Past Life

by C S Winchester

  “Okay. What else?”

  “He's foreign.”

  “Could you tell anything more about the language?”

  “No. In fact I wouldn't bet that it was even Eastern European any more.”

  “Okay, anything else?”

  “He worships Hades and kills small pet animals.”

  “Why does he worship Hades?”

  “Because he wants longevity.”

  “And the animals?”

  “They're not a spell, I think they're more a sacrificial offering to Hades.”

  “Do you think that could be what he wants with Dante?”

  Frankie shrugged. “I guess so, maybe. I wish I knew for certain.”

  “Okay, anything we've missed?”

  “The poison he gave the girl. Dante gave me a vial of it once and I've tried to find a recipe for the potion myself, but I couldn't find anything. Whatever it is, it's obviously a very well kept secret.”

  “So what does that mean?” Will asked.

  “Um,” Frankie chewed on her bottom lip as she thought. “It's hard to find, which I guess means the vampires don't want people knowing about it.”

  “So how does he know?”

  “Well it must still exist somewhere. All it really means is that his knowledge or resources are greater than mine.”

  “So maybe our next step is to research Hades. Maybe then we'll find out what he wants with your friend.”

  Frankie shook her head. “I think there's too much fiction in that myth to be able to weed out the truth. If there even is any truth. Magic isn't a gift from the gods, it just... is. Maybe people invented gods to try and explain it?”

  “Is there any way to find out?”

  Frankie shook her head. “No.”

  “Okay, scratch that, what about some kind of finding spell? Could we find your friend that way and by extension, Pietro?”

  Frankie shook her head. “No. Vampires are only alive because of powerful magic and that interferes with other sorts of magic.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “Well, it's like if magic was a compass you could use to find the magnetic poles. Adding a vampire into the mix is like having a powerful electromagnet in the room, which just makes the compass spin.”

  Will leaned back in his seat and Frankie buried her head in her gloved hands as they both considered what to do next.

  “Longevity,” Will said.

  “What?” Frankie raised her head.

  “Longevity,” he repeated. “Isn't there a hippie commune near here who are... I don't know but they're into something similar.”

  “Why haven't I heard of them?” Frankie frowned.

  “I'm not even sure I have, it's just something I vaguely remember, but I could be getting my wires crossed.”

  “Okay,” Frankie now became the questioner. “Does it feel like something you heard professionally?”

  “No.”

  “An urban legend perhaps?”

  “About a hippie community that doesn't do anything but mind their own business?”

  “People love gossip, Will. But if they do exist there must be a record somewhere. At the Inland Revenue, or maybe they're registered as a charity.”

  “Or maybe they have a website. It is the twenty first century.”

  Frankie smiled slightly and followed Will through to his computer in the living room.

  “You Google for communes in the local area,” he told her. “I'll call work and ask them to check for thefts from hospitals or doctors surgeries in the past month.”

  “And vets,” Frankie added.

  Will frowned for a moment then nodded his understanding. “And vets,” he repeated.

  Frankie began her search and Will called and spoke to Detective Constable Taylor, asking him to check for any reports of thefts from hospitals, G.P. surgeries or Veterinary surgeries in the last month. He covered the request by saying he thought medical implements, like scalpels and syringes, might have been used to kill the animals.

  Although there hadn't been an animal killings last night, Will had seen the newspaper articles in the morning newspaper and he knew that the force was still taking a lot of heat from the media. Although DC Taylor hadn't worked with Will for long, Will knew that he could handle the fallout. He was an old fashioned detective, the type who cared more about people and results than public relations, and he was one of the few officers who had volunteered to work on this case.

  “Any luck on the tip line?”Will asked Taylor.

  “Not yet. The Superintendent's on the warpath though. He's called for you twice already.”

  “Cover for me a little longer? I'm following a lead but it's a little unusual, and I don't think the brass will approve.”

  “Sure. Though to be honest, I'd be shocked if the leads were normal on a case like this.”

  They hung up a few moments later and Will went to check on Frankie.

  “What have you found?” he asked, leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen.

  “Three local commune type places. One is particularly interesting, bordering on a cult if you ask me.”

  “What's the story.” Will perched on the edge of the desk to listen.

  “Okay, I found an old profile piece in the Independent's science section. Robert Drake used to be a respected medical researcher who specialised in anti-ageing and he was very religious. He had a couple of breakthroughs working on understanding telomeres; he published lots of papers but was generally considered to be an arsehole. People tolerated him because he was good, but no one seemed to like him. Then he hit 40 and seemed to go through some kind of mid-life crisis. Over the next two years he left his wife, his arrogance got worse, a few sexual harassment claims were filed, his work suffered and two years later he was fired.”

  “Sounds like a real charmer.”

  “Tell me about it. Anyway, he disappeared for a while then resurfaced just outside of Falkirk running a so-called commune, called Forever Young. People wanting to enter had to sign over all their earthly goods and promise to devote themselves to God, and in return God would help them live to a thousand years or longer.”

  “And people believe him and just hand their money over?”

  “Well the Bible does say that Adam lived to be nine hundred and thirty and Noah lived to be something like nine hundred and seventy,” Frankie shrugged. “Plenty of people don't believe it's a mistake in translating the ages, but that they really did live that long. And if you really want to believe in something enough, then you will.”

  “So what are you thinking?” he asked. “Pay him a visit?”

  “I was thinking more in terms of getting a search warrant and raiding him.”

  “Whoa!” Will cautioned. While he respected the work MI5 did keeping the country safe, he didn't like the way they could ride roughshod over the law. He and Frankie had disagreed over that point many times. This time though, he could recognise that she was worried about her friend and was acting out of concern, so he didn't antagonise her.

  “Maybe a subtle approach is better? With your abilities, you can find out what he's thinking without showing our hand.”

  “In case Dante isn't being kept there.” Frankie chewed on her lower lip. “You're right, subtle is better.” She stood up and grabbed her coat.

  “Hang on there a second, Frankie,” he grabbed her arm to stop her. “We don't know that this Robert Drake guy is even involved. He's a slime, sure, and it's definitely worth speaking to him, but he isn't Pietro and the chances are that he doesn't know where your friend is. Our best hope here is that he knows Pietro or can lead us to him. Got it?”

  Frankie ripped her arm out of his grip. “Don't patronise me.”

  “I'm not. I'm reminding you that you have a temper and I don't want to see this man hospitalised with a broken arm for no good reason.”

  Frankie was about to snap back but instead stopped herself and took a deep breath.

  “Okay, I'll try and keep my cool.”

/>   “Good.” Will pulled his coat on and they left the apartment.

  “And for the record, William,” she said in her best headmistress voice as they waited for the lift. “That guy was groping me. He deserved to get his arm broken.”

  Will smiled at the memory of how they met. “Only you can make assault seem sexy,” he shook his head at his own stupidity.

  “You still tried to charge me with GBH.”

  “Because it was my job. I also told you that I thought the charges would be dropped when the prosecution heard your side.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Briar House was located on the outskirts of Falkirk in twenty acres of land. The main gates were closed but not locked so Frankie hopped out and opened them, waited for Will to drive through, then closed them again.

  “It looks hopeful that the gates are unlocked,” Will noted.

  Frankie wasn't counting her chickens based on that.

  The main house wasn't visible from the gates and when it came into view, it was surprisingly underwhelming. It was a large house but not grand, and in desperate need of some repair. To the side of the house, there were two women exercising on the grass with five children.

  Frankie parked in front of the house and by the time they had exited the car, one of the women was already walking over to them, smiling. Frankie smiled back as Will came around the car and joined her.

  “Hello,” the woman said, shaking hands with both of them. “I'm Danielle.”

  “Hi,” Frankie wasn't sure how to sure how one went about asking to join a cult.

  “Hi. I'm Will, this is my fiancé, Francis.”

  Frankie was surprised at the ruse but let him take the lead.

  “We've been hearing about your work here for a while and we were curious about joining you.”

  “Well, that is good news. Let me take you to Robert,” she said, heading towards the front door of the house. “While we are a democracy, he started this place and we tend to look to him for guidance. He's the best person to tell you what goes on around here.”

  “Okay,” Frankie said, not wanting to sound too keen. She pulled her gloves off and tucked them into her pocket.

  They found Robert Drake in the kitchen looking over a ledger. He too smiled when he saw them and welcomed them with a firm handshake.

  As Frankie shook his hand, she did her best to get a flash of Dante or something related to him but she didn't see anything helpful. He sat them down at the kitchen table and set about making some tea for them.

  As Robert pottered around, filling the kettle and finding the tea leaves, he asked how they had heard of the church. Robert always referred to the commune as a church.

  Frankie left Will to answer his questions, only keeping one ear on the conversation as she took in her surroundings. The kitchen was massive, probably the size of her combined living and dining room but much like the exterior of the house, it had clearly seen better days. However it was clean and well kept. The table they were sitting at could easily seat 10 people and there was a smaller table that looked as if it was for the children.

  Frankie tried touching the table but there were so many impressions that it was rather like trying to watch a thousand different TV screens at once.

  Considering that he didn't have any experience of undercover work, Will was handling Robert's questions with remarkable aplomb. He wasn't too eager or too gushing, he let it be known that he wasn't sure if they were a church or a cult, but said that he liked the idea and wanted to look into things so that he could make up his own mind.

  Robert finished making the tea and placed their cups in front of them, along with a bowl of sugar. Since Robert had been the most recent person to handle the cup, Frankie wrapped her hands around it and tried to see what impressions he'd left on there. Whilst he was suspicious of them, he didn't appear to be at all worried.

  “I'm sorry for all the questions,” he said, sitting at the end of the table. “We don't get many visitors here.”

  “We understand,” Will assured him.

  “So you're both Christians, I take it?”

  Frankie knew that Will had been raised atheist and decided it was best if she fielded these questions herself.

  “Oh yes. In fact I was named after Saint Francis of Assisi.”

  “You're Roman Catholic?” he asked.

  “Oh no, Church of England, but he's still an important figure. Our church always had a celebration around the 4 of October in aid of the local dog's home.”

  “Dog's home?” Robert looked puzzled.

  “Oh yes, he was well known for his love of animals and nature, and in the Catholic church he's the patron saint of animals.”

  “Of course he is,” Robert said, his smile returning. Any lingering doubts he had about their honesty seemed to have been laid to rest.

  Next Robert went on to explain how the church worked; that by living by God's law, God would reward them with a longer life on earth as well as an eternity in heaven. He explained how everyone did the jobs they were best equipped for, how they lived literally by the word of the Bible, not picking and choosing the instructions that they wanted to follow, as many religions did.

  “If you do decide to join us, you will be required to sell all your earthly possessions except for your clothes, and your assets will be added to ours and used for the good of the group as a whole. We have little need for money, except for the few things we cannot barter for and we must buy in from the village. And of course, even we must still pay property taxes. You will have plenty of opportunities to change your mind though. First we invite prospective members for a long weekend, so that you can live and work alongside us. If you still wish to proceed, you will then come to visit us for between one and four weeks. If you are still sure that this is your path, we will invite you to live with us for six months. At the end of that time, you must make a commitment to us and hand over your worldly assets or equally, you are free to walk away.”

  After that he showed them around the house and some of the land. The house was large, with eight bedrooms upstairs, five rooms downstairs, stables and a garage. Robert explained that the garage had been converted into a schoolroom, and that the upper level of the stables could be converted into new bedrooms when needed, though so far they only had nine adults.

  On the grounds they kept a few animals, chickens and a cow for milk. They were hoping to add a few sheep soon for their fleece, but as yet hadn't built the enclosure for them. They had another few acres given over to vegetables, there was an apple orchard and next to that they were trying to grow a few plum trees, rhubarb plants and gooseberry bushes.

  Robert introduced them to everyone they came across and Frankie shook hands with them all, save for those who were gardening and didn't offer to shake hands.

  When they finally left, Frankie was exhausted from using her gift for so long, and disappointed that she hadn't discovered anything. They had left promising to think about it. There were no phones, so Robert had told them to simply turn up if they wanted to stay for a weekend.

  Frankie asked Will to drive home as she rummaged in her bag for a boiled sweet. Will pulled his gloves on before taking her keys from her.

  “Anything?” he asked once they were on the road home.

  “No,” Frankie sighed. “He's completely Looney Tunes but there's no malice in him. He genuinely believes that by obeying the Bible word for word, God will reward him with a significantly longer life.”

  “What about the followers?”

  “Some gripes. Donald thinks he's a arrogant bastard at times, Sean wants to be working with the animals rather than teaching, June thinks that Robert is very attractive and her husband Pete has noticed, but nothing seems to have happened about it.”

  “We knew it was a long shot,” Will tried to console her.

  “But now we're out of options,” Frankie turned to look out of the window. “Right now he could be dying,” she said softly.

  Will wondered if that would be such a bad
thing, but he knew better that to say so.

  Frankie was silent the rest of the way back, and Will turned the radio on so the silence wasn't quite as deafening.

  Will parked outside the Roseburn Maltings and took his house keys off his key ring.

  “I have to go back to work. Make yourself at home and call me if... just call me.”

  Frankie nodded numbly, took the key and went inside.

  She was squatting in a friend's apartment, living out of an overnight bag, she had alienated her parents and her friend was dying, possibly even dead and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt as though her life was falling apart.

  Once inside, she headed straight for Will's kitchen and helped herself to a healthy measure of whisky. It was only 2pm but she didn't care.

  She went through to the living room and sat on the sofa. Leaning her head back, she looked up at the ceiling and tried to will a new lead into existence.

  Where was he?

  Dante awoke to find himself chained to a bed. He pulled at his bonds but they wouldn't give.

  “I wouldn't if I were you.”

  Dante looked up to see a computer monitor and speakers mounted on the end of the bed. It was clearly hooked up to a webcam.

  “You!”

  “You recognise me?”

  “I'd know your scent anywhere.”

  “How sweet,” Pietro smiled. “Are you comfortable?”

  “I will be soon,” he said, straining at his bonds.

  “Your strength hasn't returned yet, and even when it does, the chains and the bed frame are made of silver; you won't be able to break them. I've padded them for your comfort and provided you with a mattress but if you mess any of them up, I won't be coming in there to fix it.”

  “Webcams; you're getting smart in your old age.”

  “I was always smart. It might not have been as elegant as this set up last time, but I still won, remember?”

  “I should have hunted you down and killed you when I had the chance.”

  “Yes, you should have. I think the fact that you didn't bodes well for the both of us.”

  “So what do you want with me this time?” Dante asked.