Pt. 3

"Okay, Derek, here is what the Legacy database came up with on Abbottsville. Looks like a newspaper obituary on a Charles Llewelyn, who died recently in a car crash." Alex looked back her precept with interest. "Any relation to your friend?"

"Yes. Charles and Ian were first cousins. Both of them were at some point part of the Legacy, but Charles left it when he married. The Llewelyn family has always had members in the Legacy. Many were said to have the Sight and some had other "gifts" that were known only the Precept of whatever House they belonged to. I never met Charles or his wife but I heard the relationship was not to the liking of his family." Derek leaned over the look at the screen, reading quickly over the list of survivors. "Listed as survivors are his mother, Josette Llewelyn, wife Ann, daughter Laurel and two cousins - Ian and Gwen Llewellyn. Cause of death seems straight forward enough."

"Maybe not." Alex replied, scanning the other entries the database had found. "Looks like the investigator for the family's insurance company decided it was a suicide and the company is refusing to pay death benefits. Do you suppose that's what is really behind your friend's call?"

"That's possible. What's this other entry?"

"It's an article written by the deceased about the history of his family's manor house. It was moved to California stone by stone some thirty years ago by Martin Llewelyn, the author's father, after he inherited some money from a distant relative. Before that move the house was pretty much deserted due to the massive amount of repair work needed to bring it up to code. According to this, the family hadn't lived in the house for all that time until recently. And he gives a detailed breakdown on the family ghosts, most of whom were not terribly pleased to be moved from their ancestral land."

Derek read the article somberly, a cold feeling forming in the pit of his stomach. For a moment, the screen in front of him disappeared, to be replaced by a vision of a place and people unknown to him. Derek had had the Sight all his life, yet it always caught him by surprise when the visions manifested themselves. In fact, they terrified him as much as they did the night he had seen his father killed in a vision before he had actually witnessed the event. This vision was no better. A woman and a young girl stood backed up against a wall in a burning room. The child was screaming but the woman was strangely calm. Ghostly voices were shouting all around him. Then the woman looked directly at him, her eyes glowing. He jerked back from the computer screen in alarm, the sight vanishing as quickly as it came.

"Are you all right?" Alex asked, concern written on her face.

"Yes. Find Nick and Philip. We're going to Abbottsville. All of us. I think that Ian's family may be in more trouble than even he suspects."

Across town, Gwen was just finishing her packing when she heard the phone ringing in the living room. "Who could that be?" she fumed, dropping her bags beside the sofa. She yanked the phone off its receiver. "Hello?"

There was only static for a moment than a distant voice replied. "Hey cousin, coming to my funeral?"

"Charlie?" She grasped the receiver tightly in disbelief. "You're dead!"

"I know. You're in danger Guinevere. Don't come to Abbottsville. Stay away." The voice died out, leaving only static and then a disconnect signal in its wake.

Gwen sat down on the sofa, her legs unable to hold her. Only Charlie had ever called her by her by her full name "Guinevere", a habit that had infuriated her. "Damn that boy! He was always such a drama queen! Why did he reach out to me like that?" she thought impatiently. "Why is he trying to warn me away from the family home?" A knock on her front door broke through her reverie. For a moment she wondered if Charlie was making an appearance then thought better of it. The family ghosts never bothered to knock. "Come in. The door's open."

"That's not wise, is it?" Philip asked, looking into his friend's apartment with a frown. "Leaving your door unbolted is an invitation to trouble." He looked at her face and knelt down in front of her, taking her cold hand in his. "Don't put me off this time. Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing much. I just got a call from a dead man, telling me to stay away from my home. That's all." She leaned back with a sigh, holding the young priests hand tightly. "I've got a problem, Philip and if I were home in Wales, I would just call my precept and tell him to send the team. But I'm not. I'm alone here, with no backup and the dead are calling me on the telephone. Which I suppose is better than them showing up in my bedroom but just marginally so. I suppose a modern ghost would use a modern instrument to contact the living." She smiled wearily at her old friend. "Anyway, it appears that someone has stolen my cousin Charlie's body from his grave in a small town called Abbottville. And I've got the horrible feeling that it's only the first of a string of occurrences which may put my cousin's family in danger. You know, sometimes being gifted with the power to hear what other's don't hear and see what other's don't see isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"You're not alone, my friend. My house and I will give you all the help you need. You know that."

"You shouldn't volunteer your house for something like this, Philip, at least not without checking with your precept first." She gently pulled her hand free from his and rose from her seat. "Look, call your house and see if they're willing to send someone along with me for backup. I'll just put these out in my car while you're on the phone." She handed him the portable phone and started out the door, bags in hand. She turned back to say something as he started to dial the mansion's number, then changed her mind and moved out towards her car. Some things were best handled alone. Besides – she really didn't want to have to explain who was actually alive and who was a ghost to strangers. The situation sounded confusing enough as it was.

Philip waited impatiently for someone to pickup at the other end. "Come on, pick up, Alex. Someone pick up."

"Luna Foundation." Alex's voice sounded harried.

"Alex, it's Philip. I need to speak to Derek."

"Philip, we've been looking for you. We've gotten a request from another Legacy house to investigate a haunting. Derek says we're all going."

"I can't. A friend is in trouble and I've told her I'd go with her to a place called Abbottsville."

"But that's where we're going." Alex's voice was suddenly concerned.

The sound of a car's engine suddenly caught the priest's attention. Dropping the phone, he raced out the door to see his friend roaring off down the normally quiet street, leaving skid marks in her wake. He watched her disappear over the horizon before he returned and picked up the discarded receiver.

"Alex, she's gone. I'm afraid she's going to try to face whatever is happening with her family alone. Can you send Nick to get me? I'll explain what I know when we're all together." He gave his worried team mate the address then sat down to wait.