Summoner: The Book of Dimension

60 A Piece Of Evidence

Before Peter’s wonder became a suspicion, he decided to ask Benedict. But he waited for a chance since his friends were still talking to him.

“He believed in elves when he was younger and had an imaginary elf called Foxy,” the old man said with a chuckle, shaking his head. “That kid even offered the elf pancake every end of the month.”

Peter smiled. There would be a high chance that Josh encountered a real elf. Now that he knew other creatures could exist, he couldn’t doubt anymore.

He looked at the two who gave him a smile. He smiled back at them thinking they were thinking the same thing as him. “Every kid would believe such thing,” Peter commented. “But we’ll never know., maybe what kids are seeing were true.”

Benedict nodded. “I agree. I still remember this memory of mine when I was younger. I caught a glimpse of a fairy by our garden. Until now, I’, not sure if it was a fake memory or I really saw one.”

“I guess it would depend on how you believe it,” Peter said and looked around. “Few people are coming by. I didn’t know Josh have that many friends and relatives. He only told us he’s surrounded by few relatives, saying his family was small.”

The old man nodded again. “That’s true. Our family is small and we’re scattered around the world so even if we’re few, there wasn’t much to gather. One reason why many people come by is that he made a lot of friends ever since.”

That was the time Peter thought he should ask about Josh’s parents. “Josh actually told me about his parents. May I ask why they’re not here?” he asked carefully.

Benedict sighed. “His parents actually lived in Alaska. It makes me stressed, actually. They were normally out of reach. They’re too busy that sometimes it takes us a few months before we contact them,” he said and added, “Ms. Emma Bently was Edgar’s lawyer and she became Josh’s lawyer, too. Emma insisted to be his lawyer, she said it was a promise she made with Edgar.”

“Josh didn’t tell us that,” Ray asked and Zack nodded.

“Yeah. How long since she became Josh’s lawyer?” Peter asked.

“Just recently. A month ago, she came to us and insisted to work for Josh. That grandson of mine didn’t hesitate and accepted her, since he thought he needed a good lawyer someday. When she told us about Josh’s will, she insisted that she’d do the work to contact people who would attend his funeral. One of those was his parents,” Benedict said and looked at the direction of Emma who was trying to make a call.

Peter looked in her direction and had brief eye contact with her before Emma looked away. “She’s the one who’s contacting his parents?” he asked.

Benedict nodded. “As of now, she never heard from them yet.”

Peter nodded and looked back at Benedict. “Did you try contacting them yourself?”

The old man thought for a while and shook his head. “I didn’t. I trusted Emma to do it for me since I’m not familiar with today’s technology,” he smiled. “I’m too old to use them.”

Peter felt something weird about Emma. The way she entered his life one month before he died. As much as he wanted to point the fault at Emma, he still couldn’t tell. It could be a whole coincidence that suddenly Emma came to Josh to be his lawyer.

He was glad he couldn’t add Benedict as a possible suspect behind Josh’s death. Based on how the old man told stories about his memory with Josh, he was greatly attached to his grandson. And based on some of Josh’s story about his great uncle, he was greatly attached to Benedict as well.

Few people started to arrive again, some of them introduced to be Josh’s friends. One of them was a man named David Colt. He looked cool and around their age. He was dressed as if he was from a wealthy family, too.

David walked to their way, and Benedict had a pleased smile on his face, the same one he made when he met Peter, Ray, and Zack last night.

“Benny grandpa!” he playfully approached and Peter watched him carefully with a small smile. He hugged the old man and finally turned to the three. He smiled. “Hey, man,” he said, individually giving the three a handshake.

“I’m Peter. This is Ray and Zack,” Peter introduced and gestured his hand to the two.

David nodded and smiled. “Excuse me, I’ll go see him,” he said, pertaining to Josh.

Peter continued to watch David’s way to Josh’s casket. David lowered his face a little to look at Josh’s face. When he saw the guy take a handkerchief to wipe his face, he looked away.

A few minutes later and he came back in their direction, his eyes slightly red and sniffing. “I was meant to fly here yesterday but I have to sort some stuff in my country so I couldn’t come.”

“That’s fine,” the old man patted his shoulder.

“I didn’t tell earlier, but Josh told me a lot about the three of you,” David started. “I actually knew him when he came back here. I was just planning to go back to my country. When I did, we kept in touch. Although he was busy, I always called him.”

Peter thought he should’ve done the same. Maybe he’d know if there was someone suspiciously hovering near him. “Did he tell you something about someone possibly threatening him or something?”

David’s eyebrows creased and shook his head. “Nah, he never told me anything like that. He also never showed any frustration over someone or something. Why?”

Peter smiled and shook his head.

“What’s on your mind?” Ray whispered to Peter.

He only smiled. “I’ll tell you when I’m sure,” he whispered back.

Soon, when they were slowly losing interest in the conversation, someone came. She was dressed simply in pants and a black shirt and she had a troubled face. When she entered the lobby, she looked at their direction and walked to Benedict.

She gave him a hug when she got to him and silently sobbed. Tears started to well her eyes and she wiped it before it could even roll down her cheeks. She looked at David and let go of the old man before she went to hug David. “What do I do?” she asked him but he only rubbed her back to calm her down.

Seeing what was happening made Peter feel uncomfortable and flustered. She noticed them so she broke away from David and quickly wiped away her tears. She laughed embarrassingly as she sniffed. “I’m sorry about that,” she said to them.

“No, that’s okay. Please don’t be,” Peter said.

“Yeah, we understand,” Ray smiled warmly. “May we know who…?”

“Oh, I’m Violet. I’m the girlfriend of Josh,” she said.

The three gasped and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you,” they said.

Peter offered his seat and took another for himself. She smiled and sat on the seat he offered and sighed. “I don’t want to see him yet,” she chuckled sadly. “I don’t think I have enough courage to do so right now.”

“We understand. We’re like that, too, at first,” Zack said.

She sighed. “A day before he was found dead, we got into a huge fight. I resisted not opening my phone for a week. It was until today when I decided I should. I was waiting for him to come to me, but he didn’t. My ego was the greatest.”

The five men listened to her silently and attentively.

“I immediately drove here when I got a call from Miss Emma this afternoon, right when I finally turned my phone on. I thought it was a prank so I ignored her but she called again and she told me to come over so I did,” she said with regret filling her voice.

Peter glanced at Emma and she was still busy with her phone, trying to contact someone. He thought it was Josh’s parents.

“Now that he’s gone, I don’t know what would I do now,” she said and added with despise, “Whoever did this to Josh, that person needs to be in jail.”

David gently patted her back. “Don’t see him now if you’re not ready,” he said and looked at Peter. “I don’t think you could handle it yet.”

She breathed heavily and rubbed her face. She looked up at them. “Does it look bad? Does it show on his face?” she turned to Peter.

Peter and the others nodded slowly. “David’s right. I think you should prepare yourself first. You wouldn’t believe it.”

She closed her eyes and tried to relax her breathing. “If only I opened my phone earlier, then it should’ve been stopped. He should’ve been still alive now.”

Everyone looked at her in confusion. Peter asked, “What do you mean? Did Josh tell you something before he died?”

Violet nodded. “When I opened my phone today, I saw missed calls and voice messages from Josh ever since he couldn’t contact me. Most of them only told me to come back and meet him, but aside from that, I received a surprising message from him.”

Peter knew that he was near the answer the moment he knew about the text message. He would soon know who was behind the accident.