Chapter 3

Aaron Stemple walked from the county courthouse to his office. He was a lawyer now. His great grandfather had owned a Mill in Seattle, he had a working relationship with the Bolt brothers' company, although, it seemed that there were very few original descendants of that family. Aaron's grandfather and great grandfather had taken great pains to keep their family together and in control of their inheritance. But still it would be nice to work with an actual Bolt like Jason or even Jason's son Robert who had run the company until 1968 when he retired and set off to find his ancestry in Scotland. Aaron chuckled a bit about that. His father would have laughed about it too. To go back and buy back a piece of land in another country! How absurd! But, with the Bolt's you never knew.

He reached his office and was just hanging his coat when the phone rang.

"Stemple here!" He answered, as he sat down with his second cup of coffee

"Mr. Stemple, this is the Yelm Morgue, we have a Miss Biddie Smith here with instructions to call you if she passed away suddenly."

"Yes, thank you, I will call you later with instructions. I will have to look at the will…." He continued until he realized that the person on the other end of the phone was saying something. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that?" Aaron asked

"Sir, there is some problem with the time of death. It seems that she was murdered."
Aaron was dumbfounded, Miss Biddie murdered? Who would want to murder her? Just then there was a knock on his door, and he realized he had to get the door.

"I will call you back later this day at this same number?"
"No, sir, my boss Sarah will be answering your call. May I tell her a time?"
Aaron looked at his watch. He knew Sarah, in fact he had dated her once in High School.

"No, I will contact her. Thank you."

The knock came a third time. He got up and walked to the door. He looked out the door and saw three small boys, well one small boy and two bigger ones.

"P-p-Lease sir, we need h-h-he-help" He looked down at them and said:

"What kind of help would you need from a lawyer?"

"Our mother is in jail and there is no one to help her." Said the oldest boy.

Aaron looked at them and then the middle boy spoke:

"It seems that mom was the last person to speak to some lady, what was her name?" He looked at his brothers,

"Bitty smith?" said the youngest

Aaron's ears perked up. He said to them:

"Please come in and would you boys like a soda or something.

"No thank you sir, our mom is more important." They all said in unison.

Aaron ushered them in to the office and as he was about to sit down an unsavory character happened into the office.
"Oh, there is where those scallywags went to! Now you boys come here, and your uncle Will is going to take you home to watch over you!" he smiled but there was something not right about his smile.

Aaron was looking and watching, he walked over to his desk acting as if he did not care what was happening.

Jeremy the youngest was the first to back up and stand beside Aaron. Joshua said nothing but backed up nest to Aaron on the other side of him. Jason, the oldest then said:

"You are not our uncle! We have never even met you! "Jason stood up to the tall man and was about to put up his fist when Aaron stood up behind his desk, both Jeremy and Joshua scurried behind him.

"Mr…"

"Harmon, Will Harmon!"

"Yes, of course, Mr. Harmon, do you have anything from their mother that says you are related?"

He looked at Aaron and then slowly pulling a gun out from his belt he pointed it at Aaron.

Aaron looked at him, Jason stood there scarred Jeremy, being the smallest noted that there was a red button under the desk. He slowly reached for it and pushed it. It made a loud noise which was just enough for Aaron to push Jason out of the way and knock the gun out of Mr. Harmon's hand. Just as it went flying to the side of the room, the security guard came in and grabbed Mr. Harmon.

"Thank you, Jim!" Aaron said as he stood up and brushed his shirtsleeves off from the scuffle.

"Do you want to press charges sir?"

Aaron thought about it and then he said: "No, that is all right, I will allow it for now. Mr. Harmon, if you come within 100 ft of these children or their mother, I will help them to get a restraining order on you faster than you can count!"

"Don't worry about that Aaron Stemple, because we Harmons have a score to settle with them Bolts!" He spat at Jason then walked out of the office.

Aaron sat down and thanked His friend Jim. He decided to take the kids out to lunch and see if Sarah had a place for them to stay.

"What do you want for lunch?" He asked the boys

They all looked at him and then Jeremy looked at Jason and Joshua looked at Jason, they all looked at Aaron and in unison said: "Hamburgers and fries!"

Aaron smiled and he took them out of the office, and they went to the hamburger place down the street. After he had ordered, he called Sarah, yes, she was available and would be there in 15 minutes. He ordered for her as well.

Candy sat in the holding cell, she did not know how she was going to get a lawyer, she was worried about her children, they would not know where to go or what to do. A lady cop walked in and walked over to her.

"Hello, my name is Holly Houston, I am going to have to do something you probably won't like but it has to be done!"

Candy looked at her and started to cry.

"Now Mrs. Walton. Don't worry, we will be done in no time, and it won't even hurt!" She said sympathetically.

"Mrs. Walton, you can call me Holly, I know what it is like being a single parent, I was one once a long time ago, although I was watching my nieces and nephew at the time. I felt so guilty about doing something really wrong, that I turned myself in to the police and guess what?"

Candy was still unhappy, but she said: "What?"

"They didn't think I did anything wrong; I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time! There, we are done, and you will be out of her soon and reunited with you own small children probably with more help than you think you deserve." Holly said this with an encouraging smile and left.

Candy sat alone on the bench once again. She had never been in jail. She had friends from the reservation who had been in jail. But she had not done what they did. She was commiserating her situation when another police officer came and said she could leave, her bail had been posted. She asked who and he said the person was upstairs waiting for her.

She followed him to the stairs and went up the stairs and out the heavy metal door. As soon as they saw her the boys all ran to her and hugged her and she greeted them with a smile and joy in her heart.

Jason was the first to let her know:

"Mom, we found a lawyer for you and guess what he knows who the Bolt brothers our great-great Uncle's!"

She smiled and looked at him. "I Candy Walton and you are?"

I am Aaron Stemple, your lawyer."

"I am pleased to meet you Mr. Stemple." They shook hands

"Call me Aaron, this is my friend Sarah, she will help to put you up for the night."

"Hello, may I call you Candy? Your boys sure do speak well of you." Sarah was a plain woman but beautiful in her own way, with blonde wavy hair she was also tall. She led them out the door and to the car in the parking lot.

Aaron stood there looking at them. Wow, 'almost like a 'family' reunion' he thought. Then he turned around to catch a glimpse of Will Harmon with his son Toph. They were looking at him with large smiles that belied something was going to happen. Aaron just kept walking, seeing Holly he went to her and walked her out of the building.

"You know, Grandpa used to say one day we would get even with the Bolts' and maybe Mr. Stemple as well!" Will said to Toph

Toph chuckled and said that he had some really good things planned to do to them for what they did to their great -great uncle!