by James Brown
“Now, now Nick. Let’s not rush into this. I know you trust me. I also consider you a very dear friend but I think now is not the time to discuss anything important. I suggest you go home and take some rest. Let’s continue this discussion later, when you are in a better state of mind,” said Father Paul, in a soft and gentle voice. He could sense the battle in Nick’s mind. It was written all over his face and speech.
“No Father, you do not understand. The time has come. I cannot delay it any further. It is a matter of life and death now and I may not have time to tell you about it later. Today’s incident is also related to it,” said Nick. His back was bent and he shook his head. His expression was more like that of a teacher trying to explain something to his pupil.
“It all began when my brother went to Toronto for his internship and...”
Nick told him the entire story.
Chapter 14
Nick told Father Paul that Quinn had scanned old records to nail his bitter past and was now threatening to publish the story and expose him. He said Quinn wanted to create a big buzz by solving the 30-year-old mystery of the missing gangster and fire the imagination of readers. In the process, Quinn, Nick said, wanted to climb the ladder and reach the top in the field of investigative journalism.
“But as you said, this was done more than a week ago. Why he has not published it yet?”asked Father Paul.
“He is probably doing the final spadework, sorting out the loose ends, giving the story the final shape. Or maybe he is expecting me to buy his silence. Could be anything,” Nick replied.
“Did you try that, I mean buying his silence?”asked Father Paul.
“I’ll not pay the bastard even a penny, no sir. I would rather hang from a rope. There are some things in this world I cannot do, one of them is offering money to a ruffian like Quinn,” was the firm answer from Nick.
“Good for you, old chap. Remember, always stick to what your conscience says is right and God will always show you the way to come out of your problems. However big and however unfathomable their depth. He will give you the energy and the will to cross any river. All He demands is that you have faith in Him and in His ways,” the Father replied softly.
Nick’s revelation had jolted Father Paul but he didn’t let his face show that, as he didn’t want to alarm Nick.
It was then that Nick remembered something else.
“One more thing, Father. However strange and irrelevant it may sound, I have to tell you this. There is this Achooka, the nomad. He came to me the day the ferry had first anchored here and warned me that it would bring troubles with it. He said something about some evil spirit, which has come along with the boat and that it would bring sorrow, misery and death to our town. I used to consider him a half-wit till today. Today, he appeared like an angel and saved me. You see, when I was crossing the road in the blizzard, suddenly I saw this Mustang with Katos behind the wheels. The same old Katos, after 30 years. Those penetrating eyes and the twisted mouth. He was about to mow me down, when Achooka saved me. And then suddenly it was gone, and there was this truck in its place. It was like a nightmare.”Nick went on.
“I have met Achooka. He is a man of God and has deep knowledge of the things that be. He is a man of deep faith, ancient knowledge and wisdom. It’s unfortunate you didn’t tell me about this earlier. His words cannot be ignored. We have to meet him urgently. Maybe he can suggest a way out. He may be our messiah, the path to salvation. Where can we meet him? Please take me to him.” Father Paul pleaded.
“He told me to ask the storekeeper,
Mrs. McKenzie, whenever I wanted to meet him,” Nick replied.
“Let’s try and see if we can find her then. This is a matter of great importance. I may also have to share some of the knowledge that God has imparted to me by making me his medium for the common man and the custodian of the church, His own house. I have knowledge of the deeds of other god-fearing human beings, who have confided in me,” said Father Paul.
They both left to find Mrs. McKenzie at her store. Mrs. McKenzie was preparing to close the store. She was pretty surprised to see the two men at that odd hour. She asked them if all was well and what had brought them there at that ungodly hour. Father Paul said, “I had some work with Achooka, related to some discussion. As he is always in his elements at night, I thought it would be best if I meet him at night. Sorry to bother you, but do you have any idea how to reach him?”
“Sure. Just go up the Hill Drive and at the very end, where the road veers off to meet the highway, a narrow dirt road turns to the right, towards the hills. There is a signboard that says ‘heavy vehicles not allowed’, as up ahead there is a small bridge, which can take only light vehicles. As you cross the bridge, keep going along the single track, it ends in a small sort of a circle, where the path makes a loop. You can turn around to come back. Park your vehicle there and wait. Achooka will hear your vehicle coming and will come out to meet you.”
“Okay fine, thanks a lot. You have been a great help,” said the Father.
Touching his hat, Father Paul pressed the gas paddle on his vehicle and sped away towards Hill Drive.
On reaching the end of the road, he turned right into the woods, crossed the bridge, and stopped his car at the end of the loop, where the road seemingly ended.
To his surprise, Achooka was waiting for them.
“By the grace of God, it’s good of you come to me. It is also nice that you brought with you a part of Him. Whom God adores and loves, a special one,” Achooka said in his crisp high-pitched voice.
“Come with me, we have lots to talk about,” Achooka said and lead them through the bush to the top of the hill, where it formed a plateau at the top. It was the size of a small football field, with a sheer drop on one side and a gradual slope, leading right down to the great lake, on the other side.
There they saw a small bonfire, with a carefully dug up trench around it that any experienced bush man would make. Achooka beckoned them to sit around the fire. He then started to speak.
“When the boat came, it carried with it a powerful and evil spirit. It had come from far off lands. Its purpose, I am still not sure, but it has no good intent. It is because of the evil spirit that everything has happened. The death on the ferry and the accidents were caused by the evil spirit. It has also now found a medium. It has chosen a wicked man, not one from the townsfolk. Its strength and abode lies in the boat. We must not let the boat come back.”
“The accident on the boat was God’s will. It was His way of stopping it from coming back. Now, it is for us to ensure it never reaches our land,” said Achooka, all the time looking into the fire, as though reading a book written by the flames.
“I know why it is here,” Father Paul suddenly mumbled.
“It wants to punish God’s people. People who have taken the law in their own hands but have done no wrong. The people of God had been wronged and had corrected the wrongs themselves. According to our society’s laws, they committed crimes, but, in all fairness, they cleansed the society of malicious evil people,” he continued as if in a stupor.
“I also now know that it is here due to me. I am also a victim of fate. I have also committed the same crime as all the other victims and targets. Ms Stacy had killed her evil sister, Nick had killed Katos, Rob had killed the little gypsy boy. They are all his targets and he will find more and more. But his biggest target is someone else. I can read the writing on the wall.” Father Paul kept on mumbling.
“I am his greatest target. He is moving from one person to another. He killed Ms Stacy, he tried to kill Rob and Nick, and finally he will come to me too. Rather, it’s me he wants the most. All this misery is due to me. I have to stop him. I cannot be responsible for the deaths of so many people.”
Achooka was watching and listening quietly.
Nick could understand his words now. Father Paul was sharing this information with him as he trusted him. They now formed a team, all the people whom he had named. Individually,
they had no chance, but together they may be able to defeat the evil spirit and foil its satanic plans.
There was silence for a long time and then Father Paul started talking again.
“It was a long time ago. I was a young farm boy in a small village in Australia...”
By the time Father Paul finished his story it was past midnight. Nick was badly shaken and could hardly believe what he had heard. He could now understand a lot of things in retrospect. Initially, everything had appeared strange to him – Father Paul’s actions and attitude.
They all sat quietly for a long time, digesting the information and trying to co-relate it with all the incidents that had occurred. They were all related to each other in one way or the other. The spirit was guided by the soul of little Sandy. He had come after Father Paul after a long time. All the events may have been triggered by the boat, as the boat had been built at the Franklin Harbor factory, where it had all started.
Achooka took in the information, with the occasional shake of his head as though he already knew most of it and was just filling in the missing parts. He listened silently.
Finally, he broke his silence. “Whatever is done is done. Now we know what we are dealing with and what its intentions are. First, let us include Rob in the team and then ensure that the ferry doesn‘t return to the shores of Rochester, ever.”
They all agreed to this unanimously.
“I will meet Rob tomorrow and talk to him. I am sure he will join us. We will then form a plan. How do we stop the ferry from coming back? The town’s future hinges on it. So much money has been spent on it,” said Father Paul, visibly upset and helpless.
“That part we have to see later on Father. What is important for us is to make sure it doesn’t get back,” said Achooka.
“I think the only way is we should blow up the bloody boat. We should blow it and make it look like an accident, so that the money is recovered through insurance. At least a major part of it will be recovered, ”said Nick.
Again there was silence. Desperate situations do call for desperate measures. A person sets certain rules and tries to follow them. All his actions and thoughts are in accordance with these rules, consciously or subconsciously. But sometimes circumstances force him to violate the rules. His inner voice tries to stop him from doing so and revolts. But he is forced to discard his thoughts and goes against his self-imposed rules.
What Nick said now violated everyone’s ethics and code of conduct. But, it did set everyone thinking. Perhaps it was the path God wanted them to take or perhaps it was the path the Devil wanted them to take. They had the whole night to think about it.
The silence was then broken by Father Paul.
“Let us disperse for now and get some sleep. It will be morning soon. Let me also bring Rob on board and get his view on the matter. We will meet again tomorrow and decide. Let us pray that God shows us the right way.” With these words, he dismissed the meeting.
They hardly spoke to each other on the way back. Too much had been said during the past few hours.
It had been a very long day for Nick and he was too tired to say anything or even think of anything. He thanked Father Paul for dropping him at his place and bade him goodbye, before entering his house and flopping on his bed, without even bothering to change.
Chapter 15
The shift manager of the Great Lake Ship-builders Company, which had been hired for the repairs of the ferry, was very happy.
On first inspection, the damage to the ferry had looked heavy, with a two-meter wide hole in its stern just under the rib cage. But it had been really easy to repair. What was surprising was that no auxiliary service pipelines had been damaged; the damage was much lesser than it had appeared to the naked eye. This was very unusual, as normally, in any boat accident, more and more damage is discovered as the repairs start.
If he was happy, the chief welder was downright confused. This had happened for the third day in a row. As was the practice, he had prepared a chart, in which he had drawn up the sequence to follow, welding all the areas one by one. He had finished a certain portion on the first night and had come in early the next day to start work on the next area only to find that it had already been taken care of.
At first he thought that maybe he had repaired that portion too the previous day and didn’t remember. But then the same thing happened the next day too. It was as though the boat was on a self-repair mode. He was pretty sure that someone or something was involved in the repairs. Not that he minded it. The supervisor was happy and so he was happy too.
When the shift manager saw the repair work, he was taken aback. Recovering quickly, he prepared a report and rushed to his office to submit it to the municipality, with a copy marked to the Mayor and Father Paul.
Father Paul didn’t sleep at all. It was already 5.30 a.m.by the time he reached home after dropping Nick. He had a long hot water shower, shaved and changed into his customary white robe. He sat at his desk, opened the Bible and started reading. That was the only thing he could do in his state of mind. He had to think and defeat the enemy. And he needed God to guide him all the way.
Father Paul got up from the table at 8 a.m. He drove straight to Rob‘s house.
As the ferry was not operating, all the staff had been granted temporary leave, including Rob. When Father Paul reached his house, he had just gotten up from bed.
His wife and kid were still asleep. He was sitting outside in the small front courtyard. He saw Father Paul park his car and come towards him. He got up quickly, and greeted him. “Good morning, Father. Hope all is well.”
“Good morning, son. I wanted to talk to you about something urgent in private. Is this a good place or you can come with me and we can talk while I drive?” he said, with urgency in his voice.
“We can speak here. The kid and wife are asleep. And even if they get up, they will be inside only. What’s the matter?” he asked anxiously.
Father Paul started explaining everything to him.
Rob listened with attention and awe. All sorts of expressions crossed his face as the story progressed. His mind failed to accept the fact that Ms Stacy, the ever so gentle and delicate Ms Stacy, could actually kill someone, or Father Paul or Nick for that matter.
After his initial puzzled reactions, Rob managed to compose himself to some extent and comprehend the matter in its all complexity.
It was perhaps the fact that he had started believing in the powers that be, after that horrible incident, and the conviction in Father Paul’s voice that helped him understand and accept the reality.
“Now that you know everything, how do you think we can stop the ferry from coming back to the harbor?” asked Father Paul.
“I know a dozen ways to stop the boat but I think the plan should be to wreck it permanently. And for that, we need to put some explosives at the right places, which will cause the maximum damage and also make it appear like an accident. I can work that out,” he replied with authority.
“Okay then, please come to the church at 8 tonight. We will all assemble and decide what to do next. God bless you, son.” Saying so, Father Paul got up and left for the church.
Nick noticed two things as he entered his office at 11.30 in the morning. The tall and heavy form of Quinn, snoring on his chair, and the letter from the Great Lake Ship-builders Company.
He let Quinn rest and went up to his table and opened the letter. As he took it out and started reading it, he was startled to hear Quinn’s voice. “That’s pretty quick work.”Quinn had crept quietly behind him and was staring at the letter from above his shoulder. He was referring to the contents of the letter, which stated that almost all the repair works had been completed ahead of schedule and the boat would be ready for sailing in the next three to four days.
“I took the liberty of checking the records from the Accountant General’s office, regarding the procurement of the ferry. I found out that there was no official tender floated and the entire process was literally hijacked by
the current suppliers. Also, most documentation has the approval of Father Paul. Would you please enlighten me what his authority is and how come no official bids were invited for the project?”Quinn asked Nick, mockingly.
“Father Paul was appointed the chairman of the purchase committee set up by the council to purchase the ferry. I knew the suppliers, the Gardiners, from earlier on. I rate them highly and so was happy to place the order with them,” Nick replied haughtily, not bothering to hide his scorn for the man.
“I would like to check him out, just for the sake of the investigation. Where can I find him?” Quinn asked.
“It’s your sweet wish. He is a priest, and as far as I know, they are usually found in the church. You can go look for him there. If you look hard enough, you will find him there, I am pretty sure,” Nick replied mockingly. “Now, if you will excuse me, I am rather busy. Also, I have not been keeping too well. So I want to finish with the paperwork, while I am feeling fresh. I may have to retire early today.”
Quinn wanted to retort but he swallowed his pride and let it go. I will handle the bastard when the time comes, he thought. For now there was the more pressing matter of meeting this Father Paul. He went out and got into his car and drove towards the church.
Of late, Quinn had not been feeling too well. There was this constant numbness in his head and he seemed disillusioned and confused. He felt as though he had been hypnotized and was following the orders of someone else. Even his walk had changed; the drag of his feet had increased. The shoulders had stooped and his face had become wooden, with no expression. This happy-go-lucky man had changed into a serious, somber and angry brute. He had tried to come out of this stupor but the more he tried, the deeper he got into it. Till finally, he was a walking zombie. His brain and actions were being controlled by someone else.