Chapter 37
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Before Gary could leave the hospital John Larabee approached him. Gary wondered if John blamed him for his daughter's death, he half-expected to be challenged to a duel. Instead John showed a recording on his smart phone. It showed John at a party at his mansion, there was a thunderstorm going on outside. John was giving some speech from the top of his staircase. Then the lights went out, and John was still seen due to the lightning. It was at this point that John stopped the recording.
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Gary: I don't understand.
John: The lights go out, and then comes the lightning.
Gary: So?
John: Every other time this night the lights went out just after the lightning strikes. But this time, they went out before the ightning came.
Gary: I'm still not sure what this means.
John: Samantha sent me a note, just before she killed herself. She confessed to a number of things. One was from this night, this party I held in May. According to this note, Samantha conspired with Angel Flint, to murder me at this party. Their plan was for Samantha to turn off the electricity at the fusebox, and for Angel to murder me under the cover of darkness. But Angel lost her nerve and couldn't go through with it. I spoke to my son-in-law Frank, he admitted that at this party, he and Samantha were engaging in passion near the fusebox. He remembers that Samantha suddenly turned off the electricity, but he never understood why. My own daughter tried to murder me.
Gary: I'm sorry to hear about this. I can't imagine what you're going through.
John: No, you really can't.
Gary; What else does the note confess to?
John: They robbed a convenience store last October. They engaged in a duel with pistols, that was Angel's induction into the Druid Sisterhood.
Gary: What is the Druid Sisterhood?
John: I know that you know about the Druid Order. Samantha didn't see the honor in our work, she only saw our flaws. Adultery, draft dodging, duels.
Gary: Duels?
John: After the second world war, we started wondering. Ancient armies would often settle a conflict with each side simply sending out their best warrior to fight to the death. We wondered if perhaps wars could be avoided by simple duels.
Gary: I remember, just before the invasion of Iraq, someone suggested that Bush and Suddam should just settle the whole thing with a duel.
John: That would have been something, both sides avoiding mass-cassualties. If only.
Gary: You say "we" started wondering?
John: I mean the Order, including my grandfather, my father was a small child at the time.
Gary: Samantha told me about Order, she didn't exactly praise it. But I'm willing to listen to what you have to say about it.
John: Very well, but it's easier to show you than to tell. There are parts you won't believe, unless you see for yourself. Come to my mansion tonight, around midnight. We'll tell you the truth then.
Gary; Very well. One last thing. In Samantha's suicide note, did she by any chance confess to murdering Angel Flint?
John: No, she genuinly loved Angel.
Gary: I appreciate your help, but I can't help but consider you a suspect.
John: I can unerstand that. Had I known this beforehand, than Angel conspired to murder me, perhaps I would have blamed Angel for corrupting my child. But the truth is I spoiled her, I made her out like that, if anything Samantha corrupted Angel. In any even, I trust you will follow the evidence, regardless of where it might lead.
