Love and Bootlegging (Book Five)

Chapter 19: Case Closed

I followed Mariah as we marched downstairs and entered into the sewer tunnel. I didn't feel the need to bring out my flashlight, the lights were already on.

"After Margaret died in the riot," Mariah continued. "The Hevans family moved to New York to expand their business. While the brother and the father supported their decision, the sister never supported it."

"But that was when she had met Brooklyn." Mariah continued as she watched the murky water. Quietly, she sat down and stared blankly at the vibrant dark colors.

"You didn't fell in love with him," I said softly. "That's what Creek written in his diary." I calmly sat down next to her and saw a coachroach emerging out of a crack and rushed into the water.

"I did fall in love with him," Mariah admitted. "I just wasn't comfortable around him." "What do you mean?" I asked.

"The night I first met Brooklyn," she began. "I caught Brooklyn looking at me strangely. He didn't treat me like I was a servant or some street trash, he treated me like a lady."

"Creek knew about the affair, and he accepted it without question. My father and brother didn't know about this. Brooklyn taught me how to read and write, but he still didn't understand my past. Nonetheless, we became lovers until the day he disappeared."

"That's when I decided to look for him: he wasn't at home, he wasn't at the Old Crow, or what was left of it, but then I saw him in the library, who was looking for the bottles of alcohol we stored in the basement. He asked my father and Frank about the whereabouts, but they lied to him, saying that they didn't know what he was talking about."

"I watched Brooklyn carefully, while I was putting the books back in the shelves. To be honest, I wanted him to find the bottles and dispose of them. But as much as I hated being involved with my family, I told them where they were."

Mariah later paused as she tried to catch her breath. "I made the mistake of showing him where it was, because the minute he grabbed the bottles, my father...stabbed him in the back two times." Oh my gosh, I thought.

"He made Frank used the tunnel to hid the body while I cleaned up the mess. After the chaos was over, I found the bloody knife somewhere in the trash and planned my revenge. I told Dad that there was a problem with the door."

"I waited for Dad to come inside and stabbed him in the heart. I later dragged his body on the other side of the tunnel and got rid of the evidence."

I reluctantly asked her about Creek. "Creek saw my family getting rid of the body," Mariah explained. "He was just about to tell the world until Frank beat him until his brain suffered from amnesia." So Uncle Seth was telling the truth. "Was it permanent?" I asked. Mariah thought about for a moment before shaking her head.

"I believe that he could remember parts of the incident." Mariah explained. "Brooklyn's death messed his family up so bad that he decided to quit his job as a bootlegger and Ford's manufacturing factory then volunteered to work in Sweetwater Lily for almost twenty five years."

As soon as Mariah finished her story, Dad rushed over to me with a panicked look in his face. "Cleo," he began. "Are you alright?" For the first time, I gave him a happy nod.

"Dad, this is Mariah Hevan, Brooklyn's lover." I introduced. She gave him a warm smile as she stood up from her spot and shook his hand. "You have a very intelligent daughter," Mariah remarked. Dad smiled and glanced in my way.

"You have no idea," he chuckled.

A couple of weeks after I closed the case, Mariah's brother was killed in a prison fight. As the police are now searching for the convicted culprits, Mariah was tried in court and was freed without any charges held against her over the last century.

After the authorities discovered the skeleton along with the secret passageway, they wanted to close the library down, but then a friend of Mariah's convinced them otherwise. She told them it would further increase tourism for Washington D.C. and can even be a part of its industry.

With help of construction workers, the library magically turned into a museum, where people could learn more about the 1920s. Meanwhile, I handed Mariah back her father's treasure as well as the journals written by the brothers.

In return, she gave me a present wrapped in brown paper. My family visits Sweetwater Lily every week, finding Creek telling stories to children while Mariah managed the museum staff. However, the old librarian had been caught drinking during his break and was fired from his job.

Every now and then, Paige began coming over to my house, but rather than talking about boys and other girly crap, Paige mentioned that Uncle Seth is teaching her how to become a private investigator, much to her mother's dismay.

And since Mom and Dad were also against the idea of Uncle Seth teaching Paige, he tells us stories about working with The Expedition when he was only fifteen. Paige and I were sitting in my bedroom, watching Uncle Seth talking about his past in amusement.

"Fifteen?" Paige mumbled to herself. Uncle Seth nodded as if he was telling the truth. "Actually, Cleo's parents formed the duo when they were seventeen." "Wow," she breathed. "What did you do, Seth?" "I hack into computers or steal from enemies every once in awhile."

"Cool," Paige exclaimed. "So, what did Mrs. Hamilton and Mr. Hamilton do?"

"We used our stubbornness, bravery, and intelligence to crack cases."  a voice responded. We looked to see my parents standing near the doorway.

Dad wore a casual white t-shirt and blue jeans while Mom wore a blue blouse, skinny jeans, and sandals. Her dark brown hair reached against her back. They walked into my periwinkle blue bedroom and sat on the bed beside us.

"What were you guys talking about before we came upstairs?" Dad asked.