‘Theo,’ he explained gently, ‘you are in a Town called Mercy and the year is 2015.’
‘No, that’s not possible,’ he shook his head again. ‘It’s not possible. I died… I died in the fire…This is Hell. I’m in Hell.’
‘You might feel that way once you’ve watched a couple of episodes of Jersey Shore’ the stranger murmured under his breath.
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ he chuckled. ‘You’re not in Hell my friend. I hate to throw you in at the deep end, but I’m sure you’ll adjust.’
‘What am I doing here? I don’t understand, I don’t understand any of this.’
‘Back that way,’ he indicated over his shoulder, ‘through the woods, you’ll find a house by a lake and in it lives a woman you might just recognize.’
‘Who?’ Theo asked suspiciously, ‘who is she?’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise,’ the man smiled. ‘But whether she likes it or not, she needs you. She’s now your responsibility.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Theo’s expression darkened. ‘I am not a wet nurse; I don’t intend to be responsible for anyone.’
‘Not your choice,’ was the good natured response. ‘I know what you’ve done Theo and I know what you want.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘Redemption,’ he shrugged. ‘Trust me, she’s your ticket to peace and forgiveness, but first you need to protect her.’
‘From what?’ he frowned.
‘You’ll find out soon enough.’
‘What if she doesn’t want me to protect her?’
‘You’ll figure out the details Theo, I have the utmost confidence in you. Oh and by the way,’ he leaned forward, as an amused smile tugged at his lips, ‘watch out for the car.’
‘What’s a car?’
But he was talking to thin air, the man had disappeared. Hearing a strange noise behind him, he turned and threw his hands up to protect his eyes from the sudden glare of two bright lights.
Olivia yawned and shook her head, sitting up straighter in her seat. She was nearly home and she was ready to drop. Her eyes began to droop and she forced them open again, shifting in her seat and cranking her window down even more, to allow the cold air in. She glanced down to turn up the volume on the radio but as she looked up again she screamed, and gripping the wheel with white knuckles, she slammed on the brakes. The car skidded to a screeching halt and she felt a slight bump.
She yanked the door open and jumped out of the car.
‘Please don’t be dead…please don’t be dead…’
She dropped down to her knees by the dirty and bloody guy lying on the road in front of her headlights. She placed her fingers at his throat and felt his pulse kick strongly. He groaned and turned towards her, as she cupped his face.
Theo’s eyes fluttered open, focusing on the woman leaning over him with concern written all over her beautiful face.
‘It’s you,’ he whispered and the last thing he remembered was a pair of gold colored eyes, before the blackness took him once again.
6.
‘I thought you said he was hit by a car?’ Louisa frowned, glancing up at her brother as she gently fed a breathing tube down the throat of the unconscious guy on the table.
‘He was,’ Jake replied dubiously.
‘Well his clothes smell like a bonfire. It looks as if he has at least second degree burns. He’s almost certainly suffering from smoke inhalation and that’s not including any injuries sustained from the car hitting him.’
‘I didn’t see him…I just didn’t see him,’ Olivia was vaguely aware that she was babbling. Her voice was getting higher, with a slightly hysterical note to it, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
‘He just appeared in the middle of the road. I tried to brake, I really tried, but I hit him.’
Louisa exchanged a silent but concerned look with her brother.
‘It's okay Olivia,’ Louisa stepped away from the table, allowing the nurses to attach various tubes and monitors. Drawing her away gently, she gripped her upper arms, forcing her friend to look up into her clear eyes. ‘Are you hurt at all?’
Olivia shook her head. Louisa’s gaze swept over her shoulder to her brother, who was hovering protectively behind her.
‘I called Jake straight away, I didn’t know what else to do.’
‘It's okay,’ Louisa soothed her.
‘It’s not okay, I shouldn’t have been driving. I was tired, and my eyes kept closing. I was just trying to get home.’
‘Olivia,’ Louisa frowned, ‘have you slept yet?’
She shook her head miserably.
‘For God’s sake,’ she muttered. ‘I bet you haven’t eaten either, have you?’
‘I had something this morning.’
‘Jake, take her down to the cafeteria and get a proper meal into her will you?’ Louisa shook her head in exasperation. ‘Then go and find Cathy Wilson; she’s on duty tonight, she’ll find a spare bed so Olivia can get some sleep. Then, come back and find me and by then I should have a clearer picture of his injuries.’
Nodding in agreement he steered Olivia away. It didn’t take long to get some food into her, although she was so exhausted she barely ate anything. Figuring she needed sleep more than anything, he hunted up the motherly and frighteningly efficient Cathy Wilson, who he remembered fondly from his childhood. After all, she had stitched him up after numerous scrapes and cast his broken arm when he was eleven.
Cathy managed to find a vacant bed and Olivia was asleep by the time she face planted the pillow. Knowing she was in good hands under Cathy’s watchful gaze, he decided to hunt up his sister and get some answers. He was heading back towards the emergency room, lost in thought, when he heard his name called.
‘Chief,’ he nodded as the tall, stern looking man approached him.
‘Jake, I hear Miss West was involved in a vehicular incident.’
‘Is that why you’re here?’ Jake’s eyes narrowed.
‘Actually, I came to speak with Doctor Hughes regarding Adam’s autopsy.’
‘Is it definitely Adam then?’
Chief Walcott nodded.
‘He’s been ID’d by what’s left of his fingerprints and dental records.’
‘God damn,’ Jake muttered, shaking his head.
‘Have you taken Miss West’s statement?’
‘About Adam?’
‘With regard to the accident tonight.’
‘Oh,’ Jake frowned thoughtfully, ‘yes I have. She says she was driving back home and the guy just appeared in the middle of the road. She tried to brake, but she didn’t see him until the last minute.’
‘Is he still alive?’
‘He was last time I checked,’ Jake replied. ‘I was just heading back to check on his status.’
‘Shall we then?’ He gestured with his hand, giving Jake no choice but to follow him back to the room, where his sister was treating the injured man.
‘Doctor Linden,’ the Chief greeted Louisa as she busily scrawled notes, while checking the machine he was hooked up to.
‘Chief Walcott,’ she replied stiffly.
‘Have you an update as to the patient.’
‘He is suffering from second degree burns to his upper thighs, a first degree burn to his left shoulder and smoke inhalation. He has what looks like a knife wound to his right forearm, which went clean through, and also has a mild concussion.’ She tucked the notes into a holder at the foot of the patient’s bed and moved closer to the Chief.
‘His injuries are not consistent with being struck by a vehicle.’
‘Beg your pardon?’
‘I can find no bruising or soft tissue damage consistent with being struck by a vehicle,’ she shrugged. ‘The concussion was likely caused when he hit his head on the road. You’d have to check the road and Olivia’s car for evidence, or rather lack of it, but I suspect she stopped just in time and he simply
collapsed from his injuries in front of her car.’
‘That seems very convenient,’ his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
‘You are more than welcome to get a second opinion; in fact I think I insist on it,’ she replied coolly.
He returned her cool gaze with one of his own, the corner of his mouth curving a fraction, almost as if he were amused.
‘Are these his clothes?’ He moved towards the clear plastic bag on the table at the side of the monitor.
‘Yes,’ she replied as she watched him pull the clothes out, filling the air with a pungent smoky odour.
His brow furrowed as he took in the strange, historical looking clothing.
‘This is what he was wearing?’
She nodded again. ‘It is Halloween, it’s probably a costume. With the town’s history so closely linked with Salem, some people like to go the historical bent with their costumes.’ She watched as he began to rifle through the pockets.
‘He has no ID on him, the nurse already checked.’
The Chief continued to ignore her as he pulled out what looked like a stick of graphite wrapped in string and a folded piece of paper. He slowly unfolded it and his brow rose.
‘Well, what do we have here?’
Louisa looked over his shoulder and gasped.
‘Oh my God,’ her hand went involuntarily to her mouth. The picture he held in his hand was a very detailed sketch of Olivia’s face.
‘When you interviewed Miss West, did she confirm whether or not she recognized the victim?’
Jake shook his head as he frowned.
‘She said she didn’t know him.’
‘Well he seems to know her,’ he murmured. ‘When will he be fit to be questioned?’
‘He’s being kept sedated for the moment; we will reassess his condition in the morning. If there are no complications and we can remove the tube, maybe sometime late tomorrow.’
‘Very well,’ he nodded. ‘I will check on his progress tomorrow.’
His phone suddenly rang and he unclipped it from his belt and answered it. After speaking briefly he turned back to Jake.
‘I’m needed back at the station,’ he put his phone away. ‘If you’re done here you can go and retrieve the autopsy report and bring it by the station.’
‘Yes Sir,’ Jake nodded.
‘Oh, and Deputy,’ he stopped as he reached the door and turned pointedly back to Jake. ‘I don’t think I need to remind you that anything pertaining to the autopsy is confidential and not to be disclosed to any non-law enforcement personnel.’
‘Of course Sir,’ Jake replied.
The Chief nodded as he turned and strolled out of the room.
‘Jackass,’ Louisa mumbled under her breath.
‘Louisa,’ his voice held a note of warning.
‘You can’t tell me you’re not worried,’ she hissed. ‘He’s got it in for Olivia and you know it.’
‘He’s just pursuing a line of investigation. Everything he’s doing, although I may not like it, is completely justified.’
‘Maybe, but I don’t trust him.’
‘Don’t worry Lou,’ he tugged on her arm, pulling her into a hug. ‘I’ll figure this out, I promise.’
‘Okay,’ she replied grudgingly.
‘I’d better go see Doc Hughes, before he leaves for the night.’
‘I’ll see you later then.’
‘Yeah. After I’ve dropped the report down at the station I’ll be back, so I can drive Olivia home. I had Brody over at Walkers Auto tow her car home. Besides I don’t think she should be driving until she’s caught up on her sleep.’
She nodded, watching him disappear out of the door before turning back to the unconscious man on the bed.
‘Just who the hell are you?’ she murmured, ‘and what the hell do you want with Olivia?’
Dr Hughes was generally a very happy go lucky type of guy. He had a middle age paunch, a beard as grey as his hair, well what was left of it anyway, and a quick smile. Jake couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have a wink and a roll of cherry life savers in his pocket. It was strange to see him bent over his desk, scribbling furiously in his notes. A deep frown marred his forehead as he muttered to himself. Suddenly, he seemed so small and old.
‘Hey Doc,’ Jake announced himself, as he stepped further into the room, trying to ignore the sharp chemical smell he had always associated with death.
‘Ah Deputy Gilbert,’ Dr Hughes straightened up, absently pushing his spectacles back up his nose. ‘I was expecting Chief Walcott.’
‘Sorry, he was called away, but he asked me to collect Adam’s autopsy report.’
He nodded. ‘There’s something I need to show you first.’ The chair scraped noisily against the floor as he stood. ‘If you’ll follow me deputy.’
Jake followed him reluctantly into the back room. This was always the part of the job he hated, but thankfully it didn’t happen very often.
Dr Hughes stopped and clicked open a small, square, stainless steel door and reached in to pull out the drawer.
‘I hope you’ve a strong stomach deputy,’ he warned.
Jake wasn’t shy about death, and it certainly wasn’t the first corpse he’d seen, but nothing prepared him for the stark and gruesome reality of Adam’s remains.
When they’d found him in the woods he’d barely resembled a man, but Dr Hughes had quite obviously taken a great deal of time and painstaking effort to stitch him back together. It almost looked like Adam again except for the long stitched up incision which ran from his forehead, down the bridge of his nose to his chin, onto his throat and down his chest to disappear under the crisp white sheet. Similar incisions ran the length of both of his arms, as well as the standard Y shaped incision fanning out from his chest. It was obvious the doctor had tried to give the guy some sort of dignity in death, but the result was a gruesome resemblance to Frankenstein’s monster.
‘Doc, why does he look so…’ Jake swallowed uncomfortably as his mouth ran dry… ‘flat.’
‘That was one of the things I wanted to discuss with the Chief,’ Dr Hughes shook his head. ‘His bones are missing.’
‘What?’ his head snapped up, ‘some of his bones were taken?’
‘Not some…all.’
‘How is that even possible?’ Jake frowned in confusion.
‘Well it’s not,’ he scratched his head thoughtfully, ‘but it’s true. I even x-rayed the remains to be sure, but there’s not one single stray vertebra, phalanges or Metatarsus. Some of these bones are tiny and if the skeleton had been removed surgically you would expect a few to be missed but there is nothing left.’
‘What do you mean, if they were removed surgically? What other way is there to remove bones?’
‘I don’t know,’ he sighed. ‘I don’t have an answer to that. All I know is, all his internal organs were still attached and in their correct positions.’
‘I’m sorry Doc, layman’s terms please; it’s been a long night.’
‘If the bones were removed surgically, not only would you have to slice through layers of skin, soft tissue and muscle but you would have to use extreme force to essentially rip the bones out of the body. In particular with the pelvis, spine and rib cage, this would result in severe damage to the internal organs. You would expect them to have been displaced, but all his organs were still in perfect condition. They were attached to all the veins and blood vessels. I can’t explain it. It’s as if his bones just simply disappeared.’
‘Jesus,’ Jake raked his hand through his hair. ‘Do you have an official cause of death?’
‘It’s a whole smorgasbord,’ Dr Hughes shook his head and shrugged helplessly. ‘Massive trauma, shock, exsanguination, take your pick, any and all of the above could have killed him.’
‘Was he still alive?’ Jake swallowed convulsively, not really wanting to know the answer and hating that he had to ask the question. ‘Was he still alive when he
was cut open?’
Dr Hughes nodded slowly.
‘We can only hope that with the shock he would have lost consciousness pretty quickly.’
‘I hope you’re right Doc,’ Jake frowned. ‘I knew Adam, he was a good guy. He sure as hell didn’t deserve this.’
‘There is one more thing.’
He pulled the sheet down further to reveal an ugly blackened welt on the left hand side of his chest. It was circular, with two coiled serpents entwined in the shape of an S, only instead of being vertical, it was depicted horizontally, across the center of the circle.
‘That’s weird,’ Jake muttered. ‘It looks like a brand of some sort.’
‘That would be my guess. From the tissue damage I would say it’s been burned into his skin.’
Jake pulled out his phone and took a close up photo of the mark.
‘I’ve included pictures in the autopsy file.’
‘Thanks.’
He watched as Dr Hughes covered Adam’s remains with the sheet. Sliding the drawer back in with a steely hiss, he closed the door.
Jake quietly followed him back into the office.
‘It’s a terrible business,’ he frowned as he handed the file over to Jake. ‘I never thought I’d see something like that again.’
‘Again?’ Jake’s head whipped around so quickly, he almost gave himself whiplash.
‘Didn’t the Chief tell you?’ he replied in confusion.
‘No, he didn’t.’
‘Let's see now,’ he sat back down at his desk removing his glasses and thinking back. ‘It's been about twenty years, must’ve been the summer of ‘94. Late summer there was a spate of murders, four in total I believe. I didn’t do the autopsy on the first victim. Maryann had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I had taken a leave of absence. Ted Newman was the Doctor on duty at the time, but I remember him telling me the victim had all his bones removed. He was absolutely baffled by it.’
‘You said there were other victims?’
Dr Hughes nodded. ‘I don’t recall all the details. Like I said, Maryann was real sick, but from what I can remember the victims all had various body parts removed.’
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 10