WCHB Chapter 9: Purpose Of Visit
"I'm still not sure if this is a good idea, what are we suppose to say to this woman?" Giles asks worriedly as Jenny pulls her car to a stop outside the house where George Reynolds widow lives.
She can't help but smile at his anxiety and tries to assure him, "Rupert relax, I'm not planning on telling her that there are vampires digging up her husband's grave."
"That's a relief," he replies sarcastically. "But I'm still not sure..." he starts to explain but before he can finish Jenny his already out of the car. After a brief struggle to get out off the seatbelt he hurries after her. He catches up with her just as she reaches the front door.
"You ready?" she asks dramatically before ringing the doorbell.
"I just think we should at least have come up with a proper reason for being here first."
Jenny smirks, "So we'll just have to improvise."
Before Giles has the chance to protest again the door opens and they are greeted by a tall, fashionable dressed woman in her early fifties, she gives them a thin warily smile, "Hello."
"Hi, are you Sue Reynolds?" Jenny asks with a warm smile.
The women looks at them uncertainly, "Yes that's me. Are you with the police?"
"The police?" Giles exclaims in wonder.
The women seems to retreat at Giles sudden outburst and Jenny is quick to interrupt before she can shut the door in their faces, "No we're not, I'm Jenny Calendar and this is Rupert Giles, we where wondering if we could talk to you for a second, it's about your late husband, George Reynolds."
"Oh!" the woman exclaims in obvious surprise.
"We don't want to impose," Jenny is quick to add.
"Oh no, that's quite all right, please come in," she offers them but her tone is all but welcoming. She holds the door open for them to enter and then shows them into the living room. The house is impeccably clean and sparely furnished. She gestures for them to take a seat at the couch before inquiring, "Can I get you something to drink?"
They both shake their heads in response and Jenny answers, "No, thank you."
Mrs Reynolds sits down in front of them in a small beige armchair, she straightens her skirt and then clasps her hands tightly and gives them another forced smile as she asks, "Did you two know George?"
"No, no we didn't," Giles answers hesitantly not sure how they are going to approach the subject.
Seeing his hesitation Jenny steps in, "Mrs Reynolds this might seem like an odd question but did your husband own any sort of amulet?"
"Yes actually he did, why?" she asks politely but her posture becomes even stiffer and her knuckles turn white at her tight grasp.
"We where wondering if we could have a look at it?"
Her attempt at seeming unfazed is instantly shatters as she suddenly rises from her seat and shouts, "Why? Who are you people?"
Jenny and Giles are both momentarily thrown by her hostile behavior. Jenny rushes to try and come up with a plausible explanation, "I'm sorry Mrs Reynolds... Rupert and I are big antic collectors and we heard a rumor that Mr Reynolds owned an amulet that might have been an family heirloom from the a..." trying quickly to come up with a good name she notices a vase with tulips sitting on the coffee table, "the Tulip family," she finally blurts out.
Giles gives her a look that seems both amused and appalled but luckily Mrs Reynolds doesn't seem to be paying any attention to the name or Giles reaction, instead she gives a nervous laugh as she blushes and sits back down in obvious relief and rushes to explain, "Oh I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to-o get so offensive. You see, somebody broke into the house yesterday."
"Oh God I'm sorry, if we had known..." Jenny apologizes.
"No that's quite all right. It's just gotten me a little paranoid that's all." The woman's posture is more relaxed but the smile she gives them still seems forced, "I take it this means the amulet would be worth a lot of money?"
"If it's authentic it could be," Jenny answers, trying to be as vague as possible.
"That's a shame. If I knew I wouldn't have soled it."
Giles instantly perks up at Jenny's side and joins in the conversation, "I'm sorry, you say you've soled the amulet?"
Mrs Reynolds looks at Giles in surprise for a moment before she blushes and stammers, "Well, ah... yes, a-a few months ago. I-I held a garage sale with some of-f... George's things."
"Do you know who bought it?" Jenny asks.
"I have no idea," Mrs Reynolds responds crisply, her posture once again stiffening.
"You wouldn't happen to know where your husband got the amulet from?" Giles inquires.
"It belonged to his grandfather, George never liked the amulet very much but it meant a lot to his grandfather and they where very close."
"Could you perhaps describe the amulet, that way we might be able to determine if it was authentic," he presses on.
Mrs Reynolds gives a long sigh before reluctantly answering, "Well I can't say I ever paid much attention to it, it was quite ugly to tell you the truth. It was round and shaped with swirl like patterns in silver and gold. Does that tell you anything?"
"I'm afraid we would need a more detailed description to determine its origin," he states trying not to let his disappointment show.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of any more assistant to you." she announces, rising up from her seat making it clear that their visit is over.
"We appreciate you took the time to speak to us. If you ever to find out who bought the amulet we would appreciate if you could give us a call. We both work at Sunnydale High you can reach us there."
Mrs Reynolds gives them another strained smile while lightly shaking her head. "Yes of course, but I really don't expect to see it ever again. It was nice meeting you both."
They have barely time to reply, "Goodbye," before the door closes.
They exchange a bewildered look as they make their way back to Jenny's car. After getting in the driver seat Jenny states, "Well, that was... weird."
"To say the least," Giles agrees, frowning. "If the amulet wasn't stolen then why did she get so upset when we asked about it?"
"I don't know. I also don't understand why she wants to know if it's worth something if she's not even interested in finding it. Not to mention that she almost threw us out of there. I guess this meeting wasn't much help huh? It actually seems to have made things even more confusing."
"Well we may not have found the amulet but the more information we have about it the better. You know that was a really good idea Jenny, finding George's widow."
"You don't have to sound so surprised."
He gives her a huge grin as he teasingly says, "By the way, the Tulip family?"
Jenny can't help but smile in response, "I panicked, it was all I could think of."
When Giles just continues to smile at her she shakes her head in resign, "We're going to be late."
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Buffy lets out a long sigh where she is sitting at the table in the library with a huge book open in front of her, "Giles this is impossible, there are too many amulets to count and almost half of them have swirl like patterns."
"Yes well, finding the right amulet will no doubt be quite a challenge but the good news is that silver and gold were very rarely used for amulets since it was so expensive and hard to get, so that should narrow our search down considerably. "
"Or it might narrow it down to nothing," Willow comments, "I've already gone through three books and I've only found one amulet made in gold, but that one had a picture of a lion in the middle."
"A yes that would be the amulet of Castrelli, it was used to worship an ancient sorcerer that would bring successful harvest in exchange for..." his rambling comes to an abrupt stop when he realizes that they are all staring at him impatiently, "well anyway it's clearly not what we are looking for."
"That's a shame, I think I would prefer it if Spike just wanted to grow crops," Buffy says in jest.
"You mean Spike and Angel," Xander is quick to add.
Buffy gives him a pleading look but before she can answer Willow once again steps in, "Xander, why don't you look in this book and see if you find anything."
Xander looks at the book he's been given titled Protection Against the Dark Arts and sighs, his anger momentarily forgotten as he mulls over being assigned to read through this momentous book.
Seeing that Xander’s attention has been diverted the rest of the people in the room relaxes, Willow for a slightly different reason than the others.
"Any luck, Jenny?" Giles asks the women sitting at the computer.
She shakes her head in response. "No, the search engine came up with about 130 000 entries. It's going to take me a while to go over them all but so far I haven't found anything that matches her description."
"Well our only comfort is that since the amulet is so hard to trace Spike and..." Giles hesitates for a brief moment, "and Angel probably hasn't found it either."
"Yeah well they still have an advantage, they know what amulet we are looking for," Buffy points out.
"And that is exactly why we need to research any possible amulets that match Mrs Reynolds description. So if all of you get back to work I will go get the rest of the books."
"The rest of them!" Xander exclaims as he looks at the twenty or so books already lying on the table. Both Buffy and Willow groan in dejection, it was going to be a long day.
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Spike was sitting at a big round stone table reading a book titled The Lost Art of Ghouls. He freezes in the middle of turning a page and turns to look at Angel who is standing a few feet behind him watching intently. "Did you need something? Or are you just fascinated by my incredibly good looks?" Spike asks him darkly.
Angel gives him a patronizing smile, "I'm just worried about you that's all. I mean if you think you are going to take out the slayer with the help of Ghouls I'd say you're in big trouble."
"Why Angelus I didn't know you cared so much." He gives him a calculating look before continuing, "Don't worry, I have something entirely different in mind for our dear slayer. But after she is gone I think the Ghouls could be a great help in achieving my... sorry, our goal."
"That's not a bad idea Spike, of course this while only work if you manage to kill the slayer this time."
"You're one to talk. You had her right in the sack more than willing and still you let her get away, all because you wanted to play."
It took Angel all the control he had not to attack Spike right there and then but he couldn't hide the malice in his voice. "Yeah well play times over, so why don't you just fill me in on your little plan so we can get to work.
Spikes smile grows even nastier, "Really Angelus, why so impatient?"
"Because the reason we joined forces was so we could take out the slayer together."
"And we will, it will just take a little while for the plan to be set in motion and until then, you will just have to wait.
Angel takes a step closer to him and leans forward, "Fine. But if this secret plan of yours should fail there will be dire consequences."
Spike face quickly turns from amused to furious, "Are you threatening me?"
"Just some friendly advice." As Angel turns and walks away he can feel Spikes gaze burning in to his back and he can't help but worry that he just made a fatal mistake.
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After spending the entire day in the library looking through books, and still not finding what they where looking for, and the largest part of the evening training with Giles, Buffy had finally managed to convince him that they should call it a night since it was a school day tomorrow.
But school was the furthest thing from her mind as she made her way towards Crown Street 13, the house seemed even more run down than she remembered. As she made her way to the basement she was slightly relived that she wouldn't have to face Angel to communicate with him. His cold and distant demure from yesterday still hurt.
She places the note she has written on the table, putting a piece of wood she found on the floor over it so it won't blow away.
As she steps out of the house her senses goes on alert and she knows there is someone watching her. She looks around the ground but the trees and the high vegetation makes it impossible to discern anything in the dark. She slowly starts making her way home stopping several times to look back towards the house but still seeing nothing.
After a long while later when Buffy has almost reached her own house Angel finally steps out of his hiding place and makes his way into the house to retrieve the note.