The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (3)

The next day, Lilly brought one of her father's diaries to school and sat under the trees, reading it, during recess. She stumbled over some of the bigger words, and wrote them down in her notebook so she could check the class dictionary when she went back inside. If they weren't in the class dictionary, Riley would know the meanings of them.

She also walked to the town library after school, a huge, ornate building with stained glass windows in the main reading room. It took her ten minutes, and talks with two librarians, before she could find the section of the reference room where the books on the law and justice system were shelved. The books were huge, thick and heavy. She looked at the most recent volume of the ever evolving lesser crimes laws, and started reading through the definitions and various punishments. Out of curiosity, she checked the laws concerning theft, and was dismayed to see that Nina's mother would have to spend a lot of time in prison.

Lilly went home with that volume under her arm, along with two other books that the librarian had recommended to her. One was written primarily for a juvenile audience in mind, specifically those who were in high school and considering different careers. The other was a book called A Layman's Guide to Law written by Anthony Suthers, who was a member of the magistrate in charge of evaluating the systems of laws and punishments every year along with the national assembly.

Riley glanced down at the books Lilly had taken out from the library as she went over to the table to do her homework. "So you got the new edition of Father's old book," he said. "And let's see...Oh, I remember that book." Riley smiled as he picked up the book about detective work as a career. "I remember reading this one when I was your age. Maybe my name's still on the library card." He opened the book to the card pocket in back. "Hmm, not there...Guess this sees a lot of circulation."

"And then there's this one," Lilly said, holding up the third book. "I heard Kayla say something about going to a speech this Anthony Suthers was doing."

"I've heard of him," Riley said. "Apparently he's relatively young, and in tune with the times. It's because of him that we've had some of the more severe lesser crimes reclassified as dangerous ones with an appropriate punishment." He opened the book and began to thumb through it. "Mind if I borrow this for a little while?"

"Yeah, I don't mind," Lilly said. She slid the career book towards herself and picked it up. "I'm going to take a bath, so don't disturb me."

"You're going to take that with you?"

"I'll be careful. Don't worry," Lilly said.

After her bath, Lilly crawled into bed and continued reading the book, but fell asleep with the lights on. Noticing her, Riley tiptoed into her room, carefully took the book from her bed and laid it on the table, and switched her bedside light off.

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Tuesday morning, while Lilly was at school, Riley received a phone call from Thomas Franklin. "We haven't seen you in a little while," he said. "Would you and Lilly like to come over for dinner?"

"Would we? That would be perfect!" Riley smiled. "I'll let her know when she gets back from school."

Later that night, Lilly and Riley walked down to the Franklin household. Riley had gotten a small basket of fruit for the greengrocer for the dinner party as a thank you gift, while Lilly was carrying a board game that she had decided to lend to Oliver.

The Franklin household consisted of Joseph Franklin, his wife Betty, their two sons Thomas and Oliver, their daughter-in-law Rebecca, and their grandson Samuel. Oliver Franklin was the younger brother of Thomas. He was about a year and a half older than Lilly, and the two of them had spent a lot of time playing together when the Rowley family had come over for dinner. Rebecca Franklin had been a file clerk at the magistrate's main offices where she had met Thomas, and the two had been married about a year ago. Once Samuel was born, Rebecca left the magistrate and decided to devote her energy to raising Samuel—and hopefully many more siblings to come.

"Oh, good evening!" Betty opened the door and smiled broadly as Riley and Lilly arrived. "Thanks so much for coming. What a lovely fruit basket!"

"Thank you for having us, Mrs. Franklin," Riley said as he hung his coat on a peg of an antique carved hat stand. Lilly handed hers to Riley while she ran into the sitting room where Oliver was sprawled on a braided rug in front of the fireplace.

Joseph Franklin came into the front hallway from his office. He had worked for many years for the magistrate, at first as an assistant to the confessors and then directly for the prosecution's office, where cases were built against greater criminals before their trials in front of the judges. He was a man with a face etched into a permanent scowl, but inside lurked a soft heart for children—especially his first grandson. "Glad you could join us, Riley," he said, shaking hands with him.

"It's always a pleasure," Riley said. "So, tell me. What's been going on lately?" he asked. Even in retirement, Joseph had contacts with the magistrate's office, through both his former colleagues and through his son.

"Well, the evaluation's coming up soon," Joseph said. "And I believe Suthers is going to make a major announcement about repeat offenders." The two men went into the sitting room, where Lilly was setting up the board game for herself and Oliver to play. Thomas came over and decided to join in.

"Suthers, huh? I've been hearing that name a lot lately," Riley said. "What's he like? I've heard he's really fair and just."

"If you ask me, the guy's a fanatic," Joseph said. "He's got one goal in life, and that's to eradicate all crime. Even heard him speak?"

Rebecca Franklin entered, holding baby Samuel in her arms. Immediately Joseph brightened up. "There's my little guy! Come on, Grandpa wants to hold you!" he said, gleefully, as Rebecca placed him in his waiting arms.

"So, how are you doing?" Rebecca asked as she sat down next to Riley. She was a somewhat plump woman with short strawberry blonde hair. Right now, Riley wasn't sure whether Samuel would be taking after his mother or his father just yet, since both of them had light colored hair and blue eyes.

"Well, I've got an interesting case now, but you should hear about the one I was just working on," Riley said, as he started describing the missing jewelry case to Rebecca. Thomas, Lilly and Oliver listened in as they continued to play the board game that Lilly had brought.

"Wow, that's sad," Oliver said, as Riley got to the part where Nina's mother had completely broken down in front of her daughter. "To hear that from your own mother..."

Lilly nodded. "Yeah...and now she's going to have to go to jail for a while. I think at least a couple of years, and pay restitution."

"Huh, didn't know you were up on law," Thomas said, as he picked a card up from the stack.

"I looked it up yesterday," Lilly said. She was about to start talking about how she was going to study detective work and how Riley gave her the three days to decide when Betty came in from the kitchen and said that dinner was ready.

Dinner that night was roast beef, served with mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy (from Betty's secret family recipe, passed down from generation to generation of women in her family), glazed carrots and a tempting looking cherry pie for dessert. Riley was glad that he didn't have to cook, and Lilly was glad that she didn't have to eat her bro's cooking, and both of them were glad to eat with friends. Riley sat with the older Franklins at the dining room table, while Oliver and Lilly shared the kitchen table. "So what else has been happening over at the magistrate?" Riley asked as Betty passed him a bowl of mashed potatoes.

"Well, there's been some talk about the effectiveness of our confessors," Thomas said as he dished himself out some carrots. "Apparently there've been some scientific studies out that suggest that people can lie under hypnosis."

"But it's supposed to be infallible, right?" Betty asked. "At least that's what the scientists said before they adopted it."

"It's still very controversial in some of the more traditional circles," Riley said, as he cut his slice of roast beef. "My father was against it when they first started using confessors, but it was better than what they used to do."

Joseph shuddered. "I'm glad the confessors came along. The human body can only withstand so much." In his early days in the magistrate, confessions were still beaten and tortured out of criminals—a practice that was quickly stopped when an arrested man, who was later found innocent, died at the hands of his interrogators.

The conversation between the adults was muffled by the walls of the kitchen, where Lilly and Oliver were discussing school and career thoughts. "I don't think I can follow my father and brother into the magistrate," Oliver said. "I've seen it in their eyes...it really stresses them out and makes them worry. I want to do something more...creative."

"Like what?" Lilly asked.

"I don't know. Maybe become an architect, or something." Oliver toyed with his food. He was going to be twelve in a few weeks time, and had asked for some new construction sets to add to the ones he already had for his birthday. "What about you?"

Lilly paused halfway through her food. Would she and Riley someday be like that? Her Papa never seemed stress—in fact, detective work and helping people out was something he enjoyed. "I don't know yet," she said.

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With dinner finished, stories shared and the cherry pie cut into pieces and devoured, Riley and Lilly got ready to depart the Franklin household, only to discover that it was pouring rain out. Riley let out an exasperated sigh as he heard the pattering of the drops on the slate pathway.

"Just our luck. We didn't even bring umbrellas," he muttered.

"Here, you can borrow mine," Thomas said, handing his to Riley from the umbrella stand. "I'll be by tomorrow to take it back."

"Thanks. I appreciate it," Riley said. "And thanks for having us. Dinner was superb, Mrs. Franklin."

"Yeah, I enjoyed it very much," Lilly said. "Thank you for letting us come!"

"You're very welcome," Betty said as she gave the two of them a big hug and kiss. "Now, be careful on your way home."

The two of them waved as they ducked outside and under the umbrella. The streets were saturated, and water was gurgling down a storm drain as the two of them hurried home. Riley inwardly cursed himself for having forgotten to bring umbrellas for the two of them—he hadn't thought about checking the barometer on the wall before leaving earlier that day.

As the two of them came close to their house, they saw someone standing outside on the front step. From where they were standing, Riley and Lilly could tell that they had been standing there quite some time. Upon realizing who it was, Riley broke into a run, leaving Lilly behind.

"KAYLA!" he shouted.

Kayla turned. Her beautiful blonde hair, saturated with water, had darkened to a mousy brown and her clothing was completely soaked. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her body shook with sobs. She was holding a soggy looking bundle to her chest. As Lilly dashed over to catch up, Riley put an arm around Kayla and held the umbrella over both of their heads.

"Kayla—Miss Shepherd," Riley said, his voice straining with concern. "How long have you been out here?"

"I have to talk to you. Now," Kayla sobbed.

"Then let's get you inside," Riley said. He unlocked the front door of the house and urged Kayla inside. She removed her saturated jacket with shaking hands, and kicked off her waterlogged shoes. Riley turned to Lilly.

"Go upstairs and get me two towels," he instructed. "And also get one of my clean nightgowns."

Lilly nodded and dashed upstairs to retrieve the items.

"How long were you out there?" Riley asked as Kayla peeled off her stockings.

"I don't know...must've been an hour," Kayla said. She handed the bundle to Riley. "Don't open this yet. Put it aside. I don't want Lilly to see it," she said.

Riley nodded. "All right." He set the bundle on top of the bookcase just as Lilly came downstairs with two of her own bath towels and one of Riley's clean nightshirts. It was a simple flannel nightshirt with pinstripes. She handed the towels to Kayla directly, who started rubbing her hair down with the smaller one. The larger of the two Kayla wrapped around herself. "Thank you," she said, her voice squeaking.

"Get undressed in the bathroom," Riley said. "You can put this on." He handed her the nightgown and pointed in the direction of the bathroom. "I'll make some tea and you can tell me what's happened."

Kayla nodded. She walked towards the bathroom and shut the door, leaving puddles on the floor from her socks.

Lilly had never seen Riley look so serious. He went into the kitchen, grabbed the tin of chamomile tea from the shelf, and put the kettle on the stove with a loud bang. "Tea set," he shouted to Lilly. "Now."

Without hesitation, Lilly dashed to the cupboard and assembled the tea service. She placed it on the coffee table just as Kayla emerged from the bathroom.

Riley's nightshirt was way too long on her—she was holding the hem up with one hand while the other held the towel wrapped around her hair in place. "I left my clothes on the drying rack in there," she said, haltingly.

"Thank you," Riley said. As Kayla slowly shuffled her way towards the couch, he poured her a cup of chamomile tea. Lilly stayed at the entrance of the kitchen, silently watching, until Kayla looked up and noticed her.

"Lilly...I need to talk to your brother in private," she said. "I know you want to help me, but..."

"That's all right. I understand," Lilly said. She went over to Kayla and hugged her tightly, causing Kayla to tear up again. Kayla whispered "thank you" as Lilly let go, then watched and waited as Lilly mounted the stairs and entered her bedroom.

A few seconds passed before Riley found his voice. "Please, tell me what happened," he said.

Kayla swallowed, nodding. "I finished work about two hours ago. I got home, unlocked my door, and discovered something on my floor. It was broken glass. And when I turned the light on, I discovered it was from the photo frame I had on the wall of me and my late boyfriend. It had been knocked to the floor, and..." She went over to the bookcase where Riley had set the bundle she brought. "I'll show you." She took the bundle down and laid the cloth on the coffee table. Carefully, she untied the cloth, and unfolded the cloth from what appeared to be some sort of wooden handle.

Riley gasped at what was uncovered.

The sepia toned photograph in the broken frame contained a younger version of Kayla standing next to a taller man in a dark suit. The image of the man was marred by several vicious slashes and scratches, and part of the photo where the man's face would be had been covered by a red rose—which had then been run through by a pocket knife.