Episode 1: Graver and Graver Still

Episode 1: Graver and Graver Still
by Toni Walker

It had been quite a day. First, his flight was late, then there was a detour on Old Route 67 and now his sister's grave marker was proving to be harder to find than he anticipated. Jaxx Sinclair had called ahead to find out exactly where his sister, Joy, had been laid to rest, but this couldn't possibly be the right place. It was a hole. A very large, very empty hole.

He needed to find the manager and he wanted a damn good explanation for moving his sister's grave... if it had even been there in the first place.

The graveyard wasn't quite as eerie during the day as it could have been at night. During his walk to find the manager, he discovered his sister's tombstone leaning up against an old shed on the outskirts of the cemetery. Joy's tombstone was shiny and new, unlike the other statues surrounding where she had been buried.

Jaxx rose from his knees after examining the stone. In his hand was a single white rose, a rose he didn't know where to put to remember his sister. Gazing down at the polished marble, he placed the rose atop the hard gray surface. It had been two years since the accident. It was so hard to believe. Two years since his sister, Joy, was in a car hit by a drunk driver. To him, it still seemed like only yesterday.

As he walked to his Jeep, weaving in and around the stone markers, he saw her. A blond woman in white crying over a tombstone. Jaxx desperately wanted to know what made such a beautiful woman spend so many hours weeping over a grave. If he wasn't mistaken, that was Paul's wife. And Paul had been in the car with Joy when the drunk driver hit them. Both had died instantly. Jaxx wasn't even sure he had ever met the wife of the man that had once been his friend.

He had an illogical impulse to wrap his arms around her and let her know it would be all right. But, of course, that impulse would be foreign to him, he lived in a world where things were never all right. But still he wanted to let her know life would go on -- at least for her.

For some reason, he held back and didn't confront the woman in white. He didn't go to comfort her, instead he rounded to the other side of the Jeep. An object near his front tire reflected the afternoon sun. It tore his attention from the woman in white.

The locket was sterling silver. Inside were two photos. One was of Paul Cooper. He'd known the man for years and that was definitely Paul's mug smiling inside the small charm. The woman on the other side of the locket took him aback.

"What in the hell?" He squinted at the picture. It was Joy.

Now he was more curious than ever. The dug up grave. The locket. What did it mean for his sister? What was really going on?

He had to find out.

***

Charlotte "Charlie" Cooper hurried back to the little cabin through the woods that had been hers and Paul's alone. She and her husband had so loved this little cabin. It was their sanctuary, their haven from the world. Now all it did was remind her of all she had lost.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks. The pain was still so new even after two years. It made her mother, Norah's matchmaking all the harder to take. Norah Scott had already set a plan in motion that would land Charlie the richest man in town. But she wasn't the least bit interested in Wayne McKenna. Didn't her mother realize that? Didn't her mother realize she couldn't possibly start another relationship so soon after Paul's death?

Paul was her world, and now that world seemed to be tumbling around her.

She glanced out the window and could see Wayne McKenna ambling up the walkway.

"Oh, no," she cried. "Mother, what have you done now."

Charlie didn't know what to do. She didn't want to seem rude, but she didn't want to give Wayne the impression that she was looking for a date with him. Not that he wasn't handsome, and had money, but she just hadn't gotten over Paul yet. She didn't know if she ever would.

Wayne knocked on the door. Charlie peeked through the window and he asked her to let him in.

'It's very important that I talk with you, Charlotte." Wayne was cryptic, but then again, he was always cryptic. But it didn't stop the hairs from rising on her neck.

***

Muse Williams couldn't believe the news she was hearing. Charlotte Cooper's husband had barely been in the ground two years and now she was attempting to snare the richest man in town? The nerve of that twit! Muse could hardly believe it when she heard the news from Marcey Chamberlain, her best friend.

Wayne was hers and hers alone. Everyone knew that. Everyone knew to stay away.

Or she would make their lives a living hell. Charlie was about to discover exactly what hell was really like.

Her cell phone rang just at that instant. It was Marcey.

"You are NOT going to believe who just pulled up in Charlie's driveway. It's him! And she's letting him in!"

Muse couldn't control the scream that emitted from her mouth as she grabbed her keys and headed for the door.

***

Jaxx needed some answers and he knew of only one place to get them – from Cole Dalton. The Sheriff's office in Park Ridge wasn't the LAPD, but it would do in a pinch. Cole was sitting at his desk with his feet up reading the morning paper. He stared at him over the top of the sports section.

"Oh, my good Lord. Look what the cat dragged in." Cole laughed and shook hands with Jaxx. He didn't verbalize it but Cole knew something wasn't right with his old friend. "What are you doing back in Park Ridge?"

"What are you? The welcome wagon?"

"Stalling already? Yeah, I think I was right. My psychic cop powers are tingling all over the place."

"I came to visit my sister's grave and that's it." Jaxx couldn't meet Cole Dalton's eyes.

"I don't buy that for a heartbeat," Cole told him. "You vowed never to set foot in this town again. And you meant it. What's really up with this return visit?"

Jaxx handed Cole the locket. "What do you make of this? I found that near where my sister was supposed to be buried."

"That's strange." Cole fiddled with the locket.

"What?"

Cole showed Jaxx a secret compartment inside the locket. They were amazed what they found inside."

"I think our friend, Paul has a secret life we didn't know about." Cole closed the charm. "Let me keep this and do some checking for you."