Brimstone

by Tamara Thorne

  “To kill his enemies,” Abner said. “A man like that would surely have plenty of them.”

  Adeline asked, “Would he harm innocent people just to kill an enemy?”

  Steve Cross cleared his throat. “I might have an answer to that. One of the doctors who died was Virgil Endicott, the chief surgeon. Including Endicott, there were six senior medical staff on the board that Henry Hank ran. Endicott and three of the other doctors were continually at odds with him over finances and patient care. They fought a lot.”

  Steve folded his hands. “All four died that morning. The two surviving doctors were in Henry Hank’s pocket. After the deaths, Barrow was able to cut corners as he saw fit. He replaced the dead doctors with new ones who worked cheap and the death rate at the Clementine skyrocketed.”

  “There you go,” said Ben.

  “It makes sense,” Delilah agreed. “Perfect sense. Carrie was right about that bastard. So was my aunt. She loathed him.”

  “Dee,” Ben said, “did your aunt tell you anything about him?”

  “She only met him twice,” Delilah said. “Aunt Beatrice once told me that Henry Hank was the devil’s right hand. I believe those were her exact words. She felt he was vulgar and coarse despite his fancy clothing. She wasn’t crazy about my father, either - which isn’t surprising since he was Henry Hank’s protégé and right-hand man. Bill Delacorte became the chief administrator at the hospital after Henry Hank’s death, and the building was deeded to him when Frank Langley Clementine - head of the Clementine Mining Company - died.” She looked around the table. “But the important thing is that Carrie feared and hated Henry Hank.”

  Ben cleared his throat. “All we really know now is that the hospital didn’t have many patients and only a small staff on duty when it happened. That’s what the local constabulary and preachers talked about - how much worse it could have been. And it never happened again in all these years. I think you’ve solved the mystery, Steve. Somehow Henry Hank killed everyone in the building to get rid of his political enemies.”

  “I think it’s likely,” Steve said. “Though gas leaks weren’t uncommon in the mines. It could’ve been a happy coincidence for Henry Hank.”

  “True enough,” Ben agreed.

  “There were rumors that it happened in Pearl’s house, too,” Steve said.

  “I remember that.” Addie poured herself more tea.

  “Given what I saw in the Clementine that morning, I’m inclined to believe it was intentional,” Ben said. “People had dropped dead right where they stood. I remember seeing a nurse slumped over a wheelchair in the hall. She was as dead as her patient. None of them looked like they’d been choking or suffocating. It was as if they’d simply stopped being alive.” He paused. “Just like what happened to the Granger family. It was the same.” He looked to Holly. “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded darkly. “The Beast killed them. He killed them all.”

  Arthur Meeks hadn’t gone to the funeral, though he was sorry that a piece of ass as fine as Meredith Granger had died in her prime. She was a lot more fun to look at than Piggy Moran. He’d been polishing luggage carts in the lobby when the Queen Douchebag, Little Miss Fancy Pants, and that motley crew of locals took the elevator up to the fifth floor. Piggy said they were having a wake. Well, whoop-de-doo!

  Now, twenty minutes later, he used his passkey to let himself into room 429 to take the monk bank and hopefully find some dirty panties in Fancy Pants’ laundry hamper.

  He walked through the shadowy room, past the empty laundry basket, and into the bathroom where, sure enough, three pairs of underwear were drying on the towel rack. He grabbed a pair of pink ones and stuffed them in his pocket, then returned to the dresser and snatched up the monk, sliding it into his T-shirt. “Come to Daddy.”

  “Meow!”

  Go to sleep, Arthur, or the lion will eat you! His mother’s voice.

  Panicked, he turned and there on the bed was a gigantic long-haired orange cat. It glared at him. Arthur’s blood ran cold. Then the cat stood up and hissed, ears back, showing long white fangs and gold devil’s eyes.

  “Go back to hell where you belong!” Without taking his eyes off the cat, Arthur backed out of the room and pulled the door firmly closed, made sure it locked. Fucking Satan’s spawn has a fucking cat! He wondered if somebody had told the girl that he hated cats. Probably. Probably that fucking dead Meredith. Or maybe one of the maids. They all knew he didn’t like to hear about the ghost cat, and sometimes even teased him about it. Fucking cunts!

  He’d get them all. But first, he was going to get Little Miss Fancy Pants.

  The adults kept talking as the lowering sun slanted long beams across the Oriental rugs. Holly stared into her tea, but she was carefully listening and storing up a million questions. She thought she’d ask Steve most of them since he was really into history. And what he didn’t know, Adeline probably would.

  “Holly?” Delilah asked, “Are you with us?”

  “Yes.” She sat up straighter. “I was just thinking …”

  “About what?”

  “The book Adeline says we need to find.”

  “That’s a good thing to think about.” Adeline peered around the table. “After all, that’s the primary reason we’re here.”

  “This must be a very important book,” Abner said.

  Delilah nodded. “The day my sister and grandfather died, Carrie brought a book up from the basement - a big black book with the Infurnam Aeris symbol on it. She told me to hide it. I did, but I can’t remember where.” She glanced toward the windows. “I have recalled one thing that may or may not be true. I think I hid it in a small cave in the desert out there somewhere. It couldn't be too far away since I was on foot.”

  “What is the importance of the book?” That was Abner.

  “It was Henry Hank Barrow’s grimoire,” said Adeline. “A book of spells. Carrie and I managed to look through it a few times. It contained all manner of crazy stuff including spells that we thought we might be able to use to protect ourselves from our grandfather’s abuses, along with spells that might weaken him. There was also an incantation that would stop restless spirits from making trouble for the living; that’s the one we hope to use on him now. If it works, it would put Henry Hank - and any other spirit, including Pinching Pearl - back in the grave for once and for all. Otherwise, I don’t think Henry Hank will ever stop trying to possess Holly.”

  “Go on.” Delilah said.

  “Henry Hank kept the basement of the hospital locked. He considered it his private office and I don’t think he ever brought anyone but Pearl Abbott - and Carrie and me - down there. But it was a lot more than an office. He had all kinds of lab equipment, books, horrible things floating in jars. There were beds and an operating table down there. Other things.” Adeline paused. “Not that we understood much of anything. But he kept the book down there, too.”

  “And?” asked Holly.

  “Well, that last day, Carrie and I had gone to the basement with the intention of taking the book. We knew Grandfather was planning something - something awful - and we knew it had to do with us. We meant to use the grimoire to destroy him that night. But he caught us.” She glanced at the others. “Carrie managed to run upstairs and give it to Dee to hide before he could stop her.” Addie looked at Delilah. “Providence must have seen to it that you opened the door at that precise moment, Dee.”

  “Synchronicity,” Holly said, glancing at Abner.

  “Yes,” Adeline said. “And Delilah must have run like the wind because Henry Hank rushed up those basement stairs behind Carrie and grabbed her - I was trying to pull him back, but he was huge and strong and even with both of us fighting, we were no match for him physically.” She looked to Delilah. “It was only a minute before he threw us off and opened the door to go after you. Fortunately, Dee, you were long gone.”

  Terror flickered across Adeline’s face. “How he roared with rage! We clung to the railings so we wouldn’t fall dow
n those stairs as he slammed out and locked us in. A few seconds later we heard the creak of the copper door. And he was gone.

  “We stood there clinging to each other absolutely terrified that he was going to catch you, Dee. We prayed you were safe. How we prayed.” Adeline paused. “Then we came to our senses and prepared for his return. We knew he'd be back and if he’d caught you, Dee, we had to save you - and if he hadn’t, we still had to save ourselves. Either way, we knew we had to destroy him. To somehow kill him, even if we didn’t have the spell book anymore.”

  “I don’t remember seeing him,” Delilah said.

  “And he didn’t see you, Dee. When he returned, he came down the stairs, coldly furious. He had Pearl Abbot with him. They couldn’t see us because we’d put out the lanterns and had hidden in the empty storage closet under the stairwell. Carrie held a length of pipe and I had a big claw hammer.” Adeline held up her hands. “Look at that. I’m trembling. It’s as if it happened yesterday.

  “But no matter.” She took a deep breath. “We waited, listening. Grandfather stood cursing while Pearl fumbled around lighting the lamps. We were so afraid. In the book, there was a spell that was supposed to stop him from wanting to do … physical things ... to us, but we hadn’t copied it out either, and now the book was gone. We were so terrified - for ourselves, and now for Delilah, too. We knew he would punish and … abuse us. Physically.”

  “Do you mean he’d hit you?” Holly sat forward.

  Adeline glanced at Delilah, then looked at Holly. “Has your mother or teacher ever told you not to accept candy or rides from strangers?”

  “Yes,” Holly said without a blink. “She told me why, too. Did your grandfather do things to you and Carrie?”

  Adeline could only nod. Holly looked to Delilah. “Did he do bad things to you, too?”

  “I … I don’t think so. I was very young.” Her beautiful face looked pale, shocked by the question.

  Holly nodded. “Cherry says how young you are doesn’t matter to men like that.”

  “Holly,” Adeline said quickly. “He didn’t lay a hand on your grandmother. Your great aunt Carrie saw to that - she guarded her with her life and never let him near her.”

  “Adeline?” Holly set her teacup down.

  “Yes?”

  “What happened in the cellar? Did he find you?”

  “He did. We were in that storage closet and he pulled the door open and shone a lantern in our faces. He called Pearl over. I remember her standing behind him with a smile on her face that would frighten Lucifer himself.”

  “What happened then?”

  “Well, Carrie and I had no spells to cast so we came out swinging.”

  Adeline no longer trembled - now there was fire in her eye. Golden fire. The fleck shimmered and pulsed, and Holly watched, fascinated. “Carrie hit Henry Hank across the back with the iron pipe, but he didn’t go down - he just roared and turned, trying to grab the pipe, but Carrie stayed just out of reach, parrying and thrusting like it was a sword. I nearly lost my hammer because I was watching her, but Carrie yelled just as Pearl grabbed the business end and tried to yank it out of my hands. I managed to hang on. I got loose of Pearl and ran, but she was on me like a steamroller, throwing me to the floor, pulling my hair, pinching me with those talons of hers and trying to wrestle away the hammer. I just huddled over it, catching my breath, watching Carrie as she struck Henry Hank and struck him again.

  “Pearl wouldn’t stop. She pulled my head up and tried to pound it against the cement floor, so I curled into a ball, counted to three, then exploded at her, pulling her over until I was sitting on top of her, staring into those beetle-black eyes. I’ve never seen such hatred, not even on Henry Hank’s face. That woman was pure evil.

  “Right then, Henry Hank got hold of Carrie’s iron pipe and swung it at her. He caught her across the stomach and she flew backwards, landed on her back. Before she could catch her breath, he was standing over her with the pipe, laughing.

  “And then Pearl grabbed my throat and started squeezing. Without a thought, I raised the hammer and bashed it into her forehead with all my strength. Once, twice, and the third time, she let go. I heard Henry Hank bellow and knew he’d watched me kill Pearl. As I stood up, I saw her face in the lamplight covered in blood, the life in those black eyes dimming. Then Carrie screamed. Henry Hank had raised the pipe and was about to do the same thing to her.

  “I leapt on him and his blow missed Carrie. He went after me now and I’d dropped my hammer. As he came at me with that pipe I thought I was dead, but I jumped out of the way as he swung. When he swung again, all silent fury, I saw something - the Beast. It appeared over him, like a ghost. Henry Hank’s eyes seemed to glow red, and I saw black scales tinged with blue flame all around him. He swung again and this time he shattered my arm. I fell.

  “That’s when Carrie cursed him for a coward. She had the hammer raised, Pearl Abbott’s gore and hair dripping from it, as she came at him. At that moment, I saw her eyes and the one with the gold mark swirled with power. It wasn’t like yours, Holly, not by a long shot, but it was more than I’d ever seen. It was molten.

  “Henry Hank saw it, too, and I think that’s why Carrie managed to hit him - he was so shocked that his Beast-shadow vanished. He let her hit him again because he wanted her to come closer and I realized he wanted to possess her now more than ever, to take her body and power for his own.” Adeline shook her head. “He didn’t need the Beast if he could have her.

  “As she rained hammer blows on him, she kept telling him he was nothing and he’d never touch either of us again. She said it over and over, her own incantation, and I managed to stand up and say the words along with her.

  “Carrie bashed his cheek in. I saw teeth fly. She’d broken his jaw. How he screamed his pain and rage as he raised the pipe and slammed it into her side. I saw blood splash and heard bone crack as it hit her ribs. I thought she was done for, but Carrie didn’t drop, not yet. Instead, she raised that hammer one more time, and with the gold in her eye blazing, she cried out ‘Never!’ It was a voice not of this world and nearly burst my eardrums - my ears rang for weeks after that. Carrie had found her power.

  “She stopped Henry Hank in his tracks. He stared at her, and I saw his face. It was a mix of lust and fear, of envy and greed, it was every deadly sin all rolled into one. But he hesitated, no doubt as deafened as I was, and then Carrie swung the hammer and struck him square between the eyes, bursting his nose, caving his face. She struck again, and he fell dead.”

  Adeline met Holly’s eyes and Holly understood. “You killed him, but that didn’t stop him.”

  “It did for a while, but not forever.” Adeline spoke quietly. “We needed the book to truly stop him. We still do.”

  Tears rolled freely down Addie’s face as Delilah took her hand. “Carrie fell then,” Adeline continued. “I put a pillow under her head and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was so bad … I told her I was going for help, and as I turned to go up the stairs, the door opened. It was your father, Delilah. Carrie’s preternatural scream had been heard by the nurses in the lobby and he’d come to see what was going on. He took one look at me and locked the door behind him.

  “Bill Delacorte might’ve been a hard man, but he loved us, especially Carrie and you, Dee. I trailed him as he passed Pearl’s body without a glance, then Henry Hank’s, and knelt beside Carrie, took her hand in both of his. ‘I’m sorry, Father.’ That’s what Carrie said to him as she lay dying. ‘I’m sorry.’” Adeline wiped her tears. “‘I couldn’t let him hurt us anymore,’ she said. ‘He was going to hurt Delilah, too. I’m sorry, Father.’” Addie shook her head. “Those words will never leave me. Carrie called for me then and I knelt beside her. ‘Tell Delilah I love her,’ she said. She looked back at her father. ‘Send Dee away from here, Father. Promise me.’ He promised and then with a single sigh, Carrie passed in his arms.” Addie wiped away tears.

  “Uncle Bill didn’t ask me what had happened,
but he told me not to say anything to anyone, that he would take care of things. And he did. “Uncle Bill told the constable that Henry Hank and his nurse had lured us downstairs to try to do horrible things to us. Sexual things having to do with Infurnam Aeris. That there’d been a fight.

  “There were funerals, and Bill Delacorte wouldn’t let anybody see the bodies of Pearl Abbot or Henry Hank. Not at all. Uncle Bill took over as chief administrator of the hospital the same day. No one dared question him - Barrow had many enemies and some had already suspected he was abusing his granddaughters. Uncle Bill’s story held up because it was true.

  “And Delilah, that day, your father found you wandering in the desert west of here and brought you home. He was not a demonstrative man - he didn’t know the meaning of the word - but he arranged for you to go to Boston to live with your aunt. You never spoke a word after that day, and he told me that your aunt wrote the following year to say you’d found your voice once more and that you were doing well with her. That was all I ever heard of you until he died and you came back to town.”

  Delilah wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, Addie. I don’t know how I got it in my head that you were the reason Carrie died. Can you forgive me?”

  “There’s nothing to forgive. You were just a child. I’m glad we can be friends again.”

  “Me, too.” Delilah sat up straight and forced the sadness from her face, replacing it with determination. “And now we must find the book and get rid of Henry Hank Barrow for once and for all.” She hesitated, then said, “Aunt Beatrice taught me to read the Tarot and while I don’t believe in fortune telling, I do think the cards can open our minds up to certain things we may otherwise overlook. The other night, I threw the cards on the question of the book’s location and one card stood out and followed me into my dreams. It’s what helped me recall the cave. Perhaps if I tell you all, it would help. You, especially, Abner. You might know.”