© 2026 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This is an all-new addition to the Stormwatch series. If you haven't read Stormwatch Chapter 1, through Stormwatch Chapter 15, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. The Storm subseries of Chapters 13 thru 16 are 100% all new material.

For comments, questions, or merchandise, please contact the author.

Stormwatch Chapter 16

Le Fin

Chapter 01 - Visitors

It was the first time that Macy hadn't helped clean up after a function at Springville Congregational Church. When time came to clean up, she couldn't be found. Neither could Veronica. When that FBI agent introduced her to the visitors from New Caledonia, she broke down in tears and said, "S'il vous plaît... ne prenez pas mon fils." (Please... don't take my boy.) In tears she dashed out through the kitchen area where the women's ministry was cleaning up the pots and pans from the big potluck feast. The new mayor saw her run off, but she was speaking with the governor and the chief of the Concord Police Department.

"Did I say something wrong?" asked FBI Agent Josey Kersey. He introduced the Lévesque family, and the pastor's wife got up and ran away.

"It's not what you said, it's how you said it," said Father Juan from over at St. Aloysius. "Don't worry, young brother," said the old priest as he patted John Jarecki on the shoulder. "I'll have a few words with her."

"Do you know where she is?" asked John.

Father Juan leaned steadily on his cane and patted John on the shoulder. "You two haven't changed one bit since the day you came to me, looking for a job."

"I'm sorry, did I say something?" asked Pierre Lévesque in French. John heard him and understood, but Pierre's Caldoche accent was hard to understand.

"No, I will have to show you what has her upset," said John in Québécois French, which was barely understandable for Pierre, but his wife, Valériane, who spoke little English, and their daughters Marcelline, and Josianne had big problems with his funny American accent mangling the Canadian version of French. The seamless inclusion of English phrases and words in Québécois required even more thinking.

Caldoche French is influenced by the French of France, the French Caribbean, French South America, and the Pacific territories, with some unique local slang and expressions. It shares the core French vocabulary with France, but includes local terms from Melanesian contact and the unique slang of the islands. Québécois French is an isolated version of French and evolved independently from France and her territories. It has a distinctive rhythm, intonation, and vowel sounds, often described as "sing-song." It has a strong regional accent that can be challenging for speakers of French from France or her territories, and John's Buffalo accent, where vowels are brutally bludgeoned, didn't help.

"Pastor Jarecki, father, Marcelline and I speak English if that is more comfortable," said Pierre's youngest daughter, Josianne.

"That will not make this any easier," said John.

"What do you mean?" asked Marcelline.

"It would be best to show you." John turned around and gestured to one of the elementary Sunday School girls who came running. "Yes Pastor John?"

"Angela, could you tell the twins I'd like to see Cholly?"

"Ok!" cried the girl, and the little brunette dashed off and soon returned with two little blond girls, who were leading Cholly. The tiny blond cuties were dressed identically. Both were wearing long gray skirts with white blouses, a tie tab at the collar and matching gray blazers. Both girls had their blond hair pulled into ponytails, and one girl wore glasses with purple frames, and the other girl wore glasses with pink frames. They were dressed like Junior Miss Mayor because their mother had just been sworn in as mayor and was wearing the same outfit. Cholly was wearing a similar suit because he wanted to dress like his cousins and his dad.

"You want us Unka John?"

"No, our visitors wanted to see Cholly."

The Levesque family gaped at Cholly; he looked so much like his father, the former F-15 pilot Dennis Howe, but in his eyes and other features they could see their dear lost Séraphine. She was murdered recently, and here he was, running with that bouncing run that freed toddlers have, and he was playing with the surrounding children. Valériane Lévesque leaned forward and held her hands out to him as she said, "Chamonix, c'est moi, Mamie Valériane!" (Chamonix, it's me, Grandma Valériane!)

The youngest woman, Josianne, crouched down and held her hands out, and said, "Je suis ta tante Josianne!" (I'm your aunt Josianne!)

But Cholly stared at Josianne's older sister, Marcelline. She was slim and blond, with blue eyes and a bashful smile. She was the mirror image of his dead mother. Cholly's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. He stepped back away from his only living relatives, then ran away, screaming. The little guy ran over to the dessert table and tried to reach the food and snacks there. Lucy Didomissio saw him reaching for the mini cupcakes and said, "Hungry Cholly?"

"Oui!"

"Here you go, there's only vanilla left," and the mayor's best friend handed the little guy a tiny cupcake.

"Kank koo!" cried Cholly as he ran back to the vision of his mother. He dashed up to Marcelline and held up the cupcake and shouted "Mosey!" his mispronunciation of the French "manger" (pronounced mozhey) which means "eat."

Marcelline was shocked and confused by his actions. "Huh? What do you want?" she asked.

"EAT!" he shrieked. He was bouncing and shaking, trying to say. "Why don't you eat?"

"Je n'ai pas faim, I'm not hungry, Chamonix."

Cholly shrieked and tried to force Marcelline to eat, his words coming so fast that no one could understand. Andi's celebration came to a stop as Cholly wept in terror that his mother was going to die again.

John was paralyzed by the dread that this may be the last time he sees his son. He was suspended with fear and sorrow for his little boy, because John knew what was ripping Cholly's heart out. He was sure that he could convince Cholly that the Lévesque family was where he belonged, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was odd; the entire event froze for one heartbroken little boy.

Amelia Hernandez knew what to do. She got up from her table and walked over to the little boy she had rescued two months ago, picked him up and put him in Pastor John's lap, then walked back to where Dexter was sitting. Instantly, the little boy clung to John and began babbling his anguish.

<><><><><>

Father Juan entered the old church, the one he knew. This old white wooden frame church is the reason this street was named Church Street. There's something right about hearing the bell in the steeple ringing again. That was one of the first things young Pastor John insisted on when he took over Springville Congregational. At noon and six PM every day, the bell chimes, letting the village know the time, just like it did when Juan was a young, nervous priest from San Juan, Puerto Rico. On Sunday it calls the faithful at eleven, even though the service was moved next door into the new building.

The stairs to the front door were a hard climb, and he hoped he didn't rip open any gunshot wounds climbing them, but he was needed. He stepped into the empty church and the only sound he could hear was an occasional sniff, but all the pews were empty. Over on the right side of the church, where the upright piano sat, and the musicians played, was Macy's domain. However, all the seats there were empty. No, he knew where she was.

On his left was a half-open door. Father Juan stepped through that door and was faced with a steep staircase. With a sigh, he planted his cane and started up the arduous stairs. Soon he found himself in the choir loft. The big organ was gone; it had been moved into the new church, but a Casio keyboard was set up in its place. John had made a case that looked like a church organ, and the portable keyboard sat in the case. A church organ has two keyboards, but this only has one. There are no bass foot pedals either, but the electronic keyboard could make up for that.

There was where Father Juan Rodriguez found Pastor Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais-Jarecki. The former fashion model, the lost girl who sought solace in schoolbooks, who eventually found peace in a village south of Buffalo. She sat looking down on the empty pews below. He eased into the pew and sat next to her and huffed. They were quiet for a moment, then Juan said, "I was here for your audition sermon. It was so beautiful. I still have a video recording of it, and sometimes when I wonder what I'm doing, I play that video and I see a couple in love with each other and in love with God. I watch and say, 'I can do that!"

"John is very passionate," said Macy. "It scared me at first."

"You are quite good yourself. When John was injured and you filled in for him... you and Katarina, you did a wonderful job."

"They felt sorry for me," said Macy softly. "I'm sure they didn't understand a word I said."

"They did, and like me, you used your accent to force them to concentrate on what you were saying." Father Juan chuckled. "I think... I think I'm going to include women in the mass. I think I'll ask Sister Mary Katherine to say mass with me. Me in full regalia, and Mary Kate in her full habit."

"Josh has friends down in Florida who did that," said Macy as she stared at her hands.

"How did it work out?"

"They got married. He's a Lutheran minister now, and she sells cars. She sold Josh his truck."

Father Juan started laughing, then said, "It's cold in here, I can see why you and John built that other building."

Macy sniffed and rubbed her cute nose with a wad of Kleenex. "That building was agreed upon by the board before we got here."

"But together you made it livable. You took the ugly out of the design and made it a place where the village could gather."

"Gus and Paul did all that, we just picked out the colors..." That entire month was hell on earth, picking colors for the walls, tiles, and carpets. The women's ministry fought Macy every step of the way, but she stood firm, and in the end, when they could see the results, they all had to admit she was right. When they saw how beautifully her suggestions blended, nobody questioned her choice of cabinets in the Women's Ministry kitchen. Then again, if anyone knew that Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais-Jarecki couldn't cook and her husband did all the cooking, they would have ignored her choices.

Father Juan took her midnight black hand and put it on his hand, which was on his thigh, then covered it with his other hand. "I'm ready to hear your confession."

"I'm protestant father, we confess our sins to the Lord," she whispered.

"I don't want to hear your sins, my sister."

"What should I confess?"

"Confess what is on your heart. Confess what is weighing so heavily on your soul."

Macy didn't want to say anything, but it came out. "My boy!" gulped Macy. She was much louder than she had expected, and her voice echoed in the ancient building. "They're here to take Chamonix!" She fought back the tears, but they came in a torrent. "I can't give up my boy... he's my boy!" She leaned back and cried to heaven. "Where were they when he was dropped in our laps, filthy, and starving, and thirsty? Where were they when we had to bind his wounds? Did they sit in the tub with him, night after night until he got over his fear of being scalded? He's not theirs!"

Juan patted her hand and said, "That's right, you were there for him."

"Who had to hold him all night when the terror struck?" demanded Macy. Then, sadly, "He taught me to love my Katarina... his bébé sœur."

"That was you," said Father Juan.

"But they are his relatives... I have no legal standing..." The depression that Macy had worked her way out of settled back down again.

"Well, you are American now. You've taken your oath of citizenship have you not?" asked Father Juan. "Your son is American also. They can't just walk off with him."

"Yes, that's right," said Macy. The realization that the Lévesque family couldn't just run off with Cholly cheered her up.

"Pierre is planning to retire, so is Valériane. Do you think they would want to be burdened with a two-year-old again?"

"No," said Macy, her excitement growing.

"Your brother-in-law will fight tooth and nail for you in court, will he not?"

"He never took the bar," said Macy.

"But he knows the law, and you have a friend at Adoption Advocates, don't you?" said Father Juan with a hopeful smile.

"A couple."

"I'm sure they would understand what should be done."

<><><><><>

Marcelline Lévesque now had four cupcakes sitting in front of her. "I'm on a diet," she said sadly. "I don't eat sweets." Her attitude confused poor Cholly. He was just trying to save her life! Eventually John carried him off to his office in the rear of the church so his crying wouldn't interfere with Andi's inaugural potluck lunch.

"He's a little boy, he doesn't understand what a diet is," said her younger sister Josianne. Both girls were beautiful, with long blond hair, trim hourglass figures, pointed chins and pixie style noses, and sparkling hazel eyes, but of the two, Marcelline could have passed as a twin of her older sister Séraphine. "He looked so sad," said the New Caledonia beach bunny.

"I wish I knew what he was thinking," said Marcelline.

Just then, Macy and Father Juan returned to the shindig. The quartet was getting ready to sing again, and Andi was going to make a quick speech. John had spirited the weeping toddler out of the meeting area, and Pierre and Valériane had followed him.

Macy checked on Yi and Kenny, who were watching Danny and Katarina, who were still playing in their highchairs. Meanwhile, Governor Helen Momzer was speaking from the podium. She began talking about her long friendship with Andi. Her speech got huge laughs because she talked at length about knowing Andi here in Western New York over the years, but everyone in the building knew that until fourteen months ago, Andi had been living in Colorado. Macy went straight back to the office that she shared with John, and there was John, Cholly, Pierre, and Valériane Lévesque along with FBI Agent Kersey. When Cholly saw Macy enter the room, he wriggled off John's lap and dashed across the room to throw his arms around Macy's legs.

"Momma!" the lad cried and broke into his odd combination of English/French baby-talk as Macy scooped him up into her arms and sat down next to John.

"Poor Katarina," said John. "She's in for an ear-bashing."

Macy nodded in agreement. "Poor Katarina."

"Who is Katarina?" asked Pierre.

"Katarina is our daughter, Katarina Romée, named for our mothers," said John.

Macy got Cholly to settle down and sit in her lap, and she said, "She's three months old and she is Chamonix's confidant. He tells her everything that happened to him. We doubt she understands a word of his stories, but he tells her everything."

"Having Katarina to talk to has helped Cholly so much," said John. "And if it wasn't for my angel, I don't know where he would be at." He patted Macy's knee when he called her his angel. "She's a doctor of psychology, and she's helped him come to grips with the death of his parents."

"That is why I am here," said Pierre.

"Commissioner Lévesque is here to observe the investigation into his daughter's death," said Josey Kersey. "We will have a meeting with Paul and Andi Jarecki and the local authorities tomorrow."

Pierre translated for his wife, and Valériane said, "Officially we are here on vacation. I personally would like to see Niagara Falls, and snow."

<><><><><>

"You don't take Cholly!" demanded Sandy.

"That's bad! You should be 'shamed!" reiterated Madeline, her accusing finger pointing to Marcelline.

"He's like my brover!" Sandy almost shrieked.

"Yeah!" added Madeline, and the girls stomped off.

"I guess they told you," said Father Juan. "You should eat those cupcakes so that little boy can see you eat them."

Marcelline looked at the mini-cupcakes and shook her head. "I don't eat Petit gâteau."

"They didn't tell you about what happened with your sister when she died, did they?" asked Father Juan. Marcelline and Josianne shook their heads, so Juan told them as gently as possible how she lay dead and Cholly tried to feed her for two days, never giving up.

"I didn't know," gasped Josianne. Both Caldoche girls were weeping at the fate of their sister and brother-in-law.

"Very few know. When he comes back, maybe you should have one cupcake with your nephew."

As both girls nodded, the mistress of ceremonies, Evangeline Didomissio, Andi's long-time friend Lucy, stood at the mic and said, "Thank you madam governor." The crowd sadly applauded the governor's long-winded campaign speech. "I met Andi years ago when we worked in the Vascular Care Department at Colorado University hospital. She was and still is a brilliant pulmonologist as well as a sleep specialist. I knew she had something special in her future but I NEVER expected politics. But like everything else, I know she's going to be spectacular. It is my immense honor to present, your new mayor, Adrianna Roberts!"

Suddenly, from over in the quartet which had been standing quietly off to the side, Josh shouted in his best faux Drill Sergeant voice, "COLOR GUARD! POST COLORS!" Several children from the local Little League baseball team came out with the American flag and the State of New York flag and posted them in the flag holders. While they did that, the quartet sang one of Andi's favorite patriotic songs, George M. Cohan's "You're a Grand Old Flag."

The quartet was masterful. Every note was on key and they boomed. Without amplification, their voices filled every corner of the church. Their harmony was perfect, creating a harmonic fifth voice. When they started a second rendition, Lucy called out, "Everybody sing!" and everyone joined in with the proud old song. When the quartet hit their tag: "Keep your eye on the grand old flag!" Andi stepped up to the microphone. She stood on her milk crate, smiling, waiting for the quartet to finish their last note as they planned, but instead, Country Roads went straight into another song:

She's a Yankee Doodle dandy,

A Yankee Doodle do or die.

A real life daughter of my Uncle Sam,

Born on the Fourth of July!

When they hit the word "July" the quartet's beige blazers white shirts and ties disappeared and the guys were standing in polo shirts with the blue field and stars from the collar down past the shoulders, then red and white stripes from there on down. The quartet turned into the American Flag.

We've got a Yankee Doodle mayor,

She's a Yankee Doodle bride.

Yankee Doodle came to Springville

Just to shovel snowdrifts,

She is our Yankee Doodle Pride!

The audience went wild, clapping and cheering, and even the usually stoic news crews were laughing and applauding. Andi was shocked. When they hit the last chord of Grand Old Flag, they were supposed to leave. Instead, they went into their own version of I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy (another George M. Cohan song) and let it rip. The twins fell in line with the quartet and were marching in place during the song. The new mayor stood there, staring in shock at the guys as they prepared to leave. Josh looked at Andi and said, "y'all can go on ahead with your speachifyin'."

Andi just sighed, his accent went as deep south as she had ever heard, meaning he was clowning her. "How do I follow that?" She groaned into the microphone.

"Y'all can get your own quartet, ah guess," and with that, Country Roads left the room to get out of their costumes.

Andi turned to the crowd that continued to chuckle. "He's my neighbor... he does this all the time."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 02 - Purple Zebras

Josh and the boys went into the Sunday School classroom where they changed while Andi gave a thank you speech to the gathered crowd. She was getting better at that, especially when Josh got her flustered. His antics made her concentrate on speaking to the crowd and getting her message across. One of the reporters who was there to cover her speech followed Country Roads back to the adult Sunday School classroom where they were changing. "Can you give us a couple of minutes?" asked Josh. "We're not NFL players so we're not used to strangers looking at us in our unmentionables."

"I'll wait out here," the reporter said with a nod, and the quartet and their wives ducked into the classroom.

"We nailed it!" said Dan Griffin, a tall, blond fellow with narrow-set eyes and a hook nose. Josh teased him that he should have become a pirate, to which Dan replied, "I did." (He is a legal clerk for a lawyer)

"Did that last chord ring or what!" said Gene Kraus, their bass. He's a short, muscular fellow with broad shoulders and a deep voice. A properly hit barbershop chord will ring, and a harmonically created fifth voice will join the chord.

"When we did the on stage costume change, their eyes popped out," laughed Alex Rodriguez. Their shirt and tie was just a dickey; their blazers were simple blazers held together with Velcro. One good yank and the blazers and shirts come off to reveal the clothing underneath. When you do that at the climax of a song, you catch the audience by surprise. This was all Alex's idea, which he got from a chorus in Missouri that he used to sing with, and it worked beautifully.

Josh was quiet when they came into the room; Veronica was sitting there, staring off into space, and it concerned him. He didn't see her in the audience; she must have been there the whole time. "Honey? Are you ok?"

"Huh? Me? Oh... yes... I..." her voice was soft and hard for Josh to hear, even though he was right next to her. "I was reminded of something that I wish I hadn't done... back when I was still a dumb kid."

"We all did some pretty awful stuff we don't want to be reminded of," said Josh as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. "We forgive ourselves, we forgive each other, then we move on."

"What if it's really bad?" asked Veronica quietly.

"Then we love each other strongly and lean on each other so much more," said Josh. Then he whispered in her ear, "I know you don't want to talk about it, but when you do, I will be right here. I will love you forever." He kissed her neck right where she's most sensitive. "Come on, join the celebration. We did an excellent job; we got all the words right!"

"What about the notes?"

"One thing at a time."

Veronica turned and returned Josh's kiss, then got up and helped him zip up his outfit in his garment bag. They all got large garment bags because they're going to need several more costumes for the Internationals if they plan to advance in the event. She chatted with the Country Girls as Josh pulled his "street clothes" on. That's when he noticed little shreds of paper in a wastepaper basket. Little tiny bits of hand shredded paper, from a greeting card, carefully ripped as small as possible.

"You guys decent?" called Alex Rodrigues.

"Fair to middlin'," replied Josh. "We could use more practice."

"Good enough." Alex opened the door and said, "Come on in!"

In walked the reporter, a tall, slim woman with raven hair. She was wearing a woman's business suit, but the suit did little to hide her marvelous breasts. "You wanted to speak with us?" asked Dan Griffith, the official spokesman for Country Roads.

"I'm Anita Barkley, music editor for the Buffalo News Lifestyle pages. I'd like to find out more about your quartet, who you are and what you represent."

"Come on in and have a seat," said Dan. "I'm Dan Griffith, and I'm the spokesman for Country Roads, my wife Judy is the spokeswoman for the Country Girls, our cheerleaders and support staff. We couldn't go anywhere without their love and support. This is Alex and Hope Rodrigues; Alex is our tenor. Over there is Gene and Mary Beth Kraus, Gene sings bass and Mary Beth sings alto in a Sweet Adeline chorus. And these two are our newlyweds and new members, Josh, and Veronica Gravely-von Köster. We sang at their wedding on New Year's Eve, the same day that Josh took over as lead."

"First of all, why Country Roads for a name?" asked Anita.

"Because we met Josh and became a quartet in West Virginia."

Anita looked confused. "Because of the roads in West Virginia?"

In response, Dan blew a single note on a pitch pipe, then pointed at Josh, and they all sang softly.

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blueridge Mountains, Shenandoah River...

Anita nodded and scribbled a note in her notebook. "I get it. Is that how most quartets get their names?"

"Just the desperate ones. Today was actually our first sing-date as Country Roads."

"How do you think you did?" asked Anita

"We had fun, we'll find out how we did technically when our stage presence director and our music director reviews the video and audio."

Anita finished her note, then asked, "Who is your director, is he here?"

Dan gestured to Alex Rodriguez and said, "Alex is our stage presence director, he dictates how we act on stage. Our music director is on duty today; she's Detective Julissa Tanaka with the Concord Police Department. She's a director of a Sweet Adeline chorus."

Anita looked a bit shocked and asked, "Your director works?"

"We all work," said Dan. "I'm a clerk in a law office, Alex is a forklift operator, Josh is a computer technician, and Gene is a diesel engine mechanic. Our wives all work too. This singing thing started as a hobby but now it's serious and this summer we will be competing in International Competition."

"Do all quartets compete?" Anita couldn't imagine more than a couple dozen quartets because in her mind this form of music was ancient and dying out.

"Oh gosh no, there's nearly two thousand quartets in the society, maybe more," said Dan. "Nine hundred fifty are registered at headquarters, and even then it would take months for the judges to hear all quartets sing two songs. The local divisions have contests and the top two from each division go to International. We came in number two as Pennsy, but our lead, Eric, had to quit, so Josh stepped in. He sang baritone for the number three quartet in our division."

"So you're an all new quartet?" asked Anita.

Dan shrugged his shoulders. "Yes and no. Officially, we changed one member and our name. We're allowed to change one member between the divisional and international contests. Normally that wouldn't make much difference, but we changed the lead, and that changes the entire tone of the quartet. More than singing the lead part, he's the leader. He sets the tone and the rhythm, he plans our practices, he's in charge of fund raising and he books sing-dates. We were always a very straight laced, old-fashioned kind of quartet. Josh came from a comedy quartet, so he's looser on stage. He's not afraid to make fun of the judges."

"Make fun of the judges?" Anita was writing as fast as she could.

"They were doing a skit about Buffalo Bills fans and Josh was wearing an oversize Buffalo Bills track suit and as they sang his pants fell down to reveal Buffalo Bills undershorts. They stopped, and he whistled at the judge and said, 'Hey! My eyes are up here!'"

"How did that go over?"

"He stood there, glaring at the judge, pointing to his eyes and the longer he stood there, the more the audience laughed. It felt like it went on for an hour but was probably a minute."

"It was thirty seconds," said Josh. "Anything less wouldn't be as funny, anything more would be annoying."

"Would it be out of line for me to ask how much a professional quartet makes?"

That question was out of line, and Dan handled it well. "If we ever go professional, I'll have my accountant call you."

Anita looked confused. "I was told you get paid for these sing-dates, is that true?"

Dan just said, "Do you consider the Girl Scouts professional bakers because they get money for their cookies? We raise money, but it all goes to expenses, travel, costumes, and music. Anything left over goes to charity."

Dan's wife, Judy, who was an accountant, said, "The quartet is registered as a 501c3 nonprofit organization. All monies beyond legitimate expenses goes to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. If they were professionals, they would be paid individually and file IRS form 1099 and..."

"I see," said Anita, cutting off the accountant's spiel. "So none of you are professional even with the Bill Dubois Project?" Everyone looked at Josh, who shrugged. "I spoke with Bill and he mentioned your quartet and spoke glowingly about one person here."

Josh shrugged again. "Ah haven't met with the feller yet."

"So why did everyone turn to you?"

"Because ah am the lead, which makes me the musical director. Ah pick the songs ah think we should concentrate on, along with our director. Our sponsor is my neighbor so ah speak with him regularly. He's the one hirin' Bill and his band. Ah'm scheduled to meet Mister Dubois later this week."

"What if you are the person Mister Dubois spoke to me about?"

Josh wanted to shout, telling her to drop it. He wasn't able to speak about the Dubois band because he hadn't met with anyone from their organization yet, but she keeps harping about it. Josh realized what a critical review could do to the quartet, so he relaxed himself and said, "When ah speak with Mister Dubois, ah hope he clues me in to what you're talkin' 'bout. Rat now, my priority is to select the music that puts Country Roads in the best light in the public eye. Music that our director can put into four-part harmony that we can learn and sing correctly, and music that meets our sponsor's requirements and sells cars."

Josh let his South Georgia accent come through loud and clear. People in New York love to underestimate people with a Southern accent. Josh hoped that she'd think he was stupid and stop asking him questions.

Anita was shocked. Was the guy reported to be loose and funny? He sounded like a professional artist; except that he mentioned meeting his sponsor's needs. Professional artists rarely talk about that. She decided that he wasn't very bright and quickly changed course. For the next few minutes she talked with Dan about their future sing-dates. "Other than international competition, our biggest upcoming event is the Springville Fund Raiser," said Dan. "Our activities manager, Gene Kraus, can cover that."

Without waiting for Anita to respond to Dan, Gene spoke. "The fundraiser happens every summer, raising funds for local charities, primarily Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Adoption Advocates. We will concentrate on raising funds for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. Pulmonary hypertension steals the breath away from people around the world, preventing them from joining us in song. We want to help eradicate this scourge."

"I've never heard of pulmonary hypertension," said Anita.

"Fifteen years ago, if you were diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension you were not likely to live five more years. With research and specialized treatments, people with pulmonary hypertension are living full lives, but singing is still nearly impossible."

Anita said, "I'll be sure to look up pulmonary hypertension."

"Hold on a second," said Veronica. "I'll get you some reference material." She left the Sunday school room and quickly came back with Gus Didomissio's wife, Evangeline. "Evangeline practices under the name Doctor Lucy Kocis. Doctor Kocis is one of the area's leading experts on pulmonary hypertension."

Lucy shrugged and said, "Well, if you want an expert, she's a little busy being mayor. I know pulmonary hypertension, but Andi is the genuine expert. I'm a thoracic surgeon. When Andi says cut here, I cut."

Anita looked at her notes and said, "Thank you, doctor, but I just wanted background information on pulmonary hypertension because the quartet is raising money for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association."

"You are?" squealed Lucy. She dashed over to Josh and gave him a choking hug. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd strangle me! Like this!"

"Doctors Roberts and Kocis were instrumental in developing the pulmonary hypertension clinic at the Colorado University hospital, so the Pulmonary Hypertension Association is near and dear to their hearts." said Veronica.

When Josh untangled himself from Lucy, he told Anita, "the Barbershop Harmony Society used to raise money for the Logopedics Foundation which helped children with speech disabilities. Our motto was 'we sing so they shall speak.' I want to get back to those days when we had a single, dedicated charity centered on speaking or singing disabilities. If you can't breathe, you can't sing, so we agreed this will be our mission."

Dan nodded in agreement. "We sing so they shall breathe, will be our motto and the colors of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, will be our colors."

"The purple zebra will be our critter!" said Josh proudly, which caused Lucy to laugh.

"That is funny," said Anita as she entered a few more notes into her notebook.

"He got that from an old medical motto," said Lucy. "It's sort of a variation on Ockham's Razor. We tell med students, 'When you hear hoofbeats, expect horses, not zebras,' meaning the common cause of your patient's illness is the most likely. Pulmonary hypertension is very rare; maybe one in a million people will contract it, so in this case the hoofbeats are caused by purple zebras."

Just then, Mayor Jarecki and her husband, Paul, stepped into the room. "That's why the colors of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association are purple and yellow."

"Purple and yellow?" gasped their costume designer, Hope Rodriguez.

Lucy and Andi shrugged. They were used to seeing their offices bathed in purple and yellow. Then Andi turned to the reporter and said, "How are they doing Anita?" Andi had gotten to know many reporters over the course of the highly contentious election campaign.

Anita smiled and said, "Not too bad, I need some background on pulmonary hypertension, but they're doing good. Your public relations bulldog is here giving them hand signals like she did for you." Anita pointed the eraser end of her pencil at Veronica.

"No, not me!" said Veronica. "Dan's a legal clerk, he knows when a lawyer should shut up. He's quite good at his job."

"And that was my last question," said Anita. "It appears that you each have defined tasks in your quartet. Am I correct in assuming that?"

"Yeah, pretty much," said Dan. "It takes a lot of work to get to international competition, so we have our own tasks. Alex, our tenor, is in charge of our stage presence, from costumes to hand-movements. His wife, Hope, is the costume designer. Gene Kraus, our bass, is the activity manager. He coordinates everything that's not singing. From PR stunts to loading the cars for a road trip to setting up our practices and meetings, he's in charge of all that. His wife, Mary Beth, is a Sweet Adeline, and she has one of the most important jobs. When at contests and competitions, she's the Hospitality Suite manager, and her assistant is everyone. I'm the official spokesman and the quartet's on stage announcer. My wife, Judy, is the quartet's financial manager. Josh is the CEO of the quartet, he's the one that meets with sponsors and he works with our musical director to perfect our sound. Together they coordinate sing dates and PR events and are in charge of fund raising."

"And how is all of this organization working out for you?"

Dan smiled and said, "This is only our first official sing-date together, but I can easily say that this is the smoothest running sing-date I have ever experienced."

Josh hugged Veronica and said, "Well, we have home field advantage with this one. The next one is going to be a bigger test of our organization."

"And what's that?" asked Anita.

"The Pittsburgh Penguins asked us to perform for the owner's dinner party, then after, to sing the national anthems at their home game against the Buffalo Sabres."

"National anthems, plural?" asked Anita.

Everyone in the room nodded. "Both US and Canadian," said Dan. "We'll sing the US anthem first and go straight into the Canadian anthem."

"Should we do it on skates?" asked Josh.

"Let's not!" cried the quartet and the Country Girls.

"Thank you for joining us Miss Barkley, and now we need to conduct some quartet business before the gang heads home," said Josh. "If you need clarification at any point you can contact myself or Dan Griffith," and he handed her a business card with everyone's name, the email address for the quartet and a phone number for Dan and Josh.

Once she stepped out, Paul and Andi sat down, and Josh greeted them with, "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tune up in front of a crowd Madam Mayor."

Andy broke into a genuine smile of relief and said, "thank you for performing. Everyone was expecting long boring political speeches."

Josh said, "I see that you ensured the only long boring political speech was from Missus Momser, everyone else was brief and to the point."

"It's almost like someone planned it that way," said Veronica under her breath.

"I can't wait to hear you and the guys singing at Billy's house," said Andi, but before Josh could ask what she was implying, Paul opened his notebook and began to speak.

"Tomorrow is Saturday, Josh, I need you to escort Pierre and Valériane Lévesque to Amelia and Dexter's house."

Josh realized what Paul was asking, and he felt a rock growing in his stomach. "Is this an order Colonel?"

"No, but would you rather have a cop who knows nothing take them over there."

"Shit," Josh muttered under his breath. "Yeah, I'll do it."

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Chapter 03 - The Maplecroft

Josh woke and found Veronica was already up. She came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her hair dried and brushed into place. Josh grinned and pulled her towel open and pulled her into bed with him. "Didn't you get enough last night?" She asked with a laugh as Josh kissed her neck and ran his hands over her smooth back.

"Enough is never enough," he growled playfully as he nipped at her perfect breast.

"Well, I'm still sore. If that's how you act every time you have a good sing date, we're going to have to invest in lube."

"Better get some to take to the islands with us," said Josh, and with a playful slap on the ass, he gave her another kiss.

"Come on, hurry up, you need to get going," said Veronica with a laugh as she worked her way out of Josh's arms. "You need to go over to Paul's house and grab the van so you can pick up the Lévesque family."

"Do I have time for breakfast?" asked Josh with a groan as he sat up.

"No. You should have thought about that when you tied me up with that silk rope." She pointed to a coil of silk rope hanging on the headboard. "You should put that away."

"Why?"

"What if Audrey sees it? What will she think?"

"I am not responsible for a teenager's thoughts," grumbled Josh as he got ready to head out. Walking downstairs, he found the kitchen empty. "Where's Audrey and Mike?"

"Dad wanted to go look around the village now that the snow is gone." Days of rain followed by unseasonable sunshine melted away almost every flake from the ninety inches of snow they had received recently.

"I know exactly where he's at," said Josh with a chuckle. "She took him to meet her buddy Martha over at Bells IGA." With that, he left and walked over to Paul and Andi's house with Veronica.

<><><><><>

"What's the matter hon?" said Martha in her booming voice. "Ya look like ya never seen a deli counter before!"

Mike looked at the myriad of offerings in astonishment. "None like this, but I haven't done the shopping in a few years." The deli counter seemed to stretch on for miles. He was used to small deli counters where they had ham, beef, bologna, salami, turkey, chicken, and things like Thuringer, liverwurst, and olive loaf, and that was about it. Here were so many different meats, but many was variations of ham, turkey, and chicken. There were various kinds of salads, and the seafood! Different fish, whole, filleted, shrimp, clams, mussels; it was amazing.

"Aww, this ain't nothin'. You should see the Wegman's in Amherst where I used to work. We had seven people behind the deli counter," said Martha Lane. Martha was a big woman in her sixties; she's one of those people whose idea of retirement was getting a job somewhere else. She was a reliable source for all the local news. "Where ya from darlin'?" she asked.

"Mike just moved here from Erie," said Audrey.

"Don't they have proper grocery stores in Erie?" asked Martha.

"I've been living in a retirement home," said Mike without looking up from the selection of cheese. "I haven't done my own shopping for years. When I did shop for my girls I had to keep it simple."

"If you have any questions, you come ask ol' Martha. I know this town like the back of my hand." Martha finished wrapping an order and sealed it with a price sticker. "Where ya stayin' sweetie?"

"We live on second street by the park. His daughter is Veronica von Köster," said Audrey as she took the order from Martha and put it in her shopping basket.

"Ain't that a peach! I take it that you've been over to the mayor's house?"

"Oh yes, Mike spends Tuesday nights with Paul and John playing with trains."

"Operating a layout," said Mike gruffly.

"Or they go over to Josh's club and drink beer and talk about playing with trains."

"We go to the American legion and have dinner and plan our scenery work on the layout," growled Mike.

Audrey hugged Mike's arm and said, "Potatoes, potahtoes."

Mike rolled his eyes and turned to Martha. "Razor blades?"

"Aisle three, halfway down on the left."

Mike and Audrey headed over to aisle three, and she still clung to his arm. "Don't be so grouchy."

"Yes ma'am," mumbled Mike.

"You can be as grumpy as you want when we get to the chickens, they don't care."

They found the blades halfway down the aisle, and Audrey asked, "Do you shave every morning?"

"Gotta keep the ladies happy," said Mike. He rubbed his cheek and said, "Don't want any chaffing."

"There's something to say about a well-trimmed beard," purred Audrey.

Mike patted Audrey on the head, but he didn't say a word. They finished their purchases and climbed into Audrey's car, now running much better after the mechanics at Jarecki Motors tuned it up for her. It was a boring little Nissan sedan, but it runs well and has good gas mileage. "I have to talk to my shrink. While we do that, you are going to gather eggs," said Audrey as they headed west on Main Street. Soon they crossed under the 219 expressway, and she said, "This is where Josh and a bunch of other folks dug people out of their cars and moved them to the motel."

"I was wondering what was going on, I heard snowmobiles all night."

They drove along US39 down a steep hill into a deep valley, then up the other side. "This is Spooner's Gulch," said Audrey. "Mister Didomissio says there's a lot of deer and turkey down here."

"Looks like it," said Mike as he looked out the window at the thick forest.

They got up out of Spooner's Gulch, and the road narrowed to two lanes, and they were in open farmland. "When Doctor Andi first came to Springville, she made the wrong turn getting off the 219 and ended up out here when she realized her mistake. She decided to turn around here." Audrey turned onto Trevett Road and stopped in front of Hirsh's farm. "She went in the ditch here, and Doctor Paul came and rescued her and the girls, and that's how they met."

"Must have been a terrible storm."

"It was like the one we had recently. The storm lasted days but it didn't drop as much snow."

"Does it always snow that much?" asked Mike as Audrey turned off Trevett Road and onto a long, winding gravel drive that was lined with young pine trees.

"I lived in North Tonawanda up by Niagara Falls and all we heard on the news was about snow in Springville." They soon approached three small barns in a row, with a covered porch joining the front of all three. The Jarecki twins and Cholly were outside tossing snowballs to their huge black puppies Jolie and Chiot while Paul's chocolate lab Wonka watched from the porch like a senior referee. "The twins will show you where and how to collect the eggs, and there's my shrink," said Audrey as Macy stepped out onto the porch.

<><><><><>

The van that Josh was driving was unlike any other van he had driven before. It was a Ford Transit, but as with all other vehicles in Paul Jarecki's stable, it was posh and comfortable. Josh pulled up to the Super 8 in Orchard Park and found FBI agent Kersey waiting in the lobby for him. "Geez, these people traveled halfway around the world and here's where you put them?"

"This is a government operation," said Josey with a shrug.

"Crap, they're not in the witness protection program. Pierre is a commander with the gendarmerie!" Josh pulled out his cell phone and made a call. "Hello, Shirley? Do you have a couple of rooms for a week or so... You do? Great! I'll see you in a half hour with some folks who want to see the real Springville." When he was done with his call, Josey Kersey led Josh to the Lévesque's room where Josh rapped on the door and said, "Hello?" The door opened, and the whole family was waiting. "Jeez, this room is tiny."

"It is comfortable enough," said Pierre. It was obvious he was trying to be polite.

"Pack up your stuff, we're moving you to a nice Bed and Breakfast in Springville just a few blocks away from John, Macy, and Cholly."

"Chamonix," corrected Marcelline.

"I'll let you deal with the twins on that one," said Josh as the family packed up. Josh had taken French because he needed foreign language credits at the college he attended, but he hadn't used it much. He took it as a protest against his Hispanic ex-wife. He retained enough to understand the conversation going on as they packed. Josianne had looked at information about the University at Buffalo and wanted to check it out while they were in America.

While they packed, Josh called Veronica and told her his plan, and she happily agreed. "I'll head over there and tell Shirley what is going on, then I'll meet you there."

"Where will we be staying?" asked the older girl, Marcelline.

"It's a bed and breakfast called The Maplecroft," said Josh. "I think you will enjoy it when the snow starts."

"Snow?" squealed Josianne.

"Yeah, it's supposed to snow on and off for the next few days," said Josey Kersey.

"The Maplecroft will turn on their Christmas lights when it begins to snow," said Josh. "Especially if it's a pretty snow. Shirly will light a fire in the living room and you can gather there. If anyone has musical skills, she has instruments you can play and an extensive library you can read from."

The girls began packing as fast as they could, all the while chattering about "Neige!" Soon even their folks were excited. "Neige!" was heard over and over. They had seen piles of neige (snow) yesterday on the sides of the road and at the edges of the church parking lot, but after 24 hours of travel, they paid little attention. Now they were rested and ready to see Chamonix. They were also going to see snow for the first time in their lives.

Once on the road, they were all in the van with Josey Kersey following in his car, heading south into the hills. Josh was alone up front, and he turned his head and called, "Would you like to take the fast route or the scenic route?"

"Scenic!" cried the girls from the very back of the van.

Pierre sighed and said, "I suppose, we are on a journey, we should see everything we can." Josh chuckled, and when everyone was strapped in, he turned onto the Boston-Springville Road and headed south through the winding hills of southwestern New York. They passed several horse ranches with white painted board fences surrounding the pastures, but there were no horses.

"Où sont tous les chevaux?" (Where are the horses?) asked Pierre's wife, Valériane.

"Dans le Sud," (Down south) said Josh, exhausting his command of the French language. "The prize horses are taken to Florida in the winter. It's warmer down there."

They continued to wind through the hills, following the course of a valley carved out by glaciers at the end of the Ice Age. When they reached Emerling's Potato Farms, Josh turned onto the north end of Trevett Road. They soon climbed a steep incline and were zooming out of the valley. Once out of the deep valley, the road became a roller coaster ride. Hills to climb followed by sudden drops, then hills again. Marcelline didn't appreciate the ride in the least, but Josianne whooped and laughed with every negative G they encountered. Pierre and Valériane were busy looking at the farms as they shot past, and Josh could only guess that there was nothing like those farms on New Caledonia.

They turned left on US 39 and headed into Springville, traveling through Spooners Gulch and under the 219 overpass. From the back Josianne called, "Is this where two point five meters of snow trapped cars in the storm?"

"Yes," said Josh. "How did you know that?"

"Miss Veronica told me to ask you!" Then she told her sister and parents in French how Josh and other men of Springville rescued the trapped motorists. The visitors from a South Seas paradise were concerned that they'd be trapped in the snow.

Josh called out, "Deep snow is very rare and it takes a long time to build up. Everyone we rescued knew they shouldn't have been driving and thought they knew better. Trust the people here, and at very worst, you could miss your flight home."

"Je pourrais vivre ici," (I could live here) said Josianne with a sigh of delight as she looked at the homes they went past as they rolled into Springville. Soon they came up to a big Victorian home surrounded by trees and bare grape arbors. "Is this where we're staying?" she gushed.

"This is The Maplecroft at Springville," said Josh. "We just call it The Maplecroft or Shirley's Place. They offer breakfast every morning, and if you want to buy groceries and cook dinner, Shirley will give you a hand; otherwise, there are several restaurants and pubs within walking distance."

They unloaded the van and walked up the steps to the broad, covered porch. There were several chairs set out on the porch, but they were covered with canvas to protect them from the weather. The large front yard was filled with bare maple trees and iron furniture. A tall, slim, gray-haired woman in her seventies stepped on the porch and said, "Welcome! I'm Shirley Howell and I am your host. Josh told me that you're from New Caledonia." She led them into the house, saying, "how wonderful, we've never had guests from New Caledonia before. We have one other couple here from Montreal so you'll have a common language."

"Almost!" said Josianne.

Pierre said, "With the Québécois, we are one people separated by a common language, as Winston Churchill said about Britain and America."

Josh set down the bags he was carrying and said, "You guys get settled in, I'm going to take this fancy van back and get my truck. Veronica will take the girls to where Cholly is chasing chickens, while I take Pierre and Josey..." He left the sentence unfinished and left.

"I thought I heard familiar voices," said Veronica as she stepped out of the kitchen into the foyer, where Shirley was greeting her new guests. "Bienvenue à Springville!"

"Oh, bonjour. Nous sommes-nous rencontrés à la fête du maire?" (Oh, hello. Did we meet at the mayor's party?) Valériane was so excited to hear someone speaking French. She was so tired of speaking through translators.

"Yes, but just briefly. I am Veronica Gravely-von Köster, Josh and I are married. If you have any questions at all about Springville, or Western New York, or Niagara Falls please ask."

"Niagara Falls!" gasped Marcelline. "How far away is that?"

"Maybe a two hour drive."

Suddenly the house was filled with excited chatter about seeing Niagara Falls and visiting Canada. "Before we go anywhere, let's get our bags in our rooms," ordered Pierre, and his family grabbed their bags and followed Shirley up the stairs.

The Maplecroft was filled with antiques. Every nook and corner contained some memento of the past. In the huge parlor, Pierre noticed an antique stereoscope and a stack of photograph cards that he wanted to look at later. "We have a music room with instruments and a working Victrola if you're in the mood to make music. Sometimes Pastor John and his wife and brother come by to play for us. Maybe we can convince them to stop by."

"We know Pastor John and Macy, we met them yesterday after we arrived," said Josianne, who was enamored with the couple.

"Ils parlent français bizarrement," (They speak French funny) said Marcelline.

"Did Josh say that Chamonix was chasing poultry?" asked Pierre.

"Yes, he's very good at it," replied Veronica, causing the Lévesque family to laugh at the idea of Chamonix chasing chickens around a farmyard.

The family was settled in and gathered in the dining room, where Shirley set out tea and cookies and demanded to hear of life in the South Seas islands. "About this time of the year, it's everyone's wish to exchange places with you all and lie on the beach and listen to the waves come in."

"Josh and I will be doing that pretty soon!" said Veronica anxiously. "Madam Mayor is taking us on a honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas." She took out her phone and found the picture Andi sent her. "This is their boat."

Pierre and Valériane clearly recognized it. "An Australian built Riviera. Looks like a seventy-two footer. Very nice boats."

Veronica was getting more excited about the trip. "It's going to be Paul and Andi, Josh and me, and a couple from Minnesota that were Andi's patients in Colorado, and Josh had met in Korea. We're heading to an island where a friend of hers lives."

Josh stepped into the dining room. "Are we ready?"

"Let's go!" cried Josianne. She couldn't wait to spend time with her nephew. She also wanted to see the chickens they were talking about.

Everyone got up and started for the door when Josh had to remind them of an important part of life in Western New York. "Coats and hats on. It's getting chilly out there." Marcelline didn't have to be reminded; she never took her coat off. The older of the two Lévesque girls didn't like this weather in the least and couldn't understand how her sister Séraphine could stand it. Out in the driveway, the two girls followed Veronica to her SUV while Pierre and Valériane followed Josh and FBI Agent Kersey to Josh's truck. Before they got into the truck, Josh stopped and said, "Inspector, does Valériane fully understand where we are going?"

"Yes she does. Séraphine and Dennis were both our children. Dennis was a lost soul when he came to us, the love between them was beautiful to watch grow. It was sad to see Dennis return to New Hampshire, but he had work to do. When he arrived home, their disdain for him was unchanged." Pierre's expression was stony, but Valériane burst into tears.

"I never met him," said Josh. "As I learned about him, I feel like I lost another troop." He almost added that he had found Dennis's body, but Josh couldn't allow himself to utter those words.

"You lost men?" asked Pierre softly.

"I lost my entire team..." He almost added, "...and for that they gave me the Medal of Honor." They stopped at a florist shop on the way, and Josh came out with a single rose wrapped in paper. They then took the back streets through Springville. "That palace there is where the new mayor lives... and that house is where Veronica and I live... and here we are." They pulled up in front of Amelia Hernandez's house, and there was a cop parked in front.

"Why the Gendarmerie?" asked Pierre.

"Occasionally someone attempts to crawl under her house and break in," said Josh. "Please be kind to Amelia when we go in. She appears grouchy, but she's really sweet and she saved your grandson's life."

"She did?"

"She carried him all the way to Pastor John's church by hand and dropped him in John's lap. John, Macy, Paul, and Andi worked hard to discover what happened to him. If he had gotten grabbed by the state he would have ended up in the state welfare system and you may never have found him. Your daughter would have been labeled a drug addict and a child beater and the real story never uncovered."

Pierre translated for Valériane, who gasped, then began to call some woman a bitch in angry French. Josh caught the name "Solene" which was followed by "Parisian cunt." That cunt was Dennis Howe's mother.

They parked in front of a tiny shotgun house on Argentine Avenue. When Josh took his hands off the steering wheel of his truck, he realized they were shaking. Would this nightmare end? Would this be the start of worse nightmares? He still wakes up gasping, Dennis Howe's frozen hand grasping at his leg. "Are you well, Mister Josh?" asked Pierre.

"I don't know. My shrink says I'm improving." Josh clenched his jaw. So many nightmares: his gun crew getting shot up, Ellie dangling from the safety strap and being dragged to death, returning home to a cheating wife, raping those women on the beach, Hani disappearing, cancer, being put out, given a medal he felt he had no right to wear, then finding Dennis's body. They all haunted his dreams. Will what happens next resolve his nightmares? He looked at Amelia and Dexter's tiny home; FBI Agent Josey Kersey was standing on the porch waiting for them. "Let's go in," said Josh with a groan.

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Chapter 04 - The Scene of the Crime

"You should see this area in the summer!" said Veronica. "When the trees are full and the corn is growing, the cows are in the pasture, and the ponds and streams are full of fish. It's a paradise."

"You own a farm?" asked an excited Josianne.

"No, Josh owns what used to be a scout camp, Mayor Andi's husband owns an old farm. The farmhouse burned down years ago but the original barn still stands. We grow some veggies, but both sites are for conservation and recreation."

"It is beautiful!" gushed the vibrant Caldoche.

Veronica shook her head and said, "I think this is the worst time. The snow is melting and freezing, covering everything with mud and ice."

"Too cold," mumbled Marcelline from the back seat. She didn't enjoy traveling like her younger sister.

When they turned off US39 onto Trevett Road, Veronica turned up the heat in the rear. She pointed to a ditch on the right side of the road. "That is where Mayor Andi met Paul Jarecki. She was lost and driving in a snowstorm and went off the road. The police couldn't get out here to rescue her, so they called Paul, and he came out and rescued her and the twins. They fell in love while they were trapped in his cabin, and they got married a few weeks later on Christmas Eve."

"So romantique!" gushed Josianne, but her older sister silently looked out the window. Marcelline stared at the muddy snow and tried to hold back the tears. Her sister Séraphine, her idol, died in this frozen wasteland? It was too horrible for Marcelline to contemplate.

Veronica turned onto a gravel drive that led off Trevette Road and wound over a low hill. She pulled up in front of three small barns that were joined by a common covered porch. In front of the end barns on the porch were chairs to recline on; in front of the center cabin was a large picnic table. A pretty Asian woman stepped out of the cabin closest to the main barn and waved. "Come on girls, time to meet more folks." They got out of the SUV and approached the porch. "Yi, this is Marcelline and Josianne Lévesque, they are visiting from New Caledonia."

"Really? Where in le Caillou?" gushed Yi, using the nickname for New Caledonia.

"We are from Nouméa," said Josianne.

"How did you know le Caillou?" asked Marcelline. "Most Americans do not know New Caledonia, and if they did, they wouldn't know where it is on a map."

"New Caledonia, it's right there between Fiji and Australia on the Coral Sea. I used to chef on a yacht out of Brisbane and we traveled to Nouméa quite often."

Marcelline huffed and sputtered, "Et ils nous traitent de provinciaux." (And they call us provincials!)

"You forget how big the United States is," said Veronica. "A person can spend their entire lifetime touring the United States and not see it all."

"We don't need to go anywhere because when immigrants come to the United States, they bring their culture with," said Yi.

"I want American food!" said Josianne. "Something I can tell everyone about back home."

Yi and Veronica shared a grin. "Worzils?" They both said at the same time.

Just then, John emerged from the center cabin. "I agree, but Momma's would fill them up as well."

"We haven't been there in ages," gushed Yi. "Tomorrow after service?"

"That will work," said John. Then the pastor turned to the two Caldoche girls and said, "Hi, we didn't have time to talk yesterday. I guess my claim to fame is Mayor Jarecki's brother-in-law, but you can call me John."

"Jean?" said a star-struck Josianne.

John chuckled and shook her hand. "Oui, c'est très bien. Ma femme m'appelle comme ça." (Yes, that is fine. My wife calls me that.)

"Vous avez un accent intéressant." (You have an interesting accent.) Josianne didn't mean to say it; it just gushed out, causing John to chuckle.

"Ma femme dit ça aussi." (My wife says that too.) "I studied in Montreal which is where this accent comes from."

"Where is Chamonix?" demanded Marcelline.

"Hang on, they'll be here any moment," said John, and true to his word, the sound of a small tractor starting up was heard coming from behind the barn. Soon it came around the front of the barn and headed toward the cabins. Driving Paul's beloved Ford 8N tractor was Mike von Köster, and on his lap was Cholly. The little guy clutched the steering wheel and had a grin from ear to ear. Both Josianne and Marcelline got their phones out and took pictures of their nephew as the tractor approached.

Mike pulled up to the cabins, stopped the tractor, and leaned over and said, "How am I doing pastor?"

"Just fine! Would you like to keep driving?"

"I'd be happy to." Mike had the look of a Western New York farmer. He was wearing a denim jacket over a zip up hooded sweatshirt, which for most days was warm enough. He had a John Deere ball cap that he borrowed from Veronica and looked completely happy in his position as farmer. The tractor was pulling a hay wagon, and the twins were sitting in the hay with Chiot and Jolie.

"Dad, what are you up to?"

"Audrey is chatting with Pastor Macy, so I'm helping deliver hay."

John lifted Cholly off Mike's lap and said, "We store hay for the farms on either side of us and today we're delivering hay for their livestock." Then he turned to the Lévesque girls and asked, "Est-ce que vous aimeriez vous joindre à nous pour une promenade en charrette à foin à l'américaine?" (Would you girls like to join us on an American-style hayride?)

John hoisted Cholly up onto the hay where he disappeared from sight, but they heard giggling and dogs barking, so Josianne climbed up and found that the hay was stacked one bale high on the bed of the wagon, then a wall of hay bales was made around the perimeter making a nest for them to sit in. Soon John and Veronica joined them, and the wagon started moving. "Miss Yi is not coming?" asked Josianne.

"No, Kenny is here," said Sandy, who was clearly not happy with that.

"They're being all kissy," said Madeline. "Kissy, kissy, kissy" she said while Sandy made kissing sounds.

"Chiot!" said Cholly, and he led a huge black puppy to Josianne.

"Oui, c'est un beau chiot." (Yes, he's a fine puppy) but she was interrupted by Chiot. The big black ball of fur placed his huge forepaws on Josianne's shoulders and began enthusiastically licking her face. "Arrête! J'abandonne!" (Stop! I give up!)

It took a few minutes to stop Chiot, then it took several minutes to convince Josianne and Marcelline that Chiot was the name that Cholly had given him. Josianne pulled Cholly onto her lap, saying, "Sit with me Chamonix."

"Cholly!" insisted Cholly. He patted his chest and said, "Maman m'appelait Cholly." (Mommy called me Cholly.)

"He talks funny sometimes," said Madeline as Jolie began licking Marcelline's face.

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The old nurse opened her front door and there stood that brat, Josh, along with that asshole, FBI Agent Kersey. But with them was a couple in their late forties. Amelia had never met them, but she recognized them through their daughter's features. "I was afraid you would show up," grumbled Amelia Hernandez. "Come on in." She gestured to the kitchen table and said, "Sit down. The man of the house isn't here but if he was here he would not show proper courtesy."

Josh nervously said, "Amelia, this is Pierre and Valériane Lévesque, their daughter was Séraphine Howe."

"I assumed that. I severed ties with the FBI in December, and on the whole, they're not allowed in my house." She glared at Josey Kersey.

"Madame, we are not here to assign blame," started Pierre, but he was cut short by Amelia.

"I am! It's his fault!" She pointed a gnarled finger at Josey.

"How could that be?" asked Pierre. "He was in New Hampshire breaking up a sex-trafficking and human slavery ring."

"I brought that little family into my house for three days of shielding. I went to Niagara Falls on day three. They should have followed me to Canada and on to Toronto for a flight home. I come home and they were still here but only one was alive. That bone head crew he put in charge of the operation, Bronson, and Stanford, never once showed up!" Amelia got up and hobbled over to where Josey was standing and demanded, "Why did you do that to them? Where was Jackson and Davis, my usual agents?" Her accusing finger shook in rage as she pointed at Josey.

"I never changed out the team," said a confused Agent Kersey.

"I'll bet you my entire social security check that Doctor Jarecki's kidnapping was a part of this, and if it is, that means you're responsible for that too." She hobbled back to her chair and sat down with a huff.

Pierre turned to Josey Kersey and said, "I suggest you reach out to Special Agent in Charge Frank Colella. Is he not still working on the Jarecki kidnapping case?"

Josey turned white with shock. He knew Pierre by reputation, but he didn't realize how much access to FBI information he had. He stepped out of the house as Pierre softly translated for Valériane. Once Josey left to speak with Agent Colella, Amelia got up and hobbled over to the coffee table in her living room. The coffee table was the typical two foot high type of table, but hers had a drawer, a feature not found on many coffee tables. "Here. I was waiting for the right person. I suppose you are as close as I can ever get to the right person." She handed Pierre a green journal. "Dennis gave this to me for safe keeping. He asked me to mail it back to him when he was safe at home."

It was a military journal, a green cloth-bound book that was filled with blank, line-ruled pages. They were perfect for keeping a diary. Pierre opened the book, and it was indeed a diary. The first page was a list of names and ranks of sailors with a brief note of luck and good wishes from each one. These were the men and women of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who rescued Dennis from the Sea of Japan. The fliers involved gave their call signs. One whose call sign was "Choad" wrote, "Thanks for shooting me down." Petty Officer Park drew two little hearts after her name, and the captain entered an email address. This was a gift from his rescuers when he ejected, and he used it as a personal journal. His personal recollections started with a brief explanation of how he ended up with the book.

"I was scooped out of the Sea of Japan by Bully 24 and dropped on the USS Theodore Roosevelt Two weeks ago. I was flying from Kunsan Air Base, ROK, to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, when my F-15C was destroyed by multiple bird strikes..."

From there, Dennis entered his thoughts and memories almost every day. Pierre flipped through his son's thoughts and memories, and the words were getting harder and harder to read... It was due to the tears in his eyes. "Thank you Madame Hernandez..." he said softly.

"Oh I ain't no madame. Just a busted up ol' lady."

They were quiet; the only sound was the gurgling of Mister Coffee as Amelia made a pot, and a clock ticking somewhere. Finally Valériane asked, "Est-ce ici que mes enfants sont morts?" (Is this where my children died?)

The question hung between them unanswered for what seemed like ages, but Josh finally said, "Yes." He looked like he was going to cry when he said, "I'm sorry, it's my fault. I was here the day before and I knew something was up. I saw Cholly peek at me through that door back there. I should have walked straight back there and demanded to know what was going on. I would have moved them to my house where they would be safe."

"And you would have ended up dead," said Pierre.

"Not a chance in hell, I've already took out two of these bastards with one shot," said Josh, for the first time admitting that he intended to shoot the men who were outside of Gus Didomissio's shop.

"If anyone is to blame it's me," said Amelia. "I knew the FBI was crooked. They never showed up with food like they were supposed to, they never stopped in every day as required. I knew!"

"No!" said Pierre forcefully. "If anyone is to blame it is me. I sent them here." He placed a badge on the table. It was the badge of a GIGN officer, the Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale. The GIGN is the elite tactical unit of the French National Gendarmerie. Among its missions are counterterrorism, hostage rescue, surveillance of national threats, protection of government officials, critical site protection (such as French embassies in war-torn countries), and targeting organized crime. "This is my badge; my son and daughter each have one like it. I sent my son and daughter here to gather information on Alvin Kroc. Dennis's mother and father worked for Senator Kroc."

"There's that name again!" muttered Josh.

"You know of him?"

"He's here! He was here for Andi's inauguration. He was at the church yesterday."

"I did not see him."

"He was seated at the table behind Dexter and me," said Amelia.

"Fait chier!" (Damn it!) groaned Pierre. He whispered to Valériane, and they came to an agreement. "May I see their room?"

Amelia turned to Josh and said, "Show him."

Josh rose and gestured to Pierre to follow him. "When they were here, I came to visit Amelia. She's the grandmother I should have had. While we talked, Cholly peered out at us, and I got a glimpse of Séraphine as she pulled him back into their room." When they got to the door, Josh stopped and said, "That woman saved your grandson. She returned from vacation to find Séraphine dead and her backyard covered in Dennis's blood. The first thing she did was pick up Cholly, and she carried him eight blocks to John's church and dropped him in the lap of the one man in Springville who would keep him from disappearing into the child welfare system. Eight blocks! That tore her up so badly that I had to carry her back here, and when we arrived, there was a cleanup crew sterilizing the place."

Pierre took out his notebook and began to take notes, then nodded to Josh to open the door. Josh pulled open the door, and Pierre looked at the room where his daughter had died. Speaking softly, Josh said, "We asked the medical examiner to review Séraphine's injuries, and the bruising on her face and neck were consistent with being forced to swallow something. In this case a fatal dose of fentanyl. Paul and I made sure that history will not record her as a junkie, but as a brave woman who died protecting her son."

"Thank you my friend," said Pierre as he surveyed the room. "What has changed?" he demanded, fighting back the tears.

"Nothing really. Dexter Humbolt spent a few nights in here, but he didn't make any changes."

Pierre looked everywhere, but there was extraordinarily little to look at. One small bed, two chairs, a table, a toilet behind a curtain, a shower stall, a tiny stove, an ancient microwave, and a sink. Something was wrong. Josh stuck his head out into Amelia's portion of the house and called, "Amelia, when did you add a microwave to your back room?"

"I didn't." She slowly hobbled to the back of the house and looked into the empty apartment. She had not looked in there since Dennis and Séraphine died. "That's not mine," she said.

"It was there when we worked on your house. I remember Gus talking about a broken microwave."

"Broken?" asked Pierre. He lifted the tiny ancient microwave oven from the counter and set it on the table, and carefully studied the microwave. A section of the power cord was wrapped with electrical tape, and Pierre unwrapped the tape. "It is not broken, it is disabled," he said. He pointed to the power cord; a small portion of one side of the wire was cut and removed, making it impossible for electricity to reach the circuits of the little oven. "I need a police man here that I can trust," said Pierre. "Do you know of one?"

Josh nodded and quickly dialed a number. It rang twice, and the tired voice came, "Detective Tanaka. What do you want, Ephraim?" Using Josh's proper name was Julissa's way of telling Josh that this had better be important.

"I'm here at Amelia Hernandez's house and an inspector for the French GIGN is here. He just walked in. What should I do?"

Julissa no longer sounded tired. "You don't do anything; I'll be right there!" Before she hung up, they could hear her tell her partner, Skip Morris, to get his coat on.

"I do not believe you did that!" gasped Pierre. A grin of admiration grew on his face. "Such a marvelously underhanded way of getting a Gendarmerie to respond!"

"I don't understand, I told her the truth, you just walked in. It's not like I carried you," Josh said with false innocence.

"I wish I had a dozen of you," said Pierre as he took out a multi-tool knife. He unfolded the Phillips screwdriver head and removed the screws holding the cover of the microwave.

Amelia leaned against the doorway and sighed. "That's my boy. I better put on more coffee," and she hobbled off to meet the incoming policemen.

"Shouldn't you call someone from the GIGN?" asked Josh.

"He should be here any time." Pierre put on a pair of latex gloves that he pulled from his pocket, and he continued to work. And as he did, he chatted with Valériane in French, trying to keep her from crying. "The way that cord was cut tells me that a Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale officer disabled it for a reason. Usually to hide a message inside the device."

"Are you sure?" she asked, fighting back the tears. Her daughter, her precious Séraphine, died just a meter from where she sat.

"No, but why not look while we wait for help?" He removed the cover and tucked inside the components was a folded piece of paper. He opened the page, and it was a quick note written in French, and was signed by Dennis Howe.

"What does it say?" asked Josh as he looked over Pierre's shoulder.

"I thought you understood French."

"I learned to talk French, not to read it," said Josh.

"Yeah, what does it say?" came a deep voice. They looked up and Josey Kersey entered the room with a short, swarthy man with a fairly cheerful smile for someone so dark complected. "Inspector, are you enjoying our little village?"

"Special Agent Colella," said Pierre as he got up. "This simple message is from our children; it tells us that what we want is in the safe box. Is there a safe box in this room?"

"I'm told it's under the bed," said Frank Colella, the man who was instrumental in rescuing Paul Jarecki.

Agent Kersey leaned over and whispered to Josh, "FBI safe locations provide a hidden place for our sheltered people to store important items like cash and documents."

Josh nodded and waited for the screaming. How was he going to explain the box being locked up in Paul's White Whale for months? When village park cops started breaking in, Josh and Gus put a common brick painted gold in the stash. They did a marvelous job; they primed the brick, then used a metallic gold paint and put at least seven coats on the brick, and in the end it looked like the real thing.

Pierre shoved the old bed aside, rolled up the ancient rug, and immediately found the hidden stash. He pried up the lid and looked inside. "It's gone," he said sadly. The last link he had with his daughter was gone!

The detectives swore when they looked into the stash. Josh knew he had to say something. He stepped to the stash locker and looked. There was no brick. The bottom of the stash was removed. There was only a three-foot drop to hard packed Springville dirt.

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Chapter 05 - Welcome to Springville

Delivering hay was more fun than Marcelline could believe. They dropped half of their load off at the Hirsh farm, then headed back up Trevett Road to the Clemmons farm. As they putted along, the huge puppies that everyone called "Newfies" proved to be so sweet and loving. The larger puppy, Chiot, recognized Chamonix as his boy and was very protective of him. "Why such gigantic dogs?" asked Marcelline.

Veronica answered for John. "Andi was terrified with all the problems they were having with the village's illegal police department, so she got the biggest dogs she could find to protect her children. Jolie for the twins and Danny, and Chiot for Cholly and Katarina." Marcelline could tell that they were going to be huge; Chiot was already bigger than Jolie.

"Does he know that Chiot means puppy?" asked Marcelline as Chamonix tussled with Sandy, Madeline, and the puppies in the hay.

"I don't think he cares," said Veronica. Just then, John stopped tuning his guitar and played a familiar tune. The three children began singing along.

Alouette, gentille alouette.

Alouette, je te plumerai.

Je te plumerai la tête,

Je te plumerai la tête.

Et la tête, et la tête.

Alouette, Alouette.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Alouette, gentille alouette,

Alouette, je te plumerai.

"What is that?" laughed Josianne. "You are teaching them to sing about ripping a bird apart?"

John shrugged as he strummed, "This is the unofficial anthem of Quebec."

"I thought Canadians were nice!" gasped Marcelline as the song went on about tearing off a lark's head, beak, wings, and legs.

"What gave you that idea?" said John with a laugh. "Let's try another Canadian song... or at least a song from a Canadian." He changed the tune he was strumming and began to sing.

If you could read my mind, love.

What a tale my thoughts could tell.

Just like an old-time movie,

'Bout a ghost from a wishin' well...

As he played, Josianne became entranced by his gentle voice and the romance that radiated from the song. She realized that she was sighing as he sang. "Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas chez toi?" (What is wrong with you?) hissed Marcelline.

"Je n'y peux rien, cette chanson est tellement romantique," (I can't help it, it's so romantic!) whispered Josianne.

"It's not romantic, this is a breakup song!"

"That doesn't mean it's not romantic..." When John was finished, Josianne sighed and said, "That was so beautiful Pastor John."

"Oh, I got the guitar part down, but you should hear Josh sing it," said John. "He really has a voice for this song." Then he started strumming a simple tune. "Gotta play one for the kids now. You ready?"

"YEAH!" cheered Sandy, Madeline, and Cholly.

"Let's go!"

Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo

Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo

Baby Shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo

Baby Shark

Josianne and Marcelline laughed at the silly hand gestures as the kids sang the simple pre-school song, and by the time they got to Grandpa Shark, it was time to stop and unload the hay. Brad and Dianna Clemmons were a slim, happy couple who had been friends with John, Macy, and Paul Jarecki for years. Brad lifted Cholly off the wagon and set him down, then bowed and said, "Bonjour Monsieur Cholly."

Cholly bowed to Brad and said, "Bonjour Monsieur Brad." (But he pronounced it "Bonsir Mosir Brad.")

"You should show your friends around," said Brad. Cholly broke into a huge grin, grabbed Josianne's hand, and started tugging his aunt toward the farmyard. Brad and Dianna Clemmons had pigs, but they also had sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits. It was a petting zoo for the kids, and Cholly got to show off his skill at picking up chickens. Soon Josianne and Marcelline were whooping with laughter as Cholly picked up stray chickens and physically tossed them back into their penned off area.

"Who are the new recruits?" asked Brad Clemmons as they hauled the hay into his barn.

"That's Marcelline and Josianne Lévesque. Their sister was Cholly's mom."

"Oh my, and they came to visit Cholly?" asked Dianna. "Aren't you afraid they'll take him back with them?"

John's normal, cheerful, friendly features went pale and sullen. "We're terrified. We haven't slept since they announced they were coming."

Just then a series of barks and honks stopped the conversation, and walking out into the farmyard they discovered that a goose decided that Cholly looked like a threat and began hissing and snapping at him. Immediately Chiot and Jolie got between Cholly and the goose and were growling and barking at the goose. Poor Cholly was terrified, but when he saw John step out of the barn, he sprinted to John as fast as his little legs could run.

John gave a shrill whistle and shouted, "Chiot! To me!" and the huge puppy turned his back on the goose and trotted to John with Jolie following.

"Elmer, you go on back to your girls! Go on!" shouted Brad Clemmons, and the goose headed back to his small gaggle.

"Did he bite you?" asked John as he checked Cholly's fingers. Geese like to nip at fingers.

"No."

"Just scared?"

"Uh huh," said the little boy.

"Give me a hug," said John as he wiped the tears away, then set Cholly down on the hay wagon. "Here, geese don't like it up here. And here, here's Chiot and Jolie," said John as he hoisted the enormous puppies up onto the wagon. "Ok, you good?"

"Uh huh," said Cholly, the tears coming to a stop.

"Ok, we learned that geese and ducks don't like being picked up, but chickens do. What do chickens say?"

"Buck buck!" said Cholly. He was good at animal sounds. He was in his element now.

"And what do ducks say?"

"Quack, quack!"

"Awesome! What do geese say?"

"Honk, honk!"

"And that means don't pick me up, ok? Now go tell Chiot he was a good boy for protecting you."

Marcelline and Josianne watched in awe as John calmed down a shrieking, terrified little boy, dried his tears, and got him giggling again, and all the time he taught a lesson about ducks and geese. Then he turned back to the farmers, making sure that Chiot didn't injure any livestock. "I can only pray that Dennis was that good of a father," whispered Josianne.

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"That is my son's handwriting," said Pierre firmly as he pointed to the letter he found in the microwave. He waved the green journal in the air and said, "I have samples of his handwriting here, in his personal journal. He said that their findings were stored in a lock box in there."

"Inspector Lévesque," said Skip Morris, "we are not doubting your word, but why would they write a note and put it inside a microwave oven?"

Josh was about to explode. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Julissa put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax."

"No," demanded Josh. "Pierre is a world class investigator. He has earned some respect around here. One more stupid word out of your NUB and I'm going to give him a lesson on respect."

Julissa snorted, trying to keep from laughing. NUB means New, Unexperienced Body, and she hadn't heard that expression in a long time.

"We've been in and out of this room a dozen times and we never found that note nor have we found that hole in the floor," said Skip.

"That's clearly a display of your skill as an investigator," said Pierre, barely holding his temper.

"I don't have to take this," said Skip Morris, and he turned to leave, but Josh stepped in front of him. Skip stepped to the side to go round Josh, but Josh moved in front of him again. The former gunship gunner glared at Skip with a scowl that clearly said, "I kill men."

"Yes you do," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Frank Colella. "Dropping a note in a disabled appliance is a GIGN method of information handling that goes back to World War Two. When you see an appliance with electrical tape on the cord, unwind the tape to see if the device was purposely disabled, and then tear it apart looking for anything that could be a message."

"That's GIGN, how was I to know they were here?"

"We are everywhere," said Pierre.

"They followed the MV Dakota Hustle across the Pacific Ocean, through the Panama Canal, and up the eastern seaboard and when they decided to start unloading their human cargo, they jumped, with our help," said Frank. "At the same time, the agent who sprung the information that the Dakota Hustle was going to off load in Portsmouth, was here, praying that we would keep the boogie men away. We failed. You failed. We don't get the right to question, but you have earned the right to learn."

"What about you?" said Skip to Josh.

Josh whispered, "I've seen better cops in the park patrol." Angrily, Skip took a roundhouse swing at Josh.

Julissa shook her head and sighed. "Let him go."

"No, I caught him, I get to cut off his head and mount it over my fireplace," said Josh. He had caught Skip's arm as it came at him and twisted it up behind his back, and now was holding him immobile in a neck-lock. "Now tell Inspector Lévesque you are ready to listen."

"It's Commandant Lévesque," said Frank Colella.

"Commander?" Josh grinned and said in Skip's ear, "tell the nice commander that you are ready to swallow that unearned arrogance and listen to him."

"I'm sorry commander," wheezed Skip.

"Close enough now shut up and listen," said Josh, and he released Skip, who nearly fell to the floor when he was released.

"Now as I was saying, the FBI and local law enforcement went over this building and no lock box was found," said Agent Kersey.

Josh had taken the green journal and was thumbing through it as Josey talked. Without looking up from the journal, Josh said, "But you also said that a lock box is provided to people you protect in safe houses."

"But no lock box was found," insisted Josey. "I can bring up the report."

Josh found a page in the journal and showed it to Pierre, who suddenly started reading with interest, allowing Josh to torment the cops. "Who did the investigation?"

Josey opened his laptop and began typing. A moment later, he said, "Agent Marshall and Agent Post." A moment after he spoke, there came an imperceptible groan from Frank Colella.

"Let's reach out to them," said Josh. "Get a first person run-down on what they discovered."

"You can't," said Frank Colella. "I fired them."

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"I can't believe they were fired," muttered Pierre as they entered Josh and Veronica's house.

Josh shrugged and said, "When Doctor Jarecki was kidnapped, those agents did nothing, they delayed the case for a week or more. As far as I'm concerned, they should have been shot. Now it looks like my suspicions are confirmed, they worked in league with the kidnappers. Just mention them to Mayor Jarecki when she shows up."

"And where did that gold brick come from?" demanded Pierre.

Josh smiled and shrugged. "Me. Folks kept trying to get under the house and I said, 'We can't leave the hole empty, they're doing all that digging, let's give them something nice for their troubles.' So Gus and I painted a brick and put it in there." Josh opened a backpack, pulled out some papers, and handed the papers to Pierre. "I can email you the PDFs of these documents. Come on. The gang is waiting for us and I have a stop to make." And with that, they left the house.

Pierre followed Josh to the truck, his head spinning with confusion. "I do not understand. You found the empty hole and put a painted brick in it?"

When they got settled in the truck, Josh turned the key, then he turned to Pierre. "I never said we found the hole empty, I said I didn't want the thieves to find it empty."

"I don't understand..." then Pierre looked at the papers. He flipped through the pages; they were photocopies of pages from a handwritten notebook, and it looked familiar. Not the handwriting; it was the content that was familiar. Then he opened Dennis's journal because he saw some entries that looked familiar. They were identical. The words were the same, just the handwriting was different. "Where did you get this?" demanded the GIGN Commandant.

"I have access to the source material."

"You do? Where?" Pierre was shocked.

"I don't know if I should say. It could be used as evidence. The notebook is in a locked box which is in someone else's possession and he does not know what is in the box. I, on the other hand, am an underhanded sneak thief and have no problem inventorying someone else's finds. I took great care to wear gloves and I replaced the contents of the box. It looked like Dennis copied the entries that concerned the MV Dakota Hustle into his journal if the original notebook is lost or worse."

Pierre looked at the pages; they were filled with numbers, young South Asian women and boys being accounted for and transported to market like cattle. There were opioid drugs by the kilogram accounted for in this notebook. The numbers all match what they captured in Portsmouth two months ago. This was what his daughter and son-in-law were killed for. This was how poor Cholly became an orphan. This may even be why Paul Jarecki was kidnapped.

Pierre looked up from the papers and found that they were no longer in town; they were out in the countryside. The road was narrow, and there was a stand of trees on both sides of the road. Josh stopped and got out, and trudged up to a rude wooden cross erected a few feet off the side of the road. Josh put the rose on the ground at the foot of the cross and got back into the truck. "May I ask what that was?" asked Pierre.

"That's where I found Dennis." He put the truck in gear and headed back into town, and he didn't say a word for a long time after that.

"What is wrong dearest?" said Valériane from the back seat.

"Our worst fears were nothing compared to this," said a disheartened Pierre.

"You have not eaten, Pastor Jean is treating us to Américaine food, you will feel better," said Valériane, but Pierre knew he would never feel better.

"Their remains... where are Séraphine and Dennis's remains?" said Pierre.

"I apologize but..." Josh looked heartbroken. "I am so sorry but we didn't know."

"What do you mean?" said Pierre, terrified of what was to come.

"If I knew they were Catholic I would have stopped it, but..." Josh pulled into the small parking lot behind Worzils. "They were cremated. Then the funeral parlor intermingled the remains, he said it was traditional for a married couple that died together."

"Sadly that was perfect," said Pierre sadly. "Where are they?"

"We erected a monument for Dennis and Séraphine nearby and half of their remains are interred there. The rest is in Paul and Andi's house waiting for you to take Dennis and Séraphine home."

Pierre relaxed and told Valériane what happened, then said to Josh, "Thank you my friend, may we see the memorial?"

"Of course, Paul will insist on it," said Josh. "Let's eat first. I'm sure Ayato has something planned for dinner." As they stepped into the dim bar, Pierre and Valériane looked at all the neon beer signs and sports memorabilia. Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bisons, Buffalo Bandits, and even the Buffalo Braves from the old American Basketball Association.

"Buffalo?" asked Valériane in a heavily accented attempt.

"It is the nearby city that we flew into," Pierre assured her. "These are sporting clubs. American football, hockey, baseball, basketball, and field hockey?"

"It's called Lacrosse," said Veronica. "It's a North American sport that is slowly getting out to the world." She came up to Josh and gave him a kiss.

After they kissed, Josh whispered in Veronica's ear, "I don't know how long Valériane is going to hold up."

"Maybe Macy can talk to her," said Veronica.

The bar wasn't crowded, but the sound of TINK! TINK! TINK! TINK! TINK! filled the air. Any Western New Yorker would recognize that sound, but Pierre and Valériane didn't know and were looking for the source. As they moved to the rear of the establishment, they saw the source: Marcelline and Josianne were playing air hockey. Next to each of their girls was one of the Jarecki twins standing on a chair, coaching them while Cholly stood on a chair at the center line, cheering on both players.

John and Macy walked up to Pierre and shook hands and said, "Please, sit, relax. You've been so rushed; it's time to relax." He led the couple to the table where Paul and Andi Jarecki were waiting. "Please sit and relax." As they moved to the table, Paul quickly stood and pulled the chair out for Valériane. Behind them the air hockey game continued, and the laughing filled the air.

"I'm sorry if this is something you weren't expecting," said Paul. "But this is where we relax."

"No! Please don't apologize," insisted Pierre. "Nouméa has gotten so metropolitan, a neighborhood pub like this is hard to find." Then he turned to Valériane and said, "It reminds me of Le Tigre pub in Mont-Dore when we were courting, remember?"

"So long ago!" sighed Valériane.

Just then, Julissa came up and said, "Bon-jooer. Voici notre menu pour ce soir." She mispronounced everything but placed menus in French in front of them.

"Detective Tanaka!" said a startled Pierre. "I didn't know you speak français."

"I don't. I read this," and she flipped up her tray to show Pierre the laminated cheat sheet that was taped to the tray. "We get so many Canadians in here that I had Macy make this for me."

"But you... are you not a detective?"

"I am, but this is our dream. Ayato and I retired from the military with the burning desire to open a small bar in a small town. I got tossed off the police department for reasons, but when Paul was kidnapped, I was recalled to active duty with the Police Department."

"Oh?" Paul looked confused. He didn't know that Julissa was back on the force.

Julissa patted his shoulder and said, "We'll talk." She turned to Pierre and said, "We have a special for you tonight, a Friday Fish Fry, Buffalo Catholic style. Just let me know when you all are ready to order."

They started with a beer; Valériane had a Genesee Cream Ale and Pierre had a Labatt's Blue, and they would switch back and forth. It was a warm, peaceful evening. Andi had Danny in her arms, and she let Valériane hold him. As they chatted (with John and Pierre translating) Macy remained quiet. She clutched Katarina close to her so tightly that Katarina squirmed.

"Puis-je voir votre bébé?" (May I see your baby?) asked Valériane, but Macy's eyes flashed open wide.

"Vous avez déjà mon fils, que voulez-vous de plus?" (You already have my son, what more do you want?) Weeping, Macy stood and dashed out of the bar into the darkening evening.

"Wa...?" Valériane was speechless at Macy's outburst.

John sighed, and his shoulders drooped in sorrow. His heart was breaking for Macy, but they had to look at reality. Cholly will probably go to New Caledonia with the Lévesque family. "I will get her."

Before he could leave, Valériane rose and stopped him. " Non, mon ami. Macy et moi devons nous parler. Je vais la retrouver." (No, my friend. Macy and I must talk. I will find her.)

"I know what she needs," but John was stopped by Pierre with a gentle hand on the shoulder.

"No, please John. Sometimes a woman must talk with another woman." He shrugged and continued. "It is the way of the world, is it not? And now it is time for us to talk as men. Come, let's find a quiet corner." John followed Pierre to the front room, where they sat in a booth to talk. Pierre with his pint of beer, John with his pint of ginger ale.

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Chapter 06 - Macy's Little Cabbage

"What is going on?" asked Andi. "We take one day to ourselves and the village falls apart." Paul looked as confused as Andi looked.

"It's not the village," said Josh. "It's... Cholly." The word Cholly came out as a hoarse whisper as Josh tried to hold back the misery he felt for his friends.

"What's wrong with Cholly?" asked Paul.

Veronica wasn't any better off than Josh. She leaned against him for comfort and said, "We believe that Pierre and Valériane are going to take Cholly with them when they go home."

"NO!" gasped Andi. "Macy!" She stood, but Paul held her arm, preventing her from leaving.

"Let the Lévesques and the Jareckis talk, and we'll keep the State Department on speed dial.

"State Department?"

Paul nodded. "Chamonix Pierre Howe is a naturally born United States citizen, son of a US citizen, and I will not let him be dragged off like that poor Cuban refugee several years ago."

Josh softly spoke; he was barely loud enough for Paul to hear. "Paul, Andi, there's something you should know. Tomorrow, after church, there will be conversations with Pierre. It would be best if you were not there. Take the Lévesque girls to Sally Anne's for muffins or something."

"Why?" demanded Paul.

"The mayor may need plausible deniability."

Andi handed Danny to Paul and reached into the large bag that was always at her side. She pulled out a partially completed project and a knitting pattern and began knitting. "I promised Cholly a Buffalo Bills sweater for Christmas and he's going to get that sweater wherever he's at."

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Valériane stepped out of Worzils and looked up and down Main Street. It was growing dark, and it was getting colder. She pulled her new jacket around her tighter, then she heard a sniff and a stifled cry. She followed the sound around the building, and there she was. "Macy, why do you cry?" Valériane found Macy tucked in a corner behind Worzil's crouching down over Katarina, who was weeping as well. Macy shook her head in response and wept harder. "Marie-Claude Solange, please talk to me."

Macy's head jerked up, her eyes wide with a fury she hadn't felt for decades. "So you know the name I used when modeling. Do you know my birth name? Does that give you the right to take my son? He came to ME. I bandaged his wounds. I'm the one who dries his tears in the night. I'm the one that must bathe with him and soothe his fear. I'm the one that sings him to sleep. Healing his wounds and soothing his fears taught me how to love my daughter."

"Marie-Claude, it is not like that."

"I KNOW he is your grandson; and I weep for your daughter every night because a part of her lives with me... and I HATE myself for saying it, but I love Chamonix. He is mine! When he misses Séraphine he brings me food like he brought her after she died, and I know he is haunted by her death. When I eat it, the smile on his face tells me that he chose me! He can't lose two mothers..."

"I don't understand Marie-Claude. Tell me what you..."

"I can't live without my son, I have his birth certificate, I have a lawyer, I have a new car... I can run; we can hide..." Macy's eyes were spinning wildly. It was clear to Valériane that she was getting ready to do just that.

"Please, listen to me," begged Valériane. "I have no desire to take Chamonix from you."

"Huh?"

"Pierre, Marcelline, Josianne, and I talked long into the night last night, then again today. We can see the love you have for our Dear Cholly. A deep, passionate, maternal love that only a heart like yours can produce. Pierre and I love and miss Séraphine and Dennis so much, but having Cholly close will only make our heartache worse. Knowing that he has a set of gentle God fearing parents takes a weight off our souls."

"You call him Cholly too?"

Valériane nodded. "That is what my Séraphine called her boy when she was pregnant. How did you discover her pet name for him?"

"I don't know... the twins insisted that was his name. When we call him that, it is like we lift some of the horror off of his tiny shoulders."

Valériane crouched down next to Macy and said, "This entire thing has destroyed Pierre. Dennis and Séraphine were working for him and their deaths taught us to stop and appreciate what is around us. Pierre will retire as soon as this final investigation is completed. And then, we would like to continue our role as grandparents but unlike our early error, we would like to visit Cholly as we travel, maybe twice a year?"

"I can keep him?" Macy's voice was wavering and unsure.

"Josianne desires to attend University at Buffalo, so she would be available to help with Cholly, maybe sit him and his sister while you and Jean... mmm... how you say... Faire miauler son chat?"

"Make my cat meow? We don't have a cat..." Then memories of that expression, the girls in the Beaulieu agency in Quebec would say Faire miauler son chat but it actually had nothing to do with cats. It was always said in a sexual context. "It has been so long since we were able to make my cat meow. John's horrible injury, Katarina's birth, my postnatal depression, then Cholly..."

"No! No more worries," said Valériane as she hugged Macy, then helped her up. "I may be on the other side of the world, but I want to help." They stepped out of the shadow of the building, and Valériane saw snow drifting down from the sky for the first time in her life. "C'est tellement beau!" (It's so beautiful!)

"Try shoveling it every day," grumbled Macy as they re-entered Worzils.

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Pierre sat with John in a booth up front, and they spoke together in French in hushed whispers. "I hope you never experience the misery of losing a child. We feel like we have lost two children," said Pierre.

"We have lost three. We were so heartbroken when we lost the third one in the second trimester that we gave up. We thought that God had banned us from ever having children. Then Paul called me one night and said he found a woman in the snow and he wanted to marry her. She revitalized us, three Jarecki's growing old in our empty houses. Macy immediately fell in love with Andi and the twins, and on the day they got married, Andi challenged Macy to a baby race. It was silly and fun and it put a spark back into our marriage."

"A baby race? Truly?" asked Pierre.

"This time we carried our daughter to full term, but when Katarina was born, Macy returned to her depression and stayed there for over a month. I had been injured months before and was still feeling sorry for myself. Then Chamonix was literally dropped in my lap. He was starving, filthy, terrified, and when we cleaned him up we found scars from the whipping he received and he was terrified to get into the bath. He had been scalded before. We knew that we had to be parents to this sad little boy, and tending to him rescued us."

"Ce connard, cette connasse, cette putain de salope!" (That asshole, that bitch, that fucking whore!) snarled Pierre. "When I heard about Vinh Thi, the housekeeper that tortured Cholly so horribly I put out a warrant for her arrest." The GIGN commander stared at his beer sorrowfully. "When Séraphine brought Dennis home, he became our son long before they were wed. He was a friend, a companion, and I sent him and Séraphine to their deaths."

John nodded and said, "I remember Dennis. He came looking for Paul, but at the time we didn't know where Paul was. Dennis stayed with us for a day, but the next morning he was gone. Macy saw him again at the trial of Colonel Abernathy, but he was in a hurry to leave and he left a note for Paul."

Pierre nodded, "That was not long before he returned to us and proposed to Séraphine. Was not Buzz Abernathy a general?"

John nodded. "Yes, but he was stripped of that rank. When you meet a man of honor, a man with courage and conviction, you become convinced people like Buzz should not be allowed to serve."

"Man of honor... Paul? Dennis?"

"Joshua."

Pierre laughed. "Joshua is crazy, he is smart but a man of honor and courage?"

"After dinner we will go out and listen to some music. We will relax and meet some of the people of Springville, and you will learn some things about our crazy friend."

"Do you know anything of a box that Josh says he has access to?"

John shook his head, then said in English, "Two more please, Ayato."

"Coming up!" called Ayato from the kitchen.

Pierre started laughing and John said, "Our bartender may not have the best eyesight, but his hearing - it's said if a tree falls in the woods he can tell what species it is from the sound of its falling... from in here."

Just then Valériane and Macy entered Worzil's. They were both chattering happily, and Valériane was carrying Katarina, who was laughing and grabbing at Valériane's chin. Pierre shook his head and said, "Women, one minute they are at each other's throats, the next they are close friends. Would that everyone was like that."

John chuckled. Being a pastor, he sees all sides of humanity. He knows women who have held grudges against each other for decades over a slight that was long forgotten, and he knows women who's on again, off again relationships need a scoreboard and a team of sports analysts to keep track of, then others who have stuck together through thick and thin and should be held up as a shining light and an example to all humanity. Of course he couldn't remark on any of that, so he said, "Let's eat. Our chef has a special for you."

"A special you say? Could I have a hint?"

"It is lent, and this is simple fare for a working man and nobody does it better than Buffalo." When they returned to the back room, tables were pushed together into a triclinium, a squared horseshoe, and they were joined by several people: an older man and a young woman. "Pierre, this is my boss, August Didomissio, and his wife, Evangeline, but she's known as Lucy."

"Bonjour, jeune demoiselle," (Hello young lady) said Pierre as he took Lucy's hand.

The sound of Pierre's greeting in French sounded so romantic to the surgeon. "You should learn French," sighed Lucy to Gus.

Gus turned Lucy to him and took her hand gently and kissed it, then said in his deepest voice, "Ma parlo già italiano, mio ​​carissimo." (But I already speak Italian, my dearest.) He kissed her hand again and looked at her with those huge, earnest eyes.

Lucy's eyes grew large, and she felt her heart leap in her chest. She sighed, then said, "We may have to leave early," which caused everyone to explode in laughter.

"I didn't know you spoke Italian," said Andi as she watched her best friend go into a romantic meltdown.

"At my age I save it for special occasions," said Gus, causing even more laughter.

John continued with the introductions. "Pierre, Valériane, Lucy is a thoracic surgeon and Gus is a master carpenter. He did the remodeling on the Maplecroft a few years ago."

"I could not tell the house was remodeled," gasped Pierre.

"Then I've done my job well," said Gus.

"Wait until you see what he did for Paul and Andi's house. This couple here is Yi-Jin Carlson and Kenny Johnson..."

"Yi is our boss!" cried Sandy, who was sitting on Marcelline's lap.

"She's Kenny's boss too!" added Madeline, who was sitting on Josianne's lap.

"Thank you," said John, and continuing, he said, "These are our newest residents in Springville; this is Luke Lawson, who teaches at the Zoar Valley academy and his fiancée, Kiko Yamanaka, who works at Yamanaka Electronics. And this is Veronica's father, Michael von Köster, and his nurse, Audrey Mitchell."

Mike shook hands with Pierre and said, "The nurse is Veronica's idea, but she's fun to have around. She plays a mean game of Whist."

John walked around the table to a man dressed in black with a Roman collar and placed his hands on the man's shoulders. "And this is my Pinochle partner, Father Juan Rodriguez, the rector of St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church."

Father Juan shook hands with Pierre and Valériane. "I heard we had visitors from le Caillou and I had to come and meet you and offer any services that I can."

"I will need to say a confession," whispered Pierre.

Just then the waitstaff of Worzil's began bringing the food out. "We haven't ordered yet," said Pierre.

Gus leaned over and said, "There's only two items on the menu."

"Now that's a proper pub." Then Julissa set a plate heaping with all forms of food in front of Pierre. Coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, and in the center on a bed of French fries, an enormous piece of fried fish. "Mon Dieu! This is huge!"

"That's a half portion," said Audrey, who shared her meal with Mike.

"Everyone gets a half portion of Friday fish fry, or a Beef on Weck sandwich which we cut in half," said Ayato with a towel draped over his arm. He was acting like a high-end maître d', which made Julissa roll her eyes. "The idea is to give everyone a chance to share."

"This is a very catholic area," said Father Juan as he eyed his fish fry. "During Lent, this is what we eat every Friday."

"Who waits for Lent?" asked Macy, causing more laughter.

"I know this isn't what you're used to, but to us in Western New York this is ambrosia," said Father Juan.

"Pastor Jean, I would like to thank you for arranging all of this," said Pierre, as Valériane divided up the fish fry and beef on weck between them, like everyone else was doing. "Did you invite Father Juan to help us feel comfortable?"

"Much of everything is Josh and Macy's work, including inviting Father Juan."

"Thank you so much, just knowing one who can administer the sacraments is close at hand is a great help in making us feel comfortable, and to be able to converse in our native language... this is so wonderful considering the torment we put you through, dear Marie-Claude."

"How do you know my modeling name? It's not that I hide it, but I haven't used it since I married John."

"Papa knows all and papa sees all," said Josianne.

"I research, sometimes far too much, dear Marie."

"You know my birth name?" gasped Macy, and Pierre nodded. "Do you know about my parents?" Again Pierre nodded.

"We can talk later."

Everyone ate ravenously; the food was so good! Everything was simple, but when done well, a simple dish can far out-strip a three star Michelin restaurant. The main chatter among the Caldoche family was the beef on weck and how it could be recreated back in le Caillou. "The kimmelweck would be easy," said Macy. "A simple dinner roll with egg white brushed on top then dipped in pretzel salt and caraway seeds then toasted in an oven until the outside is crunchy."

"It's her best dish," said John.

"It's my only dish," said Macy, which caused laughter among the French-speaking people at the table. "I am surprised I didn't mess up my breast milk." She looked down at Katarina, who was contentedly nursing. "I never thought I would ever be able to enjoy feeding my child. It was Chamonix who brought the love out of me." In response, Cholly waved around his sippy cup.

Macy looked at Father Juan, who showed no sign of recognition of what she was saying. Several times after Katarina was born, Macy slipped out and visited Father Juan in the hospital as he recovered from his gunshot wound and confessed her shortcomings as a mother and a pastor. He gave her good advice, which surprised Macy.

"I wish to apologize to our hosts," said Pierre as he finished his dinner. "Our arrival was poorly coordinated with the local government, and I didn't realize how much it upset everyone. I will admit, we had thought about bringing Chamonix home with us..."

"Cholly!" insisted Cholly, and he patted his chest.

"Yes, Cholly. But that point of our lives has passed us by. It is now time for us to fill a different role, that of grandparents and aunts. It is heartbreaking but Valériane and I have sent a letter to Missus Friedman at Adoption Advocates stating that we will back Chamonix's adoption as long as we have the opportunity to fulfill the roles of grandparents and aunts."

Even though she heard it from Valériane, Pierre standing up in front of the entire group and announcing that Cholly was staying with her and John was overwhelming. She cuddled Katarina and wept for joy, and John held her from behind, weeping himself. Cholly climbed up onto Macy's lap and started asking, "Wha's wrong? Wha's wrong?"

Macy brushed tears away and finally said, "I get to be your mommy."

Cholly nodded and patted her shoulder. "Good!" and he sat down on her lap and ate her French fries. Macy put an arm around her son and whispered, "Mon petit chou," (my little cabbage) a French term of endearment.

"He doesn't seem surprised," said Josianne. She and her sister Marcelline both knew that their father was going to make that announcement. They were part of the discussion last night; it was long and tear filled but they soon decided to support John and Macy's application for adoption. This sealed Josianne's decision to attend school in America and help John and Macy with their children.

"Uh huh. We told him," said Sandy.

Paul stepped up to Pierre and thanked him profusely. "John and Macy had been through hell, losing child after child. They had given up when Katarina arrived."

Meanwhile, Veronica gave Valériane a hug and said, "I know that was very painful, but John is an honorable man. He will ensure that you receive photographs and videos."

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Chapter 07 - Karaoke Night

Josh stayed as far away from Pierre and Valériane Lévesque as he could. It's not that he didn't respect Pierre; he could tell Pierre was a cop's cop; a man who knew his job. He reminded Josh of Julissa when she got her nose into a case. Josh was working for XCom when Julissa was released from the Concord PD because of Meyer Walker, and he still remembered the passion in her voice when she spoke of Meyer Walker.

Meyer Walker was a big time Buffalo attorney who had a cabin in the woods out on Genesee Street, just off Trevett Road. Because of its location and the way the roads were routed, it was as far as you could be from the Concord PD but still within the jurisdiction. Meyer Walker had a thing for young teens. It didn't matter if they were boys or girls, they would not survive. He would have his way with them, which left them near death, then he would dump them off in a farmer's field, where they would die of exposure. Julissa had him dead to rights, but Judge Sanders threw all of her evidence out and let Meyer Walker go. "Insufficient Evidence" he claimed, and the prosecution was shocked. Four days later, a hiker reported hearing screams coming from Meyer Walker's cabin, and Julissa responded.

Julissa found Meyer Walker with three bodies and a fourth teen half cut up, and he attacked Julissa with a knife. She calmly put two bullets in his head and two in his heart and still swears that there were no vital organs in either area, so she wasn't sure what killed him. "Probably lead poisoning." She was let go for saying "I told ya so," far too often. In fact, she called Judge Sanders, "Judge Walker," in open court.

She was an intense cop, skirting on the edge of insubordination and hatred for Samael Windecker. Her first action when she got her badge back was to have Samael Windecker's jeep towed. He had a habit of parking in the handicap spot behind the village hall. She called it in and reported the jeep illegally parked, and a disabled veteran needed that spot. Matt's Towing was on the scene almost immediately, and when Julissa's partner asked her who was the disabled veteran, she said, "Me, I've got 10% disability for tinnitus."

The first time Josh met Julissa, she had just shot Meyer Walker, and the entire county was shocked. He and Paul were sitting in Worzils, commiserating. Josh had just purchased his cabin and lake, and Paul took him into the village for a pint of lunch. Julissa was both serving them and was on the TV over the bar answering a reporter's question. "You shouldn't have been surprised, everything that has been on the news was presented to Judge Sanders but he decided, not a jury, HE decided the evidence was insufficient. Now three more kids are dead because of him."

"They are going to fire your ass because of that," said Paul.

"So what? I've been fired from better jobs."

"Josh, this is Julissa Tanaka, if you ever met her in the Air Force her maiden name was Prouse."

"I don't remember any Sergeant Prouse," said Josh.

"It was Colonel Prouse," she replied.

"Oh." Josh stared at his beer. "What's it like to shoot a real bastard?"

"What?"

Josh never looked up from his beer. "Of all the people I've killed, I have no idea if any of them deserved it. They were standing in front of my gun; that's all I knew. I'm sure one or two deserved what I did to him, but I'll never know for sure."

"Infantry?"

"Air Force, AC-130 gunship."

Julissa walked away without a word, then returned with another beer and set it down in front of Josh. "It feels good. You feel clean when it's over." And she went back to work. They've been friends ever since. Josh watched Julissa work the Jarecki kidnapping case, and she nearly solved it all herself, merely by re-reviewing all the evidence that had been collected and putting two and two together. Pierre reminded Josh of Julissa's tenacity. Of all the cops who were in and out of the back bedroom in Amelia's house, only Pierre thought to move the bed, roll back the rug, and pry up the floorboard that had two cuts a foot apart.

"Fucking FBI!" Josh suddenly swore.

"What? What's the matter?" Veronica was concerned about Josh. Something has been troubling him, and he won't say what it was. They were in the American Legion post waiting for the Jareckis and the Lévesque families to arrive.

"Oh, there was a secure drop in Amelia's house, the FBI put it in there, but they never mentioned it to... to... fuck! Fuck-fuck-fuckity-fuckfuck-FUCK!" He was so mad he wanted to break up chairs and tables.

"What?" demanded Veronica. She wasn't against swearing as a rule, but she didn't want it to happen near her, and especially in public.

He whispered very, very softly in her ear. "The FBI and Dennis Howe were the only people who knew about a stash under the house, so how did those thieves know about it?"

"Well, it's because..." The simple explanation suddenly escaped her. "You need to step away from this."

"I have to talk to Pierre and that FBI agent tomorrow after church, and then it will be done."

"Are you sure?"

Josh sighed. "Mostly." He was about to say something else when he noticed the front door to the legion. "Your dad's here." He stood and waved to Audrey and Mike as they came in. The new arrivals saw Josh and steered toward him.

"What's with the suit? You usually dress casual," said Mike as they sat at the table with Josh and Veronica.

"I'm singing tonight," said Josh. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit with a white shirt and a narrow black tie. "I need to look like I'm part of the group."

"The Blues Brothers?" asked Mike.

Josh's shoulders slumped, and he looked down at his iced tea. "I was hoping for the Rat Pack."

"You got the look for that, but I don't think you drink enough for either group."

The Jarecki and Lévesque families entered not long after Mike and Audrey. They were late because the babies, twins, and Cholly were dropped off with Yi and Kenny at Paul and Andi's house. The snow was still falling, and the Lévesque family stood outside, enchanted. When they got to Andi and Paul's huge Victorian home, Yi set the exterior lights to a Christmas theme, and the Lévesque family gasped in amazement. "So beautiful!" they gasped in French. Before they got on the road to the Legion post, Andi explained that in December all the windows were lined with lights and the huge front had a 14 foot tall tree filling the window.

"It must be so beautiful!" gasped Marcelline as they got into the big van so they could all go in one group.

"It can be very bleak in the mid-winter, so we dress it up as best as we can," said Andi. She pointed across the street where several boys were playing hockey in the ice rink in the park. "The rink Paul built helps."

"Will Yi and Kenny be ok with five children?" asked Josianne as they slowly rolled through the village.

"The children behave quite well. The twins will be eager to take a bath and go to bed because Yi will let Cholly and the dogs sleep with them, and they know that Yi will brook no nonsense because she wants to spend some time with Kenny."

They drove through the village slowly, and the visitors from the tropics gushed at how a light layer of snow adds magic to the village. Finally, they pulled up to the American Legion Ephraim J. Gravely Post and got out, then stepped inside. The Jarecki brothers were both on canes, both still hurting from injuries they had suffered.

"Karaoke night? This is the entertainment?" asked Marcelline Lévesque.

"We shall rock them!" cried Josianne. The Lévesque girls loved nothing more than karaoke.

As they entered the American Legion post, they saw that it was getting crowded. Josh said something to the bartender, who said something to someone else, and five fellows set up several tables for Josh and his guests. Bowls of bar kibble were set out, which the three Lévesque women loved, even on a full stomach.

"I did not know they did Karaoke in America," said Josianne. She said karaoke with the Japanese pronunciation ka-da-oh-kee.

"We do, but most people mispronounce it as carry-okie," said Josh as he welcomed the Lévesque family.

Before he sat down, John urged Pierre to step aside and said, "I mentioned a man of honor and courage?" He led Pierre to step over to a series of framed documents and portraits on the wall. Pierre looked at the images of Josh after he lost so much weight in his battle against cancer, receiving a medal from a previous president.

"This Ephraim... he is Joshua?"

John nodded. "He didn't want to fight against the legion when they named this post, but he changed his name when he married Veronica. And he won't acknowledge you if you call him Ephraim and mispronounce it."

"Why? This is a great honor."

John shrugged. "Survivor's guilt and a condition called Imposters Syndrome."

"What is Imposter Syndrome?"

"Josh is a man of many skills and talents, but he only acknowledges his technical skills. Imposter Syndrome is a feeling that he just did what any normal man would do so he's not worth all the accolades and recognition, which should go to someone else. It's something he's learning to live with by helping his fellow veterans, like Amelia."

As they headed back to their table, in the corner was a small table with two couples that John had never seen in here before; then he recognized one face at the table. He led Pierre back to the table, and before sitting down, he leaned over Josh's shoulder and whispered, "Bill Dubois is here."

"Where?" Then John pointed him out. "Thanks." Josh got up and with Veronica he went over to where Billy and his wife Stéphanie were sitting. "Hi Bill, are you here to scout talent?"

Startled, Billy set down his glass of Loganberry juice and said, "I... uh..." Then he summoned his courage. "Yes, I am. Everything I've heard of you is with a quartet. I want to hear you solo."

"This may not be the place to do that. I've been drinking all evening; you're not going to know what is Josh and what is Genesee."

For some reason that struck Billy as funny. "I like you Ephraim Gravely-von Köster, you're honest. This is my wife, Stéphanie, and my parents Dave and Sue. So where will I hear the pure sound of Ephraim and not Genesee Josh?"

"This is my wife Veronica, and I'm planning to have fun tonight. But for serious singing, please join us at Springville Congregational Church tomorrow. We'll have a Roman Catholic Priest on hand in case of emergency."

"Fine, we will be there."

"Did you bring your harmonica? Would you like to do a tune with me later?"

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The host for karaoke was Vicki Patton, a dark-haired middle-aged woman whose career as a stand-up comedian never took off, but she was one of the most popular karaoke hosts in Western New York. Not only was she funny and knew the music, but she had big tits, incredibly good sound equipment, and she wasn't afraid to play a John Valbe song from time to time when the volunteers weren't lining up to sing. "Good evening and welcome to the American Legion Gravely Post. I was told that Sergeant Gravely is here in the audience tonight and may come up to sing..." There were whoops and cheers from people who knew Josh's karaoke skills. "... is he buying a round for you guys to cheer tonight? Nothing like having plants in the audience. Ok, we have a pair of girls to kick us off tonight. Josianne and Marcelline Lévesque. I take it you two are Canadian?"

Josianne and Marcelline giggled, and finally Josianne said, "No, we are Caldoche."

"What is that, like a salad or something?"

"We are from New Caledonia," said Marcelline.

"And where is that?"

"It is between Australia and Fiji."

There was a lot of clapping, but Vicki stood there with her mouth open. "Uh, thank you for coming, but you know how stupid that sounds to us, you two blond, tanned, gorgeous women from a tropical paradise leave heaven on earth to come to Buffalo in the winter. You realize after one winter here, you're going to end up looking like me, right?"

"I plan to enroll at the University at Buffalo."

"Majoring in what?"

"Pharmacology."

Vicki grinned, "I might have some work for you after you graduate. Ok, these two adorable girls who came here all the way from Heaven, are going to sing an adorable song for us." She handed Josianne and Marcelline each a microphone, then stepped back to her control board. Josianne and Marcelline sang Kermit the Frog's most popular song, The Rainbow Connection as a duet, with harmony, in French. It was beautiful, and they got a standing ovation from the crowd that knows good karaoke.

They were followed by a woman who sang I Will Survive off key, and she was followed by three guys who drunkenly sang Hotel California. After them came John and Paul Jarecki, who sang Elvis Presley's hit Kentucky Rain. Then came a group of six who stumbled their way through Bohemian Rapsody.

Finally Josh and Veronica stepped up to Vicki's table, and Josh said, "Number one-twelve please."

"Yes sir, Mister Sinatra!" said Vicki, and she put on Josh and Veronica's signature tune, Fly Me to the Moon. Josh gave a grand performance with Veronica at his side; together they were swaying to the beat of the music. This particular recording had a long bridge where the orchestra played their hearts out. As they reached the point where Josh sang "In other words, I love you" he held the microphone out to Vicki, who had clearly done this before. The moment she took the microphone, Josh and Veronica melted into each other's arms and began to dance.

"C'est tellement fantastique!" gasped Marcelline as Josh and Veronica danced, their eyes glued to each other.

"C'est tellement romantique," sighed Josianne.

Just then Bill Dubois tapped Paul on the shoulder and whispered, "You know Josh. How much of that is beer and how much is Josh?"

"Josh? He had one beer at dinner a couple of hours ago. After that he's been drinking iced tea all night."

"Seriously? No gin or vodka in there?"

"Josh doesn't drink much anymore, especially if he's going to sing."

Billy went back to his table and smiled happily as Josh and Veronica swept around the tiny dance floor at the legion. "Well?" asked Stéphanie.

"I want him. I want him and Jo Anne Pisselli on vocals and I think we'll be set."

"He won't dance with her, he only dances with Veronica."

"We'll work on it."

The bridge was over, and Josh sang the last verses directly to Veronica, who was still in his arms. Pierre leaned over to Paul and whispered, "two questions my friend, one, what does Josh do for a living?"

"He's a network guy. He runs a data center about twenty miles from here. John will take you there on Monday when you head up to Niagara Falls."

"And two, could you introduce Valériane to Monsieur Dubois? She has all of his albums in digital and vinyl."

Paul chuckled and said, "Sure. He works for me now." His remark caused Pierre's eyes to pop wide open.

The night somehow became Josh's night, which is rare because he usually does one or two songs then leaves. But that night Josh was taking requests and having a lot of fun with them. Veronica was up there with him for every song. The faster songs she danced as he sang, and some songs she sang with him. A hard rocker that Josh loved had Veronica writhing sinuously and seductively against him. Her moves had most men sighing, and Mike wide eyed in shock as Josh sang:

She was a fast machine; she kept her motor clean,

She was the best damn woman that I ever seen,

She had the sightless eyes, telling me no lies,

Knocking me out with those American thighs...

Josh didn't imitate Brian Johnson's harsh voice; he just sang using his normal voice, but he had fun and didn't hold any notes longer than he needed to. When they got to the refrain, Veronica started singing with him. They would point to each other and sing, "YOU! Shook me all night long!" Then, shocking everyone, Veronica leaned in and sang the second verse with her own take on the words.

Working double-time on my seduction line,

He's one of a kind, and he's mine all mine,

Wanted no applause, just another cause,

Made a meal outta me, and come back for more...

Mike was both shocked and ecstatic about Veronica's singing, even though he didn't understand the words. For years she refused to sing, and instead danced for her talent in the beauty pageants.

Billy watched the entire performance open mouthed. This wasn't his type of music, but it showed him Josh's range. "I need to sign them both."

"Billy, if I could ask for an indulgence?" Billy looked up, and it was Paul Jarecki. It wouldn't be right to turn him down; he hired the Bill Dubois project to record a series of high-class ads for some big markets.

"How can I help you?"

Paul had a woman with him who was clearly in her fifties, and with her was a fellow who was clearly her husband. He was handsome; she was beautiful, and they were both well-tanned. Bill immediately hated them. Anyone who spent that much time in a tanning booth was beneath him. "This is Pierre and Valériane Lévesque and they are visiting from New Caledonia..."

"Where's that?"

"It's near Fiji." That grabbed Billy's attention, and he reconsidered the tanning booth. Paul continued, "They're here on business but they're touring the area and Valériane asked if she could meet you and get an autograph."

Billy was about to say no, but Stéphanie whispered, "Do it. You want to get in foreign markets, here's one right here."

Valériane took a CD and case out of her purse and said something in French, which Pierre translated, "My wife is a huge fan, we have all of your albums and we love the Christmas albums the most. Could we get an autograph?"

"Of course," said Billy, and he took the CD and saw that the CD liner was printed in French. He opened the case and signed the liner and the CD itself with a Sharpie. "I see you are sitting with my friend; Josh. Make sure he gets your address so when we record our next album together, we can send you a copy... properly encoded of course."

"Merci!" cried Valériane as she inspected her treasure, a CD of music that she will never play for fear of ruining his autograph.

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Chapter 08 - Sunday Meetings

"I'm going to hell for this," grumbled Billy. Billy Dubois was a strict "Buffalo Catholic," and to be sitting in a Protestant church had to be a mortal sin.

"You will if you don't stop complaining," said Stéphanie.

"Amen to that," whispered Father Rodriguez. They were in Springville Congregational Church, waiting for the service to begin. "I heard that you played If You Want to Get to Heaven with Mister Gravely-von Köster last night."

"Just the harmonica part, Father. Joshua was the one that sang about raising hell."

"SHHH!" Cholly was in the row ahead of them, and he peered over his Aunt Josianne's shoulder with a finger to his lips. "Unka Josh sing!"

"I guess he told you!" whispered a laughing Stéphanie.

Josh stepped up to the podium with a guitar hanging from a shoulder strap. He played two notes over and over, and Paul played a rhythmic bass accompaniment on his acoustic bass guitar, making a Johnny Cash sounding intro. Then he stopped. "Ah still got it!" And he took the guitar off. "That's all I can play, but when I learn something else, y'all will be the first to know." Melissa played a piano introduction, and Macy played the violin as Josh sang How Great Thou Art. It was beautiful. His voice was so clear and powerful; all the practicing from quartet practice and karaoke had matured his voice. He could project without overpowering; when he sang Blessed Assurance, his voice sang a duet with Macy's violin. He sang the old hymn sweetly yet boldly, and he left no doubt in anyone's mind that he meant every word.

Billy Dubois opened his notebook and took several notes, arrangements that he was sure played to Josh's voice. His thoughts for Paul's series of automobile commercials began to include Josh. Josh and his quartet were hired to sing radio spots and a few TV spots in the Buffalo market. Billy was now sure he could use them in the advertisements for the major markets. He pictured Josh and Country Roads singing wearing tuxedos. Everything behind them was white, then, like mists parting, the band appeared and joined in with the quartet. Barbershop quartets do not sing with big bands, but that was then. This is the twenty-first century; anything goes... That's it! Anything goes! He scribbled notes to himself in his idea book as Stéphanie looked on, but then Father Juan nudged him and nodded toward the podium.

Paul had stepped up front and hugged Josh, who stepped down and sat over in the musicians' corner with Macy and Melissa. "Thank you Josh. We have a few folks who are joining us for the first time, and possibly the last time..."

"AMEN!" called out a single voice.

"Thank you Father Juan," which caused laughter to roll through the congregation. "Men's Bible study will be held here in the adult classroom on Wednesday night. All men are invited, including Father Juan. Women's Bible study will meet on Thursday, and Father Juan is invited as well. We have a guest who would like to speak. Pierre?"

Pierre and his family rose and gathered at the lectern, and Pierre was holding Cholly. "Hello, I am Pierre Lévesque, and this is my family, my wife Valériane, and my daughters Marcelline, and Josianne. Our daughter Séraphine was married to a wonderful American man, Dennis, and this little man in my arms is Chamonix, their son. Séraphine and Dennis were killed back in December, and Chamonix found refuge in you. The stories of how this community came together to help our little cabbage, Cholly, truly brought tears to our eyes."

Pierre came to the hard part of what he had to say. "We came here in part to take our daughter home, and to meet our grandchild. He was born here in America, and we found far too many convenient excuses to remain comfortable at home and not travel here when our Séraphine needed us... and now the opportunity is gone." The entire congregation paused, terrified of what was going to come next. "Valériane and I have come to the decision that at our age, becoming a parent again for Chamonix would be too hard on us, but we can do what we should have done first. We can be a grandparent as you, along with Pastors Jean and Macy, raise our little man." A collective sigh of relief was heard through the church as Pierre announced their decision. "We will return twice a year to visit with Cholly and you all, is that how you say it Joshua?"

"It's pronounced, y'all."

It was a painful, bitter-sweet moment. Pierre was leaving a living remnant of his daughter with these people whom he barely knew. But they rescued the little boy and are hunting down the killer of Séraphine and Dennis. "We are delighted with how Macy and Jean are raising our grandson. He will live in a house full of love with a little sister whom he adores. In a few short weeks they bonded, and we couldn't separate him from Katarina and Chiot. Our youngest daughter, Josianne, is planning to attend the University at Buffalo and will be here to help with her nephew, and we will visit at least twice a year."

"Get up there mommy," Josh whispered at Macy. He scooped Katarina out of her baby carrier and handed the infant to Macy, and said, "Go be the mommy your children love."

Macy approached Pierre from the music "pit" and John entered from the dressing room off to the side. Seeing Macy approach, Cholly leaned out of Pierre's arms shouting "MOMMY!" Pierre set the boy down, and he dashed over to Macy and wrapped himself around Macy's legs. "We cannot compete with that, nor should we," said Pierre with a smile. He picked up Cholly, who gave him a kiss, then reached out for Grandma Valériane.

Pierre was stalled for something to say; he and his girls Valériane, Marcelline, and Josianne were fighting back the tears as Cholly started telling Grandma about Chiot, his puppy. Paul came to their rescue and stepped back up to the microphone and said, "Let's greet our neighbors with a sign of peace." Before anyone knew it, the Lévesque family was surrounded by members of the church who greeted them warmly.

<><><><><>

While Veronica joined Macy, Andi, Lucy, John, Paul, and the Lévesque girls in Orchard Park for some shopping, Josh took Gus, Pierre, and Agent Josey Kersey for a ride out to his cabin. As they headed out-of-town Josh noticed a car following him. "Agent Kersey, can you request a license plate check on North Carolina one Adam George five seven nine three? I believe it's a rental and I'll bet you a donut that it's one of Senator Kroc's men."

Josey got on his phone and made a call while Pierre asked, "You can read a license plate in a rear view mirror?"

"I can also read upside down as well as right side up. It comes from standing at attention in front of my commander and reading the paperwork on his desk. It gave me an extra minute or two to come up with a convincing lie."

"You stood tall before your commander often?"

"Let's just say that my commanders knew me quite well. My aircrew commanders, the guy in charge of combat operations, were generally happy with me. The squadron commanders, not so much."

They pulled into Josh's driveway behind his cabin as Josey read from his phone. "That comes back as a Toyota Corolla rented by Hertz to Robert Dunham of Washington DC... he is a member of Senator Alvin Kroc's staff. How did you know?"

"They've been here since Andi's inauguration, I was doing five miles under the speed limit and he didn't pass on an empty road, that's how I knew we were followed." Josh led them through the treeline to his cabin. "Here we are gentlemen, my idea of heaven. My plan is to retire here as soon as I can and raise children."

Pierre looked out over the frozen lake in amazement. Many trees were bare so he could see cabins in the woods on the other side of the lake, then to his left, on the far end of the lake he saw a small cabin with a porch facing the lake and a dock that jutted fifteen feet into the lake. "Whose cabin is that?" he asked Josh.

"It's mine, but it is permanently reserved for my father-in-law Mike."

"You own this entire lake?"

"And the forest around it. The forest is about a quarter mile deep past Mike's cabin."

"So anyone can come here and camp?" asked Josey Kersey.

"No. Just people I invite. It's a private campground. My dream is to go public; we have three troop size cabins rebuilt that large families and organizations use. If you can see the blue tarp through the trees, that's number nine, that's primarily for my quartet. There's a road there that's a big loop, I want to rebuild the cabins inside the loop, and on the outside of the loop, convert the remains of the cabins to RV and tent campsites."

Josh unlocked the cabin, and they stepped inside. "I love this," said Gus as he looked around the cabin.

"You've never been in here? I'm sorry, I thought you had been in here."

"No, but I've been in all the other cabins."

"Hey, if you and the doc want to come put your feet up, I'll reserve a cabin for you as long as you want."

"This is definitely a man's cabin, what does Veronica think of it?" asked Pierre as he looked around.

"We have our spaces, our house is her space and our cabin is my space and we accept being in each other's space. Veronica was raised by a single dad, so she's not afraid to wash up in the lake and sleep with a racoon watching you." Josh pointed up and Pierre was startled to see a racoon staring down at him from the upper beams. "That's my buddy, Toby. The critter over there is Alfonso."

"What is this?" gasped Pierre as he inspected Alfonso.

"He's a full blooded North Dakota Jackalope. He's been with me the longest."

"Are those parakeets ok? It's awful cold in here," said Josey, pointing at a pair of parakeets on a swinging perch that was hanging on a chain from the ceiling.

"I don't think so, they never complain. OW!" Josh cried out as Gus gave him "noogies" by rubbing his knuckles on Josh's head.

"Josh goes to flea markets and estate sales, looking for taxidermists projects," said Gus, and he pointed to a bat that was flying over the kitchen area. "The bat and birds are new."

"I was hoping to catch someone with that, thank you."

"It was the first thing I noticed in here."

"So why are we here?" asked Josey.

"I've got to check the cabin and make sure there have been no plumbing issues because of the weather, then we have something to discuss." Josh started a fire in the fireplace, then went out to Spartacus and returned with a cooler. "I have some drinks in here if you are thirsty," and he opened the cooler to show a selection of beer and soft drinks. The fire took the chill off the cabin, and Josh quickly inspected the heat tape on the water lines in the house. Then he picked up a cashier's style lockbox and placed it on the table.

"If you would join me, gentlemen." They gathered around the small Formica and chrome dinner table. The box was marked in blue stencil letters "INERT." Josh took a key and unlocked the box. Then he referred to a notebook he had meticulously kept. "I want to assure you all that Paul knows nothing about this. He may have forgotten the box completely. He was kidnapped just two weeks after we discovered this box and he had one very quick peek inside." Josh looked up from the notebook at the three men who were looking at him. "I was able to complete this notebook and my theories after our visit to the Hernandez house with Pierre and Valériane. Comparing Dennis's notes to mine, I now know why Dennis and Séraphine Howe were killed."

"It was the notebook," said Pierre. "Dennis referred to the notebook over and over in his journal. He copied many pages from the notebook into his journal."

"I copied the entire notebook. If something happens to me, to Veronica, or to any of my friends, the copies I made will go into the mail. They'll go to the FBI, The Buffalo News, and the former assistant to the head of the FBI. He's got a radio show with several million listeners, and he's already assured me that he would read the entire notebook on the air."

"What are we talking about?" asked Josey.

"I count ten people dead that we know of, kidnapping, human trafficking, kilograms of drugs, and the man that made it all possible. His call sign is Golem, and the ring that he wants, his precious, is in the actual box."

"Why are we here?" asked Pierre.

"On Tuesday, Paul is going to hand the actual box, containing precious, to the man that killed Dennis and Séraphine. The tools he used to kill them are in the box with precious, along with several items that Pierre would want to keep with Dennis's journal."

Then Josh turned to Josey and said, "What the fuck? Seriously, what the fuck are you people doing? Paul once told me you were the most honest FBI agent he had ever met, yet here you people go, using Paul and Dennis and Séraphine as bait. Who else were you going to sacrifice? Handing out information to Golem, hiring village dumb shits that were too undisciplined to be a mall cop, putting Amelia's life in danger..."

"Amelia's life was never in danger," started Josey, but Josh looked like he was going to reach across the table and grab him by the throat.

"Mister FBI guy. The actual box was in a drop that was built by FBI Agents Bronson and Stanford, the Jelly Roll patrol. When your team showed up to sanitize the crime scene they missed that and the GIGN drop. The police didn't know anything about it, but Pierre found it because he's not stupid. So if all of these law enforcement officers knew nothing about it, how come Dick Harvey's bunch of meter maids have been trying for weeks to get it?"

Special Agent in Charge Frank Colella stepped out of the bedroom at the far end of the cabin and said, "I'd like to hear the answer to that as well."

Josey was shocked to see the man in charge of all the FBI agents in upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Pennsylvania. "Agents Bronson and Stanford are under investigation as it is. If they released information to the one you call Golem then..."

"Agent Kersey, from this point on, you will assume that is the case." Frank Colella gave Josey a strange look. "You've never been diagnosed with an overabundance of caution, why now?"

"He's a senator! I just can't go around arresting a member of the US Senate." The room went icy silent. There, someone said it out loud. The actual target is Senator Alvin Kroc.

"Agent Kersey, it's not our job to determine guilt, it's our job to collect evidence and suspects and let the courts figure it out. You are now working with me on this case and you will not slow me down. Do you copy?"

"Yes sir," said Josey, defeated.

"Mister Gravely-von Köster, please continue."

Josh took a key and unlocked the box, and the first thing they saw was a cap gun that was painted flat black. "The actual box contains a Charter Arms model 13811 Undercover Lite. It's a five round 38 Special revolver with a two-inch barrel, and it's all anodized black. It's an inexpensive concealed carry gun, a hammerless dual-action only revolver. The gun contains five spent rounds. All five rounds were fired into Dennis. I found his body..." Josh fought back the anger; he wanted to shriek in agony at the loss of someone he was sure would have been a close friend. Gus patted his shoulder and whispered, "You can do it."

"I found his body on Concord Road near Blechner Road between Concord and Route 39."

"Why were you there?" asked Frank Colella. "That's an out of the way place."

"I just wanted to take the long way home. Listen to some music..." Josh's voice tapered off. He rarely takes that route; usually, he and Veronica go that way in the fall to look at the autumn colors. What called him to do that on a cold, blustery winter day after a difficult day at work? He reached into the box and produced a one inch square piece of paper. "There are twenty little envelopes filled with powder in there, they're this size. I only touched them with tweezers."

"What do you suspect is in there?" asked Pierre. The cop in his heart was overtaking the mourning father.

"To be honest, I don't want to know." Next, Josh pulled out a zip-lock sandwich bag with exactly twenty-seven M&M's in the bag. "The actual box has a bag of twenty-seven pills. I believe it was the same fentanyl that killed Séraphine." Josh looked at Pierre in wonder and said softly, "As she was dying, your daughter locked up the murder weapons for us to find."

Gus massaged Josh's shoulders as he reached back into the "inert" box and pulled out a stack of Monopoly money, a total of ten thousand dollars, held together with a binder clip. "Their life savings, they mention that it is for Cholly... and they call him Cholly in their note."

Next, Josh pulled out a man's wallet and a woman's wallet. "Their wallets, identification cards, credit cards, and notes to Valériane, Pierre, and Paul in both." Then he pulled out a plastic airline pilot's wings. "One set of Air Force wings." He took out a toy police badge. "A GIGN badge." Then he pulled out a three and a half inch by five inch Moleskine notebook. "This is my precious. This is the same size of the real notebook. It appears that Dennis got his hands on the notebook and they ran. In here are the sins of Golem, including the names of the people who helped him and the amount of money he made selling little boys to perverts. The last entries show how much he spent on men to kill John and Macy, to kidnap the twins, to kidnap Paul. When I realized what was in here I made copies of every single page."

"This little book is the reason why Dennis was tortured and executed, why Séraphine was poisoned and left for her toddler son to watch die." Josh put everything back in the box in the same order that they were in before. He had a list in his notebook of how the contents were arranged. "I know in my heart that the man who killed Dennis and Séraphine will take the box from Paul..." He finished putting everything back in the box, then he locked it and gave the key to Pierre.

Josh then stood, picked up the box, holding it by the sides, the handle on the lid sticking up, and stood in front of Pierre. "You are Golem's toad. Would you inspect the box before taking it?"

"Of course I would." Pierre stood and took the key and opened the box while Josh held the box steady, then locked it back up.

"Now take it to Golem."

"Of course," and Pierre grabbed the handle on the lid and tried to lift it out of Josh's grasp. When the box came free, it popped open, scattering the contents on the floor. "GUN!" shouted Josh.

"How did you do that?" said Pierre as he helped Josh pick up the ersatz evidence.

"A simple application of a jeweler's file on a cheap lock latch. The lock itself is still locked, but the latch sprung free from the hasp." He placed the box on the table. "Is everything there? Is all the evidence accounted for?"

Gus, Pierre, Josey, and Frank inventoried the box, and Josh stepped out on the porch to look out across the lake. Special Agent in Charge Frank Colella stepped out onto the porch next to Josh, pulled out a pack of Marlboro and offered Josh a cigarette, which Josh took. They stood smoking and looking out over the lake. "The precious is missing," said Frank.

"That's what this exercise is about," said Josh, and he took the notebook out of his pocket and handed it to Frank.

Frank glanced at the notebook, then rifled through the pages. "This is the real thing!"

"Yep," said Josh, and he took a puff on the cigarette. "When I first saw it and copied it I vowed it would never go back, that I would turn it over to the local GIGN operative."

Frank smiled and put the notebook in his pocket. "How did you realize I was GIGN?"

"Educated guess. You seem brighter than the average FBI guy. I figured you were working with something bigger than the FBI."

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Chapter 09 - Dinner with Billy

Paul, Andi, Josh, and Veronica rode in Paul's Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner through the village of Williamsville. This was Paul's current go-to vehicle. Since being kidnapped, he decided that the White Whale and the transit van were fine; it was still too soon for the Mustang, but he sells luxury cars for a living, why not experience it himself? His choice was a beautiful magnolia beige roof, hood, and grill over a deep orange on the doors and fenders. The sound system was perfection, filling the comfortable passenger compartment with rich, full sound, and it was nearly impossible to tell where the sound was coming from.

"Where are you going?" asked Andi as Paul turned onto North Forest Drive.

"Just a trip down memory lane," said Paul.

"John actually spent more time here than you did. You were almost gone when your folks moved here."

"I know, but I had happier memories here than in Cheektowaga," said Paul as they cruised through a residential neighborhood. They came to a complex five way intersection with a tangle of traffic lights. "This is where I would have gone to elementary school if the folks had moved here sooner." Paul pointed out a sprawling elementary school on the left.

"A decade sooner," muttered Andi.

"It's a nice neighborhood," said Josh. "If'n there were a trailer here it would be a doublewide."

"No trailers here," said Paul. "This is some of the priciest real estate in the county."

"Just looks like Springville without the tractors to me," said Josh as they turned right onto Reist Street, then another right onto North Long Street.

"That house there, the gray one, that's the last house my folks owned. It was originally a kit home from Sears."

"Looks easier to clean than our monster," said Andi.

"I can go in and make an offer."

"No, I like my monster, with pool, hot tub, steam bath and fireplaces."

Paul turned left, then left again, and they were heading north on Reist Street. The houses on their left were average size on small-ish lots, but on the right there were only a few houses, and they were big and on large lots. There was a stream running through the front yards, and each house had dammed the stream to make an ornamental pond. "We could do that in our back yard!" said Josh. "I could dig out the pond with Baby Deere."

"Are you sure the mayor would allow it?" asked Veronica.

"She likes us. She wouldn't turn us down."

They came to a house with a natural stone wall along the street, and behind the wall was a duck pond with an island in the middle, and on the island was a stone turret. It gave the appearance of a mini-castle. Paul turned in the driveway, crossed over a bridge that spanned the stream, and followed the curved driveway toward the front of a huge Gothic stone house. "Wow," gasped Andi, Josh, and Veronica in unison.

"You're a lawyer, why don't we have a stone mansion like this?"

"Because I don't represent the Archdiocese of Buffalo," said Paul. "I just work for some car salesman." They pulled up to a circle in front of the house; the driveway circle had a fountain in the middle featuring a Grecian statue of a half-naked woman pouring out a large urn into a bowl, which would overflow into the pool below. They got out of the car, and Veronica studied the statue.

"I know her,"

"Yeah, that's Aphrodite or Uranus or something like that," said Josh.

"No, I mean, I know who posed for that statue."

"How would that be possible? She looks like any other statue."

"No, trust me. When you're a model you see all the other girls over and over, you learn every inch of their bodies."

"Sounds like a living hell," said Paul as Andi took his arm.

"A true hell on earth," agreed Josh. "Who would want to look at naked models all day... other than my wife, I mean."

Veronica gave him a smile that said, "You're going to pay for that," when the thought came to her. "That's Caroline Schaeffer."

"Who?"

"Caroline. She used to shoot with the Masterson Agency."

Paul rang the doorbell, and it was answered promptly by Emmet Powell. "Paul! Welcome, I've been dying to get you back to Williamsville."

"Well, I'm always glad to visit but, I'm married to the Mayor of Springville now. My loyalties can't be questioned. This is Madam Mayor herself, my wife Andi, and this is Veronica and Josh Gravely-von Köster."

"Welcome!" said Emmit. "I saw you admiring our fountain."

"Yes, I was saying it looks like an acquaintance of mine, Caroline Schaeffer."

"Indeed it is. She posed for that and gave the fountain to Bishop Ryan when he was named Arch-Bishop of the Buffalo Archdiocese. He thought it would be inappropriate to display at the rectory, so he sent it down here. I take it you're our singer? Is it Efrum or Joshua? "

Josh winced at the mispronunciation of his first name. "It's just Josh, sir."

"What part do you sing?" asked Emmett Powell as he hung up their coats.

"Any part you ask. I'm currently singing lead but I sang baritone for years."

"Right now Billy is down in his studio if you'd like to join him. Stéphanie? Why don't you take these folks down to Billy?"

Stéphanie Dubois came down the stairs wearing a breezy white blouse, and a flowered skirt. "He's giving his brother a guitar lesson. Follow me." She led them through the beautifully appointed house to a basement that was an audiophile's dream. There was a large recording studio, and it appeared to Josh that there was enough equipment to produce an album. It was big enough that the entire band could play in there, and from the look of the seats, music stands, microphones, and acoustic tiles, they probably did.

Stéphanie led them to a room that was full of musical instruments. "This is Billy's collection. People tend to send him instruments they no longer play." There were all forms of brass, woodwinds, bass fiddles, drums, and a few guitars. These were older instruments that had years of love in them. "He will give them to any student that asks. He knows the pain of wanting to play and not having an instrument." In that collection of instruments, were the band leader Bill Dubois and his brother Kevin. Bill was young for such an accomplished musician. As a young airman, he was assistant director of the Airmen of Note band in the Air Force, an unheard-of accomplishment. He's a musical savant who can play any instrument he's confronted with and reads sheet music like someone else would read a comic book.

At thirteen, Kevin was twelve years younger than Bill, and he still idolized his big brother. There in the basement, Billy was trying to teach his brother how to play the guitar with little luck. Billy couldn't understand that most people can't feel the music like he can, nor can they do the math that it takes to understand a complex piece of music. Kevin just wanted to be Billy, and he couldn't understand what Billy was saying.

Billy does not play guitar, and really didn't know how to teach guitar, but sheet music he knows. He had Kevin playing a piece of music note for note, and they were both getting frustrated. "Billy, your guests are here," called Stéphanie.

"You play guitar," said Billy when he recognized Paul. "What are we doing wrong here?"

Paul sat down next to Billy and took his guitar. "Guitar is both very easy and very complex to learn. Sometimes it's easiest to think of it as a stringed harmonica where you play the cords in time with the music. Kevin, put your left fingers on the strings like this, now squeeze hard and strum all six strings."

Kevin copied Paul's instructions and strummed the strings. Immediately his boyish face lit up. "I made music!"

"That's an E minor chord, and it's an important chord when you play a style called rhythm guitar."

Kevin strummed it over and over, trying to get each string to ring cleanly. "I can't do much with this."

"Aw heck, lil buddy," said Josh, cranking his accent up to eleven. "Even ah kin make music with that chord. Y'all just need one more chord, what Paul calls a D six add nine." He took the guitar from Paul and showed Kevin what he meant by D six add nine. "Now try and transition from E minor to D six add nine."

"Like this?" said Kevin.

"Excellent. Now you can make music."

Kevin gave Josh an odd look. "With two chords?"

"Most pop songs are based on three cords, but there's plenty of popular songs that are based on these two chords." Josh started strumming an E minor chord, then he began to sing.

"On the first part of my journey, I was looking at all the life,

There were birds and plants and rocks and things,

There was sand and hills and rings..."

He continued to play Horse With No Name while Billy and Keven watched fascinated. "That's quite an improvement," said Paul when Josh finished.

"Ah'm takin' a buncha kids campin' this summer so ah had to brush up mah mad guitar skills."

"Billy says you're just a singer."

"Yep," said Josh. "That's all ah am. T'ain't nothin' more."

"Billy!" scolded Stéphanie.

"Kevin! Is that what I said?" demanded Billy.

"It's not fair! You're the greatest Billy! But everyone is making a big deal about him and he just sings! You're the greatest Billy!"

"Well, ah can't fault the little feller fer bein' the greatest kid brother in the world." Josh sat down next to Kevin and said. "If ah had a kid brother to have my back and cheer me on, ah wouldn't a got into all the trouble ah did."

"You were in trouble?"

"All the time. Ah had to work on the shrimp boats when ah was a kid because I was so bad my momma wouldn't feed me."

"Shrimp boat like Forest Gump?"

"Just like that, I was your age and it was my job to pick out the things what wasn't shrimp, and I got to keep what I liked for dinner."

"Like what?"

"You know, things. Squids and octopus and flounders, lots of flounders."

"He's trying to fool me Billy!"

"It's true! She can vouch for me. When Paul went swimming in the Okefenokee swamp, I went back home and introduced Miss Veronica to some old friends who told her what I did."

Veronica nodded and said, "We're going back down there in a few days and he's going to show me the boat he was on."

"Come over here, Josh. I want to see what you sound like in front of a band." Billy led Josh into the studio big enough for the entire band to sit and play. Billy brought in a microphone on a stand and set it up for Josh, then set up a music stand with a copy of several arrangements in a loose-leaf notebook. "You can read music, can't you?"

Josh gave Billy a look that said, "Get real." He flipped through the music and said, "Who do you want? Bobby Darin? Dean Martin? Frank Sinatra?"

Billy looked at him and said, "I want Josh."

"No I mean what style do you want me to sing? City badass? Smooth and mellow? Powerful and strong? It's The Bronx versus Ohio versus New Jersey."

"I want you to figure that out." He handed Josh a Sharpie pen and said, "We'll do a couple of play throughs, you annotate your copy any way you see fit."

Josh opened the music and put on his headphones, and the band started up. The song was Mac the Knife, Bobby Darin's greatest hit. This was the Bill Dubois Project's version. It was raunchier, jazzier than the fully orchestrated Bobby Darin version. Dean Martin sang this song once, and Josh didn't like his version. There were some long, long, full notes that went on for several measures, and Dean hit them but faded off. Bobby and Frank Sinatra clipped the majority off in their "city style" of singing. Louis Armstrong has an awesome version... Josh's mind spun; dare he consider himself worthy of joining such illustrious artists?

There was a large window into the engineer's room, and he could hear Billy in his headset as Billy got ready in the booth. "You ready?" asked Billy as the run through finished.

"Play it one more time and then I'll give it a shot."

"Here we go," and the band was in Josh's ears again, belting out the classic. Josh sang a couple of lines, but mostly he was making notes to himself on the sheet music. When it was over, Billy entered the studio and fixed a "spit screen" to the microphone.

"You think I'm going to belt this one?" asked Josh.

"Oh, I know you are," said Billy with a smile, and he when back into the booth. "Whenever you're ready."

"Hit it." And the band started up with the same backbeat, but stronger than the Bobby Darin version. It was clear to Josh that Billy on his clarinet was playing lead instead of the saxophones from the 1959 version.

"Oh the shark babe, has such teeth dear..."

Where Bobby sang with a clipped staccato tempo, Josh smoothed it out. Eighth notes became quarter notes; quarter notes became whole notes. He smoothed the vocal to a counter-beat to the band's abrupt four-four count. Josh took out the little noises; there was an "eeek!" in there that Josh hated. As he sang, he heard the band amping up in his headphones, and he joined the tempo until he belted out "MACK IS BACK IN TOWN!"

"Tell me you got that!" gasped Billy's dad, Dave, who had an ear for great music.

"I got that!" gasped Billy. "First take, and it's ready for release!"

"You're going to need a B-side for that release," said Emmett Powell.

Before Billy could respond, Josh called out from the band room, "Hey, this other one in the sheet music you gave me, Oh Babe. Can we do that one?"

Billy looked at Josh in shock. This wasn't karaoke; he can't just walk in cold and nail it, but he just did, like he did at karaoke the other night. "Yeah, let me get the board ready..." Billy called up the track he and the band recorded a couple of weeks ago and put it on for Josh.

"Yeah, I like this," said Josh as he listened to the music. "Let's do it." The same thing happened. Josh listened to the band play through, then listened again and made notes in the sheet music. "You ready?"

"Have Veronica move closer to the glass, I can't see her."

Billy made Veronica stand next to him, then he sat down at the board and said, "In three... two......" and the band started. The original recording with Hurricane Smith was more melodic; the background was all strings or, as Billy would say, "elevator music." But the Bill Dubois Project brought a gentle swing to the sweet old melody. Billy led with his straight bore soprano saxophone, which paired beautifully with Josh's baritone voice.

Billy looked up from the board and realized that Josh wasn't looking at the sheet music; he was looking at Veronica.

Just to walk with you along the Milky Way,

To caress you through the nighttime,

Bring you flowers every day,

Oh, babe, what would you say?

It was incredible. That sweet old song was not just remastered; it was gold plated. Somehow the last line came out perfectly. But anyway, what would you say? Josh made it sound wistful and nervous, but sincere. Billy was stunned at what he had just heard. Veronica was in tears; it was so beautiful. Billy's wife was just as stunned as Veronica was.

"What do you think, Billy?" asked Emmett.

"Video. We need to make a video. I need a studio... no we'll do a concert, no, a green screen. We have video of the band we can use." Billy turned to Veronica. "How long do you need to work up a dance routine?"

Veronica came out of her trance. "I don't know, we just do ballroom dancing, we're not Fred and Ginger."

"That's ok, we don't need Fred and Ginger, we just need a couple that love to dance together.

"He proposed to me while we were dancing."

"That's just what we need." They headed upstairs, and the four couples along with Kevin had dinner and discussed the future of the Bill Dubois Project and Josh. "Mister Gravely-von Köster, what do you say to a series of music videos?" Bill was excited about the two effortless recordings he had just captured.

"Ah'm not here to discuss me, that's my representative's job, Mister Jarecki. Ah'm here to discuss Country Roads and their projects. Our harmony must be front and center for any project we do, and any money we makes goes into our expense pool."

"So what do you want to sing?" asked Paul.

"That depends. What do you want to sell? Ah'm sure our rendition of Country Roads would be perfect for any SUV y'all want to sell. Ah'm sure we can find something romantic and fancy for your high end cars. What ah need is a tag for Jarecki motors."

"A tag?"

"A tag is just a short bit of a song with some really nice harmony. Tags are best sung with a beer in your hand."

That caused Veronica to laugh. She's been at the convention and up and down the halls of the hotel where everyone was staying; barbershopers were singing tags and unwinding after the contest. She couldn't wait to do it at the big convention in Denver.

"My dad had something like a tag, I'll have to dig it out, I have it saved somewhere."

"Yeah, get us that and we'll harmonization it."

"Harmonization it?" asked Billy with a laugh.

"It's a technical term... barbershop thing. You wouldn't understand."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Chapter 10 - La Fin

"You have something I want."

"Are we talking about a new Mercedes?" said Paul Jarecki. The caller sounded familiar, and Paul was hoping against hope that it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Don't be smart with me, you know what I'm talking about."

"Ahhh... you're the fellow that's looking for a 2024 Hummer with low milage. I'm still waiting for my finder to give me a call back." He hit mute, tapped the intercom, and asked, "Who is this?"

"She said she was Christine Smithson from WWKB news," said a confused executive assistant.

"Thank you," and Paul went back to the call; he knew exactly who it was now. He hit the speaker and said, "Ah, Christine, I checked with our service department. Your BMW is ready. You can come pick it up at any time."

"This isn't Christine Smithson, stop fucking around."

"You sound like her... no... wait a minute! I know who this is! Governor Momzer! Sorry I didn't recognize you Helen."

"This is Sam!" shrieked the caller.

"Sam? Samantha Loring? Wow, you..."

"Samael Windecker!"

"No... No he doesn't sound like a woman... well not this much. Who is this really?"

"You know who this is, and you have something of mine. I want it, just hand it over and you'll never hear from me again."

"Ok, be over at my house at six pm."

"You must be getting brave," said Samael. "Has Andi learned to lock the doors?"

"Oh? You didn't get enough blood on Argentine Avenue?"

Samael giggled. "You think it was me that croaked those frogs?"

"No, you don't have the guts."

"Well, you're wrong. The husband died crying for you."

"Six PM." Paul's voice was ice cold.

"No, you bring it to me."

"If I take it anywhere, it goes to the FBI and I tell them exactly who wants it."

"You have no idea who wants it."

"Don't test me. Six oh five it gets handed to the FBI special agent in charge of upstate New York, a fellow that has become a close personal friend with the mayor." Paul was so angry he was shaking. "Six. Sharp."

"You tell no one. You invite no one. If I see anyone I finish the job I started on your family."

"You don't have the balls," and he hung up. Paul sat, shaking with anger. He buried his face in his hands, then he heard Samael Windecker's voice, "You tell no one. You invite no one. If I see anyone I finish the job I started on your family."

"I think that recorded nicely," said Josh as he put his mini-voice recorder in his pocket. "I only have forty five minutes left, are we going to eat lunch or we just gonna sit here and make evil plans?"

Paul sighed and tapped the intercom. "Is lunch here yet?"

"Be right in." Melissa Kraft entered with two long white bags and two twenty-four-ounce bottles of pop. "Who had the capocollo?"

"That was me," said Josh. Once he discovered the spicy, delicious goodness of capocollo, he couldn't get enough. Without asking, Melissa set the submarine sandwiches out and put the bottle of loganberry in front of Paul. She knows Josh won't touch the stuff; it's too sweet for him.

"Melissa, could you play something?" asked Paul. "My nerves are shot."

"Yes sir," and she returned to the outer office and left the doors open. There she sat at her Casio keyboard and began to play. The settings she used made it sound like a finely tuned Steinway grand piano. The music filled the air, and employees gathered at the hallway door to listen. Then Josh began to sing, and many in the hallway joined in with him.

"I once was lost, but now I am found.

Once blind, but now I see..."

Relaxed by the sweet old hymn that Paul realized was a roadmap of his life, they began to eat. "Have you seen Pierre today?" asked Paul.

"No, I forgot all about him. Work has been a bitch for these past two days. I think Ant is piling on so when I go on vacation I spend the whole time sleeping." Josh looked at his watch, then said, "I ain't going to get home in time to make dinner... looks like Worzils tonight."

"You sound disappointed, I thought you like Worzils."

"I do, maybe too much." He patted his stomach. Then he picked up his phone and dialed a number, turned on the speaker, and set it on Paul's desk so he could eat.

"Ah-low?"

"Hey Pierre, ol' buddy. Whatcha up to?"

"We are at the University of Buffalo and it looks like my youngest is going to enroll." The lifelong cop sounded sad.

"Tell you what, meet me at Worzil's tonight at six and I'll buy you a beef on weck."

"I do not know. These girls, they want to go to that diner on the edge of town... Deux cent soixante-dix-neuf, two seventy nine café?"

"Ok, make sure the entire gang is there and I'll meet you."

"I will see you there."

After Josh hung up, he said to Paul, "You should join us after your thing with dumbshit."

Paul sighed and said, "You inventoried that box didn't you."

"Yep."

"Didn't I tell you not to?"

"Not to? I thought you said to take a look, wear gloves and copy everything." Paul shook his head sadly, fucking Josh! But Josh continued softly. "There's enough in there to send Sammy and Senator Kroc to hell for eternity." Paul looked confused, but Josh said, "We know that Senator Kroc was behind the smuggling you busted up in Portsmouth. We believe that he financed your non-volunteer dip into the Okefenokee swamp."

Paul opened his laptop and began typing, tracking specialty leased vehicles. He was sure that Senator Kroc, if he were in the area, wouldn't lower himself to ride around in a sedan. "That bastard!" gasped Paul.

"What, did Sammy hack your Pornhub account?"

Paul didn't even glare at Josh. "Senator Kroc is still in the area; he's leasing a limo from J Sisters specialty leasing."

"Never heard of them."

"It's a small company that two housewives own. They lease limousines and hire chauffeurs."

"Would that be Macy Jarecki and Andi Jarecki?"

Paul nodded and added, "It's managed by Jarecki Motors. If Senator Al knew that, he did it just to send me a message."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Send him a message." Paul picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Carl? Paul Jarecki. How is the missus?... Any day now? A boy?... That's great, you're going to be so excited. Hey, I'm a new father myself, trust me... Hey Carl, are you still driving for that VIP?... I'm sorry to hear that... How would you like to make a few extra bucks?... Nothing illegal... No, it's quite simple..."

<><><><><>

Paul Jarecki stood in his driveway in his silver Team Mustang racing jacket. He nervously eyed his watch when at 5:59 two vehicles showed up. A limousine pulled up across the street and parked in front of Second Street Park; the other parked across the mouth of his driveway. The one parked across the mouth of his driveway was a cheap Toyota Corolla rental that had seen better days. Three people got out; one was Samael Windecker, a small man who looked more like an actual weasel than most weasels do. Another fellow wasn't much bigger. He had long blond hair and reminded Paul of the comedian Dennis Leary. The third fellow was a huge, black man. Paul was sure he knew who they were by the descriptions he's heard.

"Good evening Sammy," said Paul. "Long time no see."

"Never call me that," said Samael. "Where is the Missus? Isn't she going to join us?"

"After you took a shit into her desk drawer, I'm sure keeping her away is keeping you alive."

"Oh! Feisty, and funny." Then he turned to the huge black guy and said, "Check him for guns."

FBI agent Al Stanford patted Paul down. "You take orders from him? Seriously? Are you a house pet or just a stray he found." With an angry snarl, Stanford shoved Paul into a snow pile on the side of the driveway. The snow pile has been there since the huge storm and was frozen solid with just a light covering of new fallen snow. Paul struggled to his feet with his cane, then looked at the huge black man. "That just cost your owner. Good night gentlemen." Paul started to hobble toward the house.

"Hold it right there mister car salesman," growled FBI Agent Vic Bronson. Paul turned and the blond cretin was wearing chrome sunglasses as the sky grew dark. He also had a gun pointed at Paul.

"That's Doctor car salesman," said Paul as he leaned on his cane.

"You said you had something for me," said Samael.

"You said you would leave and leave my family alone when you get it."

"I will, now bring it here."

"Wait right there." Paul hobbled to the old white whale, his white 1978 Ford F-250 four -door pickup with the eight-foot bed. It was huge, and it hasn't been started since December when they worked on Amelia's house. He was going to have to jump it to get it started... if he survived this night, it was going to his body shop for a Jarecki special and come out looking and running like brand new. He was dreaming of driving along Trevett Road with Andi and all three kids, a weekend at the cabin, swimming in the pond... It couldn't end tonight!

There was a big unmarked van in the driveway next to the white whale; it had dealer's plates magnetically placed on the rear door, which was not an unusual sight in Paul's driveway. Paul tucked his cane under his arm and carefully lifted the cashbox and carried like Josh said to carry it, holding the bottom with the lock pointing away from him. He carried it out to Samael Windecker slowly, step by painful step. Finally he stopped at the lunatic and said, "I assume this is what you want."

"Let me take a look," said Samael. He said it with a giggle that nauseated Paul. Samael nodded to FBI Agent Vic Bronson, who handed him a key while still holding the gun on Paul. Josh told Paul to just hold on to the box tight. Samael will try to lift it by the top handle, and the box will pop open and scatter everything, and then...

Samael struggled with the lock. The box was frozen, which made it hard to open, but finally it opened. He had to make sure that the notebook was in there. "Where did that money come from?" asked Samael, which caused the two agents to lean in.

"GUN!" shouted Josh as he dashed at the four men at full force. People spilled out of the white van as Josh slapped the box out of Paul's hands, and it fell to the driveway, and the contents exploded in all directions. He charged straight at Samael, knocking him into the snow pile, bounced off Samael and straight into Vic Bronson, knocking him on his ass. Josh grabbed the FBI issued pistol out of Bronson's hand and dashed to the end of the driveway as fast as he could.

In the limousine across the street, Alvin saw Josh explode out of the bushes next to Paul's house, slap the box out of Paul's hands, knock Samael over, and come running straight at him with a pistol in his hand. "DRIVE!" he shouted.

"No sir," said the driver.

"I'm paying you to DRIVE!"

The driver, Carl Davis, turned around and said, "Mister Jarecki is paying me more to not drive." The window between the front and back seats closed, and the Senator heard the passenger rear door unlock.

On the driveway, it was mayhem. As Josh ran toward the street, cops appeared from Jarecki's front porch and ran the other way, a crisscross that confused the huge Al Stanford. Al wasn't fast, but Josh didn't want to risk being caught by that monster. Josh vaulted over the hood of the Toyota and dashed toward the limo at the same time that Pierre led the charge from the white van and crashed into Samael Windecker, and drove him face down in the frozen snow.

As Pierre swore at Samael in French, Josh tossed the gun over the limo to the on-rushing cops from the hockey rink, then he opened the rear door of the limo and yanked Alvin Kroc out of the car and swung him around, holding him like a shield as the huge Al Stanford slammed into them knocking Josh back against the limo. The car shook as Al tried to get to Josh, and finally three cops pulled him off, and Special Agent Josey Kersey pulled Senator Krock away. "It's over senator, we have your notebook."

<><><><><>

At the same time, Andi, Macy, John, Valériane, Yi, Veronica, Gus, and Lucy, and all the children were at the 279 café on the east end of town. "I just got a text from Paul!" called Andi.

"I did too," said Gus.

"Me too," said Lucy. She turned to the counter and said, "Turn on Channel Seven news!"

"Gotcha toots!" said Maureen, the top soda-jerk at the fifties style café. She turned on the news and there was a live feed from the driveway of a large Victorian-style home.

"Hey! That's my house!" cried Sandy.

"Mine too!" shouted Madeline.

"Shh! Shh! I want to hear!"

"This is Angela Tompson live from Springville where an amazing raid has just taken place. The former mayor of this quiet village has been arrested for multiple charges of murder in a case that involves the FBI, the French GIGN, and a United States Senator. There are charges of kidnapping, murder, drug smuggling, and human trafficking in a case that started in Asia and is connected to the huge drug bust that happened two months ago in Portsmouth New Hampshire. This is Commandant Pierre Lévesque of the Pan-Asiatic section of the French Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, known as the GIGN. Commandant Lévesque, can you tell us what happened."

"There is no way to make this case any bigger than it actually is, but we have evidence that a United States senator was instrumental in smuggling drugs and underage boys and girls into this country for sexual exploitation. Two of my agents were followed to Springville where they were murdered, your current mayor and her family was harassed, and her husband kidnapped as they looked for evidence that a US senator was connected in all of this. Now if you'll excuse me." Before he stepped away, Pierre looked into the camera and said, "On les a eus, mon amour. Tout est fini," (We got them, my love. It's all over.) and he walked off with Agent Kersey.

When he said that, Valériane, Marcelline, and Josianne burst into tears. Their long, sad nightmare was over.

On the TV, Josh was pulled into the picture and Angela said, "This is a local hero, Medal of Honor recipient Josh Gravely-von Köster, Josh what happened?"

Josh let his Southern accent have free rein. "Ah'm jess a neighbor an' ah jess came bah ta see if'n Paul was gonna join us fer vittles when he opened this box. Ah saw a gun and freaked out, ah don't do no pistols, no ma'am, so ah yelled gun! Ah yelled. Allava sudden these fine folks came popping outta the bushes and trucks. Ah went ta git outta the way an ah bumped into that senator feller."

"You didn't know what was going on?" asked Angela.

"It were bedlam plain and simple. Yes ma'am! I ain't never seen nothin' like it. No ma'am!" Then he looked straight into the camera and said, "Honey, ah'm not gonna make it fer dinner. Kin ya get me one a' them double cheeseburgers and a whole flock a' them waffle fries?" He turned back to Angela and said, "Y'all gotta try the waffle fries at the two seventy nine café. Mmm-mm good!"

Veronica shook her head, trying not to laugh. "That jerk! Whenever he gets a question he doesn't want to answer he turns into Andy of Mayberry."

<><><><><>

The next few days for the Lévesque family were both filled with sorrow and relief that the story of Dennis and Séraphine was brought to a close. Josianne had applied for admission at the University at Buffalo and would attend classes at the south campus, recently opened in Orchard Park. The next thing she did was look for a place to live. She was invited to stay with Paul and Andi, but she couldn't see doing homework with the twins nearby; the temptation to play with them would be too great. Josh and Veronica, and John and Macy invited her to stay with them, and those invitations were not turned down, but there was another place that she felt she was needed.

Amelia Hernandez and Dexter Humbolt were sitting in their tiny house watching Jeopardy when Cholly walked up to Dexter and held out a sandwich on a paper plate. "Oompa!" cried the little lad, and he handed Dexter the sandwich and scrambled back to the kitchen. He returned with a sandwich for Amelia. "Meemaw!"

"Thank ye, ya little troublemaker." Cholly grinned happily and grabbed at his pants. "You got to piddle?" asked Amelia, and Cholly nodded. "Go sink some Cheerios!" Josianne set down the cups of coffee she brought for Amelia and Dexter and led Cholly to the bathroom. She set him up on the stool, pulled down his pants, then tossed a few Cheerios in the toilet bowl and let Cholly take target practice.

"That is amazing Madame Amelia. Most boys I babysat never liked toilet training."

"Cheerios. Works every time. Little boys like to write their name in the snow, but what do they do before they learn to write?" said Amelia. "Have you made up your mind where ya going to stay?"

Josianne cleaned up her nephew, then she and Cholly joined Amelia in the living room. "I believe I will stay here with you and Monsieur Dexter."

"I didn't offer you a room here."

"Monsieur Joshua says that's because you are shy."

"He's full of shit, but this would probably be a better place for you. It's quiet, you can get your homework done. It's a short walk to John and Macy or to Josh and Veronica's. The Legion has great pork chops on Tuesday nights. Could you stay here where your sister died?"

Josianne sighed. Amelia was blunt if nothing else. " Maybe I'll stay one night before I leave and find out. I do not think she will haunt me if I chose to stay here."

<><><><><>

The Lévesque family visited Niagara Falls and found it fascinating. Nothing is like that on New Caledonia. They then crossed over to Niagara Falls, Ontario, to add Canada to their passports. Josh was right; just speak French to the customs agents and the Canadians would not give them any problems when entering.

They wandered up and down Clifton Hill, getting souvenirs for their friends back home. They strolled around the waterfront where they could stand right there at the edge where the Niagara River makes its plunge over the edge, then they had dinner in the Skylon Tower. As the floor of the restaurant rotated, giving them an ever changing view of the area, Veronica said, "I've never been up here before." She looked at the hill that was west of the river and said, "It reminds me of the Duluth waterfront in Minnesota."

Josh laughed and said, "I know someone who is crazy about Duluth." That was the last he would say of it.

The next day, the Lévesque family went to the Springville Congregational Church. Once again Father Juan was there for them, and before the service, John let Father Juan use his office to hear confessions. After the service, they piled into the big van and headed south. "We have to return home and collect our correspondence with them," said Pierre. "There's going to be a trial and I'm going to be ready." Outside the van, the snow-covered hills of southern Erie County slipped by.

"I don't think there will be a trial," said Paul. "A trial in the United States is a very public event. That is something that Senator Kroc doesn't want to happen. But you never know. If he pleads guilty I suggest a civil suit to insure that your grandson is taken care of for the rest of his life. The senator can easily afford that."

"You truly are a lawyer," chuckled Pierre. "Where are we?"

"This is Ellicottville. There is a memorial I would like you and your family to see." Paul pulled into the Ellicottville Cemetery and stopped the van near a huge, spreading beech tree. "Melony and I once planned to live here. She loved this area." He pointed to a tombstone under the tree. "When life gets too confusing for me, Andi brings me here and we sit under the tree and I have a conversation with my old friend. And now the team is together."

Pierre looked at the gravestone in front of him. There, instead of a cross or some other religious memorial, the stone was etched with the image of an F-15. Beneath the image were the words:

Captain Melony Ruskin-Jarecki USAF

Forever Flying

Next to that was a newer stone; this one too had an F-15, and beneath that were the words:

First Lieutenant Dennis Howe USAF

Forever on Her Wing

Next to that was an identical stone, but the image was two hands clasped together, and beneath that were the words:

Séraphine Lévesque-Howe

Forever at His Side

"We have an urn of their co-mingled ashes to take home with you to memorialize as you wish," said Andi.

"Where is Josh?" asked Marcelline.

"He's at another memorial."

At that moment, Josh was kneeling on the side of a little used road where a rough wooden cross was erected to mark the spot where an American aviator's body was found. Josh knelt crying uncontrollably, weeping for a friend he never met, a life he couldn't save, while his wife and Father Juan tried to console him.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Epilogue

Lanh Campbell, a tiny Vietnamese - American woman, was eagerly digging through several websites. "Look, the Paul R Tregurtha and the Edwin H. Gott are both planning to winter in Duluth!"

"So what?" called her older sister, Kim-ly Nguyen, from over on her bed. "They're just boats."

"Just boats!" Lanh shrieked. "The Edwin H. Gott is one thousand one feet long, the Paul R Tregurtha is one thousand fourteen feet long! That's two hundred eighty five feet longer than the Edmund Fitzgerald!"

Their oldest sister, Tam Johnson, was feigning interest, humoring her tiny sister. Beautiful little Lanh was an addicted Boat Nerd. She's constantly watching live cams, watching boats pass through the Soo Locks and the Welland Canal. She follows their traffic on several websites that track their AIS devices, allowing their movements to be tracked. "I think I know what this is leading up to," sighed Tam. All three women were beautiful, smart, and professional. Tam was a Doctor of Psychology, Kim-ly was a forensic accountant, and Lanh was a speech pathologist.

"Jess go!" said their friend Karole, who was lying on the bed with Kim-ly. Karole was as different from these girls as any woman could get. While the Nguyen sisters were short with jet black hair and beautiful Asian features, Karole was tall, blond, and shockingly buxom. Married to their brother Trung, she was officially a Nguyen girl. "Lanh wants to watch the boats dock after Turkey Day. y'all wanna do some hard - core Christmas shopping. Go to Duluth! It's closer than Saint Paul, safer than Minneapolis, and has better shopping than Bemidji."

"What about my boys?" asked Tam.

"Karole and I will watch them," said Lanh's husband, Don, who was sitting in the next room listening to the chatter.

"We're going on a yacht in two weeks!" insisted Kim-ly. "A boat is a boat."

"PLEASE?" begged Lanh. She ran over and knelt next to the bed and begged, "Please, please, please, please, please, please?"

"Fer God's sake give it up Kim-ly!" said Tam.

"OH KAY! But if I miss anything exciting I'm going to hold it against you."

"Nothing exciting happens in Grant Valley in November!" insisted Lanh.