The Suicide Forest (The River Book 5)

by Michael Richan

  If this is how they feel when they see me, Steven thought, then this is a huge natural defense. But is it an offense, too? If these markings tell them to be afraid of me, why? What about me is to be feared? Is it just that I taste bad to eat? Or can I do something dangerous to them? I need to find out what it is.

  He examined himself with the planchette repeatedly, until he grew tired and decided to pack it in for the night.

  ◊

  On the way home the next morning, they stopped for coffee at a roadside stand in Elma. Piled in the back seat were three books from the library at Eximere that Roy wanted to study at home to determine their owner. Steven kept the planchette in his jacket pocket, almost as a talisman. It gave him comfort to know it was immediately available if he wanted to examine his hands again.

  As Steven passed the cup to Roy and waited for his own, Roy grumbled. He had been reading his book in the car since they left, and something was bothering him.

  “What’s wrong?” Steven asked.

  “Goddamn thing,” Roy said, slapping the page he was reading. “I think this will work with Evie. It creates a sense of calm around people. It suggests here that it makes people more likely to trust you. But I can’t figure out the description.”

  “Here, let me try,” Steven said, holding his arms out for the book. Roy passed the hand-bound book over to Steven, and he positioned it in his lap. The book was large and unwieldy, and Steven propped it against the steering wheel to read it. He read the section Roy pointed to.

  “Seems plain enough,” Steven said. “Rosemary, glass jar, binding intent.”

  “You can read that?” Roy asked.

  “Yes,” Steven said, handing the book back.

  “Well,” Roy said, “I’ll be.”

  Steven’s cup arrived, and they started back down Highway 8 towards Olympia and Seattle.

  “I couldn’t read the part about the ‘binding intent,’” Roy said.

  “Must be something I’ve learned that you haven’t,” Steven said, knowing this would get under Roy’s skin.

  “What would that be?” Roy asked. “We’ve worked together on everything. Maybe it’s your magical markings,” Roy said.

  “You’re jealous,” Steven said. “Admit it.”

  “I wouldn’t want those black widow spider marks all over me,” Roy said.

  That’s what they remind me of, Steven thought. The red hourglass on the black widow. A warning to everyone that the spider can kill.

  “Do you know what a binding intent is?” Steven asked Roy.

  “No, I don’t,” he answered, “which is probably why I couldn’t read it. The question is, how do you know what it is?”

  “I don’t know what it is exactly,” Steven said. “See if you can find something about it in there.”

  Roy returned to searching through the book. “If we can figure this out on the drive back,” Roy said, “we can deal with Evie this morning. It’ll only be 9 or so when we get back to Seattle.”

  “Keep reading,” Steven said, taking another sip of his coffee and pressing a little harder on the accelerator. He reached into his jacket pocket to make sure the planchette was still there.

  Chapter Six

  Steven called June as they were on their way to her house to warn her to have the token ready, and to find out if Evie was still there. He pulled his car into the driveway at June’s house, parking behind Evie’s car to make it difficult for her to back out in case she decided to run away from them again.

  Roy had, in his jacket pocket, a small jar that contained a single sprig of rosemary. Steven had sealed the jar with the binding intent Roy found in the book. They hadn’t talked any more about how Steven had been able to read the instructions that Ray couldn’t. Steven knew this was irritating Roy.

  They walked to the kitchen door and knocked. Steven could see June and Evie sitting at chairs in the kitchen, both watching a small television. Evie looked up and scowled. June hurried to the door to let them in.

  “Hello!” she said. “Come in! Would you like some coffee?” Her palms were pressed together tightly.

  “Love some,” Steven said, walking inside.

  “Back to harass me some more?” Evie said, still sitting at the kitchen table.

  “We just want to talk,” Roy said.

  “Why don’t you help yourself to the coffee,” June said, nodding to the pot on the counter.

  “Thanks,” Steven said, turning to pour himself a mug.

  “How about a warmer?” Evie said, holding up her mug. Steven brought the pot over to Evie and refilled her cup, and poured a mug for Roy. Then Steven and Roy sat at the table with Evie and June.

  “What’s my mother holding so strangely?” Evie asked.

  “Something we gave her,” Steven said, “to protect her.”

  “From something in the house?” Evie asked.

  “Yes,” Steven said. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t like me very much, and it threatened your mother when we tried to help her.”

  “So it’s to protect her from you,” Evie said.

  “In a way, yes,” Steven said. “Do you know what’s going on here?”

  “What, in the house?” Evie asked.

  “Yes, the house,” Steven said. “The bangings. The attacks on your son and mother.”

  “No, I don’t,” she said. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “But you know something is wrong, don’t you?” Steven asked. “You have the gift. You can tell something is off.”

  “Listen,” Evie said, “the only reason I’m even talking with you is her,” nodding to her mother. “She’s scared out of her mind. I think you two are the reason.”

  “We’re not the reason,” Roy said. “Whatever is here, it was going on before we showed up. We’re helping because June asked us to.”

  “Because you brought her a book,” Evie said.

  “Yes,” Roy said.

  “How much did you charge my mother for whatever she’s holding?” Evie asked.

  “Charge?” Steven said. “That’s not what we’re doing here. We’ve been all over the Sound running down answers to the problem here, and we haven’t asked June for a dime. And don’t intend to.”

  “Then why are you here?” Evie asked, becoming agitated.

  “We’ve already told you,” Roy said. “To help.”

  Evie turned to June. “Why now?”

  “They brought me the book of your great-grandfather,” June said, “so I knew they had the gift, like your father. If Mark were here, we wouldn’t be going through this. He’d put a stop to it. So I asked them to try.”

  “What I don’t think my mother has told you,” Evie said, turning back to Steven, “is that the bangings have been following us for years. And she holds me responsible.”

  “That’s not true,” June said. “I don’t blame you. I just wish you’d help get rid of it, that’s all. I know you could if you wanted to.”

  “She used to pressure my father this way, too,” Evie said to Steven and Roy. “Anything she didn’t like, she’d grind on him until he gave in and fixed whatever she wanted fixed.”

  “Look,” Roy said, “I’ve had a look at what’s here, what’s causing the bangings. You’re in a lot of danger.”

  “Are we?” Evie asked, sarcastically. “Tell me, what do you think is the problem? What have you seen?”

  “We saw one of the entities hold a knife to your mother’s throat,” Roy said.

  “That was because of you,” Evie said. “You caused that.”

  “So you do know what is going on,” Steven said.

  “No,” Evie said, “I want to hear it from you. From the heroes come to save the day.”

  “There are three entities,” Roy said. “One of them is major. They’re all fighting for something. We don’t know what, yet. But we do know you’re the door, you’re the reason they’re here.”

  “And what do you propose?” Evie said. “You want to exorcise me? Is that it? You want to exorcise the h
ouse?”

  “No,” Steven said, “that’s why we wanted to talk to you, to find out why they’re here.”

  “And then exorcise the house,” Evie said.

  “Maybe,” Roy said. “Depends on what we find.”

  “Why don’t you just exorcise it now?” Evie said. “Go ahead. I’ll wait in here.”

  “We don’t know yet if an exorcism is the right way to go,” Roy said. He reached inside his jacket pocket and shook the jar. He could feel the rosemary sprig within it bouncing against the glass. Hurry up and work! he thought.

  “This is a waste of time,” Evie said. She turned to June. “Would you please let me handle things my own way? They’re just meddling, they don’t know what’s going on here, and they likely never will. Tell them to go away, we don’t need them here.”

  “I will not!” June said. “I’m tired of living with it, Evie. I want something done about it. Steven and Roy are welcome here anytime as far as I’m concerned.” She turned to Steven. “Please don’t let Evie dissuade you. I and Robbie need your help, even if she doesn’t.”

  “Keep Robbie out of this,” Evie said.

  “He’s already involved!” June said. “He’s scared out of his wits. He sleeps in my room half the time. I wish you’d let me send him over to Uncle Bill’s place for a couple of nights, so we could both get a decent night’s sleep!”

  “Please, more drama, mother,” Evie said.

  “It’s true!” June said. “He’s scared, and you want to pretend he isn’t. Let me take him over to Bill’s.”

  “No,” Evie said, “that’s not going to happen. He’s perfectly fine here.”

  Roy shook the rosemary sprig in the glass jar again, irritated that it wasn’t working.

  “Perhaps we could talk to Robbie?” Steven asked.

  “Absolutely not,” Evie said.

  “Why not?” June asked.

  “Because I don’t want him to,” Evie said. “There’s no reason for him to meet these two.”

  June sat back in her chair and let out a sigh. Steven could tell she was used to having this argument with Evie, and never won it.

  “Well, I guess that’s it then,” Steven said, turning to leave.

  “Bye,” Evie said.

  “Wait!” June said. “Don’t go. We do need your help, even if Evie doesn’t think so.”

  “We’ll have to see about that,” Roy said to June. “We’ll be in touch.” He followed Steven out the kitchen door and back to their car. He pulled the glass jar out of his coat pocket and looked at it. “Worthless,” he said.

  “We must have done it wrong,” Steven said. “What was it supposed to do, exactly?”

  “Make her trust us,” Roy said. “Maybe you read it wrong? The instructions?”

  “Or maybe,” Steven said, getting into the car, “she knew it was there and countered it somehow.”

  “That seems more likely,” Roy said.

  “Winning her over is looking more and more like a bad strategy,” Steven said. “So what do we do next? Seems like a dead end.”

  “I want to come back and talk with June after Evie leaves,” Roy said. “There’s a few things that came out of that conversation that we need to follow up on.”

  ◊

  They returned a couple of hours later. Evie’s car was no longer in the driveway. Steven phoned June and told to have the token ready when they arrived.

  “Sorry about that,” June said, inviting them both to sit. “She’s strong willed.”

  “No need to apologize,” Steven said.

  “June,” Roy said, “we’re not going to get the information we need from Evie, that’s obvious. I was wondering if there was anyone else who might be able to help us understand what’s happening here. You mentioned an Uncle?”

  “Yes, Bill,” June said, “Mark’s brother. He lives in Madrona. He and Mark were very close. He used to be close to Evie, too, but when she had her falling out with Mark, she stopped seeing Bill, too.”

  “You wanted to take Robbie over to Bill’s?” Steven asked.

  “Yes,” June said, “Robbie loves Bill, they get along great. I was thinking if he could just get out of this house for a while, maybe he could have a decent night’s sleep.”

  “But it’s not the house, is it?” Roy asked. “Evie said it’s been going on for a while now.”

  “Well,” June said, “before we moved here, there was an occasional strange thing that would happen now and again, but life is full of occasional strange things. It’s only been since we moved here that they’re happening so regularly.”

  “Would you mind if we spoke to Bill?” Steven asked. “If he was close to Mark, he may know something that could help us. And, I’m not sure where else to turn at the moment.”

  “Oh I’m sure Bill will help,” June said. “Let me get my address book.”

  She returned with the book clasped between her fingers. “Could one of you look it up please? It’s impossible to do with my palms held together like this.”

  Steven took the address book from her fingers and flipped through it. The cover was a 3D picture of a rose bush, and every page contained a line drawing of a different flower.

  “Last name Williamson?” Steven asked.

  “Yes,” June said. “Bill Williamson.”

  Steven flipped pages until he found the entry, then took out his phone and typed in the address and number.

  “Is Bill gifted?” Roy asked June.

  “I don’t think so,” June said. “But he knew Mark was. They were very close. Worked together at times.”

  “Would you mind calling him, to introduce us?” Steven asked. “Might be easier than us dropping in on him out of the blue.”

  “Of course,” she said, rising to get her phone. Steven dialed for her. She talked with Bill for a while, then hung up.

  “OK,” she said, “he’s expecting you. I hope he can help.”

  ◊

  They drove straight to Bill’s house, which was about fifteen minutes away. The neighborhood Bill lived in was upscale, with many hundred-year-old mansions that had been, in most cases, restored. Parking was tight on 35th street in front of Bill’s house.

  “This is the kind of neighborhood,” Roy said, as they walked to the front of the house, “where they sue first and talk later.”

  “We’re not going to try to bullshit this guy, are we?” Steven asked. “We’re going to be straight with him?”

  “Let’s find out exactly how much he knew about his brother before we decide how open we should be.”

  They stepped up to the door and knocked. The door opened to reveal a tall, muscular man with dark grey hair and large hands.

  “You must be the people June called about,” he said. “Come in.”

  After introductions Bill brought them into his living room and asked them to sit. “Would you care for anything to drink?” he asked.

  “Not for me,” Steven said.

  “I’m fine, thanks,” Roy said.

  “Very well then,” Bill said, sitting down with them, “what can I do for you?”

  “We’ve been assisting June,” Steven said. “She asked us to help her. The house they’re living is makes a lot of banging noises, and it scares Robbie.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Bill said.

  “June told us you knew her husband, Mark,” Roy said. “She said you two were close. Is that true?”

  “Yes,” Bill said, “it is.”

  “So you knew of his gift?” Roy asked.

  “I did,” Bill said.

  “Are you gifted?” Roy asked.

  “Fortunately, no,” Bill said.

  “Fortunately?” Steven asked. “You’re glad you don’t have it?”

  “The gift wound up being a terrible thing for that family,” Bill said. “Normally I wouldn’t discuss these types of things with outsiders, but June asked me to, so I will. I feel the gift was almost a curse to Mark and Evelyn.”

  “How so?” Steven asked
. He had his hands in his jacket pocket, gripping the planchette like a stress toy.

  “Well, for Mark, it wasn’t so bad,” Bill said. “He’d help people with lost objects, an occasional ghost sighting, that kind of thing. I went with him a couple of times, saw his gift in action. It was the real thing. He’d talk to me about it and how he used it. But when Evie came along with the gift, it all went sour. At first he was training her, but she was a pretty rebellious kid, and eventually he stopped teaching her because she was using what she learned to behave badly. There were weeks, months when he’d never see her, they’d completely lose contact with her. And he told me he thought she was dabbling in things that were the opposite of what he was teaching her.”

  “How did he know that?” Roy asked.

  “Every time he’d see her,” Bill said, “she looked worse. Bill always talked about the ‘energy’ people gave off, and Evie was giving off dark energy. He’d try to talk to her, to figure out how far she’d gone, but when she was around she didn’t stay long. It’s strange – she and Mark had been very close before the gift emerged in her. Once it did, they were like oil and water.

  “When Mark died, Evie seemed to go off the deep end. June tried to keep in touch with her, but she would be gone for long periods at a time. I believe she was arrested several times, things like theft and drug possession. June kept trying to get her to move in with her, but Evie wouldn’t. Then, when she got pregnant, everything changed. She moved in with June. She got a job. It looked like she was pulling her life together. June told me that Evie had renounced the gift. She wouldn’t have anything more to do with it.” A slight smile spread across Bill’s face.

  “Something else?” Roy asked.

  “Well,” Bill said, “it’s just that Evie is a liar. So I’m not sure I believe the bit about renouncing the gift, or anything else she says, for that matter.”

  “You think she might be using the gift? Now?” Steven asked.

  “Maybe,” Bill said. “With her, you can never be sure. The last few years, raising Robbie, she has mellowed a bit. But before that, you name it, she did it. Did June tell you Evie stole every bit of jewelry her mother had, and hawked it? Including heirlooms from June’s great-grandmother? I was there the day they confronted her about it. There wasn’t an ounce of regret in her. She was a suspect in a church arson. My daughter told me that once Evie had told her she’d stolen cars. So she just doesn’t have any credibility with the family.”