by Lincoln Cole
But saying the words out loud wouldn’t do any good, either. It would only serve to make him sound crazy or paranoid. Instead, he changed the subject.
“What did you mean, ‘not you’?” He turned his body in the other direction. Rose stood there with her walker, looking down at him with a concerned expression on her face. Niccolo doubted she had gone into the hole after him. “You said he got me. Who else was with you?”
Niccolo shifted his body to the side again in the opposite direction. A man stood there. This man wore a loose-fitting gray shirt, black pants, and military boots. He had thick brown hair and gray eyes.
The sight of him sparked an immediate feeling of familiarity, but it took Niccolo a moment to register the identity of this other man. However, when he did finally realize that he knew him, Niccolo felt a welling of disbelief and anger in the pit of his stomach.
“You?” he muttered, scrambling on the grass and pushing himself up to his feet. His head throbbed, and he felt dizzy, but now he also felt angry. Furious, in fact, as emotions flooded back to him that he hadn’t felt in weeks. “What in God’s name are you doing here?”
Father Reynolds looked confused, glancing between the two men. This must have been the house guest, the person who had come to Rose’s door before Niccolo went underneath. All thoughts of the corpse and his fear flew from his mind, replaced by his mounting anger.
“You know him?” Jackson asked.
“Of course I know him. This is Arthur Vangeest.”
“Hello, Niccolo,” Arthur said. He looked none too pleased to see him, either. That didn’t surprise Niccolo, however, because he had made his utter disgust for the man clear in their last encounter. “It’s been a while.”
Jackson turned to face Arthur. “So, you aren’t a reporter?”
Arthur shook his head, looking like a guilty dog who had peed on the rug. “I apologize for misleading you.”
“You mean lying,” Niccolo said. “It’s what you do best, right? Why have you come here?”
“We should speak in private.”
“We have nothing to speak about. You have overstayed your welcome already.”
“I’m afraid I must insist,” Arthur said. “It is incredibly important, and a matter of some urgency.”
“No,” Niccolo said, vehemently. “I will not speak with you, nor will I listen to anything you have to say. I also know that you aren’t supposed to be out on a job. Any job. Which means you’re not sanctioned, are you?”
The look on Arthur’s face told him everything he needed to know. “You don’t understand—”
“I understand perfectly. If you do not get in your car and leave Everett in the next few seconds, I will notify the Vatican of your presence and report that you have interfered with Church affairs.”
“I’ll go, but after you hear me out. This is important.”
“No.”
“It’s a matter of life and death.”
“All you understand is death, Arthur. I was there. I saw the bodies and what you did.”
The words spilled out before Niccolo could restrain himself, and when he turned to look at Jackson, he saw a look of horror on the young priest’s face. He took a deep breath to regain control over his emotions and realized he had overstepped. Never should he have had this conversation in front of Jackson or Rose.
Strangely, though, when he glanced over at Rose, it didn’t look like the conversation fazed her in the slightest. She wore a small frown and didn’t seem to pay them much attention at all.
He turned back to face Arthur. As much as he hated the man, he also knew that ignoring him could become problematic, if not downright dangerous.
In all honesty, pissing him off might prove even worse.
Niccolo turned to Jackson. “Would you please give us a moment?”
“I should explain myself to Father Reynolds as well,” Arthur said. “He should hear this.”
“No,” Niccolo said in a firm voice. He had said too much in the presence of Father Jackson, and whatever Arthur had to say, it lay well beyond the young priest’s purview. “You may speak to me, and then you will leave. Understood?”
Arthur hesitated, and then he nodded. Jackson had a look of confusion and concern on his face, but he didn’t object. He turned, took Rose by the arm, and then helped guide her back toward the front stoop of the house.
“I will be in right behind you,” Niccolo called out as they left. “This will only take a moment.”
Father Reynolds didn’t respond. His body language made it clear he felt uncomfortable with the entire situation, but he didn’t object. Niccolo realized he would have much to explain now after his slip and berated himself for speaking in anger.
He waited until he heard the front door shut before addressing Arthur once more. “Why did you come here?” he asked. “In Everett, of all places. Don’t you have more important things to do? More cultists to murder?”
Arthur frowned, almost imperceptibly, but he ignored the remark. “You got it right that I’m not on the books, but I am on an investigation. An important one, and it led me here.”
“What investigation?”
Arthur hesitated, and then said, “This is something personal.”
“If you won’t tell me—”
“I’m hunting the people who murdered my family.”
Niccolo took a breath, unsure how to respond. He didn’t know a lot about Arthur other than that he worked for an organization that did dirty work for the Church. He had gotten called out a few months ago to a rundown manor in the woods of West Virginia.
He worked as one of a group of priests and civilians that the Church sent, though Niccolo hadn’t known why at the time. What he did know was that when they got there, they found dozens of dead bodies. Men and women, some riddled with bullet holes and others hacked apart with some sort of bladed implement.
Cultists, he had come to find out, and dangerous ones responsible for multiple kidnaps and murders. The Church had utilized the organization to help eliminate them, and they’d sent Arthur. All of the dead people, he discovered, had gotten murdered in their sleep by one man.
One.
But that didn’t make for the worst of it. The worst part came from the fact that Niccolo got tasked with helping to clean it up. His job dictated that he help hide the evidence, destroy the bodies, and pretend like nothing had ever happened. It didn’t turn out the first time the Church had done that, either. He found out that they had covered up things like that regularly. Arthur worked as an assassin for the Church, and Niccolo had become a part of his cleanup crew.
It hadn’t sat well with Niccolo, and just thinking about it made him sick. He hadn’t even had the courage to object. The order came down from way high up in the Church, and Niccolo had just gone along with it.
He held just as much guilt, he knew.
“I’m sorry for your family,” he said. “But that doesn’t explain why you’ve come here.”
“The person who betrayed me is here.”
“In Everett?”
“Yes.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth.”
“I fought to have you turned over to the authorities, you know,” Niccolo said. “After you murdered those people. I became one of the few who thought you the monster. Not the cultists. You.”
“They kidnapped and murdered children. They’d gone beyond salvation.”
“All of them? Can you stand there and tell me that none of them could have been saved?”
“It isn’t my job to save people.”
“No, I forgot. It’s your job to kill them.”
Arthur didn’t reply, but the look that crossed his face seemed tinged with shame. Niccolo, however, felt no pity for the man. Not after what he’d done.
“I wanted for you to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell. Where you belong.”
“I don’t blame you for feeling that way,” Arthur said.
“You murd
ered those people.”
“I did my job.”
“You think that matters? God will not forgive you for what you did.”
“It seems to me like that conversation should happen between God and me.”
“I won’t forgive you, either.”
“I’m not asking you to. I just ask for you to hear me out and make up your mind.”
“Why should I hear you out? So you can tell me more lies?”
“So, I’m a liar now, too? I thought I was a murderer.”
“You can easily be both.”
Arthur rubbed his face, silent for a long moment. “This is getting us nowhere. We’re just going in circles. You hate me, and I’m a murderer. I get it. But it doesn’t change what’s happening right now, right here in this city.”
“What?”
“Someone betrayed the Church and me.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I think he works with the Ninth Circle. They could have operatives in this area.”
“Could have? You mean you don’t know?”
“I only just arrived in the city, but the evidence pushes in that direction.”
“I thought you took care of the Ninth Circle when you murdered everyone.”
“I eliminated one group, but they have a lot more cells in the world. One might be here. And, if not that cult, then something else.”
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“What?”
“You see cults everywhere. No matter where you look.”
“Look, I get that you don’t like me, but you need to listen—”
“You are broken, Arthur. Just a broken, sad, little man. You can’t even tell right from wrong anymore, can you? You should leave the city and get help. I get it. Your family got murdered, and you wanted revenge, but you crossed every line that separates people from monsters. You are a monster.”
Arthur stared at him. “Maybe. But I’m also right. Something is going on here, and they have a powerful ally.”
“Who?”
“Bishop Glasser.”
◆◆◆
A moment passed, and then Niccolo let out a disbelieving laugh. He turned and walked toward the front door of Rose’s home. Arthur moved to follow, and Niccolo held up his hand to stop him.
“Your two minutes are up. Get help, Arthur. I’m begging you. I won’t forgive you for what you did, but I will pray for you. And I don’t have time to listen to these ridiculous accusations.”
“Leopold Glasser betrayed me and got my family killed,” Arthur said. “He sold information to the Ninth Circle and has worked with them for years. I also know that he has allies here, and he plans something big.”
“You have proof?”
“A confession from the bishop’s sister, Emily.”
“And how did you obtain that, might I ask? It hardly offers compelling evidence unless I can speak to her directly.”
“She isn’t here. The Council have detained her and will, no doubt, transfer her to the Vatican in a few days.”
Niccolo sighed. “Until—if—that happens, how can I possibly believe anything you say? What other proof do you have?”
“We don’t have time for proof. She confessed everything to me. You need to believe me.”
“I don’t care. This confession you speak of is, doubtless, coerced. I would never believe a single word you say.”
“I wouldn’t lie about something like this. We have a real threat here in the city and—”
“Have you spoken to the Vatican? You said you turned Emily over to your organization, so, no doubt, they can get you permission to be here, can’t they?”
Arthur hesitated before saying, “I don’t have time to run this through the proper channels.”
“Then, make time. How did you know to find me here?”
“I didn’t. I had hoped to speak with Father Reynolds and find out if he knew anything about the bishop. This is just an unfortunate coincidence.”
“For the both of us,” Niccolo said. “What did you plan to speak to Jackson about? Did you plan to tell him about what you do or all of the people you have murdered? I can assure you that that makes a terrible idea.”
“I wanted to ask him a few questions and see if he worked with the bishop.”
“He doesn’t.”
“I know. I spoke with him inside. He hates the man and seems oblivious to what’s going on.”
“Or, maybe, nothing is going on. If you feel you have evidence against the bishop, then contact the Vatican. If they have any interest in having you operating in Everett, then I will work with you. Until then, however, I suggest that you get out of the city before I report you myself. Now, if you will excuse me, I must get back to Father Reynolds and Rose Gallagher.”
Father Paladina walked toward the front door, leaving Arthur standing alone on the lawn. This time, Arthur didn’t follow.
“I’m only trying to help.”
Niccolo stopped and turned back, feeling a burst of anger. “Help? The way you helped those innocent people to find God’s love when you murdered them in West Virginia?”
“They would have killed me. I had no other option.”
“You didn’t wait for help. I saw the report when the Church sent me to help cover it up. You were not supposed to go in alone. You lost your family, you were grieving, but that gives you no right to kill all of those people.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Wait for backup. Take the cultists by force so that they could have had a chance to repent. How many have you killed with your shoot-first-ask-for-forgiveness later modus operandi?”
“Not everyone can have redemption.”
“Not anyone, by your estimation. Twenty-three people, Arthur. That’s how many people you murdered that day. That’s how many people I helped the Church pretend never existed so that you wouldn’t get punished.”
“Are you mad at me, or at yourself?”
This time, Niccolo didn’t respond. A moment passed in silence.
“That’s what I thought,” Arthur said. “I get it, I do. I regret what I did, and many more things in my life. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but the Church sanctioned my actions. I felt ready to accept whatever punishment they sanctioned, but the Council I serve, and myself, received exoneration.”
“And what happens when your actions don’t get sanctioned? What happens when you cross that line? I can assure you, Arthur, that when that day comes, there will be no turning back.”
Arthur stood, unmoving and unblinking. “It will never come to that.”
“It always comes to that. I don’t trust you, and I want nothing to do with you.”
“You need my help.”
“I don’t need anything from you, least of all your kind of help.”
“Then, at least, heed my warning. You are in danger.”
“Consider the warning heeded,” Niccolo said. “Now, leave.”
Arthur nodded and set off again through the grass to the sidewalk. A moment later, he climbed into a car and drove off, heading down the road away from Rose’s home.
Niccolo watched him go, frowning, and rubbed the back of his head. The welt there felt tender and painful. It had swelled up and throbbed; he had a headache, but he couldn’t tell if it came from the welt or his conversation with Arthur Vangeest.
That made for the last thing he had expected on this trip, and it left him feeling angry and annoyed. Niccolo felt furious with himself more than Arthur, however, because even with how angrily he’d just spoken to Arthur, he hadn’t spoken up when it truly mattered.
Arthur seemed like a cancer on the world, a sanctioned murderer working on behalf of powerful men. A weapon that the Church pointed at its enemies, claiming to do God’s work.
However, that didn’t provide the only reason Niccolo felt so unsettled by the encounter with Arthur. His heart still pumped rapidly when he recalled what he had seen beneath the woman’s house, although he felt positive it hadn�
�t been real. His overactive imagination had gotten the better of him and created a terror to match his fear of cramped and dark places.
At least, he told himself that.
Part of him—a small part—remained worried that maybe Arthur had it right. Maybe something was going on, and maybe something dangerous. Could the bishop have involvement in something so horrible?
His gut said no. Niccolo didn’t like the bishop, but if Arthur had it right, then the man had stepped too far over the line. Leopold Glasser didn’t exactly make a good servant of God, but that remained a far walk from betrayal of the Church.
Still, it was possible. And, if that were the case, then having a weapon like Arthur around might not be a bad idea.
That didn’t offer a route that Niccolo felt willing to take just yet, though. Arthur remained dangerous, and even though some strange things had happened, he saw no reason to believe it anything supernatural or dangerous. Not yet, at least.
Niccolo shook the concerns away, focusing once again on the task at hand. He hadn’t seen any signs to make him think that Rose suffered a possession, and after Father Reynolds had found and dealt with the dead animal, it looked like he might not have anything else here to investigate.
He would report his findings to his superiors back in the Vatican, find out what they wanted him to do next, and go from there. Hopefully, they would want him to return to the Vatican, and right now, that sounded like an excellent course of action. Let someone else deal with all this strangeness. He missed his home and sleeping in his bed and eating good food. All he had to do now was accompany Father Reynolds to meet one last time with Bishop Glasser, and then all of this would lay behind him.
Chapter 7
They didn’t stay long after Arthur’s departure, having no further reason to continue pestering the old woman. They thanked her for her time and headed out to return Niccolo to his hotel room.
His first course of action would be to call the Vatican and report all of his findings. Whether or not Jackson wanted to call off the investigation didn’t matter where the Vatican was concerned, and his first duty was to give an accurate report back to his superiors.