Summoner: The Book of Dimension

59 Situation At Josh’s Funeral

A day passed and Emma was yet to arrive.

Some people—those that lived near the town—who waited for Emma because of the announcement of the will had no choice but to go to their home since they didn’t intend to wait for long. It wasn’t a problem if they need to be there since they lived close by.

Peter didn’t care much about the will, but he didn’t like that Emma kept the people waiting. When he arrived, there were no more than twenty of them in the lobby. But as the day passed by, people started to come into the mansion.

“The number you have dialed—“ Peter ended the call and so far, he had dialed Emma’s number for the 21st time. He sighed and placed his phone back in his pocket. “Why isn’t she here? People are waiting,” he said in annoyance.

Ray sighed as well. “She should’ve told when she’ll come so people won’t wait.”

“Right?” Peter agreed. “I know the reason coming here should be because of Josh but some people needed to stay because of her. It’s not like we live the same lives,” he ranted.

And he had a point. He greeted other attendees there along with his two friends, and he knew that some of them flew from far away just to visit Josh and hopefully hear for Emma’s announcement of the will on the same day, but she wasn’t there.

Those people scheduled a day to stay since they had other important things to take care of, and now that Emma was still not there, they had to extend and reschedule their flight back to their far home.

Suddenly, Peter’s phone made a notification sound and when he looked at it, it was a message from Emma. “Speaking of,” Peter said in dismay. “She messaged me. Saying she had some things to fix at the last minute so she couldn’t come. She also said she’ll come today.”

Zack nodded. “Well, that’s great to know. People wouldn’t need to wait for long. She better be here today.”

Peter nodded in agreement.

Zack stood up and pointed with the group of people having talks. “I’ll tell them she’s gonna come today, so they wouldn’t worry,” he said and the two just nodded.

Peter looked in the direction of Zack and other people. He was just glad that people had a lot of things to talk about to keep themselves entertained.

“The lawyer messaged us and she said she’ll come today,” Peter listened as Zack started the conversation. They showed a relieved reaction saying that it was good news.

“Josh looked so peaceful,” Ray suddenly spoke. Peter turned to him and nodded with a smile.

“But the bruises could still be seen no matter how cakey his makeup was,” he said. “But did you notice? He looked like he was wronged,” Peter said remembering Josh’s face since last night they decided to see how he looked.

Even though he saw it with his own eyes, Peter still couldn’t believe that it was Josh who was lying there. He looked quite different from the last time he saw him. He had gone a little thinner and his face had a lot of bruises from the accident.

Ray creased his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“He had a frown on his face. I know dead people supposed to look lifeless, but if you will look at his face, it was as if he was mad, he was wronged and he looked sad,” Peter explained with a sigh. “I know it shouldn’t have been his time yet.”

Ray placed an arm over Peter’s shoulder. “I know. But accidents are like that. It’s not supposed to come at the right time. It’s surprising and it’ll come when you’re not ready.”

Hearing that from Ray made him realize that he might not still completely accepted his death after all. He sighed. “I think I still need some time.”

“That’s okay, you don’t need to rush. You’re the one who he was close to. Zack and I know that you two had the closest bond out of the four of us,” Ray smiled encouragingly.

Peter nodded and smiled a little.

Around lunch, just after the attendees that left yesterday came back, a car parked outside the mansion. The three walked out of the mansion to see who arrived, and it was Emma.

“You should’ve told us that you won’t be able to come yesterday. You didn’t have to avoid our calls,” was the first thing that Peter said at her arrival.

Emma gave them a small smile. “I sincerely apologize. I intended to come tomorrow because there has been an emergency at our law firm. But since I can’t delay for more, I tried my best to come today,” she said.

“As you should,” Ray said.

Emma smiled thinly. “Let’s get inside and discuss things with the others,” she said and walked past the three of them.

They followed her and people started talking to each other at her arrival, asking if she was the lawyer.

Peter watched as Emma walked to a table near Josh’s casket. She took an envelope from her briefcase and placed it on top of the table before she let the briefcase stood against the side of the table. She smiled and looked at everyone. “My sincere apologies for being late. I know some of you came from different places and had scheduled yesterday to attend Josh’s funeral and the announcement of will. Right at this moment, I can announce the recipients of the will, however, looking at the attendees, you are still not yet complete.”

“What? Does that mean we have to wait for longer?” someone asked from the group and others agreed to his question.

Emma gestured her hands to tell them to calm down. “Calm down, everyone. But we’re expecting some more attendees. But no worries, they should arrive here anytime soon. They should be here before four in the afternoon,” she reassured. “I ask you all to wait for a little longer and be patient.”

Peter couldn’t believe what he heard. He didn’t know there were that many people close to Josh. He didn’t know he had that many friends or family. He felt a little depressed he didn’t know soon and he was dismayed about himself because he thought he didn’t know much about Josh.

While waiting, Benedict Lee, Josh’s great uncle walked downstairs. He was around eighty and needed an assistant to bring him downstairs. He was old and a little weak, so he couldn’t spend more time entertaining the guests as much as he wanted to. It was the second time Peter saw him ever since he arrived yesterday.

He walked to him and helped the caregiver to put him into a wheelchair. “I’ll take him from here,” Peter insisted. The nurse looked at Benedict and he just smiled at the young nurse boy.

He pushed the wheelchair carefully towards Ray and Zack.

“How are you doing, boys?” the old man asked.

Peter took his chair so he could sit beside Benedict. “We’ve been fine, Mr. Lee.”

“Just call me Benedict,” the old man insisted.

“How are you feeling, Benedict?” Ray asked and adjusting the wheelchair so it wouldn’t roll away.

“I feel...old,” he joked which made the three laugh.

“But Benedict, I have something to ask, actually,” Peter said and waited for the old man to nod. “About Josh. It’s an accident, right? Was the suspect been caught yet?”

Benedict gave him a small smile and he already knew the answer. “The investigation is still going on since police couldn’t find any evidence that could point out to the criminal. No CCTV footages have been recorded since there was no CCTV where the accident happened.”

Peter nodded. It somehow rang the bell, like the ones that he read from that history book of Dimensions. His suspicion was getting high but he couldn’t tell yet until he gathered enough evidence.

“Did he tell something, like, someone threatening him or something?” he asked.

The old man thought but he shook his head. “He never mentioned anything like that, and during his stay here when he moved from your city, he never mentioned having argument or enemy of some sort. Josh would tell me everything, but he never mentioned anything like that.”

“Why are you suddenly asking that?” Ray asked.

Peter looked at his two friends and the old man waiting for his answer. “I’m just asking, just in case. He would also tell everything to me and I thought maybe he shared something to you that he couldn’t tell me.”

The old man smiled. “He always told me about you and I’m sure he will never hide anything from me and you.”

But the whole accident was icky for Peter. He just needed to find evidence that whoever it was, it was going for the Book of Dimensions.

He looked around and noticed something suddenly. It was weird that Josh’s parents were not present and only his great uncle, Benedict Lee, who also took care of the mansion was the only family member there.

Peter looked at Benedict with confusion.