by H. P. Bayne
“What happened?”
“Lonnie and I were out with a few people from his work one night. We shouldn’t have been driving, but we were. Lonnie didn’t want to take his car—he had this nice little sports car—so we took mine. He wasn’t as sloshed as I was, so he drove. I figured we’d go back to his place so he could get dropped off, and I’d go home after, but he said his wife would be pissed off if he came in like that. So we kept going. We decided to go look for a woman or two.”
“Prostitutes?”
“Yeah.”
“Your idea or his?”
“Both of ours. But mainly mine, I guess. I’d already met some of the girls in the usual areas. I’d heard about another location somewhere a little farther out from the core, but we got ourselves a little lost, being drunk and all that. We were driving around when this woman…. She came out of nowhere. Just appeared in front of the car. At least, that’s what Lonnie said. I didn’t see her at all. I just felt the thump.”
Dez’s stomach turned. “Did he kill her?”
Hackman didn’t provide a direct answer right away, locked into his narrative. “We talked for a minute about bailing. There was no one around, not even any houses right there. And most businesses didn’t have decent video surveillance back then; I figured we could get away with it. But Lonnie just sat there, mumbled something about needing to make sure. He got out—I didn’t want to—and came back all frantic saying she looked dead, but there was a baby too. It had got thrown out of her arms, I guess, and landed in the grass off the road. Lonnie was freaking out, completely useless, so I took over. I sat him down in the passenger seat, and I loaded the woman’s body into my trunk. Then I found the baby. It was crying a little, so I handed it to Lonnie. I knew we were going to have to find somewhere to get rid of the body, but I was figuring on dropping the kid at a hospital, somewhere near an ER without getting so close I’d end up seen by anyone. Figured someone would hear the baby crying and check. We decided we’d wait to take the kid until after we got rid of her though. If someone saw us, we knew the cops would be called. If they found her in the trunk, we’d be screwed.
“We talked about tossing the body over one of the bridges, thinking it would look like a suicide if anyone found her. But even though it was late, there was still too much traffic. So we kept driving, ended up out of town to the east. There’s another bridge out that way, and there was no traffic, plus it was downstream, so no way she’d wash up somewhere in town. So we dumped her and started back to Kimotan Rapids, figuring we’d stop off at a hospital next.
“Somewhere on the way, the baby stopped crying. I thought maybe it just fell asleep, but Lonnie freaked out, said it had stopped breathing. I stopped and we checked. There was nothing. No heartbeat, no breath. Nothing.
“At that point, we knew there was no point going to a hospital. We were going to go back to where we dumped the woman, but neither of us felt right throwing a baby over a bridge like that. We thought it deserved some sort of proper burial.”
Dez cut in. “You keep calling the baby ‘it.’ His name was Ben.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t know that at the time, all right? And we couldn’t tell what gender he was. We weren’t about to start checking, were we?”
“You took him out to Hollow Road, didn’t you?”
“We were trying to think of someplace we could go no one would think of. The woods are pretty deep around there, so we figured we could find a quiet spot somewhere out of sight from the road. We walked in and dug a little grave for him and put him in. Then we buried him, said some prayers and left. We swore to each other we’d never talk about it. Neither of us ever did. Until now.”
“You told me you and Lonnie fell out because you had a fight over his wife. That wasn’t true, was it?”
Hackman shook his head. “We couldn’t face each other again, not after that night. I think we both figured seeing each other would bring it all back. I just wanted to forget, get on with things. No doubt he did too. It got worse when they started showing the clips on the news. I saw Lonnie once after, and I remember how awful he looked, like he was the one hit by a car.”
“Didn’t that worry you, that he might crack and say something?”
“I know what you’re going to say. But, no, I didn’t kill him. Seeing him that day, I figured he was going to do it himself soon enough.”
“That didn’t bother you? He was your best friend.”
“I was stuck in my own issues; I wasn’t in a state to worry about his too. When he went missing, I just thought he’d finally done it, went off and capped himself. When they found his car on Hollow Road, I figured I’d been right. He’d gone back out to the place we left the baby and he’d done it there. At least, I thought so. It never occurred to me it would be some ghost that done him in.”
“You’re sure now that’s what happened? You don’t think I should be in Lockwood for saying that?”
“Last night, I took a shower. The mirrors were all fogged when I got out, so I wiped some off to shave. She was there. Right behind me in the reflection. I spun around but there wasn’t anything there, and she was gone when I turned back to the mirror. Later, when I went to bed, I rolled over to turn off my lamp and she was standing next to the bed. I blinked and she was gone when my eyes opened again. I’ve been trying to tell myself it’s my eyes playing tricks, but it’s not, is it? I really saw her. She came for Lonnie, and she almost took my son. He looks a lot like I did back then. She might have thought…. You need to help me, Braddock. Your brother, he tell you how to get rid of these things?”
“So you know Sully wasn’t crazy then, too, huh?”
“I believe in ghosts, all right? Things I saw and heard in Lockwood, I know they’re real. Tell me you can help me.”
“I can try,” Dez said. “First thing you need to do is show me where to find the baby.”
24
It occurred to Dez as he walked down to his SUV with Hackman that it wasn’t such a good idea to go alone.
Sure, they could find the baby’s body, but they were going with a shovel he’d borrowed from the building manager. The shovel looked heavy enough to make a formidable weapon should Hackman choose to use it as such, and the man was large and strong enough to give Dez a solid fight if it came to one.
With Hackman leading the way down the stairs, Dez fired off a quick text to Sully. Get Lachlan and come to H. Road. Hackman showing me where baby buried.
No more than ten seconds passed before his phone dinged. Wait until I’m there. I mean it.
Dez replied. Will try to delay.
Sully: On my way. Be careful.
Dez dropped the phone back into his pocket, and found Hackman watching him suspiciously from a turning in the stairwell.
“Who was that?”
A lie was necessary for more reasons than one. “Lachlan. I needed to check in. Don’t worry. I haven’t told him anything.”
“You think I’m going to trust you on that?”
Dez shrugged. “Don’t really care if you do. Way I see it, you don’t have much of a choice in this. It’s me or her. I’m thinking you’re safer dealing with me.”
Hackman didn’t argue the point, simply turning and continuing down the steps, shovel in hand.
They made it to the vehicle without any shovel attacks directed Dez’s way, and he set a course toward the bridge that would take them north through the city and, from there, toward Hollow Road.
They drove in silence, even the radio off. Dez ordinarily liked having music on, but it didn’t seem right. Not today. Not when their destination was a dead baby buried in the woods.
As they drew nearer to the road, another question occurred to Dez, one that had him breaking his silence. “Your car, the one you were in when you hit Nora and Ben, what happened to it?”
“We got rid of it. I had a buddy with a backhoe, and we buried it out on some property Lonnie’s family owned out of town.”
“You couldn’t have claimed insurance fo
r it.”
“Plus I had to keep paying. I couldn’t very well go to the insurance company and say what really happened, could I? Lonnie covered me on that, bought me a new vehicle and gave me enough to cover a few years of insurance payments.”
“We might need the car, too, you know.”
“One thing at a time,” Hackman said. “Hopefully, finding the baby will get rid of her.”
Finding Ben wasn’t going to be easy.
“You don’t remember anything about the location?” Dez asked as they crawled down Hollow Road, tires crunching gravel as Hackman scanned the woods out the passenger-side window.
“It was late, and we were in a rush. Plus, we were both freaked out, and it’s been thirty years. I don’t remember exactly.”
“Try to remember something. A large rock, an unusually big tree, a clearing. Something.”
Hackman was silent a moment, but finally came up with an answer they could use. “A shack. There was some sort of a hunting shack. We got scared because we sort of stumbled across it and thought someone might be there and see us, but we realized it wasn’t in use. I remember it now. I couldn’t think where we got the shovel we used to bury the baby, but it was from that shack.”
The only shack Dez knew of in the area was the one where Rosie was now living. He remembered her saying she lived a twenty-minute walk or so from the spot where Sully and Emory had been trapped. It took him a few seconds to locate the GPS coordinates he’d saved for the location, and he set a course for that area now, forcing himself to go slow. There was no sign of a vehicle in his rearview mirror, and he’d feel better if he knew he had some backup on the way. Not that he wanted Sully involved; the last thing he wanted was for Hackman to see his brother. But if the alternative was death at the end of a shovel, they could deal with the ramifications of Sully’s involvement later. Chances were Hackman could be coaxed into silence the same way Forbes had been. Hackman’s secrets were far worse than Sully’s, and Dez would be happy to guard them if it kept his brother’s existence quiet.
His mind turned to something else. If a hunting cabin was nearby, there must be a way to access it from the road. Maybe he didn’t need to pick his way through the woods to look for it, not if he could find a road leading there.
Another glance at his phone screen showed they would soon reach the spot where he’d stopped when they’d come searching for Sully. He knew any access to the cabin, if one existed, would have to be on this side somewhere, but he wasn’t seeing anything. Not at first, anyway.
Then he spotted something he hadn’t before. At this slow speed, he was able to pick out a rise in the ditch, one he now suspected had once been an approach or an off-road. Pausing beside it, he scanned the area in the woods behind it.
If a road once lay here, it was long gone, overtaken by woods and undergrowth. But the trees, heavier in some places, were sparser and younger here. It was possible.
“Did you happen to notice a road at all when the two of you came here back then?” Dez asked.
“We thought we found an old road, but it was blocked by fallen trees. Might be this spot, actually. Could have been a road at one time.”
It was as good a place as any. He stopped, pushed the stick into park and glanced in the rearview mirror. He’d been hoping to spot distant headlights, a sign Sully was closing in.
Nothing.
He took a moment, making a play of toying with the GPS app. He copied his current coordinates into his notes function, then took a final peek.
“Looking for something?” Hackman asked.
Dez thought up a quick and believable lie. “Hoping no one decides to come ghost hunting right now. I don’t think you’ll want anyone to see you here, and I’d rather they don’t see me with you.”
The fact Hackman said nothing suggested he’d bought the lie.
There was no sign of Sully, but waiting here wasn’t an option. Dez stepped first from the SUV, grabbing the shovel from the backseat before Hackman could get to it. Dez would make Hackman do the digging, but he’d hold onto the potential weapon as they made their way into the woods.
It occurred to him Rosie wouldn’t be pleased to see him turning up with a stranger in tow; her privacy out here had already been breached far too often. But her cabin would have to be the starting point for their search.
If they could find it. The farther they moved into the woods, the more the trees closed in, obscuring all signs of their rutted path.
Hackman’s furrowed brow did nothing to instill confidence. “I take it none of this is familiar,” Dez said.
“One tree looks just like any other to me.”
Enough said.
One other problem about this scenario: Nora was out here somewhere. Sure, Hackman looked different than he did back then, and Nora seemed to have targeted his son because of the obvious resemblance, but Dez was pretty sure the ghost would figure it out. He didn’t want to be anywhere around if that happened.
Then again, it was possible Nora had already found them, was following right now, close enough to touch, waiting for the opportunity to take her revenge.
Dez shuddered and set a brisker pace.
Luckily, he spotted the cabin before anything befell either of them. There was no sign of Rosie, but the fact smoke was rising from the chimney suggested she was nearby.
“Is that the place?”
“No idea. We were here in the dark. Jesus, someone lives there?”
“Now, yeah,” Dez said.
“They can’t see me out here.”
Dez stopped, faced Hackman. This seemed like the time for this discussion, with Rosie somewhere in the vicinity. She might be a little out of practice, but she’d been a solid fighter in her day, capable of delivering a licking to the strongest opponents. He was pretty sure she’d give both him and Hackman a run for their money.
“Does it matter who sees you? What do you think is going to come from this?”
“We find the body and make sure she finds him. Isn’t that the plan?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of finding the body, making sure she finds him, and then ensuring he has a proper burial. Then I was thinking you’d turn yourself in and explain all this to the police.”
“I’m not going to the police. I didn’t do anything wrong. It was Lonnie who was driving.”
“First of all, I’ve only got your word for that. Second, it’s possible the baby would have lived if you’d taken him to the hospital before dumping his mother’s body. Even if you weren’t directly responsible for the injuries, your decision to put Ben’s well-being after your desire for secrecy, that might be what killed him in the end.”
Hackman glowered, took a step forward, into Dez’s personal space. “So what exactly is the point of me being here if I get burned?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you? One option has you maybe doing a few years behind bars. The other has you sitting around, watching the shadows, wondering when she’s going to step out of one and come for you. She not only wants revenge, she’s proven she’s more than capable of getting it. Given the choice between facing justice or her, I’m thinking you’re safer with the first.”
Hackman’s glare didn’t fade, but his mouth moved as if he was gnawing at the inside of his lower lip. He was thinking, and Dez let him do it.
“Let’s just find the spot,” Hackman said. “We’ll figure out the rest after.”
His resolve to do the right thing was fading. Dez could see it. The closer Hackman got to the body, the more his mind was turning to what would happen next. He had to know Dez would be in no rush to protect his secret; if anything, Dez was the person with the greatest reason to go to the police with his newfound knowledge. More and more, he realized he was looking at a fight once they’d uncovered the body. What Hackman thought he’d do if the disinterment didn’t satisfy Nora, Dez didn’t know. But he expected Hackman would take his chances. An arrest, criminal charges, a potentially lengthy sentence, public loathi
ng—these were all utter certainties if he chose the justice route Dez was touting. The other side held continual stalking by an enraged dead woman and possible death, but Hackman might decide to take that risk. The victims had, so far, been killed or injured in the woods near Hollow Road. Hackman might decide he’d be safe as long as he stayed far away from here.
And he might be right. Sully said ghosts were often strongest in the places that meant the most to them in life or where they’d died. For Nora, that place seemed to be the area where her son was buried. Dez could imagine her ghost had followed Lonnie and Hackman that night, possibly sitting right next to them in the car while Lonnie cradled her son’s body. Or she might have been drawn here afterward, through a sort of mother-baby bond. Whatever it was, she was here, and she didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Only she had. Hackman had seen her in his own apartment. She’d followed him. She could keep following him.
Dez would have to fall back on that argument if it came to one later. For now, they continued through the woods, Hackman leading the way. The blind leading the blind. It was possible Hackman would catch sight of Nora, but it was just as likely neither of them would know if she was nearby, and Dez suspected neither of them had a clue how to find the gravesite.
Even so, Hackman continued on for half-an-hour, walking, stopping, scanning and closing his eyes in thought.
“I remember a slope of some sort,” he said as they came to one, a small hill dipping downward into a valley covered in poplar. “Maybe we’re getting close.”
Dez guessed there were a lot of hills in these woods, but he kept the thought to himself. No sense arguing the small stuff when a bigger altercation lay on the horizon.
Anyway, Hackman was on his game after all. Having arrived at the bottom of the slope, they passed a few more trees before he drew them to a halt in a small clearing. A chill seeped through Dez’s skin.
It was completely bare. Not just empty of trees or undergrowth. Bare of anything. No grass or weeds grew here, as if the ground itself was poison. The blighted area was too large for an infant’s grave, but the fallen poplar leaves provided another clue. They lay scattered on the ground, but one spot remained untouched—a spot the approximate size of a one-month-old baby.