The Blood Gardener (The Dark River Book 2)

by Michael Richan

  What the hell is this? he wondered. He lifted the vial to the light and examined it. An opalescence moved through the liquid, appearing and disappearing as he turned the vial. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before. As he studied it, the opalescence shifted and became thicker, then suddenly dissolved. It looks bizarre, almost like it’s alive in some way, like something from the River. The liquid seemed to shift within the vial, even though he wasn’t moving it. He shook it gently, and the liquid briefly turned dark blue, then faded to clear.

  Definitely not real-world, he thought.

  The vial was small enough for his Haas Box; he slipped it into his pocket, deciding to take it with him when he returned to the Dark River. If it was River-based, as he suspected, Monkey would be able to tell him what it was.

  After extracting more Tupperware, a paper sack filled with pennies and a broken kitchen timer, he was able to reach the last of the books. There, next to the bottom, was a red spine with gold lettering.

  He slipped the book out and opened it. The table of contents listed modification after modification, and he could feel his heartbeat increase as he realized he’d found the right volume.

  Tracking provenance, he read halfway through the list. Perfect.

  He flipped to the page referenced in the table of contents and began to read.

  This is it, he thought. This is what Monkey will need. I’ll have to transcribe it…

  He thought about what he had back at the trailer, unsure if he had paper, or where it might be. I could stop at a store on the way home, buy a notepad, he thought. Then he looked into the box once again. There, in the pile of household crap opposite the books was a grocery list pad. Its ruled lines were empty, waiting to be written upon.

  He grabbed the pad and the book, and carefully locked up the house. Once he was in his car and driving away, he checked his watch — just enough time to make it to the coffee shop and his appointment with Kera.

  - - -

  “Here,” she said, sliding the small white envelope across the table to him. “There’s three or four strands inside. I don’t think my mother will ever notice. She saved a huge chunk from Anna’s first haircut.”

  Derick opened the envelope. Inside were several hairs, the same golden color as Anna’s hair, and it took him a moment to connect that these really were hers; it made him think of her soothing voice, the tone of calm. He instantly missed her, and felt the pain of her loss well up inside him as it had so many times the past few weeks. He took a huge lungful of air and sighed. He wanted to smell the hair, but thought he shouldn’t in front of Kera. Instead he slipped the envelope into his jacket pocket.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I hope it will help A.”

  “Let me know,” she replied, smiling at him. “I don’t want to go back into the Dark River, but I’d love to get updates about him. How is he?”

  Derick thought of A’s recent invisibility trick. “He’s well,” he answered. “Full of surprises.”

  “So was Anna.” She paused. “Derick, there’s something I have to tell you.”

  “What is it?” He noticed her eyes dancing around the room behind him.

  “I was approached by someone.”

  “Someone?” he asked.

  “Someone who wanted me to inform them if you came around.”

  He felt adrenaline pump into his system, and he resisted the urge to stand up and bolt from the coffee shop. “What did you tell them?”

  “I told them I hadn’t seen you,” she replied. “This was just after the other day, after we met and you took me to see A.”

  “Do you know who it was?”

  “No. I had never seen them before. It was a tall guy, maybe six foot four. Had a mole on the side of his left cheek.”

  “Caucasian?”

  “Yes, he was white. Thin. Said he was a private investigator and was looking for you. Told me there’d be a reward if you ever showed up and I called him.”

  “Did you?” Derick asked. “Call him?”

  “No!” she replied. “I told him I’d never met you, and didn’t say one way or the other whether or not I’d call him.”

  “Can we move this discussion? I’d like to relocate somewhere else.”

  “You think I might have been followed?”

  “It’s a possibility. Moving will help me determine that.”

  “Sure,” she replied. “What do we do?”

  “Let’s not make it look like I’m dragging you somewhere,” he replied. “Just get up and walk out the door. Turn right, and go until you come to the café in the next block. Don’t rush, just walk like you normally would, like it was planned.”

  “Alright,” she replied, grabbing her coffee and standing. He rose with her, following her as she walked to the door. She pushed it open and he caught it as it swung closed behind her.

  They walked down the sidewalk past small shops. Once they had gone three storefronts, he asked her to stop and look into the windows of the next shop, which she did. He took the opportunity to walk to her far side, and look back toward the coffee shop.

  Nothing unusual; no one surprised at their sudden stop and his gaze.

  “OK, let’s move on,” he said. “Stop at a window again, after three or four more shops. Same routine.”

  She began walking down the sidewalk once again, and he followed.

  “This one?” she asked after they’d progressed another thirty feet.

  “Sure,” he replied. As she moved to the shop window, he turned quickly, checking the sidewalk behind them.

  Nothing.

  He looked at the sidewalk across the street. A couple walking arm in arm; a woman pushing a stroller. No sign of anyone following them.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get to the café.”

  “Anything?” she asked as they moved on.

  “Not yet,” he replied.

  As they made their way to the café, he considered who might have contacted her. It was most likely someone from LeFever’s organization. There was a chance it could have been someone from the Achernar Group, too, although he was unsure of their motive. They’d been so erratic in their dealings with him recently, he didn’t put anything past them.

  They reached the café. A hostess tried to seat them in the back, but Derick insisted on a table where he could keep an eye on anyone coming through the front door.

  They ordered more coffee, and Derick found himself ordering food as well. No one who came in aroused his suspicions.

  “I’m going to feel awful if I’ve led them to you,” Kera said. “That wasn’t my intention. I guess I should have called you first.”

  “Frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t tried something more obvious already.”

  “Such as?”

  “My house. I’m still moving boxes from there to the trailer. I try to limit the number of times I go there, but it seems like their best opportunity.”

  “‘They’ being that group you mentioned?” she asked. “The one Anna was fighting against?”

  “Yes.”

  “You must have done something horrible in their eyes to receive this much attention. Was helping Anna enough to warrant all this?”

  He was grateful the food arrived at that moment, allowing him to change the subject.

  “So that’s it for the Dark River?” he asked. “For you?”

  “I think so,” she said, sipping her coffee. “I’ll admit the rushing was nice, but I don’t have an addictive personality disorder — I can weigh the bad of it against the good. It’s an easy decision to not go back. Meeting A was the only reason I went.”

  “Now that you’ve seen him, it’s good enough? Were you just verifying my story?”

  “There was an element of that, yes,” she replied, looking at him to gauge his reaction. “But if the story was true, I did have an interest in seeing A.”

  “Do you have any children?” he asked.

  “No. Neither did Anna. Or our brother. When you told me about A, I ad
mit I was excited at the idea of a nephew, the first. I have to temper that excitement now that I’ve met him, and realize he can’t ever be out here, with us.”

  “Did he talk to you?”

  “Who, A?” she asked. “Aside from a ‘hello’, no.”

  “He might, you know. If he gets to know you better.”

  “I can’t go back,” she said, looking down. “I feel bad about having gone already. Guilt. Probably brought on by my mother.”

  “Will you tell your mother she has a grandchild?”

  She set down her coffee cup. “That’s such a hard question,” she replied, pursing her lips. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m not sure. She’s very opposed to the Dark River, and I’m not sure how she’d react. She’d be very upset to learn I went there with you. She blames the Dark River for Anna’s demise, of course.”

  “I hope she doesn’t think of her as a rush addict,” Derick said, “because she wasn’t that. Far from it.”

  “I know. I don’t know how my mother views her, to be honest. She’s not very open with her emotions.”

  Behind Kera, a tall, thin man walked into the café alone. He held a newspaper in his hand, and looked around the restaurant while waiting for the hostess to greet him.

  “Don’t turn around, but he might have just come in,” Derick said.

  “What’s he doing?” Kera asked, lowering her voice.

  “Looking around for the hostess,” Derick said, glancing up and back down. “His eyes seem to dart everywhere but here, as though he’s avoiding looking right at us. Thin, tall. I’d say six foot four, like you described.”

  “How about the mole?” she asked. “Left cheek, near the back, almost under his ear?”

  “Can’t tell from this angle.”

  Derick watched as the hostess finally greeted the waiting man, and ushered him to a table. They were going to walk right past the table Derick and Kera were seated at.

  “To your left,” Derick said. “Here they come.”

  The hostess and the tall man passed by. She seated him in a booth behind Derick.

  “Can you tell if it’s him?” Derick asked.

  “It’s not him,” she said. “Face is different. But it’s odd. He has the mole. Doesn’t look quite the same, but it’s there on his cheek. His nose and eyes are completely different, however. It’s not him.”

  “Too coincidental,” Derick replied. He removed his wallet from his pocket and placed two twenties on the table, next to his half-eaten plate. “We’re going back to the coffee shop. We’ll get up and leave as though we’ve been here for an hour. Everything completely normal, OK?”

  “Alright,” she replied, pushing her chair back to stand.

  He placed his napkin on his plate and stood, sliding his chair under the table. They turned to leave the café.

  “I’m worried,” she said as they walked back.

  “Scared?”

  “A little.”

  “Don’t be. He’s after me, not you.”

  “But it didn’t look like him, really.”

  “There are ways to change your looks,” Derick said. “I do it all the time.”

  “Really?” she asked, turning to him. “You know, you are one of the more interesting people I’ve ever met.”

  “You don’t want to get to know me,” Derick replied. “Look what happened to your sister.”

  “That wasn’t your doing, from what you’ve said,” Kera answered. “You were being honest with me about that, I hope.”

  “Completely honest,” he replied. “You’re being honest with me too, right?”

  She stopped walking. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m trusting you weren’t lying to me when you said you didn’t give me up.”

  “I didn’t, I swear.”

  “Good. Then I guess we’ll both just have to trust each other for now.”

  They arrived back at the coffee shop, and the same table they’d left earlier was unoccupied. They sat at it. “Since there are two entrances,” he said, “I’ll watch one, you watch the other.”

  “Alright,” she replied. “What if he comes back?”

  “We’re going to go our separate ways. You go to your car and drive home, or go wherever you were planning on going tonight. He already knows you and where you live, so he won’t follow you, he’ll follow me. I’ll ditch him before I go back to my trailer.”

  “Will I see you again?”

  He looked up at her, surprised at the question. Anna was there in her features, but not entirely. It was like the thin, tall man — the mole was there, but the face was different.

  “If you want to talk again, let’s meet here. Text me. Don’t come out to my trailer, whatever you do.”

  “I won’t,” she replied, looking disappointed. “Tell A hello for me?”

  “I will.”

  “And Monkey.”

  “Sure.”

  “I hope the hair helps. If you find out anything about Anna, will you tell me?”

  “Yes.”

  The conversation gave way to silence, and Kera began looking around the coffee shop. She stiffened suddenly at something behind Derick.

  “What?” he asked.

  “He just came in. The entrance behind you.”

  “OK, time to go,” he said. “Straight to your car, alright? Don’t dally.”

  “I won’t,” she said. “You either.”

  “Goodbye.”

  She smiled and rose from the table, turning to take the entrance behind her, while Derick rose and walked to the other, where the thin, tall man had entered. He glanced at the man while walking out, trying to memorize the features, using the skills he’d learned at the academy more than twenty years ago, and perfected over the intervening years.

  Derick walked to his car and got inside. Through his windshield, he could see the tall man leaving the coffee shop holding a paper cup, walking to a vehicle not far from his own. Derick started up his car and backed out, heading down the street, waiting to see if the tall man would follow. Seconds passed, and for a moment he thought their suspicions were for naught.

  Then the man’s car started, and backed out. It was following him.

  Not for long, he thought, taking a turn toward old downtown, where he’d be able to lose the tail in the many one-way alleys there. It was a labyrinth of streets that veteran auto thieves had used over the years to elude him, and he knew all the corners for the best sudden turns.

  Who sent you? he wondered as he looked at the headlights in his rear-view mirror.

  Chapter Eight

  Is Kera coming back? A asked.

  I don’t think so, Derick replied. A had a strange contraption in his hands that was holding his attention while he conversed; it looked like a metallic version of a cat’s cradle game, with little lights racing down the strands, and A moving his fingers rapidly to avoid them.

  She didn’t like me? A asked.

  Oh, I think she liked you, Derick answered. It’s not you. It’s this place. She has a strong aversion to the Dark River. It made her very uncomfortable to come here. I don’t think she would have come at all if it weren’t for you.

  For me?

  She wanted to meet you. That’s what drew her here.

  We hardly met. She didn’t say much.

  She didn’t know if you would talk to her or not, Derick said. Did you?

  No.

  Why not?

  I didn’t have anything to say. And she didn’t ask me anything interesting.

  When you meet new people, sometimes you have to engage in very uninteresting conversation, to warm up.

  Warm up? A asked.

  Everybody’s a little nervous meeting new people. Some people are on guard and don’t want to open up to others until they know them. When you meet new people, you can talk about non-threatening things, like the weather.

  I was going to ask her about Anna, A said, but I didn’t.

  Derick winced. Yeah, you were probably right to avoid tal
king about Anna just yet. Derick leaned back in the chair, trying to relax. Monkey had been in his lab for over an hour, analyzing the new items Derick had brought to him via the Haas Box, and he was anxious to learn if there was any news. In the meantime, A continued questioning him.

  I don’t see why people have to communicate if they don’t have anything to talk about, A said.

  Talking is how people form bonds, Derick replied. Had you been able to communicate with Kera, perhaps she would have bonded more with you, and want to come back down to visit.

  Even though she’s scared of the Dark River?

  I don’t know that she’s scared so much as averse.

  Why averse?

  Her parents raised her to think it was a bad place. Anna’s death here reinforces that belief.

  A paused, considering what Derick had told him. People die up there, too, right? In the real world?

  They do.

  But they aren’t averse to living up there.

  Derick sighed. They think it’s worse down here. A little bit of it is fear of the unknown.

  I’m not afraid of up there, A replied. I can’t go up there, and see her?

  No, you can’t, Derick answered. It’s not possible.

  A paused again. I don’t understand why you have to communicate to bond. You bonded with me before I talked to you.

  Derick remembered the small, gore-covered child, fresh from ripping Anna open, grabbing at his pants leg. It was a terrible memory, but one he found easier to recall as time went on. He remembered Edward saying that A had imprinted on him; that in those first moments of A’s life, he’d identified Derick as a parent. A had bonded with him almost by default and almost immediately. It had taken Derick longer to warm up to the kid, and to get over his horrific birth.