PART 4: More Following & Snooping (Kathryn/Cecillia/Elizabeth/Harry/Mrs Johnson)

The next morning Kathryn was working at the antique shop when Cecillia came in. Kathryn suggested that they meet across the street from the library during her lunch hour so they could talk in privacy and she could sit in the sun. There was a little park with a fountain and now she was sitting there eating her sandwich and chatting with her friend and relative.

"It seemed like you had something important to tell me when you came in this morning and I've been wondering about it ever since. Did something happen? You can tell me," she encouraged Cecillia.

"Well," Cecillia started, staring out across the way, semi captivated by the nice day and all the people walking about town at lunch time. "The other night, something very unreal happened . . . to me . . . which has, in turn, completely changed my relationship with certain members of the household, and with you too, of course. You see, last night," Cecillia sighed . . .

"Last night, Quentin, the ghost of that is, appeared to me. Now I know you can think it a dream if you want, however, I got the impression from it all that I was to tell Elizabeth; I ended up telling Elizabeth more than I had originally planned." Cecillia looked over at Kathryn, just to see if she had a look of anything out of the normal on her face.

"She knows, Kathryn . . . she knows that we saw her in the woods that day; she knows, and to my surprise, she isn't mad, shocked maybe, but not mad. She has allowed me to participate in any further discovery's over this strange matter, and I suppose that I'm here wondering if you'd like to dip your feet in it too. I, of course, hope you don't mind that I had to tell, but if you would have been in my place that night, you would have done the same thing, I'm sure of it."

"Of course I'd like to be involved! Actually we are involved and now we can be more out in the open with it, at least around Elizabeth. I was sure she'd have a good reason for what she and Joe did."

Kathryn lifted her face to the sun and stretched. "I believe you about the ghost of Quentin and I'm glad Elizabeth does too. I'll gladly help anyway I can. We might as well kind of enjoy it while we're at it but, I guess I won't let her know that I find it kind of entertaining."

They sat in silence for a few moments while Kathryn finished her lunch. "I'm so glad we don't have to wonder and worry about Joe Haskell; he was just helping Elizabeth. We don't have to be afraid for Maggie. You can tell Elizabeth that her secret is safe with me......oh, that looks like her now....she's going into the library....I guess I thought she was in town for some shopping."

"Well, I am very glad that you believe all of this, and I am happy that you are willing to help; I know that cousin Elizabeth probably prefers it to be the less people that knows - the better, but I think that you and I were destined to be involved further."

Cecillia searched for something more to say, seemingly running out of conversation for the moment, which was odd. She then noticed her cousin Elizabeth heading into the library across the street.

"Well, she did say that she wanted to do further research on the family, so I'm guessing that she hopes that the library will be of some help; the skeleton that was found, she is trying to find out whom it belonged to."

As she and Kathryn watched the door close behind Elizabeth, she noticed Harry coming around the corner of the library, heading towards the front door. "What is he doing here," Cecillia mumbled to herself, obviously a little louder than she expected, as Kathryn turned to look at her.

At the breakfast table this morning, Harry had heard Elizabeth announce that she would be heading into town to take care of some business. Harry, of course, knew that she was probably going to do something that was associated with her little "issue" in the woods, and he was most definitely going to find out for sure.

As soon as Elizabeth and Cecillia left Collinwood that morning headed towards town, Harry quickly made his way out of Collinwood also, hoping that he would be able to catch up to the women. Once in town, he had spotted Cecillia sitting on a bench across the street. He carefully made sure he wasn't seen, and then waited, continuously looking in her direction, to see if he could see Elizabeth Stoddard walk by.

Not long did he have to wait, as Elizabeth unknowingly walked right past Harry, heading towards the library. He turned the corner and watched her walk inside. Trying not to be spotted by Cecillia, he quickly made his way along the sidewalk and into the library: a place he wouldn't normally be going.

The woman at the desk gave him a funny look, causing Harry to slyly shift directions and head behind the closest book shelf. He walked along the back walls, trying to find where Elizabeth had went. "She can't be far," he thought to himself.

"Isn't that Mrs. Johnson's son, Harry? I met him at the Blue Whale a few evenings ago," Kathryn whispered. "He looks like he might be following Mrs. Stoddard. I'll bet if we asked him what he's doing he'd say he was going to look in the newspaper for a job. I'm wondering why he'd be taking an interest in what she's doing."

She looked at her watch and told Cecillia, "I still have fifteen minutes left; I'd like to make sure Elizabeth is all right. We don't have to accuse Harry of anything; we'll just go in and see what's happening."

The two young women walked across the street and into the library wondering what they'd find.

Cecillia hadn't ever been inside this particular library before, but assumed that Elizabeth would be easily found, as she wasn't looking at anything more than history records. As they walked past the woman at the front desk, she gave them a friendly smile, and then turned back to her work.

Cecillia quickly scanned the areas around her, as they walked along, just knowing that within the next row she would find Harry Johnson poking his nose somewhere it didn't belong . . . almost as she had done those first nights. At a cluster of tables up ahead, Cecillia caught glimpse of her cousin sitting at a far table with a stack of various books and such. "She is over there," Cecillia whispered to Kathryn.

As they neared, Cecillia noticed out of the corner of her eye, Harry hiding behind the bookshelf right beside Elizabeth; though his face was barely visible, she knew it was him. "I think we should go and announce our presence . . . if she wonders why we are here, well . . . I guess we'll have to chose our words wisely." Leading, Cecillia made her way between the tables over to her cousin Elizabeth's table, quickly swooping down into a seat, nearly startling Elizabeth, whom appeared to be in deep thought.

Elizabeth hadn't been to the Collinsport library in years, but it looked the same as she remembered. After dropping Cecillia off at the antique shop, she had visited the cannery and then talked to her bankers. Having done that, she'd gone to the library, parked her car and made her way inside while deep in thought. Accumulating a stack of books, she found a table all to herself near the tall windows. There wasn't much interest in the old records, but it was good they were there. Right away she had noticed some discrepencies between the Collins family version of things and the official records.

She was looking at photos of prominent Collinsport businessmen, officials and community leaders from around the turn of the century when she discovered a most glaring discrepency. That can't be, she thought. This states that Judith Collins was married to a Gregory Trask who was the headmaster of a school called Worthington Hall. He seems to have vanished while searching the woods during a series of tragic events. Hmmmm...the photo shows him in dark clothes and with silvery gray like that of the skeleton. But this is impossible...our records state that Judith Collins never married.

She continued with her reading, vaguely aware that other people were moving around the room. All of a sudden her young cousin sat down in one of the chairs. Kathryn Collins was with her, standing and glancing over at a tall stack of shelves.

"Oh Cecillia...I see you found Kathryn," she whispered. "I hope you aren't ready to go home dear, I have much more reading to do."

"Oh, no I'm not in any rush to return to Collinwood yet; you can have all the time that you need." Cecillia hesitantly looked around, trying to see if she could spot Harry, but couldn't. "Guess we scared him off," Cecillia thought to herself.

"Kathryn here, was just curious as to what you were up to and I figured that we could just come over here to see for ourselves and find out if you have found out anything of interest yet. Of course . . . there may have been other factors . . ." Cecillia looked up at Kathryn, as if to question if they should tell their real reason for being in the library this very moment.

"Elizabeth, Cecillia told me about your talk the other evening. I understand your situation and I'd like to help. We had no idea you were doing anything so ummm...personal in the woods and then I didn't feel it was right to question you at dinner later." Kathryn made a sudden move over to the bookshelves and caught Harry in a position of eavesdropping. Now I'm sure he's following Elizabeth, she thought.
Harry hurried away when he noticed he'd been spotted and Kathryn didn't feel like confronting him in the library. "Elizabeth, do you know why Harry Johnson might have followed you here? I'm sure he did....he just left when I saw him. Why wouldn't he just let you see him and acknowledge your presence if he had legitimate business here?"
She saw the immediate look of concern on Elizabeth's face. "Oh yes, I met him at the Blue Whale the other evening and he was pretending to have had more to drink than he actually had. He seemed to be gathering information about people, especially the Collins family. I know he's new in town and may just be trying to fit in, but I hope you're careful around him."

"I feel bad for Harry, he's made unfortunate mistakes in the past. I am letting him stay at Collinwood because I value Mrs. Johnson and would like to give the young man a chance to make a new beginning. I have been careful around him, I think. Mostly I've tried to avoid giving him temptation to steal things and I didn't consider that he might be trying to discover personal information about the family." Elizabeth sighed. "I can't imagine what he might have seen or heard."

I wonder if that's why I felt that Julia and I were being watched yesterday?

It was time for Kathryn to go back to work. "Cecillia, I'll meet you at the Inn coffee shop at three. If you happen to get a ride back to Collinwood before that, just leave word with Mr. Wells at the front desk," Elizabeth said.

The young women said goodbye and left and immediately she continued her research, putting the threat of Harry Johnson out of her thoughts until later.

When Cecillia and the woman with her entered the library and came up to where Elizabeth was sitting, Harry pondered the thought of if they had seen him enter the library. However, he was more than sure that it was merely just a coincidence, and so he decided to stick around and listen in a little further, upset that he couldn't get a glimpse without getting caught, but satisfied to be able to overhear at least.

Without warning though, he was caught off guard by Kathryn, and without sticking around to hear himself being discussed or getting seen by Mrs. Stoddard herself, Harry quickly fled from behind the bookcase, taking the opposite route out of the library. He didn't realize he was running until the librarian at the desk sneered at him, at which point Harry suddenly slowed his pace, ducked his head, and exited the library.

Just outside the door, he began to head back up the street to where his car was parked, when he heard his name being called out behind him. Frozen in his place, Harry turned to meet the ever familiar voice.

"Harry, how dare you take my car without asking first! Surprised to see me are you? Well then....just as soon as I saw you creeping after Mrs. Stoddard down the stairs....and after she's been kind enough to let you stay at Collinwood....and then grab my car keys from the drawer in the kitchen, I knew that you were up to no good."
She took a deep breath and frowned at her son. "Well, it just so happened that Carolyn was leaving and I got a ride with her. Yes, Carolyn Stoddard and I followed you following Mrs. Stoddard and Cecillia! I can't keep an eye on you all the time Harry and if Mrs. Stoddard has good reason to throw you out of the house, there's nothing I can do to help you. Now Carolyn is aware that you took my car without asking. And what may I ask are you doing following Mrs. Stoddard to the library? Don't deny it; I saw you. And now I see you leaving in a big hurry. I know that look on your face, Harry Johnson. Well what do you have to say for yourself?"

Turning white as a ghost, Harry quickly thought up some story, falling short of the actual truth. "This town is just so dead; I guess I was just looking for something to do, Mother." Harry could sense that she didn't believe him, but there was absolutely no way that he was going to tell her the absolute real truth; if only his mother knew everything he had done in his life.

"I didn't think you'd mind if I borrowed your car," Harry said, looking nervously towards the library door. "Look, I'm sorry, but I have to be going now, okay Mother? Don't worry."

Kathryn and Cecillia happened to hear most of the conversation between Mrs. Johnson and her son.
"I guess Harry isn't so bad; his mother is kind of rough on him," Kathryn said. "We'll just have to watch out for him and make sure he doesn't get anything to use against us...or Elizabeth. Well, I need to get back to work. Call me if anything happens that I need to know about. Elizabeth might find out something from her research soon."

The two young women wished each other a great afternoon and went their seperate ways, confident that Harry had left the area after his encounter with his angry mother.

~end scene~