“Phyllis Beo,” I whispered, my hand resting over my pounding heart. “We were talking to a revenant.”
Erkens did his brow furrow thing. “What are you talking about, Madison?” he asked, his familiar grump cutting into my mind’s dazed feeling.
“I wanted to talk to Bertie Suile again, so Quinn and I went back to her house. A woman named Phyllis opened the door. It didn’t register right away but there was a smell kind of like sauerkraut in the air. That’s what I thought the smell was anyway. I think now it was formaldehyde. I think we were talking to Phyllis Beo, one of the exhumed bodies.”
Erkens’ eyes narrowed. “What did she seem like to you?”
“Sweet. She was like everybody’s grandma. She talked about how she and Bertie had been friends their whole lives, how her mom had said Bertie had the ‘gift of gab’. But Bertie didn’t come to the door. Phyllis said she’d gone to bed.”
Erkens nodded to his truck. “Get in. We’ll talk about your lack of mention of the fact you interviewed someone without entering it into our file later,” he said, turning back to his truck.
Bukowski didn’t say anything at all. What he did was get into the passenger seat and give the windshield a dirty look. I didn’t care what was wrong with him. All I cared about was making sure Bertie hadn’t been hurt.
He drove fast, getting to West Mifflin several minutes sooner than usual. Bukowski didn’t even comment on the blatant disregard for traffic laws. He simply sat, making me think the chief might have filled him in on just how prevalent the paranormal world was in Pittsburgh.
I launched myself out of the truck when Erkens stopped in Bertie’s driveway. I didn’t wait to see if they followed. What I did was pull out my phone and my gun.
I didn’t know how much of the information from our database was suitable for the kind of revenant we were facing. All the folklore I’d read on them stated that they were very difficult to kill because they could heal. The one thing that all the sources agreed on was that if you caused them enough damage, their healing process could be stopped.
I pounded on the door as I got there, scanning the area for any sign of either woman. The binoculars I had noticed the day before still sat on the windowsill. There was nothing else. There was no light or noise from the TV. The only sound was muffled. It sounded like crying.
With my heart lodged in my throat, I opened Bertie’s door. The sour smell remained but there was something else as well. It was a far nastier smell even than formaldehyde. It was decay.
And as I stepped into the house, every nightmare I’d ever had paled in comparison to the sight before me. Bertie sat in a recliner, her body shaking with the power of her sobs. In the recliner next to her was Phyllis.
The sweet old lady we had met the night before was gone. What was left was a cold, dead body that was slumped in the chair. Bertie’s hands were wrapped desperately around Phyllis’. The bloated, gray corpse’s mouth hung open, her eyes foggy.
I stuck the gun back in my bag and took a small step closer. “Mrs. Suile?” I asked, not sure if she was with it enough to speak to me.
She looked up, her face the picture of grief. “She was my dearest friend and now . . . I’ve lost her twice,” she moaned, dabbing at her nose with a crumpled tissue.
I understood that pain all too well. I took a step closer to her, holding out my hand. “Mrs. Suile, will you come outside?” I asked, hoping to get her away from the moldering body of her friend.
She blinked, her eyes fixed on the limp hand she clung to. “You spoke to Phyllis last night, didn’t you?” she asked, reaching over to pat a fluffy curl back into place on her friend’s head.
“I did,” I said, my skin crawling as I took another step closer. “She said you two had been friends your whole life.”
Bertie smiled, patting the hand she clung to. “Oh, we were. She was everything I wasn’t but she never judged me for being different. She was loving and generous, the kind of soul whose purpose in life was making others feel good about themselves.”
My heart pounded so hard, it hurt as I stopped in front of Bertie. “It’s the hardest thing to lose that connection to the person who made you feel like you weren’t alone in the world. But sometimes, letting go is the only way.” I held out my hand again. “Mrs. Suile, Phyllis is gone. Please, will you come outside with me?” I asked, trying to ignore the smell coming off Phyllis’ body.
Bertie blinked, swallowing hard before she slowly laid Phyllis’ hand on the armrest of the chair. Even more slowly, she stood up, dabbing at her nose with that same used tissue. “He told me I could have anyone back I chose if I didn’t tell the police what he was doing. I didn’t realize I would only have my dear friend back for a day before she was taken again,” she told me as she walked with me toward the front door.
Bertie sat in a rusty, steel chair on her porch, looking almost like a sweet woman. Maybe the shock had jolted her into politeness or something.
I crouched next to her and tipped my head to the side. “Will you tell me who you mean? Who called back Phyllis’ soul?” I questioned, relieved when Ian stepped over so he was at least close to me.
Bertie’s hand trembled as she pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes fixed on the cemetery across the road. “I don’t know who he was. I heard the digger going and went to see why that dumb caretaker was working in the middle of the night. When I got there, I saw them load the body into some kind of van. He didn’t even close the door before he began that devilry.”
“What devilry? What did he do?” I asked, trying to get a picture in my head of what the scene must have looked like.
She slanted a look at me and sneered. “You little hussy. What do you think he was doing?” she barked, letting out an ugly laugh. “He was warming up the body, you stupid girl. How was he supposed to put the soul back into some cold body?”
I blinked, startled both by her hostility and by the fact she acted like it was a commonplace thing to see. “What happened next?” I asked, my voice a little sharper than it was before.
“Don’t you get snippy with me you little ninny. I know your type. You think you’re a sexy little momma but I see through you. You’re nothing but a floozie,” she finished, blowing a loud raspberry.
I held back my angry retort with difficulty. “Ma’am, I’d be happy to get going if you can just finish the story about what happened.”
I bumped my elbow to the side as I felt Ian shift. We both had to suck it up. So what if she insulted me? It didn’t affect me unless I allowed it to and I would NOT allow it to.
She scowled but didn’t seem to be able to find a flaw in my reasoning, so chose to go on in her story. “The second fellow saw me watching them and came running at me but the first man stopped him. The first man told me he would bring back whoever I wanted if I would keep his secret.” She swore crassly before she went on. “Then Phyllis was back and everything was wonderful for one day. Now it’s back to the pile of garbage my life was before.”
I wanted to be angry with her for how rude she had been. It wouldn’t come, though. I felt sorry for her no matter how unpleasant she was.
“Can you tell me anything about the guys, anything at all?”
She threw her hands up and swore even more inventively than she did before. “I have told you I couldn’t see them. It was dark and both of them wore dark clothes and hats. Even the van they were in was dark.”
“Tell me about the van.”
Bertie leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. “It was one of them tree trucks. Dark. With a ladder on the roof.”
If she said anything else, I didn’t hear her. I was busy getting into the traffic cameras. If the whole thing had begun in the middle of the night, a little over thirty-hours ago, I had a good chance of finding that van.
It surprised me how much traffic went through West Mifflin even so late at night. But there weren’t too many tree trucks. My heart started pounding when I found a van that matched Bertie’s description.
“Check this out,” I said, handing my phone to Ian.
His brows shot up as he saw who the van was registered to, his eyes going wide.
I darted around him to the door of the house, almost running into Erkens as he started to walk out. “We need to go, now,” I said, not wanting to say what the issue was in front of Bertie.
He didn’t question me but looked over his shoulder at Bukowski. “I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours,” he said right when more police cars started pulling in around the house.
Bukowski didn’t say a word.
Erkens stepped out of the house and the three of us rushed toward his truck.
Bertie threw her hands up. “Oh, that’s right. You just run off and leave an old woman here with no answers!” she shrieked after us, hurling insults at all of us.
None of us commented. All we did was get into the truck and pull out onto the road. I felt a surge of satisfaction at being able to walk away from her, then of shame.
Yes, Bertie was rude and crass but she was also lonely and suffering. It was wrong of me to hold anything she said against her.
“Where are we heading?” Erkens asked, his eyes fixed on the road.
“Dead Man’s Hollow. The van that Bertie saw at the cemetery is from there. I think it’s used by the trail crew.”
Erkens glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Did you find that without breaking any laws?” he asked quickly.
“Uh . . . I hacked the traffic cams.”
Erkens groaned. “We need to be a lot more careful. The chief has asked Bukowski to oversee this case. I have a feeling they’re gunning for you, Madison.”
I shrugged. “I’m not worried. No one can track me and--”
“Madison, if you show up with information that could only have been gotten through the police files or through hacking into something else, they’ll start looking for ways to track you. You need to be careful.”
I huffed, annoyed with his lack of faith in me. Or I was annoyed until an idea popped into my head. “Simms offered me a job,” I said, leaning forward so I was closer to both of them. “From what he told me, his boss is planning to set up a task force in Pittsburgh because of all the paranormal activity here. If I had FBI clearance, no one could stop me.”
He considered for a few seconds, glancing back at me as he stopped at a light. “It is a good way to get the chief off our tails but it will tie our hands in other areas.”
“Not if I write my own contract.”
He snorted out a laugh and lifted his shoulders. “If that’s your plan, I’ll back you. If you’re going to be working with the Arcane, I’m going to need to get somebody else to fill in when you can’t.”
“I know just the person,” I told him, almost bouncing up and down with excitement at how well my plan was working out.
TWELVE
Before we got to Dead Man’s Hollow, I had taken the instantly offered job as consultant to the Arcane. I was too young to be an agent but being a consultant gave me access to a lot of information and other resources. I had also laid out a plan on what stipulations I would clarify with them before officially joining the team.
With that plan set, I turned my attention back to the mystery before us. Was it a coincidence that the son of the program facilitator of Dead Man’s Hollow was one of the bodies that had been taken? Was it another coincidence that Bertie stumbled on those guys? Was it possible she had sought them out?
I thought about that for a minute but couldn’t come up with an answer. I filed it away for further thought and turned back to the questions we would need to ask when we got there.
If Bertie had told the truth and two men had been in the cemetery, why hadn’t they used a less identifiable vehicle? Could the van have been stolen or borrowed?
I checked the police database but couldn’t find any reports on missing or stolen vehicles from Dead Man’s Hollow. So to me, that meant the summoner was from the Hollow.
I kept my eyes fixed on my phone as we pulled into the parking area. I needed a full list of employees but the fact there were so many volunteers was going to slow me down . . . a lot. It was easy enough to get into the employee files, then to enter their faces into my facial recognition software and search for any criminal record for any of them.
It would take a few minutes to find anything, so I stuck my phone in my bag and got out with the guys. The funny thing was, I no longer felt afraid. The sight of a spirit when I was a kid was really no big deal. I’d seen a lot of spirits in my investigations and the one that day hadn’t done anything to hurt me.
Thinking back, it felt almost like he had wanted to protect me. I didn’t know if it was true yet it did change my feelings about that encounter.
And the ability to focus on our revenant mystery made things even easier to deal with. But my feelings were the least of my concerns.
I stepped forward to be next to Ian and raised my brows at him. “You okay?” I asked, hoping it wouldn’t be as bad for him as being in the cemetery.
He glanced around and nodded. “Everybody talks about how haunted this place is but I don’t feel a thing. Not yet, anyway,” he said, shooting a worried look at me. “What about you? I know how bad this place always scared you.”
I looked around, seeing the beauty of the trees as we walked along the trail leading to a small admin building. “Right now, I’m fine. If you push me in the river and I see that same figure coming at me, I might not be so good.”
He frowned. “You know that guy’s a cop now?” he asked, apparently referring to the kid who’d scared me all those years before.
I smirked at him. “What? You thought he’d be a criminal because he thought it was funny to scare me?” I asked, remembering just how angry Ian had been when he’d heard what had happened.
“He was a jerk, Mads. Not just to you. The fact you were eleven and he was eighteen means he should have left you alone.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Do you remember what I was like back then, Ian?” I asked, tapping my chin in a thinking pose. “I was very much into drawing attention to myself. I was also into correcting people who answered questions wrong in class.”
He quirked his brows. “So you’re saying that if a kid corrected you when you were wrong, you would try and scare them, then stand at the top of the slope and laugh while that kid fell?” he asked, obviously not expecting an answer since he kept talking. “You could have been hurt a lot worse than you were, Maddie. That’s why the guy got suspended.”
Oh. I hadn’t realized that was true. All I’d cared about that day was the fact that Ian’s mom had picked me up from the hospital and had done all she could to make me feel better. She’d even stayed with me since I’d been so scared of the ghost I’d seen.
I looked around the trees and sighed. “It doesn’t matter anymore, Ian. All that matters right now is figuring out what’s going.”
Erkens cleared his throat loudly. “I do agree that we need to be focusing on the case we were hired to work but for the first time, I agree with Ian. You need to accept that the way you were treated was wrong. Once you do accept that, it will be easier for you to move past it.” He didn’t wait for either of us to respond. Instead, he stepped forward to talk to Mr. Holtz as he took a tentative step closer to us.
I wasn’t sure what to make of any of their comments. Instead of stewing over it, I took out my phone and pretended I’d gotten a text. What I really did was to check and see what the infrared camera had to say about Mr. Holtz.
After a couple of seconds, the screen identified the man’s heat signature as a human and had shown me his police record, which was spotless. I brought out the chunk of amber, not really surprised to see that it was silver when I pointed it at the man. It would be interesting to see how Quinn’s app would react to someone like Spencer. Would it be able to identify the fact he was a demigod or what specific realm he’d been born in?
I had every intention of finding that out later. I also had every intention
of double checking to be sure no one else could access the app. I would not allow him to be put in danger just to satisfy my curiosity.
Mr. Holtz truly looked awful. I was surprised he had even come in but maybe for him, the Hollow was a place where he found peace. I personally thought he should be with Skylar. It wasn’t my business, though.
He pointed us in the direction of garage type place not far from us, his eyes fixed on the trees. That was when I understood. He believed his wife and son might both come back. He was waiting for the revenants to come and find him.
I kept my phone in my hand as we walked toward that garage. My eyes were fixed on Ian. I wasn’t sure how things would go for him there. I wanted to be close just in case.
Erkens peered around the area, his expression as peaceful as mine was. Birds sang their cheerful melodies, mixed with the buzz of bugs, and the rustle of the breeze through the leaves. It was a symphony I had loved my whole life. The woods had always been my safe place.
I looked around as we walked into the building. It was a standard garage, with lawn equipment and other landscaping materials scattered around. It was neither organized or messy. It was the same kind of organized chaos Erkens kept the office in.
Three guys unloaded a truck containing bags of supplies, all of them talking easily together. I had read that the trail crew had been hired to extend the trail another few miles, so those guys would be working there for a while. It was clear it was a comfortable arrangement for them.
Erkens cleared his throat and stepped further in. “I’m looking for whoever is in charge,” he said in a cop-tone.
One of the guys walked over, extending his big, hard hand to shake. “I’m Frank Voca,” he said, his voice quiet and soothing.
Erkens took his hand and shook it firmly. “I’m TC Erkens. We’d like to ask you a few questions about the location of your van the night before last.”
The guy blinked. “Uh, I assume it was here,” he said, motioning around the garage.
The Trail of Ruins Page 6
