"So," said Prue, "you were our grandmother's Whitelighter."
"For many, many years," said George smiling. "It's nice to finally meet the three of you. Oh, I was around some while you were growing up. But Penny felt it was best if I didn't interact with you. She was trying to protect you from demons."
"That sounds like Grams," said Piper.
"Considering how Grams felt about men," said Phoebe, "I'm surprised she had a male Whitelighter."
"Witches don't always get to choose their Whitelighters," said Leo.
"Leo, you sounded urgent when you called for me," said George. "I assume you need my help for something. Something that involved Penny."
"He told you that?" Phoebe asked. "How could he do that? He never left the room."
"Telepathy," said George. "All Whitelighters can communicate with each other and with the Elders."
"That is so cool," said Phoebe, smiling.
"So, how may I be of assistance to you?" asked George.
They quickly filled him in on what had been going on. They showed him the athame the warlock had been looking for and of the story the warlock had told them. All the while George sat listening, no emotion showing on his face to betray what he might be thinking.
"That's very interesting," said George.
"Interesting?" questioned Prue. "Is that all you have to say is interesting? Grams was a powerful high priestess. You don't honestly think she turned evil, do you?"
"I don't really know what to think," said George. "The last couple of years of her life Penny began to act very strangely. She began doing things that didn't make any sense. I'm not saying it's because she turned evil. I'm just saying she did things that weren't in character for her."
"Like what?" Leo asked.
"She began shutting me out," said George. "I would ask her what she was working on and she refused to tell me. She even put an enchantment on the attic so I couldn't orb into it. And she kept the attic door locked and carried the only key with her everywhere she went. She even had a special hiding place where she kept items of particular importance. Once she locked me out of the attic I wasn't sure what she did with those items or what others she might have put with them."
"Well," said Prue, "we found her hiding place. That's where we found the athame and the other items we told you about. But not much more than that. And it doesn't get us any closer to the truth than we were before."
"I see," said George. "Penny was an expert of sorts on the Salem witch trials."
"That's what Jessica told us," said Piper.
"All I can tell you," said George, "is she suddenly became obsessed with it after seeing an article in the newspaper."
"Which article?" Piper asked.
"I'm not sure," said George. "She mentioned it to me but I never saw the actual article. At first all she did was write letters and make phone calls. Then she began to get very secretive about it all. She never neglected any of her responsibilities, but she spent every spare minute working on it."
"We think she was tracking someone who was killing the descendents of the prosecutors from the Salem witch trials," said Leo. "Whatever that article she read was it must have alerted her to whomever was doing the killings. Since there have been no more murders since Penny died we think she may have vanquished him or her before that."
"That would make sense," said George. "Although it does seem kind of strange. Penny never had much good to say about the prosecutors. She thought they were bigoted, narrow-minded people."
"Yeah, I remember," said Prue. "But their descendents are innocents. She would have protected them no matter what their ancestors may have done."
"That's true," said George. "So, why don't you show me what you have? Maybe we can figure this out together.
They showed all the items they had found hidden in the attic to George, including the picture with Grams in it. He carefully examined everything as if he were a forensic scientist trying to piece together a puzzle.
"That photo," George said indicating the newspaper photo with Grams in the background, "it was about that time she became so secretive. Maybe that's the article she read."
"But what changed?" Prue asked. "There's nothing in the article that might indicate who the killer is."
"Nothing we can determine," said George. "Maybe there was something Penny recognized that we don't. She was an expert on Salem, remember?"
"Jessica thought the same thing," said Piper. "That maybe there was something that tipped Grams off that might not mean anything to anyone else."
"I remember Jessica," said George. "She and your mother were very close. And they shared a lot of the same opinions. Except as I remember it Jessica disliked the Salem trials even more than your grandmother did. If there were something that tipped Penny off I'm sure it would have tipped Jessica off as well."
"Well," said Leo, "the athame isn't much help. Other than the usual arcane writing there aren't any identifying marks that might identify who it belongs to. If Grams took if off a warlock or demon there's no way to figure out which one."
"That's unusual," said George. "Virtually all of these types of athames have some type of identifying mark. Warlocks are notorious about wanting credit for what they do and whom they kill. But I can't find anything that might be called an identifying mark."
"If we just knew what it was that first made her suspicious,' said Prue. "Then maybe we could figure out who's doing all this."
"What did you do with the rest of the items she kept in her hiding place?" asked George.
"Other items?" questioned Prue. "This is all there was. What other items did she keep in there?"
"I'm not really sure," said George. "She never let me see. I do know she kept other items in there. Especially when she became obsessed with this. But she refused to tell even me what it was."
"There really wasn't much more room in there," said Phoebe. "It was just big enough for that metal box?"
"What are you talking about?" George asked. "The false bottom is much bigger than that. It would be able to hold a lot of items."
"False bottom?" Prue asked. "Grams' hiding place was under a loose board on the floor, wasn't it?"
"No, it wasn't," said George. "That chest over there." He indicated the chest where Phoebe had first found the Book of Shadows. "It has a false bottom in it. She used it to protect items she didn't want found."
The girls looked at each other and Leo. They had been through the chest several times. But none of them had thought it might contain a false bottom. Hurriedly, they moved to the chest and began to remove the items in it. When it was completely empty, George reached in and pressed on one corner. The bottom of the chest pushed up at an angle and he pulled it out.
"I'm sorry," he said. "When you mentioned her hiding place I just naturally assumed you meant this. I didn't know about that loose floorboard. But this is where she kept things that were very important to her."
Cautiously, he began to remove items from the false bottom. There was a large black book, several robe-type items, two athames similar to the one they had found in the metal box underneath the floor, several candlesticks with black candles in them, and a small notebook. Leo and George looked at the items, a look of shock on their faces.
"What is all this stuff?" Piper asked. "Grams was a high priestess. Could this be some of the stuff she used for her rituals?"
"I hope to God they aren't," said George. "This isn't possible. She was a witch. There's no reason for her to have these."
"Take it easy, George," said Leo. "There must be a reasonable explanation she had these items."
"What's with you guys?" Phoebe asked. "You act like you've just seen a ghost."
"No, not a ghost," said George. "Something far worse. This could explain so much. Her obsession, the changes she seemed to go through, all of it. I can't believe it."
"Believe what?" Prue asked.
"Those items," said Leo. "There's only one reason to have them. They belong to the most evil of warlocks: a Dark Priest or Priestess. And George is right. There's no reason for Penny to have them. Unless she had turned to evil. It looks like she wasn't tracking someone killing the descendents. She must have been killing them herself."
The sisters just stared at Leo and George in utter disbelief.
