Chapter 35
Coille Dorcha Castle's great hall is bustling with activity. Holiday decorations mixed with birthday paraphernalia line the walls and pillars. Life fills it's structure as family and friends enter the celebration.
"Thanks again, Uncle Finley," Bog remarks, watching his son play with the other toddlers.
"Yer welcome, lad," Finley chuckles, patting his nephew's right shoulder. "This place gets a wee dull in the winter and I'm thinking that this might be a good tradition to start, plus it would make it much easier to host the birthday parties here anyway. Ye and yer lass sure have brightened the place and I'm going to miss having ye here."
"Come on, Da. Ye're not going to start that again, are ye," Lewin teases from Bog's right?
"Aye," Finley confirms with a nod and a smirk. "Devon is married, Rosalind is married, and ye need to be married. Bog is married and now ye have no excuse. Besides, yer mam knows about that lass ye've been seeing secretly."
The gathering of men laughs as Lewin's face turns beet red. Bog excuses himself as he notices the new arrivals and heads toward them.
"Glad ye could make it, Rory," he greets the older man.
"Thank you for inviting us. Where should we put these," Rory asks, motioning to the presents?
As Rory and Alex take the presents to the table he pointed out, Bog turns his attention to the other nervous guests. He smiles gratefully down at his wife as she joins his side.
"Happy Birthday, Officer Mcgallrigh," Stella murmurs nervously.
"Please, it's Bog and thank ye. Come and enjoy the party," Bog encourages, smiling in turn when the woman smiles and joins Alex.
"Well, don't just stand there, you two, come on," Marianne grins to the younger men.
"You mean, you actually want us here," the sandy blonde teenager asks hesitantly? "After what we did?"
"We wouldn't have told Rory to bring ye along if we didn't. Ye've already been tried by a court, ye both expressed regret in yer actions, and ye both are willing to pay for the crimes ye did commit, so I see no point in harboring an unjust grudge," Bog explains, holding out his hand to the older black haired youth. "The greatest crime ye two committed was that ye allowed others to pressure ye into doing something ye didn't want to do and ye knew was wrong. I know that finding a trustworthy ear may be hard to do but speaking out is far better than going with something ye don't agree."
"Thanks, I'll remember that," Daniel smiles with relief, shaking Bog's hand. "I wish other people are as forgiving as you but at least my brother and I can stay together."
"These are for you," Derrick pipes up, holding out three gift bags. "They're not birthday presents, more like, I'm sorry-late congratulations-happy housewarming presents."
Marianne silently chuckles at his sheepish expression as she accepts her bag and peers in. Pulling out the perfume, she notices the brand and looks questioningly at the two.
"Mrs Griselda told us which brand you both like," Derrick answers as Bog pulls out the cologne. "We weren't sure what to get the kid but she told us his clothing size and that we should get something a little bigger than that."
"Thank you," Marianne murmurs, wiping the happy tears before handing her bag to Bog and rushing out of the room.
"Mam," BB calls as he notices his mother missing!
"It's okay, BB. Mam will be right back," Bog consoles as his toddler runs to him.
Bog picks BB up and ushers the younger men toward the party. Grinning, he watches as Griselda fusses over the brothers. 'A very good thing that Mam kept her license,' he thinks.
"Now, I want you two to enjoy yourself. Nobody here is going to look down on you," Griselda reassures.
"This is for you, Mrs Griselda," Derrick comments, holding out another gift bag. "Thanks for offering to be our lawyer."
"No problem, dear. There was no way I was going to standby while you two got railroaded because of those other hooligans. You're both good boys that got bad influence," Griselda motherly pats both boys before opening her bag. "Now, how did you figure this out?"
"It's the kind you wore to all the court hearings and we recognized it because it is the same kind Mom wore," Daniel explains. "And we are really grateful that you also defended us when Roland and Zachery tried to sue us."
"Now those two are several apples short of a barrel," Heather mutters. "Uh, no offense, Miss Stella."
"None taken," Stella answers softly. "Zachery just went his own way even as a child, no matter what Alex or I did, and Tabitha sure didn't help. He clung to Roland a lot after Stacy died and we thought that was a good thing that Roland was helping him deal with the loss of his little sister but then everything happened."
"I hate to bring this up on your birthday, Boggy-Bear, but what really did happen," Primrose asks, ignoring her cousin's grumble? "All I've heard are just snippets here and there but not the whole thing."
"Well, might as well start with the theft," Jack pipes up. "From what we know now is that Plum's creation of Love Potion garnered her a lot of support and attention, even though it was faulty. So much in fact that Sykes Chipperton became afraid of losing his position and if he lost it then he would be under scrutiny about how he has such a large bank account when his income couldn't possibly be responsible. The entirety of his affairs would have been discovered through the women's bank deposits and so he looked to his largest supporter for help to get rid of Plum. Tabitha Grange, excuse me, Rory, Tabitha Wheeler gave him the idea, his alibi, and volunteered Roland and Zachery to commit the crime. So he planned the theft in a way to try and frame Plum for it since she was always last to leave the labs. That fell through when Chief Bron didn't give her special treatment."
"So, he went to plan B and convinced all his women to give him their shares of the company to secure his position then had me fired," Plum grouses before perking up as Marianne enters the room again. "Darling Marianne started buying up Primrose Lab shares as a way to fix the bond of two stubborn and stupid mules. Hey, no jabbing, Donald, I'm telling it the way I see fit! Anyway, Sykes did notice what she was doing, though not really knowing why, and told Roland to pursue her to distract her. It didn't work and then they got nervous because they still had the stolen drug with them. Sykes was planning on creating his own as soon as the heat was off and was going to use my work to do it. Well, why throw it away when ye can still profit off of it."
"Uncle Sykes talked to Uncle Arthur, who was in charge of our parent's estate and who was also stealing from our trust fund, and they came up with the scheme for the party," Daniel continues, wrapping his arm around his uneasy brother. "They started pressuring us soon after Mom and Dad's death until we finally agreed. I would supposedly have a job interview a distance away that would prevent me from coming home that night and Derrick would be throwing a party to shake off the blues to celebrate spring break. Roland and Zachery were there to make sure we followed through and Roland was supposed to pour all the drug into the punch but he didn't. To make it believable, they made Derrick take some of the drug before the party started and I stayed hidden until everyone had something to drink."
"Roland and I arrived late to the party because he almost didn't convince me," Marianne smiles reassuringly to the brothers as they hold onto each other, the memories a dark spot for them. "His big mouth during court admitted to planning on taking advantage of me as a last resort to easy-street but those videos showed the outcome of his poor decision."
"Remind me to thank Rodela when he gets back from vacation. I absolutely love his late wedding present," Bog laughs out, remembering the video in question. "My presence at the party threw their perfect plan into chaos because even though they prepared just in case they were investigated for the suspicion of alcohol at a minor's party, they didn't expect to be investigated for Love Potion by the same officer who investigated the theft. Their only safety net was that no one wanted it aired in the public and that was because everyone was convinced that it would damage Daniel and Derrick's future."
"Which gave Roland the perfect opportunity to worm his way into our family," Donald mutters, shaking his head. "His scheme concerning Marianne was just his plan, although his mother did help, and it worked to keep me from seeing what Sykes did when I ordered an open investigation into Borderline Labs."
"Other than the blackmail since the party, there was no other criminal activity except Roland's stalking," Marianne continues. "Then that fateful Friday in May happened and everything happened all at once. Zachery was with Roland when he broke into my car but I left before they could corner me."
"Afterwards, they came to our house," Derrick adds. "Roland had this big idea to win her back and threatened us that if we didn't help, he would turn us into the police. Then we accidentally grabbed Dawn and we all panicked."
"I still don't see how abducting Marianne would make her fall in love with him, especially since he knew what the effects of Love Potion had on her," Dawn mutters. "Not to mention, trashing the house."
"Roland figured that once we put her and BB in a secure location that Marianne would be so grateful at his concern and gallant rescue that she would fall madly in love with him," Daniel illustrates mockingly, falling into laughter at the end because of Marianne's exaggerated gagging. "The trashing the house part was Zachery's idea. He said it would look more like a burglary gone wrong than an actual abduction. After dropping Dawn off at the warehouse, we hid out at Uncle Sykes' second house outside the city and Roland joined us after he got food."
"We were supposed to wait there till everything settled down but then everything went crazy and Uncle Sykes told us that we had to leave the country or else," Derrick starts before rubbing his eyes and sniffing.
"It's alright now," Stella consoles the boy. "Tabitha contacted me and told me to meet her outside the bank in the rear parking garage where they wanted me to sign Zachery's check over to Sykes. She told me that if I said anything that I would never see my son again and after the trouble since the divorce, I couldn't bear the thought. So, Sykes went into the bank with both of our checks where Arthur was waiting with the money all ready, while Tabitha and I went to the country club as if nothing was different. At the club, we were both arrested and taken to the police station, where Sykes and Arthur already were."
"That was caused by me going to the police to report what I knew," Rory adds. "I didn't think I had much evidence but it turned out to be a catalyst that led to everything being unraveled faster then their lies could cover up."
"When we saw on the early news report of the arrests, Roland said we couldn't stay there anymore and we snuck back into the city to Mr Grange's house," Daniel explains. "But he wasn't there and neither was any money like Roland was hoping or his missing wallet. So we stayed hiding there that entire day until Roland and Zachery got another bright idea. Roland said that since it was Marianne's fault that we were in this mess then Marianne was going to get us out. Either she would give us the money to leave the country or she would publicly announce that everything that was reported in the news was a lie and give us a clean record. Since Uncle Sykes found out where she was staying, we waited till we knew everyone was sleeping and headed to the house. Cutting the wires was Zachery's idea because he said it would keep anyone from turning the power back on. I suggested to just turn the breaker box off but Roland agreed with him."
"Those two watched far too many movies," Alex mutters, smiling at his ex-wife's quiet snickers.
"They just didn't realize that not everything that happens in the movies actually works in real life. Like their brilliant idea to go to a known police officer's house," Griselda sarcastically comments. "As grateful as I am that they came unarmed, what were they thinking?"
"We weren't," Derrick chuckles, scratching his head. "Daniel and I kept trying to find a way out but they made sure one of them was with us at all time and then you nearly shot Zachery as he was leading us up the stairs. You just missed his shoulder and Roland suggested to use both stairs at the same time when he heard those two run back up the back stairs. I had actually mentioned to Daniel about Roland leaving but that must have been before you heard our conversation."
"It was," Bog confirms, letting BB back down to play with the other children. "Yer conversation pretty much confirmed a hunch that ye two were forced into cooperation, as well as Zachery using ye as a shield and the fact Daniel hit him more then he hit me. I didn't mean to throw ye that hard but I figured if ye were far enough away then Zachery couldn't use ye."
"It wasn't that bad and you more than made up for it when you defended us in the hearings," Derrick mutters bashfully.
"Anyone with eyes can tell a real criminal from one that just made a bad choice," Jack remarks. "It makes our jobs more fulfilling if true justice is served and that means exacting punishment but also giving enough mercy for those who want to change. Giving you three a chance to make up for your bad choices is far better than giving you a full punishment that could actually turn you into a real criminal. None of you fought to get out of being punished and you were willing to do what the courts ordered you to do to pay for the crimes committed."
"That is far better than what the other five did," Thomas adds, rocking his infant daughter.
"No kidding," Sam agrees, rocking her infant son. "They got their dues though, especially when their get-rich-quick schemes turned into a got-broke-fast disaster. Man, am I glad I work in forensics and not in the prisons."
All the police officers present raise their glasses in agreement with that statement before laughter fills the hall.