Bruce ignored the high-pitched fury in Abby's voice when the woman raged at him over the phone. "Banner!" She cried, "Did you hear?! What Clarke did?! Did you hear?!"
"Yes, Abby," Bruce sighed, "I heard. And I do believe Clarke is within her every right to do what she did."
"Every right?!" Abby echoed, enraged, "She dug up her father's body! What, she couldn't let him rest in peace?!"
"Abby," Bruce said, voice calm, "She legally isn't doing anything wrong. She got all the legal documents she needed for her to be allowed to do it. I'm afraid there's nothing either of us can do."
He heard Abby snort, "Not like you'd ever try to do anything, Banner. You chose to side with her over her mother."
"And you chose to betray her," Bruce said angrily, unable to keep a neutral inflection in his voice any longer, "You disowned her. She owes you nothing. You made it clear that you didn't love her when you disowned her, the moment Jake Griffin was declared dead."
The iciness in his voice must have shocked Abby, because Bruce heard no response for several seconds.
Bruce knew that Abby likely had counted on her relationship with him from years ago, to have some weight to hold up against him. It didn't. A long time ago, before Jake Griffin and Abby Griffin, formerly Abby Newbon, had met and begun to date, Abby had used to date Bruce Banner.
It hadn't lasted long, however, it had meant something to Bruce at the time. He had thought that Abby felt the same way, however, it had become clear over time, that she was simply using him to get higher up in the world, because they were both doctors, and when he wasn't given a higher position at the hospital where he worked? Abby had dumped him.
So, if Abby thought that the relationship they'd had ages ago, would do anything to sway him now? She was clearly out of her mind.
Bruce said, before Abby could say anything else, "Listen, Abby, I'm sorry if this hurts you in any way, however, Clarke wants answers. And you have to admit, it's odd that Jake Griffin died as young as he did, and when he was in perfect health."
Again, more silence, then Abby whispered, "I'd be careful of what you're implying, Bruce."
"I'd be careful too if I were you," Bruce said simply, "Is there a particular reason you don't want Jake unearthed? Is there something you and your new boyfriends want to hide?"
Bruce could almost feel the shocked silence from Abby, till Abby whispered again, "How fucking dare you, Bruce." Then she hung up.
Bruce looked down at his phone, shook his head and put his phone away.
He wished he could feel more sorry for Abby. But he couldn't.
She was Clarke's mother. And that was the most that Bruce saw her as, and the most affection he could summon for her.
Over the years, since Bruce had interacted with Abby and Jake and had met their daughter, knowing her over those later years, he had come to see Clarke as his daughter too, just like Steve Rogers had. Bruce had far more of an incentive to protect Clarke than he did Abby.
What Abby had done to Clarke? Was inexcusable.
Even if it turned out that Abby hadn't killed Jake Griffin? It didn't change that she had still disowned Clarke as soon as Jake had died. It didn't change that Abby had happily abandoned Clarke, even if Clarke had done everything to make Abby happy.
It didn't change that Abby had betrayed Clarke first.
With that, Bruce walked away from his building and went to the library, wishing to seek out the paper documents that might provide him with more answers.
When he got to the library and checked in, he went quickly to the "L" section, figuring that that was as good a place to start as any, since the documents would, in theory, surround the Lavigne Manor.
He reached the "L" section of the documents, which was in the historical section, surrounding the history of Manchester.
He checked the large book that held the table of contents checking the letters, so that he could find "Lavigne" in the list somewhere.
To his surprise, he found the name, and he went to where it was listed. He was surprised even more, when he found just how many folders there were, labeled under the name, "Lavigne."
Bruce supposed that there could technically be more than one Lavigne family. It wasn't necessarily an uncommon French last name.
Bruce reached up and grabbed the stack of pale pink folders on the shelf, with the label, "Lavigne" on them.
He got all of them off of the shelf, carrying the load of it in his arms, carrying them over to the sitting area where there were a few tables and chairs.
He placed the stack onto the table, dropped down onto the blue swivel chair and flicked on the switch of the lamp right next to the folders. The light was bright, so he pulled the top folder off of the pile, opened it up and placed it down onto the table before him, scanning the contents of the folder.
He read the file, startled by what he was reading. According to this file? The Lavigne family was well-known in several circles around New Hampshire. Including the crime families.
Bruce's lower jaw dropped. He had not been expecting that.
Apparently, a few of the crime families in Manchester, around the period that Aimee and her husband, Jean Lavigne, had established themselves in the community, and Aimee had gotten pregnant with her first child, Pepper Lavigne, some odd happenings had occurred.
Aimee Lavigne, of course, couldn't have any sort of job, outside of perhaps a seamstress or a teacher, however, Jean Lavigne, had invested in shipping goods. Specifically, to Bruce's shock, shipping weapons.
His eyes grew wide. Okay…so, that sort of came out from left field.
He read what he could. Jean Lavigne made deals in shipping weapons, which was unsettling.
Jean Lavigne, because of his business, had unintentionally, or perhaps intentionally, stepped on the toes of the different crime groups.
The five different crime families around the area, the Falcone family, the Maroni family, the Gazzo family, the Sullivan family and the Skeevers family, had all been furious. All of them had sent various veiled threats, then more apparent threats to Jean Lavigne. About what they'd do to him. To his wife and unborn child and any other child they might have.
And following that? Several…odd things had happened.
Several family members in each of those five families had died in strange, mysterious ways. The thing was, all of these ways they had died had honestly looked like accidents. Fires, drownings, incidents where they'd fall down the stairs and break their necks, things falling down from large heights and crushing their skulls.
And it was just how many of these family members died, in close timelines.
In September of the same year alone? Four different family members at least from each family, had died, and it looked like an accident.
Bruce was immediately suspicious. They were all killed close in timelines, and that many of them had died in "accidents?" That wasn't a coincidence.
Bruce frowned. Just how rich had Jean Lavigne been? Because all five of those crime families, were huge. They were infamous and highly respected and feared by many criminals. In his circles, Bruce had heard a lot about them. And they had far more priority in New Hampshire, than a newcomer like the Lavigne family. Not to mention, when Jean Lavigne and his wife had arrived in the United States, they were supposedly alone. So, how exactly had Jean Lavigne gotten these family members killed?
The only logical explanation, was that Jean Lavigne had gotten a price that was hire than any of the other crime families could afford and offered that price to some experienced assassin to do his bidding.
Bruce kept reading. After all the deaths, all of the families, even the most stubborn of the families, had decided to stop pestering the Lavigne family, clearly too frightened of what the Lavigne family would do next.
Aimee and Jean then had their children grow up in the house. Their children, Pepper and Hugo, the next in line to inherit the business, house and money, and then a new corporation came into Manchester. The Stark family.
Howard and Maria Stark sold their inventions for years, until dying in some accident. Which made Bruce wonder how much the Lavigne family had to do with it. Then again, considering there was mentions in this file about Anthony Stark, Howard and Maria's son, was involved with Pepper Lavigne, and the file made it obvious, that the Lavigne family didn't approve of Anthony Stark's courtship of Pepper, Bruce had to assume that the Lavigne family somehow had been involved with Anthony-"Tony Stark's" parents' deaths.
Pepper and Tony both disappeared, not long after Howard and Maria's deaths.
Again, Bruce couldn't help but wonder if the Lavigne family had had anything to do with it. They were very clearly ready to kill anyone that went against them. Had that extended to their own family members? Maybe. Then again, Clarke's paternal grandfather, Gabriel Griffin, had left the family, yet he had inherited almost everything, unlike his older brother, Leon, who had stayed with the family on their property.
Was it possible, then that Pepper had been taken as retribution against the Lavigne family? That was possible.
After Pepper's disappearance, Hugo Lavigne had come of age, had inherited everything, and he and his wife, Melissa, had overseen everything after Hugo's parents' departure from this life.
Their two children, Isabelle and Andre, were protected by their parents and treated almost like royalty since Jean Lavigne had secured his family's power in Manchester.
And after everything he had read, he had to wonder if Andre Lavigne's death had been an accident, after all.
Bruce read more, finding records of when they would sell the weapons and how many.
He continued reading like that, for hours.
Then he received a phone call.
Cautiously, Bruce answered the phone and checked who was calling him.
The good news, was that it wasn't Abby's number, so hopefully it wasn't Abby, calling from some other phone.
However, he didn't recognize the number.
But he chose to answer the phone. "Hello?" He asked.
A woman's voice came through. It wasn't Abby's voice. The woman on the other end said, "Hi, Bruce, this Jessica Jones, and I have some questions for you that need answering."
"Sorry," Bruce said, confused, "What's this about?"
"Simple," the voice said, but it wasn't just speaking to him through the phone now, it was coming from behind him and Bruce gasped, whirling around, face to face now, with a pale woman with black hair, dressed in black leathers, who lowered her arm, the hand lowering, holding a phone. The woman gave him a calm, calculated look as she said, "I can tell that you're not on Abby Griffin's side. I was able to tell that when I saw you speaking to her on the phone."
Bruce stared up at this woman, confused. This woman had been following him and listening in on him?
"Now," Jessica said, turning her phone off and circling around the desk, sitting behind it, across from Bruce, as he swiveled his head around, his eyes following her, "We are going to have a talk."
In another part of the city of Manchester, Clarke reached Jeri Hogarth's office. She parked the motorcycle and locked it and headed up to Hogarth's office. She came in, being escorted to the office by Jeri's secretary, Pam, who Clarke noticed, looked at Jeri with what could only be called "bedroom eyes."
Clarke tried not to pay too close attention, since was it her business if Hogarth was fucking her secretary? As long as both parties were of age and willing, was it her business?
Jeri smiled and politely dismissed Pam, before looking at Clarke. Jeri gestured for Clarke to sit down in the chair in front of her desk and Clarke sat down, facing Jeri.
Jeri said, "I have the papers you need to block any attempts there might be for your mother to reclaim the body and not allow you to see how he died."
Clarke nodded. "Thank you," she said, reaching for the papers gratefully.
Jeri gave her the papers and said gently, "You know that your mother is definitely going to try to stop you, right? I got a call from her not long ago, as soon as she found out about Jake Griffin's body being exhumed."
Clarke's teeth clenched. "She called you?" She demanded, voice harsher than she meant it to be, "She already tried to stop me from finding out if he was murdered?"
Jeri nodded.
"I'm afraid so," she confessed, "But these papers? They'll stop any attempts she makes to stop you."
Clarke thanked Jeri again and asked if there was anything else. Jeri said there wasn't and said that Clarke could go. Clarke nodded to Jeri and left with the pages.
The pages that Jeri had given her, had the address of the coroner's office, where her father's body was located. So, she stuffed the pages into her bag, zipped the bag up, got up on her bike, started it up and drove off to the coroner's office place.
She reached the coroner in under half an hour.
She switched off the bike, leapt off of it, locked it in place and went to the office, finding where the coroner for her father was specifically, and sought him out.
The coroner in question, a large balding man in his late forties or early fifties, with small spectacles, saw her come in and asked for her identity.
She told him she was the deceased's daughter. He smiled and greeted her politely. The sheet was still covering the body, but Clarke could see the abnormal shapes around the stomach and chest cavities. Meaning that the autopsy had already been done.
"I'm sorry to ask this so soon after meeting," Clarke said, "But well…"
"You want to know if there was anything suspicious about your father's death," The coroner said calmly, not appearing offended by Clarke's haste.
Clarke nodded. "Sorry," she added.
"It's alright," he said and sighed, his face becoming grim, "I'm sorry, Ms. Griffin. But what I found? It…well, because of how incredibly healthy he was before his death, that alone I would have found odd. Maybe not impossible. But odd. But what I found in his system? I'm sorry, Clarke. But he was poisoned."
Clarke tensed up and she felt her teeth clench. Instantly, she felt a surge of vindication. She was right! Her father had had been murdered!
Clarke asked quickly, "Is there any chance it could have been an accident? That maybe he was around an environment where he inhaled something wrong?"
The coroner shook his head. "No," he said grimly, "No chance of that. Things like smoke inhalation, toxic fumes, they show up differently from things like liquid or powder poison. Which definitely was what killed him. Arsenic. Cyanide."
Clarke gaped, horror filling her. Her daddy had been subjected to both of those poisons?!
"Do you think someone could have given them to him purposefully?" Clarke asked, her voice strained now.
The coroner closed his eyes and nodded sadly. "Yes," he said, "I think it's a strong possibility. Because it's clear that these poisons were ingested by him over time. Meaning there were small bits of it at a time given to him. That feels intentional."
Clarke swallowed, backing up, feeling like she had just been hit.
Her daddy had been murdered. Her mother had murdered him.
"She did it," Clarke whispered, "My mother actually did it."
The coroner stared at her, startled. "Your mother?" He asked, "You're sure she was the one?"
Clarke nodded, feeling numb. "I do," she said, "I think it was her. And I think she wanted me not to dig my father's body up, because she didn't want me to have evidence against her."
She stared at the coroner and said, "Please tell me that I can use this against his murderer." Abby wasn't just not Clarke's mother anymore. She wasn't even just "Abby" anymore. Abby was now Clarke's father's murderer.
She was certain that it had been Abby. Markus Kane and Bellamy Blake would never have had the spine for it.
"I believe only a lawyer can answer that for sure," the coroner answered sadly, "However, because your father was so clearly poisoned? I think it's safe to say you have something heavy to use against the person that did it."
Clarke nodded. She ordered the coroner to put the body on ice, he said he would, and she showed him the legal documents Jeri gave her, so that he would know that she would press legal actions against him, if he even tried to get rid of evidence, even if Abby threatened him. He agreed and signed, and Clarke went off to go to Jeri.
She went to Jeri's office and told the woman what she'd found. And asked Jeri if they could build a case based on what the coroner had told her.
Jeri was sure there was something. However, because Jake, Clarke and Abby had all lived together? Jeri made it clear that they'd need to find a way of pointing the finger only at Abby, and making sure that Abby didn't have enough to point at Clarke herself.
That? That surprised Clarke, because while she realized that such a precaution should have been apparent to her from the start, she had thought that her mother was so clearly guilty that she wouldn't need such a precaution.
But she agreed and Jeri began to work.
Clarke decided then that it was time to pay Jessica Jones a visit.
They needed more evidence? Well, then she'd see if she could get Jessica to find her more evidence.
She got on her bike and left the office building where Jeri worked, and went to the building where Jessica Jones worked.
She stopped by the building, locked up the bike and headed up into the building. Kith let her in and Clarke made small talk with her, till Jessica arrived.
Jessica sat down and Clarke sat at the seat behind Jessica's desk.
"Have you found anything yet?" Clarke asked, unable to help herself.
Jessica sighed, swiveling in her seat and reaching out to grab, of course, a glass bottle of whiskey off of the shelf, and swiveled around back to Clarke, opening the bottle up as she said, "I think it will interest you to know, that I found out that your mother tried to get your father to change his will, before his death."
Clarke's eyes widened. What?
"Seriously?" She asked in disbelief, "How did you find out?"
Jessica smirked as she said, "You have no idea how…convincing I can be. I was able to get your lawyer, Bruce Banner to tell me."
Clarke's mouth dropped at that. Jessica had talked to Bruce?
Jessica nodded at Clarke's startled expression.
"Yeah, I talked to him," she said, "And from what I observed about him, you can trust him. Which was why I talked to him. He was tightlipped, but eventually, I was able to get answers from him about your father's will and that your mother tried to get him to change it before your father's death. And after your father's death."
"Holy shit," Clarke said, stunned.
"Yep," Jessica said, "Apparently," she poured whiskey into a glass, "Your mother tried to get your father's lawyer, or your father to change the will, so that Abby would be the sole inheritor of everything that Jake Griffin had."
Clarke felt like her heart stopped. Her mother…Clarke had always known that her mother didn't love her, but…to hear this sort of betrayal?
It stung so bad.
Clarke closed her mouth, eyes closing as well.
Abby Griffin…Clarke had no idea how that woman excused any of her actions. Clarke's stomach turned, thinking about that awful woman.
"Do you need a second?" Jessica asked.
Clarke inhaled deeply and opened her eyes, shaking her head. "I'm fine, thank you," she said, "Please continue."
Jessica hesitated, then said, "Banner said that since he and Jake refused to change the will, Abby must have decided to do something as backup, because Banner noticed a change in Abby's economic investments."
"Oh?" Clarke asked, confused.
Jessica answered Clarke's confusion, "She had one of her boyfriends, Bellamy Blake, hire someone to help pull money out of her and Jake's shared account, to make it look like it was all for financial reasons. Yes, she could have had Banner do that, because it was a shared account of money, but it's interesting that Abby didn't want it to get back to her, so she had one of her boyfriends hire someone to do the dirty work for her, right?"
Clarke shivered. Holy shit.
That was really good to know.
If that didn't sound incriminating, she wasn't sure what did.
Clarke said, "I'm sure now that my father was murdered by my mother. What you found, is that enough to help build a case against my mother?"
Jessica paused and sighed, "It's a lot. But enough that it could be the most incriminating thing? Not exactly. We still need more."
Clarke nodded. "Okay," she said, "Can you get more? I'll pay you more, if you want."
Jessica chuckled, "You don't need to. But what types of evidence are you hoping for? A recorded message of her confessing to the murder?"
Clarke laughed quietly, "That would be good. But I have no hopes for that. Besides, because of how much our legal system sucks, it's unlikely that I'd be able to use something like that in court. But if there's anything else you can find? Something that legally can be used against her in court?"
Jessica nodded. "I'll see what I can do," she said, "But I don't want you to be disappointed."
"How do you know I will be?" Clarke asked, chuckling, "You got further than ever thought you would."
After Clarke left Jessica's office for a second time, she called up her godfather, Steve and asked him if he and Sharon would meet with her for an early dinner. He said that that sounded good and that Sharon also was happy to join. They settled on 5 o'clock, and Clarke decided to take the free time she had, to call Bruce Banner.
She dialed up his number and waited. After a few seconds, he answered.
"Hi, Clarke," Bruce said, sounding startled.
"Hey, Bruce," Clarke said, "Just wanted to see how you were. Especially considering, apparently, you were interrogated by a private eye."
She heard Bruce laugh then.
"Uh, yeah," he said, and Clarke heard the wry smile in his voice, "I'm assuming you hired her?"
"Yeah," Clarke said, "Sorry, did she grill you that hard?"
"A bit," Bruce confessed, "But nothing that I figured would hurt your case. I figured that if she was hired by Abby? Then I'd only be giving her information that already easily could be tracked down. Like Abby trying to get me and Jake to change Jake's will. And Abby having her boyfriend hire someone to pull money out of her and Jake's account."
"Right," Clarke said, "By the way, what the hell, Bruce?"
"I'm sorry?" Bruce asked, startled.
"You should be," Clarke snapped, "You didn't tell me that my mother tried to change the will. And that she had one of her boyfriends have someone pull the money out of her and dad's shared account? Why?"
After several quiet seconds, Bruce sighed, "Because, Clarke, I just wanted you to have a happy, normal life. I don't want you to go after revenge and let it consume your life."
"You don't get to decide that," Clarke snapped, unable to keep the anger back from flooding into her voice, "That's my decision. Not yours."
Bruce sucked in a breath and sighed, "Alright. You're right. It's your choice. Not mine. It's no one's choice, but yours. But Clarke, the things I read today? I followed your instructions and found out what I could about your ancestors, and Clarke? What I found, it's not good."
Clarke paused, for a second, forgetting her anger. "What do you mean?" She asked cautiously.
"What I mean," Bruce sighed, "Is that I found some serious skeletons in the closets of your ancestors. I'm sure you've heard of the crime families that used to rule around this area, right? Falcone. Maroni. Skeevers. Sullivan. Gazzo."
"Uh, yeah," Clarke said, "Who around here hasn't heard of them?"
"Well," Bruce said, again, sounding hesitant, "There's some messed up stuff I found out. Apparently, when those ancestors of yours, Aimee and Jean Lavigne, moved here to Manchester, and bought that plot of land you're now living on, and built the house from scratch, they supposedly got involved with the arms trading work."
Clarke froze. What? What the actual fuck? She came from a family of criminals?
"Are you actually serious right now?" Clarke asked Bruce weakly.
"Afraid I am," Bruce confessed, "I'm sorry to tell you all this, Clarke. Jean Lavigne took up a position, dealing in arms, which infringed on the territories of a lot of the different crime families. So, the different crime families tried to send messages. But this ended badly for them. Because somehow, even if Jean and Aimee had arrived here alone, and had only hired a few people to build the house, odd things seemed to happen to a lot of the different family members of the crime families. All things that were staged, I'm sure, to look like accidents."
Clarke tried to comprehend what she'd just heard. But Bruce wasn't done. He continued, "That's….that's why I'm worried about you continuing like this. I mean, I was worried even before I found out about all this, but this makes me think I have even more reason to worry."
Clarke paused, thinking about what Bruce had just said.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She demanded, "What, you think I have bad blood or something?"
"That's not…," Bruce said, "I'm not saying that. It's just, look at what happens when people go down a path like that-"
"Stop it!" Clarke spat, "You are not my father. My father was taken away from me by my mother. So, unless you have something that can help me bring his murderer to justice? Get the hell out of my way."
Without waiting another moment, Clarke hung up, fuming.
Her family…..they had been criminals? Thugs?
She swallowed hard. She didn't like thinking about that.
But then, it made sense with a lot of the things she had seen in that house, right? Because how else had Jean and Aimee Lavigne been so wealthy, to build such a house and own such a wide property? And how did one explain all the money she got? The only explanation besides the one that Bruce had given her, would be if she came from a family of actual aristocrats.
And what were the chances of that?
A cold shudder went through her and she hugged herself. She didn't want to think about what her ancestors had done, to secure that money.
The money that she now had access to.
She tried to preoccupy herself with mundane activities in the city, till she met up with Steve and Sharon.
When time came and they met at the place they had selected to meet, around 5 o'clock, a small, local diner, they went in and sat at a booth, ordered drinks and food and talked for a bit, before Clarke dived into the more serious stuff.
Clarke avoided talking about the fight she and Bruce had. And she stuck to what Jessica and Jeri had gotten for her. And what the coroner had told her.
Both Steve and Sharon were horrified at all this news.
"My god," Sharon whispered.
Clarke chuckled, "Yeah. Pretty fucked up, right?"
"I'll say," Sharon agreed.
Steve shook his head, "I knew…I knew that your mother wasn't…wasn't a good parent. But this?"
"I know," Clarke said, slumping against her booth seat, "I didn't expect all of it either, and I'm the one that hired them. I mean, I expected them to find something. But to the extent of what they found?"
Steve nodded. "You," he hesitated, "You shouldn't be alone right now. I don't like to think of you in that big house on your own."
"I know," Clarke said and hesitated for a second, before thinking about everything she had heard last night in the woods and she winced. She didn't want to deal with thinking about all those noises in the forest. Not this soon.
"Are you sure?" Clarke asked Steve, "I mean, about if I can stay with you two for a while?"
To Clarke's surprise, both Sharon and Steve nodded.
"Of course, Clarke," Sharon said, reassuring the young woman that had become like her younger sister, "You always can. You can stay with us as soon as tonight, if you want to."
Clarke smiled, feeling warm at the offer of a safe place to go. "Thank you," she said, then thought of the book that she had found with the names of her ancestors in it, "I just need to pick up some stuff from the house, before I take off to stay with the two of you."
"Alright," Steve said, both him and Sharon smiling.
After dinner, Clarke got on her bike and went off to the house. Steve and Sharon followed in their truck and waited outside of the house for Clarke to get everything she needed.
Clarke ran into the house, grabbed her things, including the book full of her family's names, carried everything out, locked up the door, and began heading to the motorbike, when her phone rang.
Clarke cursed quietly, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the phone. She checked the number and cursed again. It was Bruce.
She scoffed, but answered. "What?!" She demanded.
"Clarke, please," Bruce said, "Just listen, I found something really weird out. I thought that Jean and Aimee Lavigne had so much money and that was how they hired people to get rid of their enemies' family members. But what I found out? Was that they only secured their money after getting their arms trading jobs finished. And that only happened, because the Falcone family and the other families were out of the way. So, if they didn't have enough money to pay for assassins, how the hell did they get someone to kill for them? What did they offer in return for getting rid of the obstacles in their path, if not money?"
Clarke frowned, thinking about that. That was…really, really strange. Not having enough money to pay assassins?
Then how the hell had they gotten their enemies' loved ones killed? How had they gotten someone to do that, if not through money?
A new and troubled thought entered Clarke's brain. The thought was a question that asked, (What did my family offer in exchange for someone to get rid of their enemies?) What exactly had her family offered up to these assassins, if not money?