse in Carding, Vermont so the town has become a reluctant mecca for Calliope culties, as they call themselves. They’ve already started to gather, and no one in Carding is happy about it. 

You can catch up on previous chapters of this novel in progress here.

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Everyone in the garage just stopped. No sound came from any of them. What they did was stare, rather open-mouthed if you must know, at Aggie, sensible, practical, down-to-earth Agnes Findley. Charlie was the first to recover his voice.

“Those could be evidence,” he said. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”

“Evidence?” Josh asked. 

“Of what?” his brother chimed in.

Aggie had a quick eyes-only conversation with her partner. She trusted Charlie’s instincts. If he thought it was time to talk, then that is what she would do. He smiled at her. “I think you have the floor, my dear.”

She nodded.”I can go into more detail as we need to but here’s the gist. Timmen Eldritch made a will before he disappeared, signed, witnessed, and notarized so it is legal. That much is clear.”

“When is it dated?” Edie asked.

“October first, six months before he disappeared,” Charlie said. “He was in California at the time.”

“About six years ago, I became the rather reluctant custodian of the Calliope papers. I was working for Brownlow, Smith & Brownlow at the time, and Marcus Brownlow had been diagnosed with cancer. He wanted the papers to be safe, and, quite frankly, not in the hands of his partner’s son,” Aggie said. “Marcus told me that the band’s finances were in an awful muddle. By the time I got the files, there were several suits pending among the band members, a couple of court cases brought by women who claimed that Timmen had fathered their children, Eldritch was nowhere to be found, their agent wouldn’t have anything to do with the band—he said they were a lost cause—and no one knew where to find the contract that the band members had supposedly signed.”

“Was there any money to fight over?” Josh asked. 

Aggie sighed. “Given some other circumstantial evidence, I suspect there is a considerable amount. But I can’t prove it definitively because when Marcus Brownlow died, my access to the law firm’s database was cut off.” 

“After Aggie and I went through all of Marcus’s files, I did some digging into the finances of Oscar Augusto Octavio Smith, the son of the original Smith in the law firm’s partnership,” Charlie said. “I found out that he’s a big gamer or at least he likes to think he is. His online gaming name is Gusto, and he’s known for throwing a lot of money around.”

Matt rolled his eyes so hard, everyone heard them. “Oh please. Gusto? Really?”

“Yep, really,” Charlie said. “From what I gleaned from a gamer’s chat room that I lurked in for a while, he’s not half the gamer he likes to think he is. In fact, he’s something of a joke. But Aggie and I suspect he’s siphoning money from the law firm to finance his habits, and that could include the Calliope money.”

“So what can be done?” Josh asked. “Matt and I don’t want to get mixed up in that.”

“I understand,” Aggie said. “I would feel the same way in your shoes. My hands have been tied ever since Eldritch was declared missing. And without the band’s contract, I’m not sure what avenue I can pursue.”

She looked down at the contents of the Karmann Ghia’s trunk. “I found a reference in Eldritch’s handwriting to a marriage but I’ve never found out who married who. I’m hoping this stuff has some answers. It would go a long way toward clearing up the Calliope mess.”

“And getting those vermin out of town,” Ruth muttered.

“So what are you proposing to do?” Josh asked.

Aggie looked over at Edie. “Is there room enough in the Academy’s safe for this stuff?”

“Yes, I believe so. That would be a good temporary home for it.”

“Okay, before we move anything, would one of you two,” Aggie pointed at Josh and Matt, “help me inventory this. Right now, legally, you are its owners, however reluctant you may be. We don’t have to read anything, just count how many of what we have, and take some pictures. Then you keep the list, and Edie, Charlie, and I can move this over to the Academy.”

“And then what?” Edie asked.

Aggie hesitated. “I’m not completely sure what the law would dictate, to tell you the truth. But I know Joyce Hudson, the probate judge, so I’ll consult her. This could have serious financial implications for a number of people so I want to do it right.”

Everyone started to move though no one was quite sure where they were going. That’s when Amos raised his voice. “What about the water?”

“Oh yeah, sorry Amos,” Matt said.

“Look, I’ll inventory this stuff with Aggie and Charlie,” Josh said.

“And I’ll go with Matt and Amos to see what’s up with the water,” Andy said. “I was on the selectboard when that water district was created so that experience might be helpful.”

“Before you go, Aggie,” Diana said, “can you tell me something about the other car, the one I originally came to see.”

“Sure,” Aggie said. “As far as I know, I did the last maintenance on it for Barbara, changed the oil, rotated the tires, checked all the fluids, that kind of stuff. I took it out for a drive then—it must have been two months ago—and everything was fine. It will need new brakes within the next 5,000 miles but that’s not an unusual occurrence for a car this age.”

“Before we go any further, may I suggest we check the trunk,” Josh said, holding up the car keys. “Considering what we found in the Ghia, I think it would be a good idea to check every nook and cranny. My sister clearly had a secret, and it appears our Mom was a party to it.”

With a lot of nods, and the arranging of transport, the group broke in three directions—Andy, Matt, and Amos to hike off to inspect the well near the old Calliope farmhouse; Diana, Josh, and Aggie off to search the Honda; Ruth and Edie in pursuit of lunch; and Charlie to take pictures of the contents of the Karmann Ghia’s trunk.

“Oh, we’re going to need paper and pens and a box, aren’t we?” Josh said. “I’ll get those and join you in the garage.”

When they reached the garage, Diana and Aggie circled the Honda warily a couple of times before opening the front doors. “You know, I feel bad that I never considered how much Ashley’s running away hurt her family,” Diana said. “I can’t imagine how big of a punch it would be to Stephen and I if one of our kids did that. You’d die a thousand deaths imagining all sorts of horrors. Josh and I were in the same class at school. I didn’t know him well but I should have been more aware. Grief is a heavy enough burden to carry without having to do it alone.”

“You’re right about the burden,” Aggie said as the two of them starting slowly smoothing their hands over every surface of the Honda. “But I wouldn’t take it on your shoulders, Diana. I think women always feel guiltier than they need to.

She grinned at Diana as she reached down to sweep a hand under the floor mat. “We are the emotional shepherds for men, I’ll grant you that. But it doesn’t mean we have to carry their burdens. If we do that, they don’t get the chance to grow.” Turning her hand over, she prodded the underside of the seat. Next she opened the glove compartment.

“You look like you’ve done this before,” Diana said, copying Aggies’s search technique.

“Not really but when I was in law school, I took a criminology class, and one of the sessions was held in a municipal garage where vehicles involved in crimes were inspected,” Aggie said. “We watched this team examine a pickup truck owned by a suspected drug dealer, and we got a thorough lesson in all of its hiding places. It was quite the eye-opener.”

The two women worked in companionable silence while Aggie emptied the glove compartment, examining each item thoroughly before placing it on the floor. In the meantime, Diana moved into the back of the car. She’d poked and prodded halfway across the seat when she suddenly hissed. 

“Aggie, would you take a look at this?”

“What have you got?” Josh had appeared with pens, paper, and a box.

“I’m not sure,” Diana said. “But I think there’s some hand stitching here.” She thumbed an area in the middle of the seat. “It could be nothing more than your Mom making a repair.”

“Hang on,” Josh said. “Mom was a flashlight fanatic. There’s sure to be one in here somewhere.”

In a matter of moments, the three investigators (it’s appropriate to call them that, right?) were staring at a circle of light on the back seat. “See?” Diana said, pointing at a row of stitches. “These are not like the others.”

“You’re right,” Aggie said, rubbing her finger over the seam. “All the other seams are flat but this one is raised, telling me that the fabric was pulled together while it was sewed.”

The two women looked at Josh. “The car belongs to you and your brother. What would like to do?” Aggie asked.

“I’ll still consider buying it if we take the seam apart,” Diana said. “A seam is easy enough to fix.”

“I think we should get this over with,” Josh said, holding up a box cutter that he’d grabbed with the flashlight. “After this morning, who knows what we’ll find.”

The three of them held their collective breath while Diana stretched the fabric, Josh held the flashlight, and Aggie delicately picked at the thread. “And there you are,” Aggie said as the seam came apart revealing a layer of padding that was not original to the car. They looked at one another for a moment then Aggie asked” “Have you got your phone, Josh?”

They proceeded methodically, Josh taking pictures every step of the way. “It’s a book,” Aggie said as she held up a volume with a dark green cover. 

“Emma,” Josh whispered. “By Jane Austen. That was one of my sister’s favorites. But that doesn’t explain why it’s here.”

Suddenly, Aggie and Diana began to giggle. “Oh, clever girl,” Diana said.

Josh looked from one to the other. “What am I missing here?”

Aggie held the book spine out toward Josh. “Looks like an ordinary book, doesn’t it? If you saw it on a shelf, you wouldn’t pay any attention to it, right?”

“I suppose so, yeah.”

Then Aggie turned the book around. “Now what do you see?” 

Josh bent closer. The paper in the book was anything but what you’d expect in a regular text block. Some of it was brown, some yellow, some mint green, and here and there, envelopes were glued to the pages. “So this isn’t Emma at all, is it?”

“Not at all,” Diana explained. “What you’re looking at is called a repurposed book. Among artists, they’re often junk journals, and there’s a whole raft of people who make them, use them, and sell them.”

“Go on. Open it, Aggie,” Josh said.

Aggie placed the book on the car seat then gently opened its cover. “Ashley used an interesting style of binding, see? There are three sections of paper, they’re called signatures, and each of them sewn to this piece of plaid fabric. Then the fabric was glued inside the cover. That way, the stitching would never show on the spine. She probably had it hiding in plain sight on a bookshelf.”

Josh had gone very quiet as he reached out to finger the fabric. “This was cut from a jacket my sister used to wear in high school,” he said. “She loved plaid.”

Placing the book in his lap, Aggie said: “I think you and Matt should go through this on your own first. We don’t know what’s in here, and some of it could be deeply personal.”

Josh nodded, and started to close the journal. But as he did, some of the stitching gave way, and the central section spilled onto the garage floor. Aggie and Diana dived to retrieve the pages and envelopes while Josh juggled the rest to keep it together. 

“Oh wow, look at this,” Diana said, holding up a pile of paper made from a yellow legal pad. 

“What is it?”

“I think it’s a handwritten accounting of the money that Calliope made.”

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Thanks for sharing some of the minutes of your life with me and Carding, Vermont. I hope you’re enjoying The Half Life of Dragons and can visit next week for the latest chapter.

When I reach the end of the tale, the entire book will be available here as an ebook. In the meantime, if you need to catch up or would like to share this adventure with someone else, you can do so by clicking this link.

~ Sonja Hakala