Ten feet in front of him stood Julian Blessing. No one else could see it, but Julian turned his hand and in his open palm he held two shotgun shells.
Chapter Thirty-nine
The Garda arrived and took charge of Daniel Lanigan. The detectives had a lot of questions for Julian, which could have been uncomfortable, but he managed to dodge the thorniest of them. They did remind him he had overstayed his visit to Ireland and would have to leave and reenter the country in order to stay.
They advised him his testimony would be needed when the case went to trial and he assured them he would make himself available.
The chief inspector suggested Sean Maher come to see him in a few weeks. Funding had become available, but the Garda had been unable to enlist anyone for the post in Cappel Vale. They hadn’t thought of recruiting locally.
Mayor Cahill apologized profusely to the authorities. He claimed he did not know Julian was using the police station for his home. The mayor summarily and with all the public display possible, had all of Julian’s things removed only to have them returned as soon as the Garda were gone with their prisoner.
***
The professor wrote to Julian saying the Minister for Arts and Culture declared the treasure cave to be a valuable archaeological and cultural site that would need to be acquired by the Republic for a detailed scientific and archaeological assessment. The professor was to be appointed to head the project.
Using the contacts he had made while in Dublin, Julian founded a foundation that allowed the villagers to borrow money for expansion. Soon there would be a flood of historians and archaeologists, both amateur and professional, coming to Cappel Vale and they would need places to eat and sleep and otherwise spend their money. Everything from extra rooms to full-scale bed and breakfast establishments were planned.
After the experts, the flood of tourists would arrive. The mayor spent most of his days calculating the revenue from year-round tourist dollars.
***
One evening, after the Garda left and Cappel Vale returned to its new normalcy, Julian found Moira and the Squire standing in the old woman’s garden talking quietly. Julian greeted them and asked, “How did you know?”
“It was Jimmy Grogan,” Moira answered. He saw a man following you out of the village and up toward the holy well. No good ever comes from a man skulking around with a shotgun. Jimmy had the sense to raise the alarm.”
“How is it you didn’t know it was your son?” Julian asked. “How is that possible? You had to know. He had been weakening you for months, perhaps years. You must have been able to sense him.”
“And that, my friend, was the problem,” Moira said. “My power had been eroding for some time. I agree it was probably well over a year. It was a tiny drain at first, not noticeable except when I look back on it now.
“Still, I had no reason to attach a presence to what was happening. I put it down to aging or a dozen other things. He is a clever boy and patient it seems. In the early days, he nibbled at the edges. There was never enough of him to sense.
“As time passed, the balance tilted in his favor. The weaker I got the stronger he became. By the time he showed enough of himself, he wasn’t who he had been. I was well past being able to detect him by then. When you arrived, I could hardly detect you.
“That’s when I knew I was in a bad way. I had no sense of you and sensing you is like being able to see a cow in a duck pond. A small duck pond.”
“Blessing, isn’t she a charmer?” the Squire said with a grin. Julian just shook his head.
“You were saying something, Padric?” Moira turned her glare on the Squire.
“Me? No, I was only saying Julian here shouldn’t interrupt you. Do carry on.”
The glare lasted a few more pointed moments then Moira continued. “Even if I could have sensed something, I don’t know that my mind would have run in that direction. In the millennia those like us have been here, nothing like this has ever happened.
“Daniel was self-taught. It’s obvious he had some natural ability, but he perverted what he had and stole what he needed. He must have observed me and then in the years that followed, he pieced things together for himself.
“When we entered the field by the Holy Well – that was the first time the full weight of the thing fell on me. Standing there looking at him, well, even then I couldn’t separate my boy from the horror of the man in front of me.”
Julian prompted, “That day when we drove up to look at the mounds and we saw the white truck. It was him. You felt something, and Sean and I saw it, but you didn’t…”
“What I felt was malicious and violent and vicious. There was no person attached to it. His being, everything good in him, had shriveled up.
“That, Julian, is one of the reasons you are here. I didn’t understand that before. Even if he hadn’t disabled me, I could have never faced him. You did what I could not. You looked inside him and saw what he had become and why.
“I am his mother. My boy has changed. When I first saw him, I felt the evil he had done. But when the time came I would have only seen my son, our son. I would have drawn back. Even if it destroyed me, all of us, all of this,” Moira let her arm sweep across the village, “I would have drawn back but you never would.
“Even now I am not able to say our son is evil, although most will say so. He has however, done unspeakably evil things. Evil thrives in the darkened corners, Julian. You listened to the echoes through the mist and were able to see and feel his anger and his hatred and his fear. You found his weakness and exposed it to the light.
“You had the sense to know when to draw the power you needed from your friends. In doing all of this, you brought a village together. You galvanized them into taking action against an evil and in support of each other. It may not seem that way now, but take it as read. That is what happened.
“I couldn’t have done that,” Moira continued. “You learned all your lessons well.”
“This was my challenge, my task?”
“Yes, in part. Sadly, I can see it clearly now. Fat lot of good it does us, eh?”
Julian only smiled.
”Your task was far larger than I knew and had I known, frankly, I would have doubted your ability to rise to it. I would have doubted anyone’s ability.
“You transformed a village, Julian. You brought them together and used their strength, their goodness, and their power to overcome something terrible. In a few years, Cappel Vale would have died. Daniel would have stolen the only chance of survival it had. Its death would have been slow and painful. You changed all that. You showed us all a different reality.
“You managed to transform yourself too,” his teacher said. “In your spare time, you managed to get some poor daft girl to fall in love with you. All that makes for a neat trick, don’t you think? Maybe you’re a wizard after all.” Moira smiled.
“You know I will have to testify against Daniel even though there isn’t much I can tell,” Julian said.
Moira looked into the face of the squire and smiled. “We understand. We are hoping to avoid a trial altogether, but I don’t know if that is possible. Destroying himself in order to strike at us, is that a defense? Daniel allowed, perhaps ordered, men to be injured and killed. There is no defense for that, nor should there be. Our plans for his protection may come to nothing. We don’t know.”
Moira Hagan took the Squire’s hand in hers, “We each have our part to play. We understand that now. I wonder though, do you?”
“No,” Julian said. “I’m just an eejit.” The three of them shared a smile.
***
The next day several large trucks piled high with lumber arrived. Julian found Sean Maher and together they led the trucks west of the village to Liam McMaster’s farm. Julian ordered the lumber unloaded. In a separate truck, a surveying gang set to work and within moments McMaster rushed from his fields arriving in a rage.
“You’ll stop right now, ya dirty spawn!” McMaster shouted.
“Because you are on me property for one thing and because if you don’t, Oi’ll knock you down for another.”
The placid expression evaporated from Julian’s face as he said, “I see it is object lesson time.” Sean took a step back instinctively.
Julian thought and McMaster’s face lost all color, “For months you have been busy selling out your fellow citizens. Payback is a real bitch. You are about to discover that.”
Julian continued in a clear even voice. “I bought your mortgage. Because of all your missed payments, you’re a bad credit risk so the building society was happy to sell me this place cheap. You are standing on my property. Leave. Now.”
McMaster’s face twisted in anger and he bunched his fists. Sean grinned maniacally and prepared to rain down a cataclysmic first strike, but Julian shook his head. His gaze was steady and never left McMaster’s face. Julian said aloud, “You used your right arm to lay the belt to your boy, right? And your right hand, I’ll bet you never scuffed your knuckles when you punched his face a couple of dozen times.”
Confusion, then terror, consumed the farmer as his right arm went into an agonizing spasm. The hand began to contort violently and McMaster screamed and fell back cradling his arm and mangled hand. Julian looked away, the farmer dropped to his knees gasping for breath and the pain stopped.
Julian said, “McMaster, stay on your knees you piece of shit, until the people from the government finish removing your son.” Julian threw some documents at the farmer. “Custody and protection orders. They asked me to give them to you.”
Julian nodded formally to the driver as the Child Protective Services car passed. Julian’s gaze moved to the back seat where Bobby McMaster sat with a public health nurse. The boy’s face was battered and bruised and one eye was swollen shut. Julian could not bring himself to look at Farmer McMaster for fear he would destroy this malignancy of a man on the spot.
Without raising his voice above the farmer’s whimpering, Julian said, “Go McMaster. The paralysis will leave your arm soon, but the pain is something you’re stuck with. There is nothing in your house you need. Everything we empty out of there will be given away. Your son will be a ward of the State. He will remain in a secure institution for the rest of his life. He is to be placed in a safe place from which he will be unable to snuff out another life and where you can never get at him. Now get out of my sight.”
The man rose from his knees and still cradling his arm, he ran away.
***
Sean and Julian walked the property in silence and returned to the trucks that were still unloading building supplies.
“Sean, do you have a coin with you?” Julian asked.
The big man reached into his pocket and retrieved a one Euro coin. He handed it to Julian and Julian pushed a sheaf of papers into his friend’s hand.
“What’s this then?” Sean asked, confusion etching his forehead.
“Sean, use your head, boyo. What the hell am I going to do with a farm and a kennel? Jesus, do I look like a farmer to you? I am going to make free with your property though.”
“These men are going to build a very nice house over there I should think. On this side of the road will be Brendan’s kennels.
“The house is, well, something special. The kennel is a business venture.”
More baffled then before, Sean looked at his friend.
“You and the family will be living in McMaster’s house up there. I would have it fumigated first, but that’s your call.”
“You don’t think he’ll be back then?” Sean asked.
“Ah, Sean my friend, I don’t think you fully grasp the situation. Farmer McMaster’s troubles are just beginning. I think he will be in prison very soon and if he makes it out of there alive, this isn’t a piece of Ireland he will ever want to see again.”
“Julian, what is this kennel business? What are you going to do with a kennel?”
“Oh that. We’ll I’ve entered into a joint venture with your son. I purchased the Irish Valor Kennel in Wexford from a gentleman who wanted to retire from the dog training, breeding and showing business. Brendan says the man has a large number of very fine dogs.
“Your boy will bring the operation to Cappel Vale and run it from here.”
Sean Maher, a giant of a man, sniffed as tears brimmed his eyes. “You are as wonderful, generous and daft a friend as any man could hope to have.” At that point, he embraced Julian in a bear hug that forced the wind out of him and caused a squeaking noise to emanate as Sean began to dance around crushing his friend.
Chapter Forty
For services rendered to the Republic, Julian was allowed to remain in the country for three additional months.
He convinced Ailís to arrange for a replacement through the summer. Together she, Timothy and Julian made frequent trips to Dublin and the surrounding areas. When Timothy was helping on the Maher’s new home, Julian and Ailís would travel the countryside staying at grand hotels and modest bed and breakfast establishments. They visited the lakes of Ireland and the island’s rugged coastline.
With each outing, they would return to Cappel Vale with a new piece of medical equipment for Ailís’s surgery. At first, it was supplies, but that soon turned into larger and larger pieces of equipment. Her pride was a portable X-Ray machine. Following that was a telemetry unit that allowed her to share various readings with any hospital in the country.
As with all new love, Ailís and Julian felt the need to be constantly in each other’s company, to touch and be touched and to make love incessantly. Ailís avoided asking about the training Julian had received from Moira Hagan or about the abilities he had exhibited.
There was, however, a question everyone wanted answered and no one dared ask. How did the shotgun come to be unloaded? Surely, Daniel Lanigan wouldn’t enter that clearing without being prepared.
To the residents’ way of thinking, there were two possible answers. Either the nearness of the holy well had been responsible for a miracle or Julian Blessing provided some sort of assistance, the exact details of which no one wanted to delve into too deeply.
Julian heard the whispering and found it odd that Moira wasn’t mentioned as a possible cause. She was away in Dublin and he had occasional charge of all things inexplicable.
One evening after they had made love, Ailís did ask, “Did you know the shotgun was unloaded?”
Julian’s answer shed no light on the matter. “I knew it would be.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, but here is another you had better answer. Why did you ask me to trust you?”
“Timothy and you were in danger, real danger. You warned me that I could not afford to get it wrong and you were right. I knew I couldn’t do it alone though. I needed your trust, your courage and your love. I could never have done anything otherwise.”
“And that leads to the next question. What is it you did?” Ailís asked.
“You mean recently?” Julian reached for her and said, “Here, let me show you,” and he grinned.
***
Over dinner a few nights later, Julian took her hand and announced, “I need to go away for awhile. The government requires me to leave the country, but it will only be for a short time. There is also some business I need to finish. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Their lovemaking that night was agonizingly slow and excruciatingly tender. Each took every opportunity to caress every inch of the other. No matter the frenzied lovemaking they may have had before, this was exquisitely intense. He could not seem to stop his fingers from gliding over her skin. She could not resist molding her body to his.
With a brightening sky in the east, they fell asleep in each other’s arms and dreamed the dreams that made them smile.
***
Cappel Vale was alive with activity. The village was swollen to twice its size with workmen, machine operators, archeologists, historians, government officials, cont
ractors and surveyors. This didn’t take into account the steady stream of families and visitors out for a day trip to the site of what Mayor Cahill called, The Treasure of the Roman Empire (complete with maps, postcards and guided tours for a nominal fee).
The thought of Julian’s leaving was an occasion for much weeping and even more drinking. With his departure imminent, these activities were taken to unprecedented levels.
On the day of his departure, Julian packed his duffle bag, leaving his Swiss Army knife to Jimmy Grogan.
Julian had felt the presence growing for over an hour. He opened the door to the police station to find not only the entire village but also the population of most of the valley standing outside.
He smiled broadly and began making his way through the crowd. There were people he knew slightly, people he knew well, children and adults, fit, frail, drunk, sober, and something in between. More than anything, these were the people who were special to him.
He hugged all of the Mahers and, to their chagrin and delight, both of the Hackett sisters. Julian congratulated Brendan and Gwyneth, but the two young people looked puzzled. Julian leaned in close and whispered to the young woman, “On your engagement. There is a house for you across from the kennel when you’re ready.”
Gwyneth turned scarlet. To Brendan, Julian said, “On the kennel’s first litter of puppies.” Each said at the same time for very different reasons, “No one was to know. It’s a surprise.”
Julian winked and the couple beamed.
When it was time to go, he sought out Ailís in the crowd, but on finding her, she seemed preoccupied.
“I can’t find Timothy. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that boy. Sometimes he worries me sick,” the doctor said.
“He’ll turn up. I did want to say good bye to him, but I’m sure he’ll make an appearance soon.”
Echoes Through the Mist: A Paranormal Mystery (The Echoes Quartet Book 1) Page 36