Beyond Dead

by Jordaina Sydney Robinson

  “We made the decorations,” I said as someone coughed behind me.

  “Neat.” He glanced up at the mass of paper chains before his focus returned to the food. “So all the food’s good to go? Any recommendations?”

  “Haven’t had chance to try anything yet.”

  Pete turned when the cloaked figure behind us coughed again. “Would you like me to get you some water for that cough?”

  The cougher was wearing a white robe and mask, same as everyone else, but her height and tight lipped expression made Eleanor clearly identifiable.

  “We’ll catch up later, Pete.” I glanced pointedly at Eleanor before walking into the crowd.

  I figured the sooner I got started with collecting unusual facts, the sooner it would be over. Of course it had occurred to me I could just make them up, but I suspected Eleanor would know somehow.

  I picked a random masked figure standing alone. “Hi.”

  The girl’s whole body stiffened as she looked at me. “Hi.”

  “This is normally the point in the conversation where I’d introduce myself, but I guess that’s not really an option today. So …” Not able to think of another topic, and not getting any input back from her, I fell to the old faithful. “It’s nice weather we’ve had lately.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, looking anywhere but at me.

  “Are you waiting for someone?” I asked. I tried to follow her gaze but it was darting all over the place.

  “No.” She adjusted her hood, pulling it down further.

  “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t ask, but do I know you?” I ducked my head and tried to get a look at her masked face, forgetting for a moment that she probably couldn’t recognise me. There was something familiar about her that I just couldn’t place. And I was sure she was faking a Yorkshire accent.

  “I don’t think so.” She stepped backwards, turned and scurried into the crowd.

  Barry’s mum appeared beside me, masked and cloaked like everybody else, frowning after the disappearing figure. “What an odd child. She recognised you,” she said, tucking another wayward strand of hair back into my hood.

  “What are you doing here?” I glanced around us as casually as possible, checking for the wave of GBs that were undoubtedly about to come crashing down around us any second.

  “Loosen your shoulders, dear, and stop scanning the crowd.” She adjusted my hood and brushed down the sleeves of my robe. “You look like you’re up to no good.”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked again, willing my posture to relax and focusing on her face.

  “There. Much better.” She sipped her punch and raised her glass in toast as someone walked passed. “I need your help.”

  I focused my attention on a pole to stop me looking around for the GBs. “To do what?”

  “My Barry needs to understand he’s dead to be released from that medical facility. I need you to explain the situation to him.”

  “And you can’t do that because …?”

  “First,” she said, pointing to herself, “fugitive. I can’t get near the place without tripping a whole set of alarms. Second, if he sees me before he understands, it’ll only make the situation worse.”

  I was about to explain how close to the wind I was already sailing in reference to the GBs when I felt that familiar pulling sensation. I wasn’t sure if I was simply becoming more experienced at being summoned or if it was normal to tell the difference between summoners. Jeremy was calling.

  “Just hold onto my hand, dear. Try to focus on my face.” Barry’s mum tilted my face up to look at hers. “That’s it, dear. Hold on to me. I’ll keep you here.”

  After what felt like an eternity the pull lessened, leaving me feeling drained. Barry’s mum supported me as we made our way to one of the tables filled with fairy cakes. She snagged three, then settled me on the grass near one of the poles.

  “Was that the psychic you told me about? The one that asked you to look into my Barry’s death?”

  “No.” I pressed the cool back of my hand to my forehead. “That was another one.”

  “Another one that knows your name?” She tutted, unwrapping a fairy cake and handing it to me. “That’s plain carelessness.”

  “Someone else gave him my name,” I snapped defensively. I was tired of getting the blame for things that weren’t my fault. I stuffed the cake into my mouth in one go. They were small, I needed the sugar and I was fairly sure that Eleanor’s unarticulated response to my nutritional question meant the food was calorie free. Probably.

  “Someone else gave a medium your name?” She leaned back as if to get a better look at me and frowned. “What are you involved in?”

  “Only things other people keep dragging me into.” I snapped my fingers. “That’s where I recognised her from. She was the voice on the phone. Only she wasn’t on the phone, was she? She was there. In the room with him. But why would she be there?”

  Barry’s mum calmly unwrapped another cake and handed it to me. “Dear, you’re rambling.”

  “She was in the room with Jeremy.” I took the cake and pointed into the mass of white capes. “They were arguing about something and when he realised I was outside the door she must’ve tunnelled and he tried to pass it off as the speakerphone.”

  “Is she a facilitator?”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head and took a healthy bite of the cake. “But I'm sure I know her voice from somewhere else too.”

  “If she’s giving out your name to mediums then I suggest you remember quick smart.” She peeled the wrapper off the last fairy cake and took a bite.

  “How did you stop him from summoning me?” I asked before shoving the last half of the second cake into my mouth

  “Are you going to help me with my Barry?”

  “Yes.” Obviously. I would’ve helped her even if she didn’t help me. Actually that was a lie – that was the person I wanted to be. The person I was would likely have yelled for the GBs to come and arrest her.

  From the twinkle in her eyes as she gauged my response I think she saw that. “You need to anchor yourself in the moment. Fully engage with your surroundings, smells, sights, sounds. It’ll make it much more difficult for them to pull you. Not impossible, just difficult. Then it’s simply a game of who tires first.”

  “Thanks. I’ll go and see Barry tomorrow,” I promised, not really sure about how I was going to get back in or out after our previous visit.

  “I appreciate it.” She stood and adjusted her mask. “And now I’m going to get some more punch and see what mischief I can make with those policemen guarding the route up here.”

  Feeling less shaking, I shook the crumbs from my cape as I stood and debated grabbing another couple of cakes for medicinal purposes when another white caped figure approached me.

  “That is not the red pole,” Sabrina said.

  “It’s not been half an hour yet, has it?” I made to look at my watch then realised I wasn’t wearing one. Huh. Probably should’ve noticed that earlier.

  “No, but I’ve just had a rather awkward chat with your not-so-good friend Bertha. Who I mistook for you.”

  I held my arms out and gestured to myself. “How?” I know I was wearing a swampy robe but still she was at least half a foot shorter than me.

  “She was standing by the red pole and her hair, from what I could see of it, is the same colour as yours.”

  “There’s hair dye here?” I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. “Well, my day just got a whole heap better.”

  “Really?” Sabrina paused in her examination of the fairy cakes to wrinkle her nose at me.

  I shrugged off her distain. “I’m shallow.”

  “To get back on topic, she really doesn’t like you.” Sabrina picked up a cake with white icing and sprinkles, sniffed it then put it back.

  I dropped the wrappers into the nearest bin. “This isn’t news to me. So how goes your questioning?”

  “I’m glad you asked.” Sabrina gri
nned, finally selecting a cake. “It seems Fenton was not well liked. The list of his enemies includes pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to in the past ten minutes, which I’m not sure is a good thing or bad thing since I’ve spoken to a lot of people.”

  “So you’ve easily achieved Eleanor’s goal?” I couldn’t help the disappointment seeping into my tone.

  “Yup.” Sabrina took a small bite of the cake. She pulled a face and threw the rest into the bin. We were going to have to deal with her food issues at some point. She might not need to eat but it still wasn’t healthy. “You?”

  “I’ve spoken to you, Pete and Barry’s mum, so no.” Damn it. I was not going to pass this stupid assessment.

  “Barry’s mum’s here?” Sabrina’s head did a full swivel until she remembered everyone was masked and caped. “What did she want?”

  “She wanted us to convince Barry he was dead.”

  “Oh. Nice. We going to see him tomorrow?” Sabrina phrased it like a question but she wasn’t really asking.

  “Uh-oh, better go mingle.” I nodded over Sabrina’s shoulder at a small figure glowering at us.

  “How does she know it’s us?” I could hear Sabina’s frown as I walked back into the swarm of white.

  “Hi,” I greeted the first person I came across.

  “Hi.” He smiled. “Do you come here often?”

  I opened my mouth to answer then closed it again. Did he mean this hilltop or the festivals? Was I allowed to say this was my GA meeting place?

  “Sorry. That wasn’t meant to be a stumper of a question. I was asking if you were newly dead or not.”

  “Oh, okay. Yes. Yes I am. Are you very dead?”

  He laughed. “I am. How are you finding it?”

  I sucked some air through my teeth. “I won’t lie. It’s not been the best experience so far.”

  “It could be worse, you could be that poor girl who keeps finding dead bodies in her locker. What do you think? Is she just unfortunate or a murderer?”

  “It’s so obvious she killed them.” A taller man joined our conversation. “The way I heard it, she was having it away with the first and she found out he was cheating on her with a livie.”

  “Ewww, that’s gross,” a young girl said, maybe late teens by her height and her voice.

  “Is that possible? Someone who’s alive doing it with someone who’s dead?” I whispered to the first man.

  “It’s possible, but not recommended. It’s best to stick to your own.” I think he waggled his eyebrows under his mask at me as he spoke but I wasn’t sure.

  “So why’d she kill Fenton?” The girl cocked her head to the side and placed her hands on her tiny hips.

  “You’ve worked with him.” The tall man said in response to the girl’s question before he took a sip of his punch. “Didn’t you want to kill him at the time?”

  “How does he know she's worked with him?” I asked the first guy. “I thought the whole point of the masks and cloaks was so we couldn't recognise anyone.”

  “That's the idea but are you going to tell me you couldn't recognise your friends or the members of your GA group simply because they were masked and cloaked?”

  I didn't feel it would be appropriate to tell him I wouldn’t be able to recognise the members of my GA group if they all had that distinction stamped on their foreheads.

  “What about the first guy?” I asked in my best casual voice. “Was he as unpopular?”

  “Jimmy?” The girl laughed. “No, everyone loved Jimmy.”

  “Not everyone,” I pointed out the obvious once again and the conversation stalled.

  “I love it up here.” The young girl spoke loudly, clearly ending the previous discussion. “It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

  “I grew up around here, actually,” I said.

  “You’re so lucky,” she cooed. “It’s such a peaceful place. So tranquil.”

  As if to call her a liar, a scream ripped through the festivities and everyone stilled. It was the same way everyone had paused at the police station. I knew what that scream meant. The crowd surged towards the keep where the cry had originated, carrying me along with it. We’d been nearest the fort so we were first through the doors.

  A figure was lying face down on the floor, cape and mask still in place and a pool of blood spreading out from underneath the hood.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Do you know who it was?” I asked Sabrina when she found me sitting by the red pole a few minutes later.

  “Bertha.” She sat on the grass and offered me a tall glass of punch. I took a sip.

  “Think I might have a suspect then,” I said as I sipped and swiped my fringe out of my eyes. “Aside from me and anyone else who met her.”

  “Oh?” Sabrina grabbed the punch back before I could delay in telling her by taking another sip.

  “Alex.” I took the punch back now she had a name and took a healthy swig. I was sure I could detect a hint of rum. “Saw them arguing this morning.”

  “About what?”

  “Don’t know.” I shrugged, feeling a slight warmth in my throat. Definitely rum. I wondered if that was Barry’s mum’s mischief. “They stopped when I got closer but he had hold of her arm.”

  “Well, well, well.” Sabrina tapped her chin and leaned forwards to peer around me into the crowd. “Isn’t that interesting?”

  “How did she …?” I drew my forefinger across my throat and made a gagging sound.

  Sabrina narrowed her eyes at me and took the punch back. This time she sniffed it and took a good swig for herself before passing it back. “Head caved in like Jim. And Fenton.”

  “Can’t really see Alex doing that, can you?” I remembered how panicked he’d been that she fainted when I’d found Jim. That felt like so very long ago. Four days, and it felt like a lifetime. “He infatuated all over her.”

  Sabrina rubbed her temples. “I’m not sure that makes sense.”

  “You get my meaning, though?” I asked, taking another gulp and handed her the drink back. I was starting to feel a little woozy. Dying had killed my alcohol tolerance completely. “You think it’s the same person? Alex or not?”

  “Looks like it. But that’s not what worries me.” She took a sip, her eyes jumping from unmasked face to unmasked face. “What worries me is the killer might have mistaken her for you.”

  The thought had already occurred to me. I hiccupped. Yep, I was drunk on three mouthfuls of spiked punch.

  “At least I didn’t find her in my locker.” I shrugged. “Small victories and all.”

  Sabrina inclined her head. “Always a silver lining. Divide and conquer?” she asked, nodding into the crowd.

  “Don’t really think I’m up to questioning people right now,” I said, very aware that my voice was already taking on that slightly drunk loudness.

  “No, I meant I’d get more punch, you get food?”

  “Oh.” I thought about that for longer than should’ve been necessary. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  We split up, collected our goods and then settled on the low ruins of the outer walls of the old fort some distance away from the crowd. We ate our small feast of sausage rolls and cakes and drank the punch while we watched the scene unfold.

  A small troop of suited police officers swarmed around the now decloaked festivalgoers, taking names, statements and any other information they could get. The crowd rippled with whispered gossip and furtive glances in my direction.

  “Here we go,” Sabrina mumbled as two black jumpsuits approached us.

  “Ms Sway.” Officer Leonard crouched down in front of me. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “Fancy,” I agreed, noticing David, hovering behind him, had changed out of his cloak and into his GB uniform.

  “I don’t suppose you have any insight to offer on this development?” He smiled his genial smile at me. He exuded a likability that was difficult to ignore, but I was trying.

  “Oddly, Officer Leonard,” I said, struggling
very hard to not slur my words, “murderers rarely appraise me of their plans.”

  “Rarely?” He glanced at the large glasses of punch on the grass between Sabrina and me.

  “It was a figure of speech.” I sighed, picking at the wrapper of the cake I was holding. “I was being a smartass.”

  “Ahhhh, I see.” He nodded, pretending he hadn’t realised. “You know what would make you smart? Telling me everything you know.” His expression was so honest he probably had people spilling their guts to him all the time.

  “Okay.” I nodded. Sabrina continued eating her cake unperturbed. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling that she trusted me to lie. “Where would you like me start?”

  “I find the beginning is usually the best place. But wherever you feel comfortable starting from.”

  “Well, in the beginning, I’m led to believe it all started with this great big bang. I’m a little fuzzy on the details.” I watched detached as my hand patted his knee. Yep, I was definitely drunk. “But somehow single-cell organisms became multi-cellular organisms, then sea creatures managed to crawl out on land …”

  Officer Leonard smiled. “I’m more of an Adam and Eve man myself.”

  “Even now?” Sabrina leaned over me to peer, closer than was polite, into his face. Yep, she was drunk too. “Even now you’ve died and there are no pearly gates of Heaven?”

  “How do you know this isn’t your second chance?” he asked. “Not everyone who dies comes here. How do you know this isn’t the Second Chance Corral?”

  “Officer!” Eleanor’s voice snapped like an overstretched elastic band, turning the three syllable word into one. She was still some distance away but scurrying towards us as fast as her little legs would allow.

  Officer Leonard stood and turned to face the onslaught with his amiable smile still in place.

  “You should know better.” Eleanor thrust her hands on her hips, tilting her head up to look at him.

  He held up his hands as if to surrender. “We were just talking.”