The Legend of Silver and Gold Book Two The Old Ones
Chapter Twenty One

“How are you feeling?” Carver asked as he sat down next to Molly. He looked out at the lake from Eir’s patio. Eir’s large home was behind them. The mountains were all around them, shielding them from any view of a city or a town. Carver could see why Eir liked living there. It was secluded and far from the rest of the world. He had a feeling that it reminded Eir of the place that was supposed to be Asgard.

Molly shook her head. She didn’t know how she was feeling. After everything that had happened to her, she just wanted this all over. She looked at her hands. They were shaking.

“I know it’s a lot to take in.” Carver said after a few minutes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to walk out of here and not be a part of this.”

“Carver, please don’t pretend like you know what I’m going through.” Molly said in a soft voice. “You can’t know what it’s like to replace out you have magic, that there are people who would kill your only family to get to you and that you’re the key to their plans to take over the world.” She shook her head. There was no way that anyone could know exactly what was happening to her. She knew that Carver was trying to take care of her but she didn’t want him to.

“You’re right.” Carver said as he stood up. “I don’t know what you’re going through. Not entirely anyways.” He looked at Molly. “But I do know what it’s like to lose family to evil people or to learn about having powerful magic.” His eyes glowed blue and a large wave came out of the water.

Molly’s eyes widened as she took in the large wave.

“I know that you feel alone but you’re not.” Carver continued, the glow vanished from his eyes and the wave splashed back down into the water. “I want you to know that you’re not alone.” He sat back down next to Molly. “Tora, Eir and I are here for you. Once we rescue Cassidy, Nichallo and Elizabeth, you’ll have other people in your life who will help take care of you.”

It became quiet on the patio again. The two watched the sun start to set.

“Carver, why are you trying to protect me?” Molly then asked. “Ever since the library, you have been determined to take care of Tora and me. You broke me out of the cage, refused to leave Tora and me alone. Had Tora talk to me back in the car.” She shook her head. “Why do you care about us so much?”

“Because I know what it’s like to lose family members and I know you both don’t have a lot of family members left to go to.” Carver replied. “Tora only has her mom and you only have your extended family who I’ve noticed haven’t even tried to reach out to you.” He let that sink in before he continued. “I take it you’re not close with any of them.”

Molly shook her head. “Not really.” She replied. “They’re all as religious as my mother. My one aunt thinks that I need to go to a confessional booth or to the church to get exorcised because I dress like this and keep to myself.” She gestured to her Gothic outfit. “They keep pushing for me to go to church in the hopes that I’ll “turn normal like my cousins” and that I’ll be someone they can brag about.”

Molly smiled a little. “I’m pretty sure that if any of them saw everything that has happened to me these last few days, they would be left speechless or get locked up for blabbing about demons.” She couldn’t help but laugh. It would be sweet revenge for her.

Molly looked at Carver. “I know Skye died a few years back but did you two ever have kids?” She asked. She thought that Carver would make a good father with the way he was protective and cared about Tora and her.

Carver shook his head. “No. She and I tried to have kids years ago. She was pregnant with a baby girl. We were both excited and had decorated the spare bedroom for the baby. But complications came up at the hospital when it was time for Skye to give birth to the baby.” He told Molly as tears came to his eyes. He looked out at the lake. “The doctors told us that the baby had been a stillborn.”

“I’m so sorry.” Molly said. She slid her hand into Carver’s hand. “What happened if you don’t mind me asking.”

Carver looked at her and forced a smile. “Skye and I were devastated.” He replied, his voice cracking a little. “We asked for our baby so we could bury her but that was when the hospital admitted that, because of a paper mix-up, our stillborn baby had been cremated. All my wife and I had gotten was an urn of our child’s ashes.”

Molly felt her heart breaking for Carver and his wife. “You don’t need to say anything else about it.” She told Carver. She could hear her voice cracking as she said that. “I’m sorry you two had to go through that.”

Carver wiped his eyes. “The closest thing I ever had to having kids was when Skye and I used to take care of Tora for Cassidy.” He told Molly. “We were considered Tora’s uncle and aunt. When I lost Skye, I cut everyone off. It was too painful for me to be a part of the world that had brought me to Skye.”

“You haven’t spoken to any of them until Tora came to get you.” Molly said. It was starting to make sense to her. “Everything you’re doing is to help Tora get her family back.”

Carver nodded. “It was but now everything I do is to keep both of you safe.” He told Molly. “Once this is all over and the Old Ones are no longer chasing you, I promise you you’ll be placed with a better family.”

Molly felt herself tearing up a little. She hugged Carver. “Thank you.” She said.

Eir and Tora were in one of the guest bedrooms making the bed when there was a knock at the front door downstairs. They looked at each other.

“Do you ever have guests here?” Tora asked. She needed to know if they were in danger. After the attack at the hotel and Shub-Niggurath chasing Carver and her, Tora was worried that whoever was at the door meant to do them harm.

There was another knock at the front door.

Eir held a finger to her lips and motioned to Tora’s phone. “Text Carver and tell him to hide Molly and himself.” Eir whispered to Tora. She walked quietly to the window and peeked outside. To her surprise, there were several black SUVs and a few police cars.

Eir quickly backed away before anyone by the front door could see her. She looked at Tora. “Hide.” She whispered. “It’s the police.”

Tora’s eyes widened. She had forgotten that the police would be looking for Molly still. She didn’t realize that they would be looking this far north. She wondered how they knew to search there. “Where do I hide?” She whispered. She hadn’t seen any good hiding spots.

There was more knocking at the front door. It sounded like the police were getting impatient.

Eir rushed over to the closet. She pulled her shoe-boxes to the side to reveal a secret door in the floor. She opened it to reveal a passageway. “Take this.” She told Tora. “It’ll take you down to the garage. Once you’re there, go to the sewer grate. It’ll take you to the catacombs. Wait there for the rest of us.”

Tora had so many questions but she knew that now was not the time to ask them. She went down into the passageway. She looked up at Eir. “Please don’t abandon me.” She said quietly. She didn’t want to be abandoned by anyone else.

Eir smiled. “I’ll be back before you know it.” She told Tora before she closed the secret door and hid it again.

Detective Hamilton shook his head as he pounded on the front door. “Valerie Garden!” He shouted. “I have a warrant to search this house!” He looked at Rivers and Alisha. They were both standing there with the local sheriff. “You’re certain that this is the place?” He asked the sheriff.

Sheriff Thomas nodded. “Valerie Garden was spotted driving back here a few hours ago.” He replied. “She was in your suspect’s car” He didn’t see the car from the report anywhere but he knew Valerie Garden’s description.

The front door opened to reveal Eir. She looked irked. “Sheriff Thomas.” She said. “If this is because I rejected you asking me out for tenth time, I will literally tell these officers here that you’re harassing me.”

“Dude, you asked her out ten times even though she kept rejecting you?” Rivers asked, looking at Sheriff Thomas. “That is just wrong on so many levels.” He looked at Eir. “If you want to make a report of that, I will be more than happy to write this guy up for that.”

“Maybe after we’re done with questioning and searching this place.” Detective Hamilton said. He was disturbed by Sheriff Thomas’s actions as well. Now that he knew that, he wondered if Sheriff Thomas really thought that his missing people were there or if this was a personal vendetta against this Valerie Garden.

Eir crossed her arms over her chest. “I will actually take you up on that Detective…?” She stopped. “Who exactly are you anyways?”

“I’m Detective Hamilton. These are my partners, Detective Alisha and Detective Rivers.” Detective Hamilton told her. “Sorry for bothering you but you were seen driving this vehicle.” He held up a picture of Elizabeth’s car.

Eir looked at the picture. She recognized the car. “What about it?” She asked.

Hamilton frowned. “So you admit to driving this?” He asked. He was not expecting a confession of any sort so easily.

Eir crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course I admit it.” She said. “I didn’t realize it was a crime to buy my cousin’s car.” She was not going to make it easy for the detectives to pin anything on her.

“Your cousin?” Alisha asked.

“Yeah? Elizabeth Garden.” Eir said, making up a last name for Elizabeth. “Elizabeth and I are cousins. She called me a few days ago. Said she needed to sell her car. Apparently some stalker was following her and it made her uneasy. She sold me her car. Just got back from that trip.” She knew that the police would now be looking for a stalker back in New York City instead of Elizabeth and possibly the others at her home.

Hamilton looked at Rivers and Alisha. “Check Elizabeth’s family tree.” He said. He wanted to make sure that they hadn’t missed a Valerie Garden on it. He turned back to Eir. “Did she have anyone with her? Say, anything of these people?” He held up pictures of Molly, Tora, Carver, Cassidy and Nichallo.

Eir looked a the pictures. “No. She was alone. Like I said, she was wanting to try to lose her stalker. I doubt being in a group of people would work.” She said.

Rivers rejoined Hamilton. “There is a Valerie Garden on Elizabeth’s family tree.” He said. “But Elizabeth’s last name is Blanca. If you two were as close you said you are, wouldn’t you have already known that?”

Eir laughed. “So she did marry that jerk.” She said as she shook her head. “Now the stalker story makes sense.”

“What do you mean?” Hamilton asked.

“Elizabeth was smitten by this guy, Javier Blanca, if that was his real name. He seemed like a Prince Charming if you know what I mean. He was really a sketchy jerk though. Never talked about his work with any of us present. He kept telling Elizabeth not to speak to her family. Guessed it worked because I didn’t know that they had gotten married. He was an abusive jerk. Elizabeth’s call about buying her car was the first I had heard from her in about a year.” Eir explained.

“One minute.” Hamilton told Eir. He turned to Alisha and Rivers. “Did we have anything about a wedding between a Elizabeth and Javier Blanca pop up when we were digging into Elizabeth’s past?” Something was not adding up here.

“If he was as possessive as Valerie is making him out to be, I would say no.” Alisha said. “As someone who had to go through that kind of crap, all I can say is that a guy like Javier wouldn’t want any public record in case something went south. Easier to have deniability and alibis.” She understood why Elizabeth would say there was a stalker following her. A stalker would be taken more seriously than a husband would.

“Reminds me of my one ex.” Rivers said. “She was insane, kept saying I was her boyfriend months after I had left her.” He shivered. “I had to get a restraining order against her.”

“Oh I know Rivers. I was there when she got locked in holdings.” Hamilton said. He was willing to believe that Elizabeth was hiding from some stalker husband. He just didn’t like it because it now meant that they were back at square one with five missing people and a murder victim. He turned back to Eir. “Did Elizabeth have any connections to a Georgia Miller or a Molly Miller?”

Eir shook her head. “Not that I know of. If she did, it would have been during the year that she didn’t speak to any of us because of Javier Blanca.”

“There’s our connection.” Rivers said. “Sounds like this Javier Blanca is the guy we’re after.”

Hamilton nodded. Javier Blanca was a good lead. If he was sketchy like Eir said, it was likely that Javier Blanca wasn’t even his real name. “Before we go, do you know a Carver Matthews?” He asked. It was possible that Carver had some sort of role in this. He didn’t want to believe it but Carver wasn’t answering his phone and that didn’t look good.

“You mean the guy whose wife was found murdered in her apartment? Yeah, I’ve heard of him.” Eir replied. “Sort of hard not to hear about unsolved murders when they’re the most popular thing on conspiracy websites.” She smiled. “I know most of the conspiracies are stupid but I do enjoying the creativity of others.”

Rivers laughed. “I hear you there.” He said.

“We can discuss conspiracy theories later.” Hamilton said. He was into conspiracy theories too even if he didn’t always act like it. He knew that conspiracy websites often provided good leads to murder cases. “If you hear from Elizabeth, please let us know.” He turned to leave.

“What? We’re not gonna search her home?” Sheriff Thomas asked. He couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t wasted time driving there not to enforce the search warrant.

Detective Hamilton nodded. “It isn’t a crime to buy a car from a family member. We have no actual proof that Elizabeth murdered or kidnapped anyone. With her friends missing, most likely abducted, and her having a stalker, we now have a new lead.” He told Sheriff Thomas. “Now are you going to leave this woman’s home peacefully or will I need to alert your station that one of their sheriffs is a harasser?”

Sheriff Thomas shook his head. “I’ll leave.” He said. He looked at Eir before he went to his car.

Detective Hamilton turned to the men by the black SUVs. “Turns out that our lead about Elizabeth being a suspect didn’t pan out to anything.” He told them. “Sorry for wasting your time.”

Rivers, Alisha and Hamilton watched them leave.

“Now what?” Alisha asked.

“Now we replace this Javier Blanca.” Hamilton replied. “He is our new person of interest in this case.” It was possible that Molly’s extended family knew more than they were letting on.

Eir closed her door and sighed with relief. She was glad that the police were gone. Now she could focus on keeping her guests safe. She thought of Tora. The girl was still in the sewer under her garage.

Tora was looking at the sewer grate. She really wished that Eir or Carver didn’t forget about her. She didn’t want to lose anyone else. She jumped when she saw the grate moving but sighed with relief when she saw Eir appear.

“It’s safe to come back up.” Eir told Tora before she smiled. “I promised I wouldn’t forget about you.”