The three Indians who'd worked on the site for days were still there. One chanted while the other two stood silently with their eyes closed.
Spence walked up to Willie. The boy stood looking at the roped off dirt. "I never had a chance to tell him," he said to Spence. "He may have liked being my dad."
"Hell, Willie, anyone would be proud to be your dad. I know I would."
"I need to stay here. Gotta guard the dig. He'd want me to."
"Can't let you do that Willie. That's why the Indians are here. It's their treasure, son. Let them guard it."
But Willie just shook his head.
Spence sighed. "Okay, suit yourself."
Then, as he joined Meg and Lila on the porch, he said, "Won't budge. Wants to guard the site."
Meg gasped. "Oh my God. This is all my fault. If I'd let Tim be a real father, at least they both would have had a chance to be with each other. And if that wasn't bad enough, Willie hasn't even grieved Maria yet or gotten over his beating. It's just been one thing after another for him."
"They that are good unto the resurrection of life," Lila said softly. "God understands. Tim was a good man. They'll be reunited in Christ, in the resurrection and the life hereafter. Eternal life comes to all mankind through Christ."
She continued, "You cannot be terrified of the judgment. You are forgiven, Meg. Always have been. He died for our sins."
Jake pulled in the driveway. Running up the stairs, he stopped in front of Meg, as if he was unsure what to do.
"This," Meg sobbed, as she slapped him hard, "is for calling me a fornicator all those years. And this," she slapped him again, "is for calling my son a bastard."
After a friend dropped her off, Susie ran up the Cowell's front steps and knocked on the door. No one answered. She went around the back.
The four people on the porch looked frozen. Willie's mom, his grandma and grandpa and Spence. They just stood there looking at each other.
Susie looked around. Willie.
She ran up to him. He looked at her blankly, like she wasn't there. She'd heard what happened. She wanted to help him, but didn't know how.
"Willie, what can I do?"
Then, he wrapped his arms around her and began screaming. He screamed and screamed and screamed until his voice was gone.
It was dark now and Dana was ready. She had the money and was ready to put this town behind her.
"All set, then?" she asked him. They'd rented a truck for the buy, and now pulled up in front of Joe's house. He came out a minute later right at seven o'clock. They transferred the kilos to the truck and Dana paid him the money without a word.
"Guess that's all then," he said after they finished.
"Yeah," Dana said, "we're done here."
*****
Spence and Meg sat at the kitchen table.
"Think he'll be okay out there?" Meg asked.
"In the dark?" Spence said. "Yeah. He'll make it, Meg. He's stronger than you think he is. Plus, I think that little girl is good for him. She seems to care for him very deeply."
"Reminds me of you and me at that age."
"Meg," he began, "someone will be calling you. You probably remember her. Tammy Sullivan from our class at school."
She shot him a quick glance then looked beyond him. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said slowly.
"Tammy. Pixie haircut and glasses back then. Now she has long hair though."
"Yes. Of course. What about her?" She started wringing her hands.
"Well, she was by today. Seems like a nice enough person, I guess. A little bold, but she was asking after you. I thought you might like a girlfriend. You know, someone to talk to."
"Excuse me." Meg left the table and he heard her on the phone.
She came back into the room a few minutes later. Her face was white and her hands shook.
"You okay?"
"Renee is coming over."
He watched her shred a napkin on the table. "What?" he said.
"Tammy and her father Bryce were killed in a bus accident five years ago."
A chill went down his spine. "What? What are you talking about? She was at the wake for Chad. I danced with her."
"Spence, you didn't dance with anyone at the wake except for me. Remember you dipped me one time and my hairpins all fell out?"
His mind was reeling now. "But, I saw her father at the wake."
"No, you didn't Spence. It wasn't possible. They are dead."
"I've seen her all over the place. I saw her at Ned's one day, then at PS25, and she came over here a few times too."
"Spence," she said, carefully choosing her words now, "PS25 was closed five years ago. All fifteen children, including Tammy and her father were killed in the bus accident. After that, they closed the school and now they bus the kids to Rushburg. I've heard there have been some problems at the school with juveniles hanging out and smoking pot. Lee Cobb told me the other day. I've also heard there are ghostly happenings out there. Children and adult voices are heard sometimes." She hesitated. "Simon Liskey almost had a nervous breakdown after she died, he was so in love with her. He still talks about her all the time."
"I don't believe you!" he shouted furiously. "I don't fucking believe you! Tell me the truth!"
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she replied calmly, "I am telling you the truth Spence."
He banged out the back door, and ran veering towards the Indian who stood guard. "You saw Tammy? The woman today who drove in? Long hair?"
The Indian appraised him. "A spirit," he said simply.
Spence cursed and ran to his car. Racing down the driveway, he was out to prove her wrong. He sped to the access road to PS25. His headlights lit up the school. Graffiti marked the outside of the place, and the front door and windows were boarded up. He jammed the car in park, ran up the steps and kicked in the front door.
Chairs were stacked up in one corner, cobwebs hung from the ceilings, and layers of dust covered the place.
"Shit!" he cried, as he ran to the Cadillac again.
Once in town, he pulled up in front of Ned's Barbershop. "Ned! Ned!"
The man came out and smiled. "Dirty white boy, to what do I owe the pleasure? You gettin' a haircut this late?"
Spence was out of breath now. "Remember when I came here with Harv that day?"
"Yeah, he sure needed that haircut, son."
"You saw Tammy Sullivan, right? She was standing in front of the car, remember?"
He sat down. "No." He paused and peered closely at Spence. "She's dead son. I didn't see her. What I did see was you talking to yourself. That's why I came on the porch and asked if you were okay."
"You're in it with Meg!" Spence yelled. "Harv will tell me the truth!"
His car ran the streets until he was in front of Harv's house. The man's wife had taken him back in a few days before. He pounded on the door and Harv answered. "Hey, Spence. Come in."
"Don't have time, Harv. I need to know something."
"Shoot."
"Tammy. She was at the Cowell place one night. Then she was in front of my car at Ned's place. Remember?"
"Tammy?"
"Yeah. Long black hair, great body, leather clothes."
"Oh, that's what you were seeing. Kept thinking you were just talking to yourself. I know, Spence. Sometimes I see things, but generally it's after I have too much to drink."
"You didn't see her then? Either time?"
"No, Spence. You want a drink or something? I got some lemonade around here somewhere."
"Thanks Harv. Some other time."
*****
Renee clicked her phone closed and yelled for Lex.
"What's going on?" he said as he appeared in the doorway of his office.
"We never checked the boyfriend!" she cried, pacing up and down.
"Who?"
"Spence Moorehouse. He's a fucking medium!"
*****
Spence sped to the cemetery. It would be his last stop. He produced a fla
shlight from his car trunk and proceeded up the gravel pathway. Winging it back and forth, he checked every gravestone.
They were way in back.
"Tammy Sullivan, died 2007, lies here in peace." She laughed, as she leaned against the headstone and ran a hand down the writing. "What a joke. Oh, my father is here right next to me."
"Dressed in leather again I see," Spence said. "What do you want from me, Tammy?"
She chuckled and her voice deepened. "What I've always wanted." Now, it was deep like a man. "Your soul."
She transformed before Spence's disbelieving eyes. She towered above him, black, reptilian and menacing, with a face twisted with ugliness and anger. The stench was overpowering. Death.
"The soul," he heard Lila's voice behind him, "testifies also to devils, to just vengeance, and to its own immortality."
"Tertullian," the disembodied, low voice said, "love his descriptions. But he's just so Christian. Do you mean, Lila, I'm going to live forever?"
Lila walked up and touched Spence. "This is where it ends. Go back to wherever it is you came from. Leave us alone. We've had enough tragedy. Be gone, Satan. For it is written we shall worship the Lord my God, and serve him only. Come Spence." Lila grabbed his arm.
They left the graveyard without looking back.
*****
The man thought he'd start with the barn. He'd slipped past Willie, the girl and the Indians on guard, as the death that day had them all talking to each other at the dig site. Well, soon enough the artifacts would be his. He built up hay in the corner, here, there then lit the mounds. He untied the horses and let them go through the back door with a slap on their backsides.
It would take at least twenty minutes for the barn fire then he'd be in the main house. He'd seen Karl and Mark go upstairs, and possibly Jake, as lights flipped on the upper floor. Meg was in the kitchen. Lila and Spence were gone.
Soon, Meg went upstairs also. With a careful eye on the Indians, he snuck in a front window. Pouring his kerosene on the couches and chairs and rugs, he backed up to the front door. He'd soon be rid of Karl. That was the main thing he wanted. He hated to kill Meg, but once the house had burned, he could buy it for a pretty penny. And, with the property came the dig and a small fortune. Good investment.
*****
Mark smelled it first. A pungent, noxious odor. "Fire!" he yelled as he opened the door to the hallway. The heat was intense, suffocating. He heard the roar of approaching flames.
"Meg! Karl!" he called, as he ran coughing down the hallway. The two came out of their rooms, holding their mouths against the poisonous smoke. "How do we get out?"
Karl whipped around. "The eave!" he yelled, "When we were kids, Meg, you remember?"
"Where's Daddy Jake?" she said frantically.
"I'll get him," Mark shouted, "just go now." The two went back to Karl's room.
But flames shot up the stairwell now as Mark searched for Jake.
He found the man passed out with his bedroom door open. Mark took off his shirt and held his mouth and nose. He stood over Jake and slapped the man several times. "Wake up, damn it, Jake!"
He came around and Mark helped him navigate the smoky hallway to Karl's room, and the eave. Once on the roof, Jake looked back. "Everything it took me my whole life to build...gone in a few minutes," he said bitterly.
The two crawled along, down, then hung off the edge and were helped to the ground by Meg, Karl and Willie.
They all heard the crack of timbers and ran fast from the house, which was collapsing into itself.
"Jesus God," Jake said looking at the fifty-foot tall wall of flames towering into the night sky.
Gasping now, the family watched as ugly green demons and devils with horns and hideous faces rose in the fire, and hovered over the house. Shrill whoops and war cries sounded then, within the flames, as Indians in full headdresses swinging clubs appeared in the raging inferno, moving up, ever upwards. Meg stood, shaking her fist at the visions. "Go!" she cried, "Go now! Leave us alone!"
And Willie, watching the horrendous thing, remembered Maria's words, as he watched his mother: "The spirit, it is in a trap, you see? The spirit cannot get free. It is trapped between up above and here."
Lex and Renee pulled in with their car then stood looking at the spectacle, as a thousand spirits appeared then disappeared into the night sky. "Holy shit!" Renee screamed.
They all watched as the top of the house buckled into the lower floors and exploded. Shards of wooded embers showered them, as a roar sounded from within the house.
But suddenly the house, which seemed alive only seconds before, came to a quiet halt. No more howling. No more monsters, just quiet flames.
Meg walked back over to her father. His face glowed with the fire's reflection. "It's over now. I love you Jake," she said to him.
His voice was gruff, as he put his arm around her. "Love you too, missy. Always have, always will."
They heard sirens wail and watched the barn cave in. Brandy, Lila's horse ran towards them, and Meg grabbed the horse's mane. "Shhh, now," she murmured.
*****
At the Roadway Inn, Simon waited patiently for Tammy. She came in the room about five minutes after he arrived.
"So," he said, "what do you want me to do?"
Her cheekbones widened, and her face grew to twice its size, along with her body. She hunched over. Her skin turned black and reptile-like, and her clothes were soon in shreds on the floor. The voice was raspy, and he got a glimpse of fangs, as the creature said, "What do I want you to do? Why die, of course, Simon."
The night bookkeeper at the Roadway Inn heard a strange noise. Stepping out into the night, lighting a cigarette, he listened again. Like a growl, he thought. He looked up and down the hotel path, but there was no animal there. He grabbed the cell phone from his pocket. "Sheriff Lee? Hey it's Matt at the Roadway. Yeah, fine thanks. Listen, I think we got a bear over here or something. Can you come over? Thanks, Lee."
*****
Spence's Cadillac sped down the back roads at a hundred miles an hour towards Cowell house. Towards Meg. He needed to apologize. But, he saw something in the road. Someone was walking along the side of the road. Familiar, he thought. He slowed and stopped the car. She carried groceries. His headlights lit her short frame. She turned.
Maria.
She smiled at him, placed her groceries in the back of his car then sat beside him in the passenger seat. "Senor Spence," she said warmly.
"Maria...you're still alive?"
"Noooo," she said, laughing, "I am here to tell you Senor Spence. To tell you who killed me."
*****
Davey was on his way to Cowell house after he heard the fire call go out. His cell phone rang, and he pulled over to answer.
"Sheriff Miller, it's Gace Stutgart, I don't know if you remember me."
"Sure, the handwriting analyst. What can I do for you?"
"Well I'm sorry for calling you so late, but I got to looking over the love letter you sent a while back. I know you were really interested in the signature. So I took another good look and I have a different guesstimate for you."
"Go ahead."
"I'm pretty sure someone with the letter "L" either first or last name signed the note. My secretary uses a very similar signature pattern when she signs her last name. That's what made me notice it today."
"Lila," Davey breathed. "Thanks Gace. Really appreciate it."
*****
The next morning, Karl drove his Lexus SUV down the road, relishing its quiet ride and soft leather seats. He knew he needed a shower, after all the smoke, but he wanted to stop by and make sure his mother made it home after chasing Spence the night before. Not that it was home anymore. The house was a total loss. He'd even had to go out for a fast food breakfast today.
But as he drove in the long driveway, he noticed not only police cars but other cars he didn't recognize. He parked, and got out. Pap and Davey stood looking at him. His mother, father and sister wer
e there too, along with Spence, Mark and Willie with his girlfriend.
"The gangs all here," he said loudly, as he approached them. But there was someone he didn't recognize. "And you are?"
"Justine. Simon's sister."
"Okay, I'll play along." He turned to Davey. "What's going on?"
"You're under arrest," Davey said, "for the murder of Oscar and June Moorehouse and Maria Santillan."
Justine said, "It's all here in Simon's will. Even the part about the Moorehouse shed where you kept the extra clothes. The black box too."
"That prick!" Karl said, as Davey cuffed his hands behind his back. "And the Moorehouses had it coming." His eyes filled with tears. "June Moorehouse not only had an affair with my father, one that produced Mark, but she fucked my mother as well."
Lila said, "I loved her. She was lonely. And beautiful. But, with temptation, God will provide the way of escape. And I did escape before it destroyed me. But I don't understand why you killed Maria."
As Davey read him his rights, Karl said tiredly, "She knew too much. Overheard conversations between Simon and me, and I couldn't put up with that. She would have said something eventually."
Spence turned to Mark. "And you were about to make a deal with the devil." His brother just nodded.
Pap looked at Spence and Meg fondly, his eyes crinkling. "Guess Maria, I mean a woman, really did help in the end, right?"
They both smiled and helped him into Spence's car.
*****
Meg drove to Judge Janine's house first. She picked up the paperwork, and headed to the house number Willie had given her.
Susie's step-father opened the front door, beer in hand, reeking of alcohol.
"Are you Susie Frederick's step-father Lester Freemont?"
"Well, yeah," he responded as he leered at her then let her in, "must be my lucky day."
"Not really," she said tightly as she closed the door. "Not at all."
*****
Lacene Lords Page 26