Dae's Christmas Past

by Joyce Lavene

  “Sure, Scott,” I said. “Who’s that on the road?”

  “Sorry, ma’am. The chief told me to keep my mouth shut about that.” Scott was a quiet young man with gentle brown eyes. He seemed less likely to be a police officer than anyone I knew.

  “Okay. I don’t want to get you into trouble. We’ll start taking names and getting contact information.”

  “Thank you, Mayor.” He nodded to Kevin. “Mr. Brickman.”

  “You should’ve held out,” Mary Catherine said. “If you’d said no until he told you what you wanted to know, he would’ve told you.”

  “I’m not curious enough to risk losing Scott on the police force,” I explained. “His feelings get hurt really easy.”

  Her smile made her look a lot like her cat. “And such a handsome young man.”

  I ignored that remark and took two yellow legal pads from my bag that I always brought to town meetings. I handed one to Kevin.

  “I’ll start in the coffee shop,” he said. “Maybe that will keep us from getting duplicates. Meet you out here.”

  “Sounds good.” I kissed him lightly. “You don’t think I should have been mean to Scott, do you?”

  “It would be interesting to know who it is.” He shook his head. “But I like Scott too, and you’re right about him.”

  Mary Catherine stayed in the golf cart. Gramps called to find out why I wasn’t home yet. I was glad he’d made it out of the parking lot before the horses, and the dead person. I guessed that automatically laid out a short window of opportunity for whatever had happened on the road. Gramps had only been gone about ten minutes before we’d reached the parking lot.

  I went back up to the boardwalk and started telling everyone what had happened. Chris Slayton was also deputized. He took a sheet of paper and started writing down the names of people who were left in the ante-room finishing the donuts. The meeting room was empty, except for Nancy who was cleaning up after the crowd.

  “Another dead man on the road?” Her dark brows shot up. “Are we having some kind of crime wave before the gambling ship even gets here?”

  “I don’t know yet. This is all the information I have.”

  “I’ll just start transcribing my notes from the meeting,” she said with a sigh. “Maybe it will all be over by the time I’m done.”

  “I hope so. Thanks, Nancy.”

  “Just be careful out there, Dae. Trouble likes to follow you sometimes.”

  I told her I’d be fine, and started out on the boardwalk to write more names. I noticed the lights were on at Wild Stallions—probably Cody and his family celebrating. I walked down there to share what had happened and take down their names. It almost seemed redundant since we all knew where they lived and worked.

  Cody was nervous after I’d told him about the second dead person on Duck Road. “I hope this isn’t a bad sign,” he said. “We just said it was okay for the gambling ship to come in. I don’t want people to think I’m soft on crime.”

  His brother, Reese, who was a few years older, chided him. “Don’t get all paranoid. I’m sure there’s a good explanation for it. And if there’s not, that’s on the police, not you. The gambling ship is gonna be good for all of us, right Dae?”

  I really didn’t want to talk about my mixed feelings on the subject, but I thought I had to say something. “I live with the former sheriff, and I’m engaged to an ex-FBI agent. I’m not sure what to say about the gambling ship yet. I’m hoping we can come up with some good plans to keep those bad things from happening in Duck.”

  Reece laughed and hugged me. “And that’s why she just won re-election as mayor, folks. It’s not about what goes wrong, Cody. It’s about how you handle it. Just don’t freak out and say something you’ll regret about whatever has happened.”

  Cody’s wife was standing beside him. She held his hand, and smiled up at him.

  “I’ll try not to say anything” Cody said. “You have what you need, right Dae?”

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  Cody and Sally’s little girl started crying. The after-the-meeting party was breaking up. I left Wild Stallions to see who else was on the boardwalk.

  Mad Dog was still there, of course, seated on a bench spouting his usual rhetoric about the town being run badly. Cole Black and his wife, Molly, were there listening. So was Mark Samson from the Rib Shack and August Grandin.

  “And there’s our new mayor,” Mad Dog said as I quickly wrote their names and tried to walk by unnoticed. “I keep wondering if anyone else is ever gonna notice how our murder rate has gone up since she became mayor.”

  “Leave the girl alone,” Molly said. “Dae’s done a good job for us. It’s nothing on her that we’ve started having so many new people come in. It’s not like she can close Duck off to the rest of the world.”

  I thanked her. “I guess I might as well be the one to tell you that there’s another dead man on Duck Road. I don’t know who it is yet or how he got there. That’s why I’m taking names.”

  Mad Dog slapped his thigh. “That’s what I’m talking about. Horses trampling the yards, and killing people in the street. What’s your plan to prevent this from happening again, Madam Mayor?”

  “I don’t have one right now. I don’t think anyone does. But if you come up with one, Mr. Wilson, I’m sure everyone will be happy to listen. Goodnight.”

  I walked away from the group, but Mark Samson hooted. “I guess she told you, Mad Dog. That girl has some spunk.”

  Chris met me at the end of the boardwalk with his list. “We had a good crowd tonight. I counted fifty people. I wish the council would’ve voted to hold off on the gambling ship. Jamie and Phil are excited about the idea—I’m just not sure. I’ve done a lot of research, but I only got those crime statistics tonight. There was no time to check into them.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “You gave the best recommendation you could with the information you had. You advised caution until we knew more about the project. That was all you could do.”

  “Thanks, Dae.” He smiled as he handed me his list of names. “I’m glad you’re going to be mayor again for another term. I’m honored to work with you.”

  “Wow. I appreciate it. Let’s not get too mushy. I got my Christmas decorations up today. Nothing like Cody and Reece, or even Kevin, but I’m excited about the OBX Christmas plans.”

  “Me too. We’re putting the decorations up on the coffee house and bookstore this weekend, if the weather holds. We’re going to put everyone else to shame anyway,” he bragged. “Jamie says we’re gonna win the contest, and that’s that.”

  I laughed as I left him there and walked down the boardwalk stairs to meet Kevin in the parking lot. I stopped abruptly when I saw his golf cart with Mary Catherine inside. There were at least fifty cats on the front, sides, and back. I was pretty sure she hadn’t even noticed. She was on her cell phone, and looking out at Duck Road.

  “Yeah.” Kevin grinned as we met. “How do animals find her anyway? You think it’s a pheromone thing?”

  “I don’t know. I think they sense she can understand them. Maybe they have something to say.”

  “Maybe so. I guess we should give these names to Chief Michaels.”

  “Good idea.” I linked one arm through his. “We can find out what happened at the same time. He won’t mind. After all, we’re deputized, right?”

  “If you say so.”

  We walked together to the road where the smell of burning flares made my nose twitch. More deputies had been called, and I saw Chief Palo’s car parked at the edge of the pavement. What was she doing here?

  “Brickman,” Chief Michaels acknowledged him. “You got those names for me?”

  Kevin took my list and added it to his. “What’s going on?”

  “Is Jake Burleson on one of those lists?”

  “I didn’t see him.” Kevin turned to me. “Did you, Dae?”

  “No. I saw him in town hall during the meeting, but not after. He walked out right after Dr. S
heffield.”

  “I saw him there too,” Chief Michaels said in a gruff voice. “Looks like they let him out too soon. His business with the archeologist wasn’t over yet. That’s Dr. Sheffield under that tarp over there. He’s dead just like the other man Burleson didn’t like anymore—Tom Watts.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “That’s why Chief Palo is here,” I muttered as I turned away from the scene.

  “Jake’s going to have a hard time getting out of this,” Kevin whispered. “Why was he at one of our meetings anyway?”

  “I think he just wanted to wish me well.” I dug the note Nancy had given me out of my pocket. “Dr. Sheffield wanted to talk to me after the meeting.”

  Kevin glanced around the parking lot. “So where’s Jake?”

  “Maybe he left early like Gramps.” I shrugged. “Just because Dr. Sheffield is dead doesn’t mean Jake did it.”

  “I can’t imagine a single lawman who would agree with that supposition right now. I know Horace and Ronnie won’t. Jake was here. He had access and motive.”

  “What’s his motive?”

  “The same as it was for Tom—getting them off his property.”

  “Things aren’t always the way they appear, as with Tom. If Jake were going to kill Dr. Sheffield, why announce to the world that he was here by waving to me from the audience?”

  “I don’t know, Dae,” he admitted. “But I’m not buying that Dr. Sheffield was killed by marauding demon horses.”

  “I think someone sent them to kill Dr. Sheffield.”

  “Even though we know they didn’t kill Tom?”

  “Mary Catherine and I saw Osisko today. We sort of talked to him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “The same thing he said when I saw him in the vision. I can stop the demons, but I don’t understand how. I think he said someone is controlling them. I guess it’s not Dr. Sheffield.”

  We got in the golf cart with Mary Catherine. “I was wondering what you two were doing out there,” she said.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” I smiled and opened the side of the golf cart so she could see what I meant. “You have your own cattery.”

  “Oh my stars!” Her eyes and face were full of delight to see the large number of cats perched on and around the golf cart. “I didn’t even notice them. For the most part, a cat’s thoughts are as quiet as their movements, except for Baylor, of course. He’s noisy inside and out. I never have to wonder what he’s thinking.”

  “What are they thinking?” Kevin stared at the cats.

  “They’re scared,” Mary Catherine told him. “The horses frighten them. They’d like to leave Duck as so many of the dogs have, but they’re attached to certain people they can’t abandon.”

  “Did they see what happened to Dr. Sheffield?” I asked.

  “Is that who’s on the road? Is he dead?”

  Kevin nodded. “It looks like Jake Burleson again. But as Dae reminded me, it looked like Jake did it last time too.”

  Mary Catherine was silent for a moment with her eyes closed. “All the cats are scared. They didn’t see the man die, but they felt the presence of the horses. They think there will be other deaths.”

  “Great,” Kevin muttered. “What are we supposed to do against demon horses we can’t see?”

  I was staring off into the brush that surrounded the parking lot. The overhead lights picked out a familiar figure. “There’s Osisko. He has a way of popping up at bad times.”

  Kevin couldn’t see him. “Are you sure? I don’t see anything.”

  “I see him. Don’t you think you should get a net or something?” Mary Catherine asked. “He was jumping around like a gazelle on the boardwalk earlier.”

  “We can’t capture him. He has something else to say. I need to talk to him.”

  Kevin was skeptical. “How do you know it’s not Osisko that’s responsible for everything, Dae? Maybe he’s just leading you on.”

  “He’s not. He died to keep this from happening, Kevin. He wants to stop it again. He’s here to help us.”

  “All right. Take Mary Catherine with you since she can see him too. Don’t take unnecessary chances—and don’t let him touch you. We know how that ended last time.”

  I told him I’d be careful. I wasn’t sure how Mary Catherine felt about approaching Osisko again, but she climbed out of the golf cart with me.

  We approached him cautiously. “Hello again.”

  He nodded, hopping from one foot to another with the charred bone in his hand.

  “I was wondering if you saw what happened with the horses.”

  “Death.”

  “You’re right. But did you see the demons? Can you see them?”

  “What’s he saying, Dae?” Mary Catherine whispered. “How can you understand him?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess we’re on the same wavelength.”

  He started toward me with his hand outstretched.

  I took a step back. “No. Not again. Tell me what I need to know.”

  He pounded his chest and shrieked.

  I understood his frustration. “I’m sorry I can’t understand everything you’re saying.”

  He closed his eyes, and covered them with his hands. “You. Me. The same.”

  That made me want to run back to the golf cart and forget the whole idea. At the same time, I understood what he was saying. He’d purposely touched me at the hospital because he and I shared a similar gift. He could be one of my ancestors, maybe the first with the gift.

  “No. I can’t do it again. Just tell me. I’ll get it.”

  He shook his head. “No. You see.”

  “Dae, I think we should go back to the parking lot,” Mary Catherine said. “He seems to be getting worked up.”

  I thought about it for a moment, debating what my next move should be. What if the only way to understand what he was saying was for me to touch him? I had to know what was going on.

  It would’ve been a lie to say that I wasn’t afraid. There was always the fear of being trapped in that other place where my visions took me. But I knew I might be the only person who could end the problem we were having. I had to take the chance.

  “Okay. Hurry. Let’s get this over with.”

  “Are you going to touch him?” Mary Catherine asked, horrified. “Didn’t Kevin say that was a bad thing?”

  I braced myself for the contact, but was surprised when he smiled kindly, and took my hands in his. The world tilted and spun away from me. No words were necessary to tell me that I was back in the past again.

  There were hundreds of torches and a huge fire in the middle of the pit. It was the same scene as before. People danced in the light, and caressed the big horse. Shadows of flames moved across the runes marked in the stone. Overhead, a full moon watched the proceedings on earth.

  The ocean was much closer than it was in present day. The land was swampy, sucking at the dancers’ feet as they twirled and dipped around the fire. A constant drumming sound came from wood stick being beaten against a hollow log.

  I looked for my companion. He was still there beside me, clutching one of my hands. We didn’t speak. I understood what was going on without him telling me.

  There was an apex to the dancers’ frenzied movements. They dropped to the sandy ground around the fire and the drumming ceased. Out from the shadows came Osisko. He was much younger, barely more than a child. He was also completely naked, his thin body glistening in the moonlight. He raised his arms and threw back his head to shout the ancient summoning at the moon.

  It was only a moment before the demons answered his call. From the depths of the fire, they came from the earth below. Their heads and necks twisted as they pushed at one another. Their hooves and legs competed for space as they tried to be the first ones out.

  I couldn’t understand the words Osisko was screaming, but I could see it excited and pulled at the demons. He didn’t stop until the first horses were formed in the sizzling red and bla
ck skins. Their hooves struck the ground creating sparks and fire where they met the earth. Their yellow eyes stared balefully around them at the night.

  The young Osisko stopped the summoning. He stared into those evil yellow eyes, and called out the name of another tribe, pointing in the direction he wanted them to go. The demons ran off, but young Osisko stopped the new demons who tried to struggle out of the fire.

  “That’s how we stop them?” The words were hoarse from my throat.

  The shaman and the dancers stared at me. They’d heard what I’d said. As they advanced toward me, the version of Osisko who’d died for his sins, pulled at my hand.

  “Go. Go now!” he yelled.

  “Dae? Dae? Are you all right?” It was Kevin. “Where’s the man? Where’s Osisko?”

  It was difficult to catch my breath. It felt like I’d run for miles. Tears were streaming down my face. My mind was so full of the evil horse demons that I could barely think.

  “Sorry. He’s gone. He held my hands. Osisko controlled the demons then. Someone controls them now. We have to find out who it is.”

  “We will,” Kevin promised as he put his arms around me. “You weren’t supposed to touch him.”

  “I couldn’t help it,” I whispered against his shoulder. “It was the only way. He can’t explain and I can’t see it without him. I know—I think I know—how to stop it. He was showing me the scene for a reason. The horses can be sent back.”

  We walked back to the golf cart. Duck Road was clear enough that people were leaving the parking lot.

  Mary Catherine was anxiously awaiting us. “I’m sorry, Dae. I thought it was better to get Kevin. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” I assured her. “Thanks.”

  “I think they came for the body. The police are directing traffic out of here. Now might be a good time to leave.”

  I told her what had happened as we got back in the golf cart. “All that power and anger. They could take out entire tribes in a night. That was why they finally realized that they had to bury the horse statue and not summon the demons again.”