Twilight Heart

by Adam J. Wright

  “We’ll see what they have to say.”

  “Whatever it is, it won’t be good.”

  “Probably not but if I walk away without checking out what they have to say and they have some important information that might save Mallory, I’d never forgive myself. I made the mistake of not checking out all possibilities a couple of nights ago and those two police officers ended up in the hospital because of it.”

  “Okay, I get you. But I don’t think anything good is going to come from talking to the Midnight Cabal. Also, were you thinking what I was thinking when they knew so much about what we’ve been doing?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “So Carlton must be a spy. Or maybe his wife is. Hell, they probably both are.”

  “I’ll deal with him tomorrow,” I said. “Right now, let’s see if these two know something that will save Mallory.”

  The Taurus drove past us. I followed it to Darla’s Diner. When we got to the parking lot, Meyer and Chance nodded curtly to us but didn’t speak. We all went inside.

  At this time of night, Darla’s wasn’t busy. There were a few truck drivers in the place but that was all. Meyer and Chance slid into a booth by the window. Leon and I joined them, facing them across the table.

  The waitress came over and took our order for four coffees. After she’d filled our cups from the pot, she left us to it.

  “So talk,” I said, looking from Meyer to Chance.

  “We know you want to get through the Pillars of Khonsu,” Meyer said.

  “To save your friend from some kind of curse,” Chance added.

  “The only way to open the gate is a specific spell.” Meyer said. “There is no way on earth you can find that spell. It’s in the possession of our organization and for the last few hundred years, the Midnight Cabal has made sure that the spell has been removed from all other texts that might have mentioned it. The only copy of it is in our hands.”

  “I’ve already found a mention of the spell,” I said.

  Chance laughed. “Of course you have. The prayer that cannot be spoken in the day or night, right? Yeah, it’s mentioned in plenty of places but the actual spell is nowhere to be found.”

  “Except we have it,” Meyer added.

  “Great,” I said. “Give it to me and you’ll save me a lot of pointless searching.”

  Meyer chuckled. “It isn’t that simple, Harbinger. We’re not going to just give you the spell.”

  “Wow, that’s a surprise,” Leon said.

  “But we were thinking,” Chance said. “Maybe we help you and you help us.”

  He waited for a reaction. Neither Leon nor I gave him one.

  “We want to go through the Pillars too,” Meyer said. “In fact, that’s why our organization has jealously guarded the key that opens the gate. We want what’s on the other side.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at him. “And what is that?”

  “We’re not exactly sure. We’re hoping to find artifacts there.”

  “So you want to loot the place?”

  Chance took a sip of his coffee and then said, “That’s a crude way of putting it but yes, we want to loot the place.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something important? I’m not sure Rekhmire is going to let you walk off with all his stuff.”

  Chance looked at Meyer and said, “He doesn’t know.”

  Meyer shook his head. “No, I don’t think he does.”

  I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of knowing I was curious. So I slowly drank some coffee before causally saying, “I don’t know what?”

  “Rekhmire isn’t a threat,” Meyer said. “He’s locked away in a magical prison. It seems that rising up against Pharaoh Amanhotep wasn’t a smart move. After defeating the army of the dead, the Pharaoh had Rekhmire sealed away behind a magical barrier.”

  Chance cut in. “So not only is Rekhmire in a realm which can only be reached by going through the Pillars of Khonsu, he’s in a prison within that realm. He’s no threat at all.”

  “It seems to me he was a threat when he was somehow working with John DuMont to raise an army of the dead here in Dearmont.”

  “DuMont made contact with Rekhmire by magical means. More of a psychic connection than anything else. And that was only achievable because DuMont had the Staff of Midnight. Trust me, Rekhmire is locked away.”

  “But that’s the problem,” I said. “I don’t trust you.”

  Chance shrugged. “Of course you don’t. We come from two organizations that are diametrically opposed. Why should we trust each other? We shouldn’t. But if we have the same goal, why couldn’t we put our differences aside?”

  “If you know how to get through the gate and Rekhmire’s no problem,” Leon said, “Then why do you need our help? Why haven’t you gone through already and ripped Rekhmire off?”

  It was a good question but I was sure I already knew the answer. “Because they don’t know where the Pillars are,” I said.

  Meyer nodded. “That’s true. However, we have reason to believe you may know. You know where the Pillars are, we know how to get through the gate. We each hold half of the key. So why not work together to achieve our separate goals?”

  I looked at Leon and he looked at me and I was sure we were both thinking the same thing again. Carlton knew the Pillars were under the foundation of the second Sphinx, the one that no longer existed. If he was reporting to the Cabal, then why didn’t they know the location already? Why were they trying to make a deal?

  Maybe I was wrong about Carlton.

  Regardless, if working with the Midnight Cabal was the only chance I had of getting through the gate and saving Mallory’s life, I had to take it. I couldn’t let her die just because I was too proud to form an uneasy alliance with my enemies.

  I had no doubt that the Cabal would try to screw us over in some way. I couldn’t even take their word for it that Rekhmire was in some kind of prison on the other side of the gate. But those were problems I’d have to deal with as they arose. Right now, the important thing was getting through the gate so Mallory could put the heart back into Tia’s mummy and break the death curse.

  “Tell me exactly what you’re proposing,” I said to the two Cabal members.

  “It’s simple,” Meyer said. “We all go to the Pillars together. Doug and I will cast the spell to open the gate. We all go through together. While we’re on the other side, we look for artifacts while you save your friend. Then we all come back through the gate and go our separate ways.”

  “Nothing could be simpler,” Chance added.

  “What’s to stop you attacking us once we take you to the gate?”

  “A big strong guy like you?” Meyer asked. “What’s to stop you attacking us once we open the gate?”

  “There has to be an element of trust or this won’t work.” Chance said.

  “First I have to trust that there are no other copies of the spell out there,” I said. “You might just be telling me that so I get you to the Pillars.”

  Meyer sighed. “Believe me, the Midnight Cabal has done all it can over the last few centuries to erase that spell from all the texts in existence. You won’t find it.”

  He might be lying or he might be telling the truth. I could tell him to shove it and continue the search for the prayer that opened the gate. Maybe I’d find it and maybe I wouldn’t. But with Mallory’s life on the line, I couldn’t take that chance.

  The two officers from the cemetery were in hospital because I’d taken a chance and not checked for more ghouls in the tunnels. I’d regret that they got hurt because of my actions for the rest of my life.

  I wasn’t about to make the same mistake with Mallory. Her life was on the line.

  “Okay,” I said to Meyer and Chance. “I’ll do it.”

  “Excellent,” Meyer said. “We’re ready when you are.”

  “Tomorrow,” I said. “Be at my house at--“

  “Wait,” Chance said, holding up a hand to stop me. He took his phone o
ut of his pocket and went to the Calculator app. He made a couple of calculations. “It can’t be tomorrow.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “The spell that opens the gate has to be cast at twilight.”

  “Neither the day nor the night,” Meyer explained.

  “And we’ll never make it to Egypt in time,” Chance said. “The Pillars are in Egypt, right?”

  “They are,” I said. “So what time will it be here when it’s twilight in Egypt?”

  He did another quick calculation. “12:20 in the afternoon.”

  “Be at my house by 11:30.”

  He frowned at me. “What? I don’t understand.”

  “Just be there.”

  They looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Don’t be late,” I told them as I got up.

  Leon and I left the diner and went back to the Land Rover. When we got in the car, he said, “Do you think that was a good idea? You know they’re going to double cross us.”

  “I know but I didn’t see any other option.” I started the engine and drove out of the parking lot.

  As we drove along the highway toward Dearmont, Leon said, “Well now you know how Faust felt.”

  “Faust?”

  “Yeah, Faust. He also made a deal with the devil.”

  15

  The cemetery near Jessica Baker’s house was neat, tidy, and surrounded by trees. Felicity followed Jessica along a gravel path that wound between the rows of headstones.

  She was still wondering why Nigel Lomas had told her to pass her case to Mike Fawkes, the P.I. who had worked in the office before her. If she was supposed to hand him her case, then why wasn’t he still in the office? Why had he moved out?

  “It’s down here,” Jessica said, stepping off the path and walking toward the trees. She stopped at a simple gray headstone that bore the name Linda Dean and the dates of her birth and death.

  “Dad is right next to her,” Jessica said, indicating a stone that bore the name Frank Dean and his notable dates. As Jessica had said, he’d died ten years ago.

  “You said you saw the ghost when you were standing here?” Felicity asked.

  Jessica nodded. “It was the night after she was buried. Rob was away on a job and I had nothing to do so I came here and sat on the grass by the grave. That was when I saw her in the trees over there.”

  Felicity followed Jessica’s pointing finger. Trees had been planted around the edge of the graveyard. They kept out the noise of the traffic on the roads and made the place seem more tranquil.

  “She was gesturing to me,” Jessica said. “I was scared and I ran home. I feel silly now. After that, she started visiting me at home.”

  Felicity looked down at the grave. If Jessica wanted to stop the haunting, then Felicity would have to come back here at nighttime when there was no one else around and salt the bones. But she wasn’t sure Jessica wanted to stop the haunting.

  “You want to know what she’s trying to tell you, don’t you?” she said.

  Jessica turned to face her and there were tears in her eyes again. “Yes. I think it’s something important. She keeps trying to tell me but I don’t know what she’s trying to say.”

  Felicity wasn’t confident that she could help. She was hardly the ghost whisperer.

  “Can you help me?” Jessica asked.

  Felicity looked at the woman in front of her; at the tiredness in her eyes and the sense of anguish that seemed to surround her regarding the subject of her mother.

  “I’ll try. I can’t promise anything but I’ll try to help you.”

  “Oh, thank you.” Jessica drew her into a quick hug. “I can’t bear the thought that she’s trying to say something important--something important enough to bring her back from the grave--and I can’t understand her.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of it.” One thing was for sure; she wasn’t passing Jessica’s case on to Mike Fawkes. “Now, would it be possible to speak to the groundskeeper?”

  “Yes, I’m sure he’s here somewhere,” Jessica said, looking around. “He usually is.”

  “Is that him over there?” Felicity pointed at a man tending the flowers on a grave near the path.

  “Yes, that’s him.” Jessica led Felicity to him.

  When the man saw them approaching, he stood up and touched the brim of his tweed cap. “Afternoon, ladies.” He was dressed for the weather in a dark green wax jacket, black trousers, and black boots. A wheelbarrow by his side contained an array of gardening tools.

  “Hello, Charlie,” Jessica said. “This is Felicity. She wants to talk to you about the time you saw Mum’s ghost.”

  “Oh, right. I could tell you were a believer as soon as I saw you.”

  “I’ve seen a lot of things,” Felicity said. “I’m quite open-minded.”

  “Yes I’m sure you are. Now then, the time I saw Mrs Dean, it was about half past eleven at night. I was walking along this path here and I saw a figure standing in the trees over there. The cemetery was closed and that means the big iron gate was shut so I knew it wasn’t someone coming to pay their respects to a loved one.”

  He took off his hat and scratched his balding head. “I went over there thinking someone had sneaked in and I was going to have to chuck them out. But as I got closer, I realized it was Mrs Dean. I knew who she was, of course; she often came to visit her husband’s grave. Anyway, as I got closer, she disappeared into the trees there.”

  “She didn’t try to talk to you?” Felicity asked. “Or did she point at anything?”

  He shook his head. “No, like I said, she just vanished. There’s not really anything else I can tell you, I’m afraid. One minute she was there and the next, she was gone.”

  “Thank you,” Felicity said. “Can I just get your full name for my notes?” She took her notebook out of her pocket.

  He smiled. “Of course. It’s Charlie Sutherland.”

  Felicity wrote down the name. “Thanks, you’ve been a great help.”

  “Thanks, Charlie,” Jessica said. She and Felicity walked along the path toward the entrance. Felicity saw the big iron gates Charlie had mentioned and was glad she didn’t need to come back and salt the bones after all. She didn’t fancy climbing those. Or the high wall that marked the cemetery’s perimeter beyond the trees.

  Out of the blue, Jessica asked, “Do you think my mum knows who killed her?”

  Felicity wasn’t sure where that question had come from. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

  “Maybe that’s what she’s trying to tell me.”

  “Do the police have any leads?”

  “No. They said the problem is that they don’t even know where she was killed. So they haven’t got a crime scene to investigate. We’re just hoping someone finds her necklace. Then the police will know where to look.”

  “Her necklace?”

  Jessica nodded solemnly. “She always wore a silver necklace that was shaped like a heart. Dad got it for her on her 40th birthday. It has her initials engraved on it. She wasn’t wearing it when she was found. If it didn’t come off in the canal, then it could be at the crime scene. Or the person who strangled her might have taken it home as a trophy or something.”

  “I see,” Felicity said.

  “So I wonder if she’s trying to tell me where it is.”

  “We’ll try and find out.” They’d reached Jessica’s house. Felicity said, “I think the best thing is for me to try and see your mother’s ghost for myself. Does she come to the house every night?”

  “No,” Jessica said. “You’re welcome to come over but it will have to be a time when Rob is at work. He doesn’t like me talking about the haunting at all. He thinks I’m going crazy and he says that scares him. So I don’t talk about it at all with him.”

  “Oh. Maybe I should go to the cemetery tonight then. There’s a chance I might see her there, I suppose. Do you think Charlie would let me in?”

  Jessica thought about that for a second and the
n said, “I’m sure he will. He’s really nice. After my dad died, Charlie talked to me every time I went to the grave and he really helped. I’m sure he’ll let you into the cemetery if you ask him.”

  “All right, I will. I’ll be in touch tomorrow and let you know how I got on.”

  Jessica nodded. “Okay. Thank you for all your help.”

  Felicity smiled and watched as Jessica went back into the house. She didn’t feel like she deserved any thanks yet. She hadn’t done anything to help Jessica and from what she knew about the case, it was going to be a hard one. Ghosts were definitely not her specialty.

  She got into the Focus and drove back to the cemetery. She walked through the open gates and went in search of Charlie Sutherland. He wasn’t where she’d last seen him. Now, he and his wheelbarrow were farther along the path, toward the rear of the cemetery.

  He saw Felicity approaching and touched the brim of his cap, as he’d done before. “Hello again.”

  “Hello.” she said. “I was wondering if it would be possible for me to come here tonight and wait around to see if Linda Dean’s ghost appears.”

  He stroked his chin and looked toward the gates, seemingly considering. “Well, I suppose I don’t see why not. You’re doing this to help Jessica aren’t you?”

  She nodded. “Yes, I am.”

  “All right. That poor young lady has had a bad time lately with her mother being killed like that. If you’re trying to help her, then I’m willing to help you. I’ll close the gates but I’ll leave them unlocked. Just push them open when you get here. But close them after yourself. I can’t have just anyone coming in here at night.”

  “I’ll do that,” Felicity told him.

  “All right then. I hope you find something useful.”

  “Thank you.” She went back to the car and got in. Before driving back to the office, she found Mike Fawkes’ phone number, which she’d jotted down when Nigel Lomas had given it to her, and rang it.

  A voice that sounded younger than Felicity had expected answered. “Mike Fawkes, P.I.”

  “Hello, Mike. My name is Felicity Lake and I was given your number by--“

  “Nigel Lomas,” he said. “I was told to expect your call. I understand you have a case for me.”