Bequeathed

Chapter Twenty-Four: Lunch Date With the Enemy

Claire arrives at the restaurant. She is escorted to her usual table on the enclosed outer area. The waitress hands her a menu; Claire lets the waitress knows that she is expecting another. Three times the waitress shows up to take Claire’s order; three times Claire declines. Even if William is coming from his abandoned building - or wherever Alfred’s is headquartered - William should have been here by now. Claire scratches the goosebumps prickling her flesh. She grows sick from the thought of William lurking behind a bush or in a car nearby by, just watching her. Taking notes so that he can know how best to attack.

She declines the waitress' request to take her order a fourth time.

“Are you sure no one showed up asking for me?”

“No, Ms. White.”

“Did you ask at the front?”

“Yes. Maybe he’ll be here soon.”

“Yes. Maybe. I’ll give him another ten minutes.”

Claire gives it another ten minutes: William doesn’t show up. She orders her salad to go, along with a club sandwich. The waitress brings Claire her to-go bag and announces that the other member of her party has arrived. Claire considers leaving and calling her investigation a bust. She decides to stay, not wanting to be followed out.

When William sits, he leans all the way back in his chair, his eyes roving the restaurant tables, walls, floors; as well as the garden behind him.

“This is pretty nice,” he says.

“Your first time here?”

William meets her eyes. His face grows stern. “I have business meetings here every now and then. It simply surprises me each time how nice it is.” William speaks slowly and deliberately.

Claire remembers the unpaid invoices. It would have served William better to have his business meetings somewhere a little more in keeping with the company’s budget.

“Okay, Princess.”

Claire cringes. There is malice wrapped up in that word. In her other life, Claire had thought that William had called her princess either to provoke her or that he simply hadn’t known better. Now she realizes that it’s meant to demean her. He sees Claire as someone who isn’t deserving of his respect because she possesses the things he envies.

“Why did you want to meet?” he asks. “Have a cousin that needs to fake a marriage so that she can get mommy’s money? Or does she need a boyfriend so that daddy will finally buy her that Porsche?”

“What? I don’t have cousins. Aunt Bev didn’t have any kids. Her parents only had her and her brother…my grandfather. My grandad only had my dad. So I don’t have much family to go around.”

“Sorry to hear that, Princess. I was hoping to have my services pimped out. That’s only if they pay as well as you do.”

Claire lifts her shoulder to her ears. “It’s just me. Nobody else to recommend your excellent services to.” The “excellent” may have been laying it on too thick.

“Bummer. I have plenty family to go around.” William looks away from the table as he says this. The way he says it, it sounds as if he sees family as some kind of weight. Claire recalls their first marriage and his insistence that he does “his part.”

Claire takes a risk. “Tell me more about them,” she says.

William meets her eyes again. “You invited me for food.”

William orders when the waitress comes over again. Claire doesn’t order.

“You know, I was watching you,” William says after the waitress leaves.

Claire’s mouth falls open. Is he admitting to stalking her? She didn’t expect this much so soon. She was hoping to unearth some truth, not get a full confession.

“Earlier,” William adds. “I couldn’t figure out why you wanted to meet, so I was watching you from my car.” William points to his car in the distance. White, simple, a way better vehicle for a stakeout. “I thought you were going to lure me here then call the cops and tell them I was harassing you again.”

Claire explodes with laughter. Her raucous outburst fills the air, flowing through the door and into the restaurant. The man who murdered her in her past life is worried about police officers arresting him for harassment. Claire gathers herself, sobers.

“We got off on the wrong foot,” she says. “I’d like to remedy that.” She extends her hand to him. He accepts it. They shake hands as if meeting for the first time.

***

Claire watches William eat, waiting on the right moment to strike. She wants him to eat enough to be satisfied and become more pliant, but she doesn’t want to wait too long. William may just get up and leave at the end of the meal. She leans in. “Tell me more about you,” she says.

“There isn’t much to tell.”

“Let’s start with your family,” Claire says. “You said that you have plenty to go around. You must have a lot of stories to tell as well.”

“Not really.”

“What about your parents?”

“Dead.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, Princess. You’re not the only orphan at this table.” William cleans the corners of his mouth with his tongue as he considers Claire. He leans back again, creating space between him and Claire who leans forward, closing the distance William has created. She's eager to hear the rest. William doesn’t say anything else.

“My parents died in a car accident.”

“Listen, Princess, we’re not going to compare the tragedies of our childhood.” William pushes himself away from the table. “Thanks for the meal. What was this? Late lunch? Early dinner?”

Claire stands as William stands. “We should do this again.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.”

***

Claire expects the calls to start right away. A week after her “date” with William, the relative peace she’s experienced since her rebirth is maintained. She settles into the quiet too quickly. She starts to think that perhaps it was a rebirth for not only her but for William as well. Claire tells herself that William has learned from the tragedy of the double murder of his past. She tells herself that in this life William’s been made new. That he’s not a murderous, conniving bastard. The calm is short-lived, and so are her delusions because she starts receiving calls two weeks after her date.

Claire ignores the incessant calls at first, but then she decides to answer, to listen for clues, to face the demon head-on.

“I know who you are,” she says.

Breathing. Sharp and menacing.

“Did you hear me? I know who you are and I’m going to the police.”

“You have no idea who I am or what I can do to you.” The caller hangs up. He sounds nothing like William. In her old life, Claire received calls in William’s presence. William couldn’t possibly be home with her while tormenting her from a distance. Someone, somewhere, had known what William had planned for her the first time. Someone, somewhere, knows what William has planned for her this time. Perhaps they can be turned against him. She will have a witness this time. Things will be different.