Hoarfrost

by J. L. Murray

  "Why do you feel like you need to do this?” Dekker asked. “Because it's Cain?"

  "It's why I’m here," I said.

  "Fuck those wraith assholes. You're here because I asked you to come," said Dekker. " They don't get to own you. No one does."

  "No one but you, is that what you mean?" I said. My voice sounded tired as I said it. "You can't control everything, Dekker. You can't stop me from being in danger, from dying. You can't control any of it, no matter how hard you try."

  He didn't say anything, just opened his door and got out of the car, stretching, waiting for me. Always waiting for me. I stepped out and breathed in the air, clean with a tinge of salt. I walked softly and stood at Dekker's side. It didn't seem right to make noise, not here. This view was breathtaking, sacred. The clouds had broken open and a sapphire sky reflected off the gently rolling waves, up onto a pure sandy beach dotted with bone-white driftwood, an autumn chill in the air. I could see a dotting of trees in the distance, changing color, vibrant bursts of red and gold among the green. We stood above it all, on a chalky cliff, watching.

  "This is where you found Brett Canton?" I said.

  "No," said Dekker. "There are cops all over that spot. I thought I'd start you out slow."

  "So what is this place?"

  "This is where Brett Canton disappeared," said Dekker. "He put his kayak in right down there and no one saw him alive again."

  I looked out at the water with new eyes, squinting into the serene, brilliant waves, trying to see into the horizon. "Is there anything out there?" I said.

  Dekker shrugged. "A few islands, uninhabited. We paddled around, but didn't see anything but a lot of vines and brambles and such out there. A few trees. The islands are basically just rocks, but there are no paths or landmarks. Easy to get turned around. They’re overgrown and the islands are like a labyrinth. A couple of guys are going out today to explore a little more. Make sure there's no secret caves or anything."

  "I'm not so concerned about the top of the islands. I'd be more interested in knowing what's underneath."

  "You think it's another...monster," he said. I felt him studying me as I watched the water.

  "Child of Lilith," I said. "That must be what's doing this. I mean, I don't understand the point of killing random sporty people. Why would Cain do that?"

  "You're the expert," he said.

  "I have a strange feeling," I said. "Something's wrong."

  "What do you mean? You said that before, in the hospital."

  I closed my eyes and almost felt the waves, pushing and pulling at my chest, the cold water lapping around me. I opened my eyes. "I can't explain it, I don't even know myself. But doesn't everything feel...odd?"

  He frowned. "Whatever's going on with you, Frankie, you need to know you can talk to me."

  I looked out at the water, letting the glare from the sun hurt my eyes. "I don't think I can," I said. "Not like this. You wouldn't even believe me."

  Dekker stepped in front of me and gripped my shoulders as he spoke. "I've seen the things that happened. Before. You don't have to hide what you are from me. I'm not going to leave. And no matter how many times you run from me because you're scared, I'm always going to find you. I'm not going to force you to be with me, I'm not going to make you do anything. I don't think I could if I wanted to. But I'm always going to come for you. You can't scare me away."

  I shook my head and looked away. "You didn't see, though. Not really. You don’t know the things I can do now, Dekker."

  "Back in the lab?"

  "In the lab, in Jason Halloran's basement, in the bottom of a lake. In the parking lot of that bar in Montana."

  "The parking lot all cracked to shit?" he said. "Is that all?" He tried for a smile, but it faltered when he saw my face.

  "Dark things do what I tell them to. I have this power inside of me, something black and terrifying and it comes out of me when it gets too strong to stay inside. I know things. The fog in that man's eyes. I saw the poison in a bunch of dead women through a concrete wall. Which I then destroyed with my bare hands. All I had to do was touch it, Dekker. I touched it and it fell apart like paper..."

  "Then use it."

  "What?" I blinked at him and shook my head. "You should be afraid of me. You should tell me to leave."

  "If you've got this goddamn power," he said, his voice rising as he took a step toward me, "then there's a reason you have it. That wraith last night, something was here, something older than Abel. Older than Eden. And made up of the same stuff you have inside you. What if you and I met for a reason? What if this is all meant to be? What if you're supposed to be here, Frankie?"

  I remembered Moira, her red yarn tangled in her fingers. "The wraiths are afraid of this thing for a reason. Maybe we should be scared, too."

  "Are you scared?"

  "Not of monsters," I said. Clouds were moving in fast now, quickly covering the brilliant sky, blocking the sun, turning the ocean from bright sparkling blue to a steely gray. "Tell me how it happens," I said, looking up to see a group of large birds moving toward us. They lighted in a nearby tree and screamed at me.

  "Your friends are back."

  "Tell me how it happened," I said, ignoring the ravens. "With the bodies. That’s why I'm here, right?" One lone raven rose up from the tree and glided down to land at my feet. He looked up at me with beady eyes, regarding me silently. He had a streak of white feathers between his eyes.

  "I'll have to take you to the place where we found them," Dekker said.

  "Fine, take me there."

  "There are cops."

  "I can handle cops," I said. "But I'm going to need some new boots. I'm not saving the world in loafers."

  "We'll stop on the way," he said, smiling. "I'm glad you're here, Frankie."

  "Tell me that when this is all over." The raven watched us go, and as I started the car and headed back toward town, I saw him follow, gliding on the wind, his wings spread wide.

  We found a thrift store, and Dekker paid ten bucks for a pair of black work boots. I tossed the loafers in a garbage can on the way to the car and slipped behind the wheel feeling more like myself.

  "You feeling all right?" Dekker said, sitting in the passenger seat.

  "Right as rain," I said.

  "You were just puking and lamenting about being a ticking time bomb," he said, putting the keys in my hand.

  "I am a ticking time bomb," I said. "But I've got boots now."

  The town wasn't far, and I was feeling much better than I had in a while. The air was thicker on this part of Savage Bay, chill and wet. Heavy fog sat on the horizon like an impenetrable wall and the sky was three shades darker.

  "You ready?" Dekker said.

  "Piece of cake." I smiled at him. He seemed satisfied and started walking down the sandy incline onto the stony beach below. He ducked under some caution tape and I watched him smile and shake hands with a cop. There were about a half dozen police officers milling about, looking contemplatively at things, crouching and whispering to each other. I took a deep breath and followed him.

  "Agent Peck," Dekker called. "Come and meet someone." He was smiling, but it seemed plastered on. When I reached him, he gestured to a woman standing beside him dressed in a police uniform. "This is Special Agent Dolores Peck, my new partner."

  I held out my hand and grasped hers. "Dottie, please."

  The woman smiled widely at me. She was around forty with a sternly pretty face and cropped short hair. "Well, it's nice to finally meet you. Agent Tucker has been talking about bringing you over from New York. I've heard good things about you. Rock star at Quantico from what he says."

  "Yeah," I said. "School has always been my thing."

  "Well, you'll find the field isn't anything like school," she said, glancing toward the water. Then she looked back at me and frowned. "I'm sorry. I'm Esme Petrussi. I guess I’m in charge of this whole mess."

  "Esme," I said. "How pretty."

  "I know, not what you'd
imagine from a police chief, right? My mother was French-Canadian. Are you ready to meet some of the others?"

  "Actually," I said, interrupting Dekker as he opened his mouth to speak, "I'd like to see where the bodies were recovered."

  "Right down to business," said Esme, "I like that. Sure thing. I'm sure Agent Tucker can show you around." A cop across the beach was waving at her. "Looks like I'm needed. Just give a yell if you need me. Ask for Chief Petrussi. But I'd love to catch up with both of you after, if you've the time. Meet for an early dinner?" She shrugged. "Who am I kidding? I just want a drink."

  "My kind of lady," I smiled.

  "Anything wrong?" said Dekker.

  "No, of course not," said Esme, "just like to know the people I'm working with."

  "Sounds fine," I said. "I could use a drink myself."

  "Great, looking forward to it. There's a great little bar and grill a bit inland from where you're staying. Bayside Pub. My husband owns it. We can speak privately there."

  "I’ll buy the first round," said Dekker.

  "We're all glad you two are here," she said, nodding at me. "All the help we can get. No one knows what to make of all...this."

  "Come on," said Dekker, as we watched Esme make her way across the beach. "I'll show you where they found the last one."

  "Are you impressed?" I said.

  "I think you want me to be," he said, but he was smiling a little. "Okay, yeah, I expected you to be..."

  "More like myself?" I said. "I can pretend just as well as you." A few of the police officers were looking at the sky, pointing, and I saw a group of ravens circling in the sky. Nothing I could do about that.

  "Well, just keep pretending," he said. "We're on shaky ground here. If anyone finds out who we are – or who we're not – we're up shit creek."

  "Keep your voice down," I said, "there might be cops here."

  He rolled his eyes and led me over by the water, up over a tumble of rocks and down a slight incline, toward two men in uniform who were looking out over the water. "Can you give us a minute, guys?" Dekker said, in a friendly voice. I was seeing a whole different side of him. The Dekker who was an accomplished police officer, pure professionalism. Odd how he could just slip right back into that world. The two cops clapped Dekker on the shoulder, eyeing me curiously as they cleared out. Dekker crouched down, looking out at the water, just as the policemen had done. Down here, I was surprised that anyone had found Brett Canton. I couldn't even see any of the cops milling about. We were surrounded on three sides by pebbly inclines, with the steely water spread out in front of us.

  "We wouldn't have found him," said Dekker, echoing my thoughts, "but we found the others over on the other side." He gestured back where we'd come from. "We were looking for a body when the bay froze over again."

  I knelt down next to him and narrowed my eyes at the water.

  "So the whole thing just...froze?"

  "Yep. Solid as a rock. We let the fishermen come out and clear all the dead fish away. It only lasted around 15 minutes, then it immediately thawed, like it had never happened. Except there was a body."

  "Where do you think it was coming from? You said Brett Canton was covered in hoarfrost."

  "I don't know. When that lake froze before, it was the whole thing, right? Cain just froze it, and then your mom froze it again. That's what happened?"

  "Basically. But Savage Bay's a lot goddamn bigger than a little mountain lake. It's harder to know where the monster's hiding. It could be anywhere out there."

  "You're sure it's some kind of monster?"

  I raised an eyebrow at him. "What else could it be, freezing a bay? One of Lilith's monsters, Cain, something else? "

  "Well, the bodies, they don't seem to freeze in the water," he said. "We just find them on the shore. It's almost like someone puts them there for us to find. Why would Cain want you to find the bodies of people he's killed?"

  I shrugged. "If Abel's missing, maybe Cain's trying to find him, too. Maybe he's baiting him. I don't know. How can anyone know what the hell those two are up to?"

  "You think it could just be a ruse to kill his brother?"

  "I don't think anything. But I wouldn't rule it out. Cain told me himself that it's all just a big game to him."

  "My brother and I played dominoes,” he said.

  "You have a brother?"

  He frowned and looked across the water. "We're not close."

  "That's the first time I've ever heard you mention your family," I said. "Except when you told me your mother was Jewish."

  "It's not really something I like to discuss. Let’s just focus on the case, okay?"

  He wasn't looking at me, and I frowned. There was something Dekker wasn't telling me. I suddenly had a raw feeling in my gut that something wasn't right between us. I willed the feeling away and looked away. Dekker had made it a point to know everything about me and my family, but he wouldn't tell me his own history. All I really knew about him was that he was a cop once, and now he killed people.

  "So, how can we find out what's doing this?" he said, breaking the silence. "Six people are dead already. And we're due for another one anytime now."

  "You have people out looking at the islands yet?"

  "Esme said she's sending them out in the morning. She's made it very clear that no one is to go out looking on their own. We just don't know when another freeze is going to happen. It’s been a few days, so we’re due anytime now."

  "Maybe we should be there too, poke around a bit. She said she was glad we were here, right?"

  "That's an idea," he said. "We could get an idea of what's under the water."

  "Have they sent any divers under?"

  "Not yet. They're afraid, I think. That water freezes in seconds, it's a terrifying prospect going under. Esme was saying something about a university professor coming down from Portland with a scanning device, but I’m not sure when."

  "I could do it. Take a swim, see what I see."

  "I thought you hated water," he said. "You told me you were terrified of the lake."

  "There was a fucking monster in that lake."

  "There could be one here, too. And that wraith last night said you might not be able to come back with Abel gone."

  "I wouldn't die," I said. "I don't think. I'm not so sure Abel's the reason I come back from the dead."

  "No," he said. "Don't do this. I'm not going to watch you risk your life again, Frankie."

  "Then close your eyes."

  "Frankie."

  "Okay, fine," I said. "I'll wait for Professor Technology to show up. Happy?"

  "Ecstatic."

  "There you two are," said a voice from above. We looked to see Esme coming down the incline. "I've been looking."

  "I was just showing Agent Peck where we found the last victim," said Dekker.

  "Did you tell her about the fish?"

  "He did tell me about the fish," I said. "Are people really going to eat those?"

  Esme shook her head, stopping in front of us. Her short hair was rumpled from the wind, her cheeks pink. "I don't know. We've got them all in freezers all over town with strict instructions not to eat them or sell them. We've got some coming back from testing soon, maybe sometime in the next few days. But people around here rely on the fishing industry. It really benefits the whole state of Oregon. I'm afraid of what all this has done to the crabbing industry, but we won't know about that until later."

  "And the victim, Canton, he just showed up here on the shore?" I said. "Bay all frozen solid and he was just lying on the beach?"

  "Strange, isn't it?" said Esme. "I'll be happy as hell to figure this one out, but really, I don't know anymore. It seems like it's beyond anything I've ever seen. More like a Kurt Vonnegut novel." She shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment, as if waiting for a dizzy spell to pass. When she opened them again, she smiled.

  "You okay?" I said.

  She shrugged. "Just a bug I'm fighting, I think. Took my son to the doc the other
day. I must have caught something."

  "We can postpone," said Dekker. "Maybe you should rest."

  "It's not serious," she said. "And we're due for a chat. Now, how about that drink?"

  TEN

  Bayside Pub was a dark little place with a colorful beach-themed decor, like a beach vacation blew up in a shady bar. It had a certain charm, though, and the bartender beamed when Esme walked in.

  "Ezzy, long time no see!"

  "You saw me this morning, you crazy bastard," she said, grinning back. She leaned over the bar and kissed him. She looked at Dekker and me and nodded at the bartender. "My husband, Will."

  "Otherwise this might be awkward," said Will, waggling his eyebrows. Esme rolled her eyes.

  "Can we get some drinks, babe?" she said. "Is the back room free?"

  "Yep. You having a meeting, then?"

  "You could call it that. If Ron comes in, send him back, would you?"

  "Sure thing."

  Esme led us down a short hall and into a sparse, dark room lit by a single bulb. In the middle of the small room was a weathered wood table and several mismatched chairs. "We rent this out for meetings and private parties," said Esme. "A few poker games, but don't spread that around. You'd be surprised how many people like having meetings in a dark little bar."

  "Sounds like a good meeting," I said, trying to smile politely. I wasn't at all sure how an FBI agent was supposed to act, but Esme smiled back.

  "Your husband seems nice," said Dekker, taking the same polite, conversational tone.

  "He's a saint," she said, her smile growing wider. "I credit him alone for my son turning out so great. I'm a bit of a workaholic and I haven't always been the best mother. But Will runs a business and manages to somehow nail the daddy gig. It's a wonder to behold."

  "Sounds like a keeper," I said.

  "How long have you two been together?" she said, blinking innocently as she raised the straw in her rum and coke to her lips.