Patsy Murray Read online

  PATSY MURRAY

  Douglas E Roff

  © 2019 Douglas E Roff

  SUMMARY

  Adam St. James is back again in another exciting sequel of the Cryptid Trilogy Series!

  Adam returns to a new alternate Universe with new characters and a new dilemma as his family, friends and associates puzzle through the odd series of events, murders, and assassinations that have gripped Adam’s life. His family has seemingly gone insane, abandoned him without explanation and forced him to leave home and relocate to New York City.

  His long-time love, Misti Alarcon, has broken off their relationship abruptly and disappeared; Adam is sure his family knows why, but after the murder of Misti’s father, retired Seattle police Sergeant Carlos “Carlito” Alarcon, she goes deep underground.

  Adam, unable to deal with family and personal betrayal, goes into a deep funk that takes years to overcome. When he does, he meets Lola Romano and her family; he proposes to Lola only to lose her in an explosion at her family’s restaurant. With the Romano family murdered shortly after meeting with Misti Alarcon and the Suarez family, Adam returns to Barrows Bay to confront his own family about their knowledge or involvement in those deaths.

  Adam soon begins spiraling down from a severe bout of depression at his loss and betrayal; he heads to San Diego, California to enter a treatment program at the prestigious Tolan Clinic. He meets and becomes close to Patsy Murray, a highly respected genealogist, as the mystery of his family background begins to emerge, causing a cascade effect of consequences for both Adam and Patsy as they are both pursued, but for vastly different reasons.

  A historical mystery of immense proportions, unsolved for hundreds of years, becomes central to the plot, its characters and the resolution of long-held family secrets. Nothing is as it seems and the twists and turns of this adventure tests all cunning and courage that Adam muster.

  Old characters from the Cryptid Trilogy emerge, but with different personalities as the Many Worlds Interpretation of the Cosmos begins to play out.

  The action picks up, the chase and mysteries are on, and once again Adam faces love, lust, danger, and betrayal as he unlocks the mystery of old enemies and rivals now on planet Earth. Are they there to help, hinder or confuse?

  Follow Adam as he confronts dangers from all beings now having a stake in his life and the outcome of the MultiVerse.

  GENEALOGY

  Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.

  The pursuit of family history and origins tends to be shaped by several motives, including the desire to carve out a place for one's family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.

  Forensic genealogy is genealogical research conducted to assist in legal matters. A forensic genealogist can be invaluable in the probate process. In testate cases, there are several reasons research might be required. The estate might not be able to locate an heir named in the will. There may be no other identifying information in the will. A forensic genealogist will analyze the family relationships; identify siblings and search for nieces and nephews until an heir is both identified and located. In addition, in many states, even if the decedent has left a valid will, the estate must notify the potential heirs at law that the probate process has begun. Basically, those who would have inherited if there was no will must have the opportunity to contest, or challenge, the will; the court may require notification of the family members who would have inherited under intestate succession that the process to administer the estate has begun.

  In many cases, the beneficiary under the will does not know every member of the decedent’s family. A decedent may have left their estate to a trusted friend, a distant cousin or even a charity. The executor of the estate may be required to submit proof to the court that all parties have received the appropriate notification. A forensic genealogist can prepare a report outlining a due diligence search for the family members who would have been potential intestate heirs based on the appropriate state’s intestate succession law.

  DEDICATION

  To the Resistance, without which the long national nightmare might never have been brought to heal.

  To American women, you rock! You listened, watched and organized, then voted!

  To people of color and the youth of America, who heard the call and answered in massive numbers to change the fate of America; the country owes you a debt of gratitude.

  Is the nightmare over?

  THE MANY WORLDS INTERPRETATION

  The “many-worlds interpretation,” or MWI, is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that implies that all possible alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual "world" (or "universe").

  In layman's terms, the hypothesis states there is a very large - perhaps infinite - number of Universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes.

  For this book, all futures are undetermined, and, as with all possibilities, the implications of small changes within a specific Universe can have unintended consequences. If God or man tinkers with an established variation of a Universe, the long-term consequences to that Universe are unknowable; think “butterfly effect.” In this book, and other sequels to the Cryptid Trilogy, principal characters appear in an alternate, but very similar universe, to reimagine how the same lives might be different in that new Universe from a ‘baseline’ universe into which that character was originally born.

  In Patsy Murray, as in all Trilogy sequels, the principal characters were initially born in the timeline of the Cryptid Trilogy, but have come back to life as different iterations of that character in each of the sequels. When characters are reimagined, they are given new personality attributes; they may or may not resemble the characters from earlier novels. Good guys can become bad guys. Technically, each sequel re-starts the plot and therefore the characters too. It can be confusing or even disappointing, particularly if your favorite character from an earlier novel morphs from hero to a hideous figure in a sequel.

  The Hindu concept of reincarnation is presented in a nonreligious context as a form of immortality without shared consciousness between lives; the sequence of birth, life, death, and rebirth is ongoing and neverending. Immortality is explored as the basis of partial plot carryover from one novel to the next, beginning with the Trilogy and its characters. Some minor characters in the Trilogy become principal characters in sequels.

  The central character in the sequels and the prequels is Adam St. James, and his personality varies little from novel to novel; everyone else undergoes personality transformation. Gone are the Gens, the Nobilus and the associated characters. The focus in the sequels is on the “many worlds interpretation,” the “butterfly effect” and the presentation of powerful beings as immortals interacting with mortals.

  In this book, the senses feed the brain which connects to the mind. The brain and the mind are not identical and do not have the same function, though they are intimately connected. The mind is comprised of separate conscious and unconscious components, which in the case of one character, and one character only, are fused into one, unlike in the real world. They are merged with positive outcomes, creating an entirely new branch of the human species.

  The basis of the mind/brain relationship in this novel is founded in the “mind/body problem” that has its roots in Greek philosophy and
which has been explored by many philosophers from Aristotle to Descartes to Kant to contemporary philosophers.

  Some aspects of this plot device and others are loosely based on the teachings of Dr. Rupert Murdoch, though for reference only. I claim no detailed understanding of Dr. Murdoch’s teachings of mind/body and fields, though I am an admirer and find his analysis of the separate and distinct roles of the spiritual and the material to be aligned with my own beliefs.

  The alternative view, as espoused by many contemporary thinkers, including my co-author of the Trilogy, might be called the “materialist view”; that is, that mind is part of the brain, and all inquiries pertaining to thought and perception (broadly, the “mind”) can be explained within the context of neural networks and brain chemistry.

  It is my view that “materialism” is the predominant de facto philosophy, or belief system, on the planet today, and is growing in acceptance, notwithstanding religious tenets.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Seven men and four women assembled in London, all genealogists by training and experience, all erudite, well-known and famous in their unique niche specialties; that of uncovering the mysteries of who was related to whom, and how. Their research techniques included the most extensive coverage of rich sources of data not readily available to other genealogical organizations. They used not only data from religious and secular sources, official government records and historical documents, but also the private diaries and papers of the lesser-known personages. Some were highborn or low born but who nonetheless carried a splash of blood from the uber-wealthy, royalty or historical figures in their veins.

  These eleven sat around the huge mahogany table with ornately decorated chairs, white-gloved servants delivering tea or stouter libations to settle the nerves before making the decisions which bound them in secrecy and brotherhood. They were the crème de la crème, not only their chosen profession but of British society, social scions with ‘old money,’ often titled and whose arrogance was unmatched. They had position and standing; the men through knighthood, the women through damehood; many could trace their lineage back hundreds of years.

  This organization, the Societas Regis de Genealogia, was not a membership per se; it was by invitation only, and its members carefully screened and vetted to admit only the best, the superior by blood and birth, and who were proved to be English, and only English, for numerous generations. The Welsh, Scots and Northern Islanders were part of Great Britain, but they did not have the proper blood flowing in their veins. Saxon and Celtic heritage was a plus, but only those whose DNA dated back to the arrival of the Romans in the British Isles were deemed most fit.

  The number of the Soliti in residence, the inner circle of the Society, never varied. There were seventeen in total, but the inner sanctum sanctorum only numbered eleven. A unanimous vote of all eleven, the eleven chosen for the role of leadership, was required for taking actions and making decisions. If an elder of the eleven died or became incapacitated, the next up of the remaining six would assume his or her rightful place. Then the search would begin for the replacement to once again count their numbers at seventeen. A list of candidates was maintained, fully vetted and histories thoroughly researched.

  The seventeen were also members of the principal prestigious genealogical and historical societies both in Great Britain and other countries they deemed “of merit” worldwide. In truth, this was but a euphemism for former British colonies, where often ne’er-do-wells of great families and royalty dumped their fifth or sixth sons, often indolent and usually just ahead of their creditors. “Creditors” was a vague term; in most cases, debt mostly involved gambling losses, the most common affliction of the English upper classes in centuries past.

  As royalty receded in wealth, and industrialists ascended, marriages were arranged to stem the rising tide of poverty among the titled. Marrying a title still had great value, though the subsequent untimely deaths of wealthy older spouses were not uncommon. In the days before forensic science, death could be a random and unexpected event; was it just bad luck that the eighty-year-old widower died months after marriage to a much younger blushing bride? Death in childbirth was also pervasive, and marriage contracts often stipulated where the money from the dowry went. In most cases, the husband took control of family assets; in some cases, the wife held the purse strings even after death.

  In the distant past, royalty fought royalty, Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Catholic. Families of wealth and status on the losing side would often find themselves branded traitors, their lands and property confiscated by the Crown. Henry the VIII had a penchant for doing this to his political enemies along with the rape of the Catholic Church’s real estate holdings. Churches, convents, monasteries, friaries and all properties Catholic became Henry’s property. Suffice it to say; grudges were born. Ancient blood oaths and covenants with God and family to one day avenge this travesty were sworn centuries ago and revenge taken opportunistically, right up to the present century.

  The Society often had a hand in such revenge killings; for revenge to be taken, the identities of the victims had to be established with certainty.

  The practical side of the equation was that many whose ancestors were the cause of the dishonor were themselves now poor and had no means of compensating a humiliation caused hundreds of years ago and mostly lost to history.

  But not to everyone.

  Though only English were worthy in this Society, the Soliti decided years ago that they would export their activities to other countries with similarly disaffected royals. France, Italy, Greece, Austria; in fact, all the European and Scandinavian countries with a royal past could affiliate with the Societas Regis de Genealogia. While such organizations could not be a part of the Society proper, it could still affiliate with the Society. They would function as resources when required; the Society chose targets and helped individuals and families when it suited their goals. After all, intermarriage of penniless royals might find the odd English scoundrel in Austria, Germany, France or Sweden. Their progeny might still be around, and if possible, the Society would locate them and use them.

  The Society’s new business model, perfected over the past one hundred years, appeared to the outside world to be purely oriented to “academic genealogy”; such was not the case. It was something else entirely, and far more lucrative than merely determining who had a second family secreted away somewhere a hundred years ago.

  Their brand of academic pursuit earned millions, billions as the decades rolled on. They had proprietary information; secret historical data no one else knew, the details of which they never shared.

  The Society advanced certain potential heirs while supp
ressing others, all for a fee. And in some cases, they manufactured history that did not exist. Who else could do that without suspicion?

  ***

  “You said the matter was closed with the death of the woman and the child. Now you say that is not the case. Explain this immense failure that has cost us hundreds of thousands of Pounds Sterling. What have you to say?”

  “I have no excuse, but the marriage contract was mistranslated; there were additional clauses left out and only recently retrieved from the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana. Our local brethren missed the addendums. I apologize, but translating old documents is not in my portfolio. Neither is it in yours. I believe you decided to leave this to the Sociedad de Genealogia Espanola. If blame is what you have in mind, look in the mirror.”

  The old man was furious at this catastrophic failure, but his colleague was correct. Rather than use their own resources, they used their affiliate. The result was disastrous, but can still be rectified.

  The younger man said, “We also found other matters to assuage your ill temper. The target’s father and the target are also in line independently to inherit vast sums of money. If we can move quickly, we can kill twice, substitute our own people, and collect three fortunes for the deaths of three relatively unknown Americans and one more old man. None are aware of their heritage; all will be easy marks.

  “Who are they?”

  “Edward St. James, Adam St. James, Misti Alarcon and her father, Carlos.”

  “What do we know about them?”

  “The St. James men live in Barrows Bay, BC in Canada. Misti Alarcon is in the wind; we think she’s connected to the business interests of elder St. James in some fashion. Carlos Alarcon is a naturalized American citizen and resides in Blaine, Washington, near the US/Canada border. The elder St. James is a well-known forensic archeologist and is closely connected to law enforcement globally. The son is a software engineer specializing in artificial intelligence. The Alarcon gentleman is a retired Seattle cop.”