by Steve McHugh
“Who are you?”
“Open the cell, we’ll go to breakfast—I assume it’s still breakfast time—and I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
“You could be a dangerous criminal.”
“Oh, yeah, good point. How about I promise not to kill and dismember you until I’ve had a cup of tea and some toast?”
“Do women often fall for your charms, Mister Garrett? Because they’re not going to work on me.”
“Okay, how about this? What do you actually have to hold me on? Drunk and disorderly? I’m pretty certain you have to let me go. And I’m curious, why did you get someone to run my name for such a petty crime?”
“First of all, you were up at the old house, and people in this town don’t like anyone snooping around Blood Red too much. But secondly, and oh so much more importantly, I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
Why wasn’t anyone allowed up near the house? And what the hell was Blood Red? There were questions I wasn’t going to get answers for until Agent Moore actually trusted me. And I was certain that probably wasn’t going to be quick. Especially considering I was going to have to blackmail her. “That’s true, and I don’t have to explain why I’m in town, either. But you may have to explain why you were in a New York hotel, where the body of a Toronto cop was found.”
Caitlin’s mouth pursed slightly. “How’d you know?”
“Well, I could say that your eyes are quite beautiful and that shade of green is very distinctive, but we’ve already established that my charm has no effect. Honestly, your voice is the same. It took me a moment to figure it out, because we were on top of a building and you were wearing a balaclava, but your speech pattern is definitely the same. Sort of gives it away.”
Caitlin stood, removed some keys from her pocket and used them to unlock the cell door. “I’ve removed the weapons you had in your car, but I assume if I try and have you arrested for not having a permit, you’ll magically get one. So, I’ll make this clear for you. You don’t start trouble in this town. If you hurt a single innocent person, I’ll shoot you myself.”
“Fair enough, but I’m really not the bad guy here.”
Caitlin pulled the cell door open and motioned for me to step outside. “Prove it.”
Once I’d reclaimed my car and found that Caitlin had been telling the truth about removing my weapons, I decided to stop off at the nearest clothes shop and purchase a few pairs of jeans, socks, underwear, some t-shirts and a jacket. I also grabbed a pair of hiking boots similar to the ones I’d purchased the last time I was there. It was obvious from the glances and occasional whisper, that the staff was curious about who I was and why I was there, but they were still friendly enough and offered to help me carry everything to my car.
Once suitably attired, I made my way to the motel, the owner of which appeared to be a much younger version of the same woman who’d given me the keys the last time I’d been. I requested the room farthest from the entrance; I didn’t want too many prying eyes.
I took my bags into the room, which I was pleasantly surprised to find, had been refurnished and decorated with modern appliances; it even had wi-fi. Once I’d had a quick shower and got changed, I used Skype on my tablet to call Tommy. It didn’t take long for him to answer.
“Nate,” he said with a smile as his face came into view on my phone’s screen. “I was wondering when you’d call. Olivia was going nuts.”
Olivia, Tommy’s girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, Kasey, was the director of Avalon for the south of England. For a while it was touch and go whether she’d be allowed to keep her job, but after Avalon received a few phone calls from both agents who worked with her and a certain Hades, they decided it was better, and easier, to leave her in charge.
I explained to Tommy what had happened in the last few days.
“Sorry about Bill,” he said when I’d finished. “You got any ideas who’s behind it?”
“Yeah, a few. Most of them involve Simon.”
“You’re going to have to see Galahad if you want access to him, you know that, right?”
“I’m hoping to put it off for a while. I’m going to go to the house and take a look around. Try and figure out what’s happening before anyone else dies.”
“You need my help?”
“I’m not sure yet; I’ll call after we’ve check out the place. Can you apologize to Olivia for me, I hadn’t expected anyone to run a check on me.”
“Ah, she’s just worried, she lost too many people last year, doesn’t want to add to that total.”
Before I’d gone to Canada to learn how to use my necromancy, I’d helped Olivia defeat a lich, an undead being of pure evil. One of her agents had been working for the enemy all along, which allowed the lich and his forces to kidnap Tommy and Kasey before attacking the LOA, or Law of Avalon, headquarters, killing a large number of agents in the process. We re-took the building and saved a lot of lives, but the weight of her people’s murder because of someone she’d trusted had rested heavily on her.
“How’s Kasey doing?” She’d been twelve when she was forced to watch the lich beat Tommy almost to death. She’d also put herself between that same evil and myself, quite probably saving my life. After it was all over, she’d had some nightmares, and a few issues with trust, but she appeared to be getting better.
“She’s good,” Tommy said. “She has a list of questions for you to answer the next time you’re back.”
As the oldest person Kasey saw on a regular basis, I was inundated with questions about every part of history she could think of. Some of the answers hadn’t been what she’d expected, but it hadn’t slowed down her need to know.
I laughed. “Tell her that’s fine, I look forward to my inquisition meeting.”
We stayed online for a few more minutes—two old friends catching up—until Tommy had to go. I told Tommy I’d call him later and signed off; it would be dark in a few hours and I wanted to get some time looking around the old house.
I’d already discounted actually going into the house itself; it was locked, and even if anyone was still using it, they were clearly expecting me. So, once I’d parked the car, I set off in the direction of the woods at the rear of the house, sprinting the distance of the open ground between the two.
It wasn’t especially dark once under the canopy of whatever tree leaves remained, but the constant drizzle made me glad that I’d purchased a new waterproof coat and boots. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to find. Bad guys rarely leave big neon signs pointing to their direction, but from the brazen display that I’d seen from whoever wanted me in Maine, they may as well have been.
It took another fifteen minutes, and the realization that not only was the rain going to hang around for a while but that I was also being followed, before I actually found something. Several trees had claw marks, as if used by a cat to scratch on. The farther I went, the more trees I found.
“Do you ever pay any attention to authority?” Agent Moore asked as she walked toward me.
“No,” I said. “They tell me what to do, and I’m not such a big fan of that.”
“You need to leave this place.”
“Why? So far I’ve seen a few scratched trees and a lot of leaves. Those marks are from a big cat. I assume you have mountain lions around here.”
“Not quite. We had three hikers from town killed three days ago. We found the bodies about a hundred yards to the east of here, by an old cave, during a routine check of the area. It was only by chance—one of their phones went off. Coroner said a big cat had killed them; their wounds were matched to those of a lion. As in, of the African variety.”
“You have African lions in Maine? That sounds a little crazy.”
“That’s what I said, but I spoke to a zoologist from town and he confirmed it was likely a lion attack. He said they were probably pets who got out
and killed out of desperation. The SPD had their K9 unit out here, but the dogs won’t go anywhere near these woods and we couldn’t find the lions. The SPD been up here every day, and they’ve advised people to stay away from the woods until we find them.”
“Them?”
“Maybe three or four. And they were big cats too. I know I don’t want to find myself out here with them hunting me.”
“Can you show me the cave? Where the bodies were found?”
“I just told you we have dangerous animals out here and you want to go spelunking?”
“Indulge me. It won’t take long, I promise.”
“What makes you think you can protect yourself? You couldn’t stop me from melting the hotel roof over you.”
I stopped walking and wondered if Caitlin was either trying to get information out of me or having fun at my expense, but decided that was a conversation for another time and so, I set off toward the caves once more.
Caitlin sighed and marched off to the east. It didn’t take long to reach our destination, which had a huge opening, easily big enough for two people to walk in side by side and without stooping. I stepped into the cave and noticed that a fair bit of light still came in from outside, but as I kept walking that quickly extinguished. I used a small measure of fire magic to allow myself to see in the dark and discovered that the cave went another thirty feet before taking a steep fifty-foot drop. I had no idea where it went from there, and very little inclination to find out.
I made my way back to Caitlin, who was staring out in to the woods as the rain hammered against the ground in front of her.
“Great, now it’s fucking pouring it down,” she snapped. “We need to get back to the car before it gets dark.”
“There aren’t any bones in here. If they are lions, they’re not using this place to sleep or feed. We could probably stay here for a while longer until it stops raining.”
“I am not staying in a cave with you.” She rested her hand on her hilt of her pistol as she stared at me. “I don’t know who you are, or what you want.”
“Okay, go get wet, I’m staying here where it’s dry.” I found some dried leaves and twigs and used a small magical flame to start a fire.
Caitlin took one look outside and placed her hand against the side of the rock wall, which groaned as it moved, shrinking the hole until it was just big enough for a full-sized man to climb through. She glanced at me, sighed and sat next to the fire.
“I didn’t arrange this,” I pointed out. “I’m many things, but I’m not a weather spirit.”
“Okay, so who are you?”
“Seriously? You open with that? I’m a concerned citizen, who’s in town to find someone.”
“Who are you looking for?”
I removed some mints from my pocket and popped one into my mouth before offering one to Caitlin, who waved them away. “The person who killed Bill Moon. You knew him?”
“He’s well thought of in the police department here. Some sort of big bust back in the seventies. He called about three weeks ago asking if anyone had been looking into some missing people; he suspected that a group of serial killers was involved. I’m in town for a similar reason, so I asked what he knew. We met up in New York and discussed the case.”
“What did he tell you?”
“A lot of stuff about that house—they call it Blood Red because of all the bodies they found. He thought people were being murdered around here, and I tended to believe him.”
“What makes you think he was right?”
Caitlin sighed.
“Okay, fine, let’s go to utterly pointless questions. Why the Adidas trainers? Because no FBI agent I’ve ever met, at least not one who wears a suit, would get away with trainers.”
“Sprained my ankle helping out with those bodies, the shoes hurt.”
“Right, can I ask you things that are important now, or are you going to keep sighing? Do you know who killed my friend?”
She opened her mouth, presumably to argue, but instead shook her head. “I’m really sorry about him. He was a good cop. Why are you involved?”
“Apart from leaving Bill and his wife’s bloody corpses as a message, they left me a bomb. The message took me to a hotel in New York, where they left a second one. The House of Silent Screams. So, now I’m here.”
“I assume you were the person who worked with Bill during the initial investigation. He didn’t mention you by name, but I got the feeling he liked you.”
“I was here, yes. I thought we’d stopped it. Apparently I was wrong.”
Caitlin watched me for a few moments before speaking again, “I’ve been in town for three months. I’m tracking a serial killer. A group of them, to be exact. I’ve been after them for a long time, and I have no idea why they’re in town, or what they want, but the body count will increase until we stop them.”
“Serial killers don’t tend to travel in groups.”
“Yeah, well these are special. There’s no type, each person vanishes without a trace. No struggle, just gone.”
“Did you think I was involved?” I asked, wondering if that was why she was so hostile toward me.
Caitlin shook her head and a smile crept onto her face. “Nope, I just thought you were an ass. Besides, no one comes up here. Even before the lions it was off limits. Someone called the station and said you were there, that’s why Edward and Danny, the officers who found you, were sent.”
“Who called?”
She shrugged. “No idea, probably someone in the woods. I didn’t find out about it until after you were brought in. The SPD wanted me to check that you weren’t one of the people I’m after. But when I saw your face, I figured it would be better to discover if you were after me.”
“While you did leave quite the impression, especially on my friend, I had no idea you’d be here,” I admitted. “But someone was tracking me. I was there for all of five minutes before the cops turned up. It’s a twenty-minute drive from the station to the house. I know, because I’ve done it. Whoever called, did so before I’d even arrived. From the moment I came into town someone has been watching me, it’s why I got the Audi; thank you for allowing me to get back.”
“Nice car, a bit ostentatious for a small town like this one.”
“Good, whoever sent me here will think that they can keep an eye on me by keeping an eye on the car. It makes me nice and public, right up until I don’t want to be.”
“You want to tell me about your stash of weaponry?”
“They were gifts,” I said.
“If you want me to believe that you’re the good guy, lying to me isn’t going to help.”
“Not a lie, they really were gifts…sort of. I was given them just in case I needed something more than my magic and general all-around awesome personality.”
Caitlin regarded me for a second. “In addition to the dead hikers, we’ve had two people go missing in the last few weeks. None of them were likely to vanish and there’s no evidence of foul play. One of them was the caretaker of the Blood Red. She had the keys and made sure no one went up there to destroy anything. Her neighbor said she heard shouts the day she vanished, but there was no evidence of a struggle and her car keys were gone.”
“What about the other one?”
“He was a security guard just outside of town. He left for work one morning and never turned up.”
“So, you’ve got missing people and dead hikers. Doesn’t sound like the best time to live in this town. Did you ask around?”
“I’ve worked with the FBI for eight years. I’m pretty certain I know what I’m doing. Yes, I spoke to the people he worked with, his friends, neighbors, family. Everyone. No one has any idea where he’s gone or why.”
“Is that why you were in New York? To try and figure out who’s doing this?”
“It doesn’t matter why I wa
s there,” she snapped.
“Okay, but it’s a hell of a coincidence that you arrived at the same place and time as Sky and me.”
“Change the subject.”
“You’ve got some serious power. That trick with the roof was very impressive.”
“Impressing you is hardly at the top of my list of things to do.”
“Did we not just discuss that I’m not the bad guy? Because I’m pretty certain you were ready to jump on board that particular wagon.”
“Yeah, well, the jury’s still out on that one.”
CHAPTER 11
We sat in the cave for a while longer as the rain turned into a sheet of water. Caitlin and I got as comfortable as possible, and she contacted her dispatch and told them where she was. She explained that her GPS tracking on her phone was switched on and that she’d contact them with an update every few hours.
Afterward, we’d both just remained silent as the small fire flickered beside us.
“When you find the people who killed Bill, what are you going to do?”
My initial response was to tell her I was going to kill them. It was probably the truth, even if I was certain she wouldn’t like it. “I don’t know.”
“You won’t murder them—I told you I don’t want trouble in this town. I’m an FBI agent, I can’t be part of murder and vengeance just because you decide to carry out your own brand of justice.”
“I’m not going to promise anything, and if you want to argue this point, whoever killed Bill isn’t human, so your laws don’t apply to them in the same way.”
Caitlin looked shocked. “So you’ll just kill them and move on?”
I shrugged. “If they give me a choice, I’ll hand them over to the relevant authorities. That won’t be you, by the way. But if they push it, I’ll just bury them.”
“Who are the relevant authorities? I’ve heard of Avalon, had some dealing with them, don’t know much about them though.”
“Shadow Falls controls Maine.”
“Who’s Shadow Falls?”
