by Nhys Glover
The shiver grew colder. Jake sounded so determined. Almost obsessed. But could I blame him? This was turning into a horrific case, with more victims than we could ever have guessed. I had to agree. These madmen had to be stopped.
“How long before you can arrest them?” I croaked out.
“Can’t tell you. A week? Hopefully no more than a week. I have every available man working on it, as well as a lot of cops involved in the cold cases in other states. We’ll have to find a connection. There has to be one.”
“What I can’t understand is how the pastor can stay out of the exorcisms,” I said thoughtfully. “I mean, he’s a control freak. He wouldn’t want to just set his puppets to do the deed and be satisfied with hearing about it afterwards.”
Jake fell silent for a few moments, before saying, “You think there was some kind of off-site surveillance going on? A hidden camera recording the exorcisms. Live feed maybe, so the pastor could direct the performance?”
I nodded. “If he’s the monster we think he is, then that’s exactly what I’m thinking. It would only take one person with an earpiece, as well as a small camera set up in the room and the pastor could choreograph the whole event. That sort of equipment has been around for a lot of years. Maybe there were home movie cameras used in the early days…”
“There was no camera in the cellar where we found Lauren, but in the time between us taking her and them being arrested, they could’ve ditched it,” Jake mused. “I’ll check out if any of the girls who escaped reported being videoed. Fuck, can you imagine the whole congregation sitting around eating popcorn watching the replay of the horror show. It’s enough to turn my stomach.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep tonight,” I admitted into the silence that fell between us.
“To tell you the truth, neither am I. Back when Dad got sick I was working in New York. At the time, I’ll admit the idea of leaving all the shit behind appealed to me. And for all the tedium involved in policing a small town like ours, I don’t regret the move. At least I do get to sleep most nights.”
“Until now,” I said with a sigh. “Good night, Jake. I’ll let you know what I find out tomorrow from Cindy. It may not be a lot. It’s not like she can talk to me in the way I’m talking to you now. It’s a guessing game, pure and simple.”
“Guesses are better than nothing. If I have a starting point, I can build on it.”
“Okay. Talk tomorrow.”
And, true to my word, I didn’t get much sleep. And when I did, my dreams were nightmares.
15
I was up as soon as the sun’s first rays lightened the sky. All night I’d tossed and turned, anxious for the day to begin, and yet dreading it as well. Not only didn’t I want to go back to the site where I’d seen my first real murder victim, but I didn’t want to play thirty questions with a dead girl who’d died traumatically. It took too much out of me.
Yet I couldn’t wimp out. I was finally doing something useful with my ability for the first time in my life, and it felt good. It felt important. I was making a difference in the world, even if it opened me up to ridicule and suspicion.
Yet the ridicule had been minimal. Even Karl, who had seemed so dubious about my abilities—about any of our abilities, to be honest—had started to come around. It was hard not to, when you saw evidence of it with your own eyes. Rational explanations could only get you so far.
When I finally pulled on track pants and sweatshirt, and hurried down the front stairs to the door, my heart was pounding too fast. Yet, for all the stress and tiredness, I felt good. Excited, even.
After turning off the alarm, I opened the front door and stepped out into the misty morning. The white wisps leant a mystery and beauty to the burnt remnants of trees and the bare earth. Like a sepia photo of old. For a full minute I stood on my front step and just appreciated it. Yes, it was dead. Yes, it was unnatural and wrong. Yet it had an otherworldly beauty, similar to what I imagined Mars would look like to an astronaut walking across the red dunes.
Everything had its own kind of beauty, if you looked at it the right way.
At that moment, Karl appeared around the corner of the house, wearing a black light-weight jacket and black cargo pants. His blonde hair and pale skin seemed to belong to the scene, as if he too was caught in a sepia photo from the past.
As soon as he saw me, he went on alert. “Problem?”
“I need to go out to the gravesite again. Can you come?”
He jerked a nod and pulled out his phone. In minutes, he had Fred ready to take his place on patrol and we were heading for the car. This time, neither of us was getting a cup of coffee to ease our way into the morning.
“Why are we going out there? They don’t think there’s another body, do they?” Karl asked from the passenger side of my car where the seat had been pushed as far back as it would go.
“No, thank the gods. Jake just wants me to see if I can get more information from Cindy. It’s proving difficult to track her. The so-called fostering was undocumented. We don’t have a clue where she came from or what her last name really was. Until I can get that, Jake is flying blind.”
“He’s a good cop,” Karl said.
I shrugged, still not happy to pay my nemesis any compliments. Maybe I was less antagonistic to him than I had been. Maybe he’d sort of admitted to not liking his behavior around me. But there had been no apology, or even any real clarity as to why he was the way he was with me. I thought it had something to do with me being a witch. But with all the anti-witch hatred going on, he’d found himself on our side. Surely he’d now be questioning his prejudices because of it.
I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. He was simply the sheriff working on this case. Nothing more. The past was gone. Finished. And I had moved on. I was no longer a teenage girl with a stupid crush on a high school football hero.
We reached the border faster than I would have expected, and a quick jog through the mist had us at the site in a few minutes. Here, the sepia photo turned to color. It was even more stunning and macabre than the view from my front steps.
But I didn’t want to waste time standing around admiring the view. I had a job to do. I could see how the ground had died a little more since the day before. It was unsettling, to say the least.
The cold prickles started up as soon as I saw the yellow crime scene tape. With dread, I noted that death had spread about a foot on the far side of the fallen tree now. From a distance, the spread didn’t hit me so much anymore. But up close, from one day to the next, that Grim-Reaper-crawl was frighteningly obvious. I stopped, and Karl stopped a little behind me. He was damned good at blending into the background. I could almost believe I was alone out here.
“Cindy. I need you to tell me more about yourself. We need to find where you came from. Did your parents die in a car accident?” I asked the mist.
I got a vehement yes, followed by a wave of sadness that almost knocked me to my knees. Karl better have his reflexes ready again, or I was going to be face-planting sometime during this communication. Her emotions were just so potent.
I closed my eyes to let the images enter my mind unobstructed. I saw a young couple, happy and loving. A mother who was always ready with a warm hug and a kiss. A mother who could make electricity jump between her fingers, and from one hand to the other. She did it to make Cindy laugh. And Cindy always laughed and clapped.
Tears stung my eyes. I felt so much grief. This happy family was a rare one. Nobody had the right to snuff it out just because they were different.
But maybe the differences were just an excuse. The pastor liked control and inflicting pain and fear. Demon-hunting had just been the perfect vehicle to get what he wanted. A way to justify his actions.
I paid attention to some of the scenery Cindy was showing me. I thought I recognized the unique landscape of Arizona. I was getting closer. I saw her dad driving a pick-up truck with a logo on the side. I got the impression he worked in construction, o
r maybe maintenance, if the ladder was any indication.
What did the logo say? Vista? Bona Vista? Was that the name of the town or just the business?
“Show me your school, honey,” I whispered, not wanting to break the flow of images in my mind.
There it was again! Bona Vista Middle School was on the sign out front of the pueblo style school building. Now we were getting somewhere.
“Show me roll call,” I asked.
I felt her groan melodramatically, as if memories of school brought out the child in her. The child who didn’t particularly like school.
I saw a teacher at the front of the room calling out names from a notepad. When she said “Cindy Jarvis” I knew I had all I needed.
It had been far easier and less painful than I’d expected. No guessing game. It just came down to asking the right questions and figuring out the rest from what I saw.
I opened my eyes and smiled. “Okay, honey. That’s great. Thank you. Now, I think you need to move on. Hanging out here must be lonely. Your mom and dad are probably waiting for you, wondering where you’ve gotten to.”
This was not something I’d ever attempted, although in the past I had sensed several spirits move on after I helped them with what they’d left undone.
I felt confusion and uncertainty from Cindy.
“If you look around, you’ll see a light or a doorway. Something that doesn’t belong here. Beyond it is your folks, just waiting for you.”
Hope filled my heart and, in the next instant, the cold chill on my skin was gone.
What had I done? I might have lost Jake his only witness.
No! If he wanted more answers he’d have to get them the old-fashioned way, because Cindy shouldn’t have to remain stuck alone in this terrible place for a minute longer. I’d done the right thing!
I turned and smiled at Karl, tears blurring my vision.
“You can do that? You can help them move on? Can you see where they go?”
For the first time since I met him, Karl seemed totally invested in what he was asking. He’d even stopped looking around us for threats.
I shrugged. “I don’t do anything. I can’t see anything like the light or a door. Those ideas came from TV and seemed appropriate. All I can tell you is that she suddenly got very hopeful and then she was gone.”
“Gone?” he checked, frowning.
“Gone, as in I don’t feel her anymore. It could mean she just went somewhere else, like my mom has a habit of doing. But as Cindy seemed stuck here, I don’t think that’s it. I think she’s crossed over. I just hope I’m right and her parents are waiting for her. She was loved very much. I think that’ll be exactly what happens.”
“But you don’t know?” he pressed, needing assurances I couldn’t give him.
“No, I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone living knows for sure. I sense a loving presence out there, but I don’t know,” I replied, sorry I couldn’t help him.
“You’ve lost people,” I said when the silence grew too heavy between us.
It wasn’t a question. Nobody would be so insistent to have answers if they hadn’t lost at least one person they loved.
“Yeah. Too many,” he muttered, turning away, his mask back in place.
We hiked back to the car in silence.
* * *
As I’d hoped, we were back before the rest of the family was up and around. I had therefore missed the questions that would have come had someone seen me, or even heard the car driving away. The new kids had their rooms facing the back of the house and my kids slept like the dead, no pun intended, in rooms facing the front of the house. It made for a perfect situation when you needed to slip away undetected.
But Fred was there as we pulled up, a question in his eyes, if not in his expression.
“No problems?” he checked.
“Nope. All good here?” came the almost robotic answer.
“Yep.”
I had to wonder if they ever had lengthy discussions on entertainment, football or philosophy, in their own time. Because, really, these monosyllabic half-sentences they used to communicate was disconcerting.
The rest of the day was spent arranging the new furniture that arrived mid-morning. It was wonderful to see the excitement on the girls’ faces and the way Michael took possession of the pool table as if he was a snooker champ. Once all the work was done, of course. Only once the last nightstand was in place was he allowed to rack up the balls and have a few practice shots.
We’d set up the games room in another of the rooms my ancestors probably kept for entertaining guests. It was just large enough for the half-size pool table, the ping-pong table and a few comfy chairs. The flat screen TV was hung from the wall in the old parlor, turning it into a living room. There was a built-in sound system to go with the TV, so music could play from it whenever the kids wanted.
I was emphatic about it being kept low, though. If I could hear it beyond the closed living room doors I was ready to complain. Call me an awful mother, but I wasn’t about to have what little peace I had disturbed by acid rock, or whatever the latest iteration of head-banging noise that passed for music was these days. Gods, I was sooo old!
Hilary came to stand beside me to watch Michael and Lauren start their first game of pool. Michael had skills because he had a table back home. His dad’s home, I suppose I should now call it. And he was happy to show his younger, adoring fan how it was done. Watching the little redhead find a way to play with a cast on her arm was going to be interesting.
“He’s having the time of his life, you know,” Hilary said, nodding in her brother’s direction.
I chuckled. “Yeah. He does like an audience.”
“It’s more that he likes not being the baby. He likes being the big brother. The only hitch is his lack of magical ability. But as his role models—that’s Karl and Fred, if you haven't worked it out yet—don’t have any either, he’s not as disappointed as he used to be.”
I looked at my wise daughter, surprised by her insights. I don’t know why. She was always full of wisdom beyond her years.
“You should have been a psychologist or family therapist.”
Hilary laughed. “I might understand my brother, it doesn’t mean I want to work with people like him. Seriously! Give me a baby any day.”
“Have you spoken to Jake today?” she asked, as Faith began jumping up and down, wanting her turn to play.
“Yeah. I had some fresh Intel on Cindy to share. She’s… She’s moved on now, I think. To her parents who loved her.”
Hilary smiled. “Good. That’s good. She deserves that, after what she went through. So, what’s going to happen?”
“Jake says he’s building a pretty good case against the pastor-of-many-names and his motley following. It might be the end of the week before he makes any more arrests though.”
Hilary sighed. “I keep coming up against this block in my head. I can’t imagine how those people think. I’m pretty good at empathy, but it deserts me where they’re concerned.”
I shrugged. “I think they’d have to have feelings like the rest of us for you to be able to empathize with them. There are some people in this world who don’t cringe when another person hits their thumb. Their brain is wired differently from ours.”
She nodded. “Psychopathy. I get it intellectually, I do. I just don’t get it here,” she pressed a hand to her chest.
“Me, either. I guess we just have to be glad we don’t. I don’t think I’d like to get inside the head of a monster. What is it they say, if you look into the void for too long, the void looks back at you? Something like that.”
16
I was brought to consciousness by a buzzing next to my ear. My eyes flew open, already knowing what it was. My cell. It was dark and late, and my cell was buzzing.
I threw my hand out to the nightstand and retrieved the device. Before I could say hello a deep voice spoke.
“Wake your kids, get dressed fast, and get down to the l
iving room. We have company coming. A lot o’ company!”
Oh, Gods! Oh, Gods! This was bad. This was really bad. My worst nightmare bad.
“Will do. Have you rung for reinforcements?”
“Yep.” And then Karl was gone and the line went dead.
I sprang from bed, yanked on tracks and a tee, not worrying about a bra or socks. I scrambled out the door and down the hall, knocking on doors as I went.
“Get up, we have company! Get up and dressed, now!”
I didn’t have time to wake everyone slowly. Time was of the essence, and the kids were all fully aware that something like this could happen. We’d even run a few drills, just in case. Combined with our weapons training we had a chance.
Foggy-brained with chaotic bed-head that probably matched my own, the kids began piling out of their rooms, dragging on the last of their clothing. No one wore shoes yet, which all sat at the front door in readiness. Although we would be staying inside, waiting for the enemy to come to us, if they got that far.
We thundered down the front staircase into the living room that had so recently seen Lauren’s skills at work. Karl was already there, armaments of all kinds hanging from him. His expression was as stoic as ever.
“Jake let us know there was a large contingent leaving town, heading our way. He and his men will be following. Pete has been notified and has a couple of guys on the way. They’ll be a good five minutes behind the pastor and his crew, though. Of course, the pastor might recon the place first, which will give us extra time to get people in place. But we can’t count on it.”
He began handing out weapons. Pistols for Faith, Hilary and me, and shotguns for Lauren and Michael, who had proven to be the best shots. Lauren had soldiered on through the pain with her chosen weapon, and each time she’d practiced, she’d grimaced less. A few times she’d even hit the target.
The clips with fresh ammo came next. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. He began handing out knives in sheaths. “Put these somewhere you can get at them. If you run out of ammo you don’t want to be left defenseless.”