Part 1
Derek Raine was working late again. The Legacy's work, hidden behind the reputation of the eccentric Luna foundation, never seemed to end. There were always more dark corners to turn and more demons to banish. There were times when he despaired of ever seeing only the light in life and not its shadows. But he had chosen this life of battle against the dark forces. At least that was what he told himself when the nights grew lonely and cold.
"If your father hadn't died when you were a teenager opening that dammed casket, hadn't been killed by its imprisoned demon, would you have been part of the Legacy?" he thought to himself, rubbing his tired eyes. "Or would you be teaching at Oxford, leading a normal, safe life? A life that didn't include ghosts, demons or cursed objects?" The phone cut short his reverie.
"Dr. Raine? It's Ian Llewelyn. Do you remember me?" A clipped British accent sounded at the other end of the line.
"From the London house?" Derek asked. He thought he remembered Ian, a well-intentioned young researcher the Legacy house in London had used on occasion when their own people had been needed on other investigations.
"Yes, that's right. Good to talk to you sir. The thing is I've a problem and it's in your neck of the woods, so to speak. Something has happened at my aunt's home, which is just down the coast from you in a town called Abbottsville. She thinks that her daughter-in-law has become, well… possessed. Says she keeps talking about things that happened years ago, only she makes it sound like it happened just yesterday. And there have been accidents, nothing serious but the old girl is rather spooked. It sounds like something the Legacy should investigate and I would but…"
Derek smiled to himself, understanding the younger man's reluctance to complete the statement. Sir Edward, the precept of the London house, had never allowed Ian to engage in actual field work, since the researcher was hopelessly incompetent when it came to any thing of a physically challenging nature. The only experience he had obtained during his years as a Legacy researcher was book-based.
"So I thought, well, we are both, well… you know." Ian was beginning to stutter in his embarrassment at having to ask this stranger for assistance. It had been years since he had seen Winston Rayne's son. Even then they had spoken only in passing. But he remembered Sir Edward's mentioning the other man's "special" talents. And from what his aunt had told him about the situation at the family vacation compound, he knew that talent would be an asset to the investigation.
"Tell me what you know. I'll see to it that a member of my house looks into it." Derek took up his pen and prepared to listen to the stream of chatter from the relieved man at the other end of the phone, hoping that he wasn't about to send his associates on some wild goose chase.
Across town, in the garden of a home in the fashionable part of San Francisco, a young red-haired woman read a message with growing horror. Gwen looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, her eyes unfocused. "How could this happen?" she thought to herself, a shudder of revulsion rippling through her. "How could Cousin Ian allow this to happen? Who could have dug up Charlie's body without anyone seeing them? It's impossible!"
"Gwen?" a soft voice broke through her reverie. She looked up into the gentle eyes of the young priest seated opposite her.
"Oh, I'm sorry Phillip. I forgot we were supposed to meet today." She folded the letter carefully and returned it to its envelope. "I'm afraid I've forgotten what you said you wanted to talk to me about."
"It's not important." Father Phillip Callaghan looked his old friend over carefully, noting the pallor under her golden tan. Her hands, usually rock steady, were trembling. "Tell me what's upset you so."
"My dearest Phillip, even when we were children you had this annoying habit of trying to make everything better. It was your most endearing trait." Gwen gently touched the priest's face, willing herself to regain her composure. "It's nothing you can do anything about, luv. Just old family secrets come home to roost. Nothing I can't handle." She rose and started back to the house, plucking a white rose from its bush on the way. There was much she would have to do before she could leave for Abbottsville.
In the shadows, the family ghosts waited. She would come. It was all as they had planned.