by Starsky Hutch 76
Steve Dayton seemed uncommonly peaceful as he stared out of his window at his estate’s gardens. He turned at the sound of footsteps. When he turned his chair with a mental command, he saw his business manager as he entered the room.
“Questor! How are our guests?” Dayton asked.
“Miss Blossom is, of course, in the greenhouse as usual,” said Vernon Questor, bringing a smile to Dayton’s face.
“And the rest?”
“Miss Blackwell and Mr. Steele are partaking of your movie collection in the theater. Mr. Stoner is in the library. He seems particularly lucid this evening and is poring over his case files. He seems to be very intense, sir.”
“He has to be,” Dayton said. “He has no way of knowing how long these moments will last. And what he’s working on could affect us in the near future.”
“Sir?”
“I believe we are about to re-encounter an old foe.”
“You seem very excited about the prospect, sir,” Questor said.
“Oh, I am,” Dayton said. “I haven’t felt so alive in months… years, even. The house seems alive again. It… it hasn’t felt this way since Rita’s death… the way it felt when she, Garfield, and I were a family.”
“I know, sir,” Questor said, bringing a handkerchief up to his employer’s eyes and wiping away the tears. He had performed this task several times since the accident. It was nice that, for once, they were tears of joy.
The End