PART FIVE

"This is Maddie Collins for the Boston Six O’Clock news." Ally's other daughter was on TV this time. "I am now standing outside the very courtroom where just a few minutes ago it was revealed in court that Jeremy McBride was once a member of the self-same Devil's Cult which three years ago threatened to blow up five of Boston's most prominent churches and cathedrals in return for a ransom. This now leaves both prosecution and defense to wonder if the so-called Coffee House Murders could be connected to that unsolved case or if McBride is now trying to get a plea bargain to release info he knows in that case. The police are now going to re-question him as the current trial is put on hold for a new thorough investigation. This has been Maddie..." Billy Alan Thomas turned off the law firm’s TV as he smirked and turned to look to Ally standing insecurely behind him. Ever present Nell Porter folded her arms a bit as she tried to find a reason in the new twist.

"Why do I think this will get worse before it gets better?" She mumbled out loud.

"Well," Billy shoved his hands into his pockets. "John and Nita get back this weekend from their trip and maybe the work load will shift a bit."

"I talked to him." Ally admitted. "This thing with my daughter has emotionally drained me." She looked up to Billy. "He's going to take over the case for me so I can take a break."

"Where are you going to go?" Nell was a bit warmed over in the last few years.

"I was thinking of Collinsport." The once fragile lady lawyer admitted strongly. "Georgia needs a break. She needs to get to know who her father was. To rediscover who he was..."

"Take has much time as you need." Billy looked at her as Ally hugged him. He squeezed her back as Nell approached and gave Ally a much needed hug too. She grinned to her and realized how far they had come together and supported each other as she realized whom her friends were. Ally gasped a bit reflectively as she stepped out of the conference room for John's office. As she did, Corretta lightly glided across her path.

"Ally," She lifted her head. "I heard your daughter dropped her case. What did you say to her to make her change her mind?"

"It was her decision."

"Oh..." Corretta stared at her for a second then forced the question out from her mind. "You didn't really..." She lifted her eyebrows.

"Kill my husband?" Ally rolled her eyes a bit and continued walking as she refused to comment on it. As she walked away, Corretta wondered on the answer as she felt a slight chill for a second. She thought about it a second and then scoffed at the mere notion. William Benjamin Collins was a prince in a world where there were so few. Ally loved him more than anything. Continuining on her way, the tormented woman who was once Allison Marie McBeal just re-entered John's empty office and motioned for the desk. She picked up a few papers that Julie must have left for her and then felt a slight chill dance up her spine in the otherwise empty room. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention as her mind recalled that sensation.

"Oh god..." She gasped. "You're there, aren't you?" She slowly turned around and looked behind her toward the double doors of the office. She recognized the person standing there in a black suit and blue tie looking at her and checking her out with a beaming broad grin. Her hallucinations had never died away, but then, it could have been his spirit too. He was heavily into paranormal research when he was alive. His image had returned to her at least ten times in the last twenty years.

"You're a bit hard on our daughter, aren't you?" The late William Collins appeared as young as he was the day he died in her arms.

"Why don't you ever appear to her?" Ally asked his shadow as she again wondered if it was his ghost or another of her returning hallucinations.

"You know it doesn't work like that." He answered. "I don't think she'd even recognize me."

"Still got an answer for everything..." His wife pulled her hair back as she wanted to hold him. "Look, I think I've been doing a great job without any help from you. I mean, you're buried all the way up there in Collinsport and your daughters are running wild. Lainey's off in California with your first girlfriend singing on TV and Maddie's..."

"What this thing between you and Larry Paul?" William turned his head up. “I thought you considered him a… what was it? A pinhead?”

"Don't you go changing the subject!" Ally reacted a bit upset. "It is very hard to take care of two... no, three daughters. I know Maddie wasn't yours, but it was your idea to adopt her and she did think of you as her father before you went off and got yourself killed and what are you grinning at?"

"I'm just remembering how adorable you got when you became fierce." He grinned at how much he was in love with her. Ally lost her train of thought as she forced a grin and a childlike smile.

"How is Georgia doing now?"

"Well," Ally continued. "She's... confused. She went to see someone about it."

"My mom sent me to see you." Georgia Angelique Collins was in another building in Boston. The skyline was behind her in the window as she sat up straight on a sofa and tried to explain her thoughts.

"You see, my father was murdered when I was six years old," She continued. "And I just recently learned that he wasn't killed in the way I had been lead to believe. After all these years, I’d been lead to believe that my dad was killed while trying to save my aunt's life, but now it turns out that she was the one responsible for killing him. Apparently, she was a little... Messed up. I don't know how to handle it. She was in love with him and had been trying to replace my mother and I never really realized it. I'm... having a hard time trying to accept it and my mom..."

"Stop right there." Dr. Tracy Clark wrote something in her pad and then shifted her weight in her seat. "First, tell me a bit about your father..."

END