by H. P. Bayne
“Her body was found in the North Kimotan, just east of the rapids,” Flynn said. “It was believed she died a number of days before that. There were some unanswered questions due to the level of water-related decomposition, but the coroner ruled her death an accident upon completion of the autopsy. Tox screen came back showing alcohol and a significant quantity of LSD in her system.”
“Acid?” Dez said. “We don’t see much of that on the streets.”
“Not anymore,” Flynn said. “But it’s available to those who want it.” He clicked into another area of the report, opening a series of autopsy photos. Gabriella had a scattering of tattoos, including what appeared through partial decomposition to be a trifecta on the back of her neck and a pentagram on her ankle. It was the one on her right forearm that had Dez sitting further forward.
“There it is,” Dez said. “The black candle.” His eyes went to Sully, who had yet to utter a word. “What are you thinking, Sull?”
Sully glanced from Dez to Flynn. “Does that file give an exact location where she was found?”
Dez knew the reason for the question without having to ask. “God, this is going to be another ghost hunt, isn’t it?”
12
The Kimotan River had swelled to levels Sully had never seen, rushing dangerously close to houses along the shores visible from the North Bank Bridge.
They’d foregone the trip back to the Black Fox. Sully fully expected to find water in the basement, but he’d just have to hope for the best and deal with it later. Right now, there was something more important to do.
Their route took them over the river and east along Edgewater Road where it followed the North Kimotan that side of The Forks. A half-hour drive along the rain-soaked thoroughfare took them past the city proper and to the long stretch of rapids after which KR was named. If they kept driving, they’d end up at McCoy Falls and the town halfway down to its base that shared its name. The town was a picture postcard of old-world charm and dignified beauty, a place of seasonal festivals, lazy Sunday drives and families picnicking in the park.
Sully hated the place.
It had been his last stop on the foster home circuit before he’d been placed with the Braddocks. Flynn had taken pity on him after the KRPD—contracted to provide service to McCoy Falls—responded to a fatal house fire at Sully’s then-residence. Only seven-year-old Sully and a second foster child managed to escape the blaze. Both boys were questioned with brutal enthusiasm by certain members of the KRPD until Flynn put a stop to it.
The investigation quickly cleared both boys when witnesses reported seeing a girl run from the scene.
Sully had seen the ghost of his foster father in the moments after he and the other boy left the house. But Mr. Blake hadn’t seen him, and Sully hoped to keep it that way. He knew the bad-tempered and abusive man was still down there somewhere, and that he’d latch onto Sully the moment he sensed him.
Sully shook the memory off, the need to return to his current predicament ridding him of the previous one.
According to the file Flynn had pulled up, Gabriella’s body had made it partway through the rapids before a current took her to the sheltered side of the large rock where joggers had eventually made the grisly find.
There would be no joggers today, no one insane enough to be exploring the area in this weather save Sully and, by extension, Dez. For his part, Dez looked to be working up the courage he’d need to step out of the safety of the SUV, having parked in the lot that marked the beginning of one of the area’s walking trails.
Sully smiled sympathetically as his brother blew out a tension-filled breath. “You don’t have to come.”
“The river’s raging, Sull.”
Enough said. Dez couldn’t see his kid brother Aiden, but he was haunted by him nonetheless. It didn’t escape Sully that Aiden, then just five, had been found along a riverbank. Fifteen years was a long time, and nowhere near long enough.
And so Sully and Dez left the vehicle together and started down the path. Flynn had outfitted them with plastic ponchos and firm warnings about getting too close to the water, and Sully felt the benefit of both as they sighted the river coming into view through the trees.
The water roared as it coursed through rock and forest, cresting large boulders ordinarily out of reach. Already parts of the path were underwater, and Dez and Sully had to make their own route through the trees to the north, holding onto trunks, roots and large rocks for purchase as the muddy slopes threatened to wash them toward the rapids.
Dez’s voice sounded from behind Sully. “This isn’t a good idea.”
Sully was inclined to agree, but saying it out loud wouldn’t make the situation any better. Good idea or not, they didn’t have an option. He didn’t have an option. Not if they were going to find Sparrow.
“How much further?” Sully asked instead.
“It can’t be far. It seemed to me it would only be about a five-minute walk from the parking lot. Even accounting for us moving slower, we’ve got to be close.”
Though he had yet to see anything, Sully sensed the spot ahead pulling on his gut, causing a familiar roiling inside him. He didn’t say as much to Dez; the poor guy was having enough trouble as it was. But she was here. Sully could feel her presence growing stronger as they returned to the muddy path, perceiving he would see Gabriella if he searched the area around a large rock outcropping up ahead.
Dez ran into his back as Sully stopped, having reached the section of path that would allow him a view down to the spot, now directly south of them.
Dez didn’t ask, remaining quiet, but his actions said plenty as he edged in closer to Sully. He maintained his silence for a good minute before dread and curiosity got the better of him. “Do you see her?”
Sully shook his head, his gaze remaining fixed on the relatively calm waters on the sheltered side of the rock. “Not yet.”
“But she’s here?”
Sully nodded and Dez, heaving a breath, fell back into silence and closed the remaining couple of inches that separated the brothers so that Sully could feel Dez’s solid arm against his own. It wasn’t clear who was supporting whom, but it didn’t really matter as Sully at last spotted a hint of movement from the water. A dark form took shape beneath the rapids, growing as it drifted toward shore. Toward them.
Within moments, Sully could make out the shape of a woman. And then a face—beautiful even in death—broke the surface.
Gabriella moved unhindered through the water, clad in a dark T-shirt that hung, sodden, from her slight shoulders and small breasts. She took one last step before standing just this side of the large rock outcropping, dark, shining eyes fixed on him.
Sully guessed Gabriella—visible only from ribcage up—was standing near where the shore was supposed to be, and so at the spot where her body had been found. And he knew without hearing the words what she was asking of him.
“She wants me to go down to her.”
Sully took a step forward only to be stopped by Dez’s hand grasping the back collar of his jacket, shirt and poncho, wet knuckles ice cold against Sully’s upper spine.
“You’re not going down there, Sull. No way in hell. Look at it.”
“I don’t think I have a choice.”
“Damn right you don’t have a choice. I’m not letting you go down there.”
Dez’s hand still firmly knotted into his clothing, Sully opted to speak to Gabriella. “Can you come up here? I can’t get all the way to you. It’s too dangerous.”
She didn’t move, answering his question without forming words he’d never hear.
“Dez, I have to go down.”
“Damn it.” In Sully’s peripheral vision, Dez scrubbed a hand along his face. “Okay. Okay, but we go down there together. You stay within grabbing distance, you got that?”
That suited Sully fine, and Dez released him to provide them both with two free hands to hold onto the trees that supported their descent down the slope. Dez materialized beside Sully as he closed
to within ten feet of the rushing water.
“Close enough, Sully,” he said.
But Gabriella didn’t seem to share that view, remaining where she was. She was more visible to him here, enabling Sully to see the bruises wrongly put down to accident or misadventure. Unless he closed the gap, Sully knew that was all he’d see.
And he needed more.
“She’s not moving,” he said.
“Where is she?”
Sully extended an arm, pushing the poncho away enough that he could point out the spot. “There. Near the far edge of that rock.”
“Sully, no. That’s something like fifteen feet in. You’re not going in there. The current’s too strong.”
“Dez—”
“I said no. Find another way.”
“Look, there won’t be a strong current if I hug the rock. If I keep right up against it, I can reach her.”
Dez didn’t appear even remotely close to convinced. “Look, I think I’ve still got the camping supplies in the hatch, and I always keep some rope there. Let’s go get it. I can tie you to me and use one of the trees to set up a pulley.”
There was no sense arguing. Except in one respect. “You go. I’ll wait here.”
“Screw that, man.”
“I won’t go in until you get back, okay? I promise. I just don’t want to lose sight of her.”
“I’m not sure your promises cut much with me anymore.”
“I know I screwed up today, Dez. I won’t do it again. Anyway, I know what you went through as a kid. I’m not going to put you through that again, all right? I mean it. I’ll wait here.”
Dez studied Sully’s eyes for a few seconds, and Sully knew he’d passed the test when Dez turned and started to clamber back up the slope.
But not without a parting warning. “You move one inch, man, I swear I’ll tie you to the roof of the car for the ride back to town.”
Sully watched Dez until he could see he’d made it back up to the path. But when he returned his attention to the water, Gabriella was gone.
“Oh, hell.” Dez’s name was on Sully’s lips as he started to turn to tell him he’d lost the ghost. But before a sound had passed his lips, he heard his brother shout.
Not a word, but a startled yell.
Through eyes widened in fear and desperation, Sully looked for his brother. But it wasn’t on the path he found him.
Dez was sliding down the slope. Towards the river.
Into the river.
Sully sprinted forward, screaming Dez’s name as he searched the violent white waves for any sign of wet copper hair. He spotted his target a second before the water slammed Dez against the side of the rock outcropping.
Unlike the more sheltered side of the rock where Gabriella had emerged, there were no still waters here. It was all pounding white waves and viciously cast-off spray.
And that’s where Dez disappeared.
13
He screamed Dez’s name one last time.
There was no point trying again. His brother wouldn’t hear him, not with all that water holding him down.
There was no time to call 9-1-1, no way anyone could get here to help. He was all Dez had.
Ripping off the poncho, Sully tossed his still-bagged cellphone onto the ground. He’d need it to call for help as soon as he had his brother out of there.
And he would get him out. There was no other option.
Sully ran into the water, feeling the current catch immediately and sweep his feet out from under him. He hit the water hard, side impacting painfully on a rock beneath him as he was taken fully under. He pushed his hands frantically through the waves, searching blindly for Dez as he fought his own panic over the inability to breathe.
He could feel nothing but rock and rushing water.
The sickening thought came uninvited. Maybe Dez wasn’t even here, already swept away into the rapids.
Toward the falls.
The panic gave Sully an injection of adrenaline as he continued the search. Seconds passed, feeling like endless hours before Sully’s hand collided not with rock or broken tree branch, but with a limb. A very human limb. Sully wrapped hands around what he recognized as Dez’s solid bicep and pulled. Toward what, he had no idea. He just knew anywhere was better than here, pinned to the bottom under the weight of crashing water.
He fought to get his legs under him as he reestablished his hold on Dez, moving to wrap arms around his brother’s barrel of a chest. But as hard as he tried, he couldn’t find any purchase on the slippery river bottom, particularly not with the current continuing to beat down.
Consciousness was on its way out as Sully’s heart sought escape in a steadily harsh drumbeat against his ribcage.
He’d been close to death before, and so recognized the inexplicable calm that stole over him, creating a disturbed clarity in his mind.
Into that Gabriella pressed, her face appearing in front of his as she—like Breanna before her—wrapped firm fingers around Sully’s throat.
This time, the effect was negligible, no air to lose and none to be gained. It didn’t matter. The connection was made, the image blasting into Sully’s brain like a bolt of lightning. There was pain—his own rather than hers, he expected—but it didn’t interfere with what he saw through her eyes.
She was dancing on a night-quiet bridge, spinning like a whirling dervish.
She looked to her outstretched arms as her movement inexplicably pushed bold, black feathers from her pores. It wasn’t normal, and yet it seemed the most natural thing to her in that moment.
As she spun, Sully—through her eyes—saw the blurry image of a man standing near her, yet far enough back he wouldn’t be struck as she giddily continued to whip her body around. Sully knew there were words being spoken but, as usual, he couldn’t hear them, locked into only what he could see.
As if it were his own, Sully felt the dizziness and the nausea that followed as she finally stopped, her movement hurling her against the guardrail of the bridge. Leaning over it, her eyes drifted downwards. Her vision was still spinning, still caught up in that dance, and it remained that way as she tried to look at the man as he drew closer.
The man—nothing but a rushed blur as her eyes continued to spin—was saying something to her. And while Sully couldn’t hear her words, he could sense the turn of her thoughts: “Maybe he’s right. Maybe I can fly.”
Sully felt rather than heard her laugh, a wild rumble that echoed within her consciousness as she climbed over the railing, holding to it with long, black-taloned fingers as her feathers rustled in the breeze. She began to let go, to release the railing as she gazed at the slowly stilling river of stars far, far below.
And she knew she had to look, to make sure she was prepared for this maiden flight.
The feathers were gone. Talons mere fingernails, painted black to match her shirt. His hand was on hers, his candle tattoo that matched her own visible in the roll of his sleeves. She knew he would pull her away from here, help her back to the safety that waited on the other side of that railing.
Instead, she felt fingers wrap around her throat, squeezing, digging in just enough to tell her he was not simply having fun with her. It wasn’t enough to cut off her air or her cry of terror, possibly not even to bruise.
But it was enough to let her know his intentions.
He was going was to kill her.
Illogical survival instinct had her releasing the railing with her dominant right hand so she could try to pull his hands away, the need to free herself from his grasp outweighing every other risk. His fingers felt large next to hers, large and firm and unyielding, enough to necessitate the use of her other hand to try to pry them free. And, while she had yet to make any real purchase in a physical sense, her actions had their desired outcome as, in one fluid movement, he released her throat.
Now there was only her and the river below, and a railing she couldn’t find with fumbling fingers.
She fell.
The r
oar of air rushing past was all she knew.
That and the dark water of the Kimotan speeding toward her.
Sully didn’t feel her impact; rather, he felt one of his own.
There was a solid thump against his front, one that didn’t come from Dez—still held tight in his arms—but rather through him. A second one came, then a third, the impact behind each growing steadily stronger.
And then, by some miracle, Sully felt his head break the surface, his body and Dez’s pushed free of the current. Sully took in what he could of a gasped breath before his lungs rebelled, choking out the water he’d swallowed. Opening his eyes, he saw they were just a few feet from shore. Gabriella stood a short distance away, where they’d just been, and Sully nodded his thanks before it occurred to him she might well have been responsible for their ending up in here in the first place.
With Dez’s head cradled between jaw and shoulder, Sully struggled with the larger man’s dead weight, working to get them back to shore.
Dread formed over those words in his brain—dead weight—lending Sully added strength to finish pulling his older brother free of the water.
Dez wasn’t breathing. That part was obvious immediately. Sully grunted as he turned Dez onto his side, delivering a series of sharp blows to his back which expelled the water and blessedly started Dez coughing and vomiting up river water and whatever he’d had for lunch all over Sully’s knees.
Sully had never been so happy to be puked on. Alternating between coughing and uttering reassuring words to Dez, Sully folded himself over his big brother in as much of a hug as their position would allow. His relief heightened when Dez’s right arm wrapped around his legs in response.
Dez managed to get out a handful of choked words between the coughing spasms. “Never again, Sully. Never again.”
For at least the third time that day, Sully was about to catch hell from someone he loved. This time, it was Eva.
The latest chastisement came as the two of them were waiting on tests that would reveal if a blow Dez had taken to the head was anything serious.