The Hidden Legacy

4:30 pm,” I told him.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he drawled.
I caught myself grinding my teeth and with an effort, unclenched my jaw. “Thank you.” I spun on my heel and went to see if the caller on hold had waited.
Thus began two weeks of hell at the agency.
The man seemed determined to annoy the crap out of me in whatever way he could. After a few days, calls started coming in for Henry as well as Edmund. If Henry was in the office, I transferred the calls and buzzed them through to him.
If he was out, I took the messages and left them on his desk with a neon colored sticky note, as I did for Edmund.
Henry strolled past me one afternoon and told me—in his Southern twang—that he hated bright colors. Then he crumpled up the notes, dropped them in my wastebasket, and strolled off.
Undeterred, I began texting him his phone messages when he was out of the office.
I don’t know why I bothered, he rarely returned those messages either...which meant I was faced with an ever growing list of very annoyed people on the phone. In retaliation I taped a huge hot pink note on his desk informing him that if he did not start returning his calls or acknowledging that he had received a text from me about a client—that I would start giving out his private cell phone number—so the callers could reach him directly twenty-four hours a day.
Edmund laughed off the neon note thing, shrugged over Henry’s lack of organization, and I tried not to let it get to me. I suspected it was all an enormous ploy by Henry Walker to annoy the hell out of me, and damn it, it was really working.
My sister called me in a panic at the end of the second week of insanity and asked if I could watch the baby for a few hours. I knew Edmund wouldn’t mind, and Henry was out doing whatever it was that he did, so I told her to drop by the agency.
Kayleigh blew into the office. She had her two month old with her, a diaper bag, and a portable crib.
“Sorry!” she plopped the diaper bag on my desk. “The babysitter has a bug, and Curtis is showing houses this morning.” She balanced the baby in one arm and set the port-a-crib on the floor with the dexterity only a mother of small children can manage. My sister was tall and stunning. You’d never have guessed she’d had a baby a few months ago. Her brown hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail, but her gray eyes were tired.
“Rough night?” I asked.
“Just when I thought I had her sleeping through the night.” She blew her bangs out of her eyes and held the baby out. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Gimme,” I said, reaching for my niece. I tossed a burp pad over the shoulder of my black summer dress and held the baby, while my older sister bustled around and got the baby stuff all set up. While Kayleigh tucked a bottle in the mini fridge and told me the last time the baby had eaten, my niece stared solemnly up at me. “Hi Maddie,” I said and kissed her cheek. One side of the baby’s mouth lifted up, which made me grin.
“Curtis should be finished by noon,” Kayleigh said. “So he’ll swing by and pick up the baby, and go get Margot and Eli from daycare this afternoon.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
Kayleigh lifted her head and sniffed the air. “Damn, that coffee smells wonderful. I’d kill for a coffee.”
“There’s the machine in the back, help yourself.” I glanced up from the baby and smiled as Kayleigh groaned dramatically. “You can have a decaf while you’re nursing,” I pointed out.
“Don’t have the time. I’m late for my dentist appointment...have to get that stupid cavity fixed. Thanks again Hannah, I owe you.” With that, she blew me a kiss and bolted out the door.
Maddie seemed content to be held, so I sat at the desk with my niece tucked in my arm and worked my way through the case files Edmund had asked me to review. There had been a few more burglaries in the affluent Oak Hills neighborhood. One, I realized as my stomach sank, only a few doors down from where my sister lived with her family.
I felt a little tingle at the base of my neck and my clairolfaction kicked in as I read through the files. I picked up on the scent of stale beer, and smoke. Not cigarette smoke—smoke from a fire. Concerned, I read through the case files carefully and noticed that the local police still didn’t have any specific leads, though they believed it was a group of people working together.
The scent of smoke stayed with me, so I swiveled the chair towards my computer and typed in a search one-handed, checking to see if there was any mention of fires, or even if there were any active arson investigations in the area.
“Hmmm,” I murmured as Maddie waved her hands and kicked her feet, “I think this may be more than a few teens looking for a thrill.”
Maddie responded with a gurgling coo and a gigantic yawn.
“I know, right?” I said to her, and jolted when a shadow fell across my desk. Henry Walker stood blocking the light from the front window, and frowning down at me.
“We take on a new client while I was out?” he drawled.
“In a way,” I said calmly. “I’m emergency babysitting for my sister. Her husband will be here to pick up the baby in an hour.”
Henry grunted at that. He stepped away from my desk and spotted the open case files. “Are those the files from the Oak Hills Homeowners Association?”
“They are.”
“Why do you have them?”
I made sure that when I spoke my voice would be pleasant. “Edmund asked me to look them over.” I waited to see if he would make a rude comment about