Seelah ignored him to keep her mind focused on the task at hand.
“Did she get anything yet, Jack?” Donavan called out as he and Barbara walked towards them.
“I don’t know she ain’t sayin’ nothin’.”
Seelah whirled. “Do you want my help or not? If you do then you’re going to have to be still so I can concentrate!”
“Sorry, baby. I just wondered if you’d found out anything yet.”
“I’m sorry too, Seelah.” Donavan gave her a sheepish half-smile. “We’ll stand over here and let you work.”
A tall man dressed all in black drifted into her mind. She tried to get a better look at him — but the hood he had covering his head obscured his face. Seelah pulled in her guides sending them out to find the man who kept his face in shadow. But they too came up empty-handed. Without warning the Hindel Mansion loomed into her thoughts telling her the man she sought still resided at that house.
“I can’t see his face, even after calling on the help of my guides, but one thing I can tell you, is the man who broke into the station and made off with the evidence, lives at the Hindel Mansion.”
Thank you, Seelah, you’ve been a big help,” Donavan told her.
“Just as we thought, Donavan, the man who broke into the station is one of the people living in the cave.” Jack pulled Seelah into his arms for a moment.
“Sure as hell looks like it.”
“So, are you still gonna go ahead with the polygraph tomorrow?”
“No. I’m beginning to see it would be a waste of time. I talked with three different examiners and they all agree it wouldn’t work. Until we get a better method of reading psychos, we’d just be wasting time and money.”
“Then we’re at another dead end with the Hindels?
“Getting to be a habit. I’ll call and tell them we will have to have a delay on the tests as our paleographer is out of town.”
“Do you think they’ll believe you?”
“I don’t care if they do or not. That’s what they’re going to hear. If you have a better idea, I’m listening.”
“The only idea I have is to call it a day and start again fresh in the morning.”
Chapter Twelve
Chandra watched as Rafael and Lawrence, walked through the front door of the mansion and she listened to their words.
“You have to trust that I know what I am doing, Lawrence.”
“But, Grandfather, the polygraph will show that I am lying when I say I know nothing of the children’s disappearance. They will lock me away again! I couldn’t stand to be locked away again!” He felt himself spinning out of control.
“Lawrence!” Rafael jerked him forward. “I said you must trust me. No one is going to lock you away. We will pass the polygraph.”
“How? We can’t fool the machine!”
“You idiot!” Rafael flung him backward across the room. “You have caused me nothing but trouble since I have returned here. I cannot think when all you do is complain!”
“But…” he cut short what he wanted to say as Rafael glared at him.
“Lawrence, you have nothing to fear from taking this test.” He breathed in deep in an attempt to halt the rage building inside him. “I will see to that. Do you think I would risk everything we have planned, by allowing you to walk in cold and be administered a test that could lay bare our darkest secrets?”
Lawrence shook his head. Afraid to speak, lest he incite the insane anger boiling to the surface before his eyes.
“Good.” Rafael put both his hands on Lawrence’s shoulders. “You are Jonathan’s son. I am duty-bound to protect you. Moreover, I will. With my life if need be. Therefore, you have nothing to fear.”
“Without becoming angry, can you tell me how you plan to do this?”
“Yes.” Rafael ignored the nervous tremor sounding in Lawrence’s voice. “I intend to put you into a semi-trance. You will be able to respond to everything being said to you, but you will have no emotional reaction.” He waited to see if Lawrence understood what he told him.
Lawrence remained silent and thought about what he heard. “And you, Grandfather?” The tremor had disappeared now. “Will you be strong enough to pass the test?”
“Without a doubt in my mind, Lawrence.” His reassuring demeanor wiped away the last of Lawrence’s unease. In a surprising move, he pulled Lawrence against his chest. “The children who came onto your property invaded your space and, therefore, had to be taught a lesson. I have no feelings of regret for anyone who will not listen.”
“Why don’t you speak the truth for once, Rafael?” Chandra walked forward. “You used the children to feed your appetite for evil.”
“Ah, Chandra,” he breathed, “how nice to see you.” Rafael gazed at her over Lawrence’s shoulder. “Your continued presence strengthens my belief that I am needed here. However, I must disagree with you about the children. It is not evil to protect what is ours. Granted,” he bowed a slight bow in her direction, “the children did feed my appetite.”
Lawrence could see anger building in Rafael’s eyes, again and he tried to see the person Rafael spoke with. “Grandfather, who are you talking to?”
“No one but an earthbound, who seems to think she is needed here.”
“What did you call her?” Lawrence felt excited about having a ghost in his house.
“Her name is Chandra.” Rafael watched the emotions flitting across Chandra’s face as he discussed her with Lawrence. “She is the one who destroyed your father. And my son!” His voice rose as the fury — he tried to ignore — pushed its way forward.
Although he could not see the woman standing across the room, Lawrence called out to her. “Why did you destroy my father?” The tremor returned to his voice and held all the suffering that continued to eat away at him.
Chandra stood silent, witnessing his pain.
Rafael watched her and in that moment, hoped he had at last found the key with which to gain his control of her.
“Chandra, if you knew how much the very sight of you rips at me, you would not be here.” His voice grew strong now with none of the fury he had been consumed with moments earlier.
“You do not frighten me, Rafael. I am beyond your reach. As long as you remain on this plane, so will I.”
“As I am sure you know, it does not pleasure me to hear you say that. However, you are wrong about my not being able to touch you.” He chuckled as he glimpsed the wary look on her face. “I see, by your confused expression, you do not understand my meaning. Perhaps I can help you. Lawrence asked why you destroyed his father. Would you like me to tell him?”
“I destroyed Jonathan because he grew too evil to remain on this plane.” She tried to rid herself of the uneasy feelings beginning to rise to the surface. “What other reason could I have?”
“I think we both know, the destruction of my son is but one of the reasons you did what you did. Could it be you also destroyed my son to keep a secret from your own son, Chandra?”
“Are you threatening me, Rafael?” She hoped her voice did not betray her fear. “If you are, I will not hesitate to call on every white spirit I can to destroy you and send your evil soul straight into hell where it belongs!”
For a long moment he remained silent, weighing her words. Then, feeling sure he held the upper hand in their battle for control, he sent his thoughts from his mind to hers. “Let us be sure we both know what the stakes are before we issue any threats. I am telling you that the son you tried to keep secreted from the outside world will no longer be a secret.”
He watched with glee as he saw tears slip unnoticed down her face. “Are you willing to risk Lawrence finding out about you, Chandra?”
“I lived with that same threat for many years, Rafael. And it all but destroyed me and those I love. If you feel you must share this nightmare with Lawrence then tell him,” she called his bluff and said a silent prayer she had made the right decision. “I will not be controlled by threats anymore.”
Her refusal to bend snapped the last thread of his leashed anger. “My son should have destroyed you years ago! If you knew how many times I tried to get him to do just that!”
“By your own admission, it would seem you could not control Jonathan any more than you can control me.”
“Jonathan allowed the women in his life to enjoy too much control.” His eyes lifted to a portrait hanging over the massive fireplace of a beautiful young girl standing naked and smiling. In his rage, she smiled, knowingly, at him. In two quick strides, he moved across the room to heft a poker from its place beside the hearth. He swung the poker aiming at the face on the canvas. “Angelia is to blame for the ruination of my son!” He threw the poker to the floor with great force. “She turned him into a weak sniveling shell of a man.”
“I disagree, Rafael. Angelia could have been the one good thing about Jonathan. She made him feel.”
“She made him crawl!” The anger spun out of control now and he did nothing to stop it. “If not for her, my son would have stayed with me and the rest of our people the way he should have! Instead of taking her and using her the way he used and defiled you, he gave her our name!” Spittle flew unnoticed, from his lips. “The name Hindel is revered and respected in Louisiana! It should never have been soiled and spat upon, the way it continued to be when Jonathan married his nigger whore and allowed you to produce his bastard heir!”
Lawrence backed away.
“Look at you!” Rafael growled as he saw Lawrence slinking away. “Weak! You carry the blood of my son, but not his strength!”
“Rafael!” Chandra moved towards him. “You do not need to take out your anger on Lawrence. He is not to blame for being Jonathan’s son!”
As though doused with a bucket of ice, the rage drained from him. Although, what emerged turned out to be far worse.
“It is time for you to step forward and become the man your father would want you to be, Lawrence. This very night I will begin to teach you what it means to be the son of Jonathan Hindel.
“No!” Chandra cried out. “I will not allow you to turn my son into the evil monster you are!”
“How do you plan to stop me, Chandra? Are you going to shoot me then set fire to the house, like you did with Jonathan?”
“I am warning you, Rafael! Leave my son alone or I swear I will destroy you!”
Deep-throated, diabolical laughter filled the air.
“Come here, Lawrence. It is time to take your first step in becoming immortal.”
“Rafael, no!” Chandra ran forward.
With real fear pounding within his heart, Lawrence walked towards his grandfather’s outstretched arms.
As Rafael encircled his slim body, a great howling erupted into the silence. Followed by a long, drawn out scream of agony.
Chandra dropped to her knees unable to watch the horror spilling forth around her.
When Rafael released him, Lawrence stepped back to gaze at his grandfather in both horror and awe.
“Now you have the strength I have wanted for you, Lawrence.”
Chapter Thirteen
“I guess tomorrow we’ll be getting in touch with the parents of the missing kids,” Donavan said standing beside the bed. “It’s obvious we’re not going to find them and I think their folks deserve to get on with their lives.”
Barbara laid the book she had been reading aside to reach for him. “Come on,” she told him, “get in bed and let me relax you.”
“You can give it a shot, although I doubt you’ll be able to get the job done. Not as kinked up as my muscles are tonight.” He shot her a half-grin as she scooted over to make room for him.
“I could always work the kinks out before.” She lifted a bottle of lotion from the nightstand to squirt a liberal amount into the palm of her hand. “Lie down on your stomach.”
Donavan did as she directed and felt her long legs straddle his hips and her warm hands glide over his back. “I guess I been pretty lax in the lovemaking department.” He kept his face turned away from her.
“Mmmm, maybe a little.” She continued to knead the taut muscles working her way up his back to his neck. “Maybe if we talked about why, we could get a grip on the problem.”
“Identify the problem. Solve the problem. Right?”
“That’s always been your motto.” She continued with his workout.
“Then we’re in trouble, ‘cause this time I don’t know where to start looking.” His words sounded garbled as Barbara began to chop her way up and down his back.
“Could it have anything to do with Lawrence Hindel’s return?” She eased herself off his back to lie down beside him.
Donavan turned on his side to look at her. “I never even thought about that.”
“If you think back, you’ll recall around this time is when you started sleeping in your chair, again and would leave for work before I woke up.”
Donavan rolled over and reached for the pack of cigarettes lying on the nightstand. For a few moments, he remained silent as he inhaled the nicotine. “Like I did when Jonathan Hindel kept me awake at night.”
Barbara dropped a kiss on his cheek, leaned her head against his chest. “Yes. Although there’s a bright side to this picture, too.”
“What’s that?” He could feel his muscles begin to relax.
“I sure enjoyed playing catch up when the case ended!” she giggled, then turned over, plumped her pillow into a more comfortable position and settled down to go to sleep.
Donavan stubbed out his cigarette and switched off the lamp. He lay in the darkness with the sound of Barbara’s even breathing telling him she had already fallen asleep. He tried to clear his mind enough to join her, but gave up. The feelings creeping over him would not allow his mind to relax. Throwing back the covers, he got to his feet.
In the kitchen, he poured himself a tall glass of milk, then lifted the cover off the cake platter. He reached into the silverware drawer for a knife but withdraw a fork instead. With the platter in one hand and the glass of milk in the other, he walked into the living room.
“Can’t sleep, might as well eat.”
He set the glass of milk down on the end table, clicked power on the TV remote to surf the channels and see if anything caught his interest.
He looked up from taking a sip of his milk, to see a well-stacked blond wearing a white cowboy hat, bouncing across the screen astride a man on all fours, wearing a wide grin and nothing else. He winced as he caught sight of the sharp spurs attached to her boots and the whip she kept slapping across the man’s hapless buttocks.
He glanced down the hall, brought his attention back to the screen for a moment longer, than clicked the remote.
“Sure glad Barb’s not into that shit.” He took a large bite of cake. “She looks good in the buff, but one good bounce and I’d be lying on the floor like a beached whale!”
He set the plate of cake down on the end table “How the hell did I get into this shape anyway?” He ran a hand over his protruding paunch. “My stomach used to be as flat as Barb’s, now it looks like Seelah’s.”
A broad grin broke across his face as he thought of Jack’s excitement as he waited for the birth of his son. In a little over a year, Jack had gone from being the saddest person he had ever seen to one of the happiest.
Donavan picked up his milk to take a long drink. “Funny what having the right woman in your life can do.” He set the glass back down on the end table, but when he went to pick up the plate of cake, he pulled his hand away. “I guess if I want to get back into shape, I might as well start now.”
He pulled the lever on the recliner, stretched his legs out straight on the footrest. Within moments of leaning his head against the back of the chair, he fell into a deep sleep.
He walked along the boardwalk leading up to a shack in the bayous. He knew who the shack belonged to and tried to think why he would be there.
He saw Chandra swimming towards a ladder sticking out of the water. He watched as she p
ulled herself up the ladder then stepped onto the walkway. She ignored him as she strutted naked in his direction. Although he remained steadfast in his dislike for her because of all the pain and suffering she had fostered upon Jack he couldn’t help but notice how striking she looked. When she drew near, he reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Chandra did not pull away. Instead, she answered his need by pressing herself against him.
Donavan could feel his body responding and he picked her up in his arms to carry her to the old shack setting atop the dark waters of the bayous.
As soon as they stepped inside, he released her to begin yanking off his clothes. He could smell her arousal and it made him rush to be with her.
Chandra pulled him with her onto the bed.
He had never felt such wild abandonment as he did with the woman already wrapping her long legs around his waist to draw him deep into her velvet tunnel.
Chandra urged him to go deeper inside her body. Donavan did not disappoint her.
He could hear her loud moans and the sound drove him to greater heights as he raised his hips to slam himself into her again and again.
When he felt the hot liquids spew from his body he slumped forward to try to regain his breath. He could feel her long nails trailing over his bare back and he drew back to look down at her.
Donavan drew in his breath to scream, but no sound could escape his lungs.
Chandra wrapped her legs tight and pulled his mouth within inches of her face. A face covered with a thin layer of charred skin that oozed and dripped onto her chest. The foul stench of burning flesh swirled around him and he gagged and screamed his terror.
“Donavan, wake up! You’re having a nightmare!”
Still locked into the hellish dream, he swung his arms “No! Let me go! You’re dead!”
Barbara continued to shake him until; at last he opened his eyes.
“Oh my god!” He covered his face with his hands.
“Donavan are you all right?” Barbara knelt down in front of him. “You woke me up screaming the name Chandra.”
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