Jodi would have laughed if she’d had the energy; “Thanks.”
It was a perfect fit, and she was genuinely touched that he’d guesstimated her size so astutely. It took Joe Mac a good five minutes of struggling, but he finally managed to slip on his sweatpants and sweatshirt, as well, and when they cleared the city they tossed the hospital garb out the window.
“What about Rollins?” Jodi asked.
Marvin’s eyes narrowed, but he revealed nothing. “They didn’t say anything about him on the radio. Was he involved?”
Closing her eyes, Jodi bowed her head. Her lips came together in a painful grimace, and she inhaled deeply before she said, “Yeah … he was involved.”
Marvin seemed to understand.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Jodi found herself staring out the window.
“Me, too.”
* * *
It was almost sunrise when they reached Professor Graven’s house.
Although Marvin had literally risked his life to rescue them, he made a concerted effort not to complicate the situation with any display of affection, and Jodi found herself feeling both respected and moved.
He fetched blankets for them as they took places in the front room, and then he loaded a Glock for Jodi and wordlessly set it within her reach. He loaded a .45 for Joe Mac, slid it in the pocket of his coat and laid it over the arm of his chair. He brought them bottles of water and two small bowls of fruit, and then he took a seat in the second lounge chair staring idly at the flames in the hearth.
Jodi found herself quietly gazing upon the archeologist with an affection she could hardly remember possessing in her whole life.
It had been … a … long … time.
Although he didn’t say anything, Marvin was acutely alert to her every need, and after they had calmed from the fight and flight of the night, Jodi stood and walked to where Marvin was seated. Without saying anything, she lowered herself into his lap and laid her head against his chest; he wrapped an arm around her and said nothing.
She never remembered falling asleep. She only remembered waking for a floating, dreaming moment as she was being carried in cable-strong arms. Then she was laid in a bed and the covers were pulled to her chest.
A kiss touched her forehead …
* * *
Jodi awoke surprisingly early – she’d expected to sleep until noon, but it was far from noon – but still wasn’t surprised to see Joe Mac already cleaning a .45. He raised his face as she descended the stairs and wandered into the front room.
“How you feeling?” he asked.
“Like I’ve been blown up. How about you?”
Joe Mac cocked his head once. “About the same.” He sighed. “Rollins didn’t make it. Brightbarton called to check his status.”
Jodi winced; she wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say. She had been over her head and knew it would be stupid to feel guilty or even responsible, but she felt both. Rollins had been difficult at times, but he had died bravely, and that meant more to her now than it ever had in her life. She was beginning to think that death wasn’t something far off; it was here and now, and whatever time anyone gets is just blind, stupid luck. She dropped into a chair, staring numbly at nothing.
The words of Tony Montanus suddenly returned to her; “I resolved a long time ago to leave nothing unsaid, undone, or unsung …”
But it’s so hard to open up, so hard to share, so hard to trust.
Her voice was a whisper. “Where’s Marvin?”
Joe Mac ceased cleaning the .45. His eyebrows rose and then fell before he chuckled and said, “Ya know, I met my wife when I was working the docks. I used to unload thirty tons of fish a night – one at a time – by hand.”
Jodi said, “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Joe Mac continued, “that was some tough work, boy, unloading them big, ol’ flounder by hand one at a time all night long ‘till the sun came up. Then, every morning, I’d walk out to the parking lot the loneliest man in the world. I’d have a torn tendon or something in my arm. My feet would be killing me. My hip would be killing me. My back would be killing me. And I’d walk to my car same as always day after day. I didn’t like nobody. I didn’t trust nobody. I was scared of people ‘cause you never know when somebody’s gonna turn on you. You never know when they’re gonna stab you in the back.” He paused. “Anyhow, I’d go home and try to get some sleep. But you can’t really sleep when you’re in all that pain. It’s just too much pain all the way ‘round to sleep.”
Jodi glanced to either side. “Uh huh?”
“Yeah. Anyhow, I came home one day, and I met my neighbor coming down the stairs, and we started talking. And I kinda liked her.” Joe Mac raised his face with a smile. “I think she kinda liked me, too.”
Jodi nodded, “Okay …?”
“So she made me breakfast one day, and we sat together on my little ol’ balcony and talked, and then she went home. Then, after that, when I’d come home, she’d come out while I was climbing the stairs, and we’d talk, and she’d cook me breakfast, and we got to know each other real good. And then she’d go home again, and I’d go to sleep.”
Jodi was staring, mouth open.
“The funny thing was …Well, it was funny to me when it finally occurred to me … The funny thing was that I found myself going to sleep every mornin’ after she cooked me breakfast, and we sat for a little while and talked.” Joe Mac nodded a long time. “Yeah, talking to her made me forget all about all that pain. Then she’d go home, and I’d go to sleep without even thinking about it.” He frowned. “Finally I decided that this was working out so good, and I was feeling so good about it, that maybe I should try and keep her around a little more. So I married her. And even though I’d been so miserable and didn’t trust nobody … it worked out all right.” He lifted his face. “Know what I mean?”
Jodi smiled.
“Yeah … I know what you mean.”
* * *
“It will happen thusly,” Professor Graven began like a Sunday school teacher, “at midnight they will gather within the inner circle of this replica of Stonehenge. If there are too many priests to gather within the circle, which is quite likely, then they will form a concentric circle outside the lintels. Then their ceremony will begin. Now,” he looked at Joe Mac, “you say they have kidnapped this last child?”
Joe Mac raised his face and paused.
“His name is Tommy Childers,” he finally said. “He’s four years old – the only child of a single mother.”
“Very well, then. After these Druids complete an incantation, they will present Tommy Childers upon the central stone of the Stonehenge monument. It is called the Bloodstone, and, according to legend, it is where the chief priest of the Druids – or the Ri – would bind the victim. Then the victim is carried to the Wicker Man and imprisoned within it. After this, the Ri will simply set the Wicker Man on fire and this child will slowly be burned to death while still alive.” He stared. “So what is the plan?”
Brightbarton muttered, “Kill ‘em all. Let God sort ‘em out.”
“When they put Tommy on this Bloodstone and start to tie him up, I’ll draw down on the chief priest,” said Jodi. “You guys cover my back. It doesn’t matter that you’re blind, Joe; I don’t see how you can miss since we’ll be surrounded. And – at that point – if this high priest makes a move to hurt Tommy, I’ll kill him. And we’ll be in the biggest gunfight of our lives.”
“If you do that, we die,” Marvin observed. “Including this boy.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
Marvin frowned for a long time. Then he said, “Nothing of any great tactical merit comes to mind.”
“There’s a better way,” said Joe Mac.
Jodi: “What way?”
Joe Mac continued, “As soon as we get there, the professor puts me beside this high priest. The second we even see Tommy Childers and this priest at the same time, I grab the priest and put a gun to his he
ad. At the exact same second, Jodi, you grab Tommy. And if some other priest is holding Tommy, just kill him where he stands. The main thing is that you get your hands on that boy at the same second I take down the chief priest.” He shook his head. “We don’t have to wait for them to put this boy on that rock and start tying him up. All we need to prove is intent. Isn’t that right, Steve?”
“Just these psychos showing up with this kid proves intent, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, and attempted murder,” stated Brightbarton. “I say we take this bird down at first sight. There’s no reason to let this ritual go to the matt.”
Jodi nodded, “Then that’s our plan.” She gazed around the room. “Well, we have enough robes and masks. We have all the weapons we can carry. Do we have need anything else?”
“I could use a little Dutch courage,” said Brightbarton. “But since we’re sure to be in a gunfight, and we’ll all have to make official statements, it won’t bode well if I’m drunk when it goes down, so I’ll wait.”
“Let me finish,” Joe Mac stressed, lifting a hand, “Professor, you stay right beside me. You’re the best one to identify this priest. Then, when I take him down and Jodi grabs the kid, the rest of you have to cover that entire crowd. I can’t cover them because I can’t see, and Jodi will have her hands full protecting this boy, so it’s up to you three guys. Then we make our way real slow and cautious back to the tunnel.” He sighed heavily. “Once we’re inside the tunnel, we’ll be fairly safe. One guy with a rifle could hold that tunnel against a thousand men, so we won’t have to worry about anything until we get outside.”
Marvin hesitantly asked, “What happens when we get outside?”
“There’s more than one passage out of that chamber,” Joe Mac said slowly. “After we take out their chief, they’ll move ahead and set up for us outside. Their first plan will be to kill us with snipers before we clear that graveyard. Their second plan will be to wait for us at our cars and ambush us like Bonnie and Clyde.”
“That means they’ll also kill their high priest,” said Jodi.
“At that point they won’t have any choice. They can’t let us take him alive. He knows too much. He knows their names.”
Marvin: “Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah,” Joe Mac grunted. “They can’t let us take him alive, or they’ll all hang. And self-preservation is gonna take precedent over ritual or respect.”
Poe lifted himself to soar past Jodi. He landed on the mantle of the fireplace and turned to stare down. He looked at each one of them with that quick analysis and then lifted off again to land beside the back door.
“He’s got something on his mind,” said Joe Mac. He turned his head as if listening. “You better let him out … with the others.”
Jodi rose and walked to the back door. When she set Poe free a strange dark movement as wide as the sky caught her attention, and she looked out to see every tree filled with what seemed like living leaves of black.
It was crows and there were thousands of them.
It was more crows than Jodi had ever seen in her life. Yeah, she had seen hundreds of crows flock together, but she had never witnessed such a storm cloud of blue-black forms. If they had taken flight together they would have blocked out the sun.
“Hey, Joe.”
“I know,” he said.
She turned her head. “You know?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“Poe knows what’s going on.”
Jodi turned again to study the thousands of wings moving in concert making the trees flock like living leaves of black. And their calls were all the same as if they were all sharing the same thought or planning the same thing.
Jodi scowled, “What do you call a flock of crows?”
“A ‘Murder of Crows.’”
“What do you call a flock of ravens?”
“An ‘Unkindness of Ravens.’”
“Then we have a real unkind murder coming this way.”
Joe Mac revealed nothing.
“I know,” he said.
* * *
“Where did Brightbarton go?” asked Jodi. “And where did the professor go? And where in the world is Marvin?” She lifted and dropped her hands. “Am I missing certain need-to-know information?”
Joe Mac opened his mouth to reply.
“Wait!” She raised a hand. “Is this gonna put more stress on me? I only ask because my body – literally – can’t handle any more stress. We have five hours before sundown and the big ‘showdown,’ and I don’t want bad news. Or, let me say ‘more’ bad news.”
With a laugh Joe Mac said, “I sent Brightbarton out on an errand. He’ll be back soon enough. And the professor and Marvin went to the museum to do some last-minute research on these guys. The professor said he wanted to double check some stuff because one mistake on our part will probably be our last mistake.”
“Well, that’s prudent.” Jodi collapsed on the couch just as the front door opened, and Joe Mac said, “’Sup, captain.”
Jodi turned and saw Brightbarton walking forward with a gym bag.
“What’s in the bag, cap?”
“I borrowed some throat mics from the SWAT guys,” Brightbarton answered simply. “If we pull out a radio while we’re surrounded by a bunch of power-mad psychotic priests, I’m sure it’ll be a bad day all the way ‘round.” He reached into the bag and set a handful of mics on the table. “I also picked up some ammo for Joe’s .45. The NYPD doesn’t use .45s, so I had to do a little shopping. You guys okay?”
“I’m scared,” said Joe Mac.
“Yeah,” grunted Brightbarton. “You look it.”
“I’m just trying to be professional,” said Jodi and glanced between them for a long moment. “You guys have done an awful lot of this stuff, haven’t you? Because I’ve never been in anything like this. I’ve read about it. But I’ve also read about giant squids and Bigfoot. Seeing it is something else. And experiencing it is even worse.”
Brightbarton shrugged, “Over a period of thirty years you work a lot of weird cases, kid. Serial killers. Cannibals. Crazy people who think they’re god.” He fixed her with a ponderous glance. “And there’s really nothing unusual about psychos practicing human sacrifice, either. Or even cannibalism. I mean, look at that crazy freak Jeffrey Dahmer. He practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism at the same time. Made it a hobby. He should have been given an Oscar for lunacy. So there’s nothing all that unusual about this. In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t seen more of it yourself with three years in the field.”
“You don’t meet a lot of cannibals doing administrative work,” Jodi muttered. “I’ve spent half my career filing papers for the holy men downtown. But I’ve got enough street time to make detective. I just never ran into any cannibals.”
“Give it time,” said Brightbarton. “You’ll see more weirdness in this city than you will in any ten cities in the world put together. And that’s saying something.”
Jodi relaxed deeper into the couch. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and took long, deep breaths. Then she fixed a gaze on Joe Mac and said, “I guess you think we’ve got god on our side, huh?”
She never understood how Joe Mac always knew when she was speaking specifically to him even when she didn’t use his name. But he did know because he said, “I can’t say we’ve got god on our side. But we’ve got the next best thing.”
* * *
The door slammed, and Jodi leaped for her gun before she saw Marvin rushing forward trailed by a much calmer Professor Graven.
“Stop that!” Jodi exclaimed and took a moment, hand on her forehead. “We’re about to be in a gunfight! My nerves are shot!”
He presented a fistful of papers with a smile, and as she mechanically took them he pointed to a specific page. “You see that?”
Jodi stared. “A bunch of numbers. What about them?”
He pointed again. “There was a Venus Transit in 2 BC. That’s the true year that Jesus
of Nazareth was born. So, if they use some kind of symbol for Venus tonight, we’ll know why they’re doing it. We won’t be caught off guard or confused.” Marvin stepped back. “What do you think?”
Jodi was gaping. “Was this necessary?”
“Yeah!”
“Why?”
Marvin leaned close, hands on her shoulders. “Because now we know that we’re right. They’re killing these kids because they’re afraid one of them is the Messiah. And if they want us to participate in some kind of crazy ritual, we’ll know why. We won’t be caught off-guard. Plus, if someone tries to talk to us about it we’ll know what they’re talking about. We’ll know what to say.”
It took Jodi a second to compose, then she said, “Yeah, well, I seriously doubt these people are into conversation. I mean, they’re coming to decapitate a little boy and then eat him. There’s not gonna be much to talk about.”
Marvin shook his head once. “Maybe not. But I guarantee you there’s gonna be some kind of mondo-bizarro ritual and we’d better be prepared for why they’re doing it because if we make a mistake we’re dead.” His voice grew softer. “You understand, Jodi?”
Jodi stared up into his face.
She blinked, then smiled tightly.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Marvin is correct,” announced Professor Graven. “There will be a complex ritual that will involve items that are obliquely symbolic and even celestially symbolic. But you must not reveal confusion. You must understand why these symbols are being used and not hesitate to participate properly.”
Joe Mac asked, “Is this why you went to the museum, professor?”
“No,” he answered curtly. “I went for another reason. But my young protégé had an instinct and discovered this information while he was waiting for me. And I do agree that this is critical information.”
“So what’d you go down there for?”
Graven frowned, “I had to reexamine early literature depicting how Druids gathered for their rituals.”
Jodi said, “I thought Druids didn’t write anything down.”
“They didn’t. But they did draw pictures.” Graven bent his head as he added, “They are simple black and white drawings, but they are the only source of reliable literature we possess of the ancient Druids.”
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