Chill Of Fear tbscus-8

by Кей Хупер

  "Quentin—"

  "That would help explain the time between these disappearances and deaths. There would have to be an interlude of rest after expending so much of its strength, but the interludes wouldn't be consistent because the amount of energy necessary would depend on whether it was merely possessing someone or using them to physically kill."

  "Merely?" was all she could manage.

  "It's possible, Diana. It's possible that the spiritual energy left behind when Samuel Barton was virtually buried alive held enough rage, enough evil, to go on killing, and hiding his crimes, all these years. At least until he killed Missy. Until he killed someone capable of somehow preventing him from hiding her body the way he'd hidden or buried all the others."

  CHAPTER 12

  “How?" Diana asked. "How could a little girl have done that? What could she have done if he'd killed her?"

  "I don't know. Yet. But I know that something changed when Missy died. I feel it."

  Diana didn't know how to challenge his certainty. She didn't even know if she should. So all she said was, "We have a lot more questions than answers."

  "Yeah, I noticed that."

  "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we won't know anything new from Jeremy's remains, or the bones down in the cavern, for a while yet."

  "Maybe quite a while. Forensics takes time, especially when it comes to skeletal remains."

  She hesitated, then said, "I have the sense that something is going to happen here, and soon. Something bad. I — I haven't told you, but I've seen other ghosts. People who very obviously lived in another age. Two women, a man, two little boys. Not in the gray time, but here, looking flesh-and-blood real. Like Jeremy. Asking me to help them. And at least one said something about it being time. There was an intentness about them, an urgency I could feel."

  Quentin didn't bother to ask why she hadn't told him until now. "I gather they didn't tell you how you could help them."

  "No." Diana got to her feet. "But Becca told me there was something in the tack room, and she was right about that. She also told me there was something in the attic I needed to see. That it would help me understand."

  Quentin smiled, wondering if she had any idea of how much stronger she was since waking up. He didn't know how, but it seemed that providing a voice for Missy down in those caves had somehow enabled Diana to turn a corner. She had stopped protesting the reality of her abilities; she wanted answers.

  "I wondered why you asked Stephanie so pointedly about the attic," he said.

  "Now you know. Shall we?"

  Quentin took only a few moments to lock his laptop and notes away in his computer case, habit making him cautious. Then he walked with Diana back to the main building.

  It wasn't until they were climbing the stairs toward the attic that he said, "I guess Rebecca wasn't very specific about whatever it is she thinks you need to see in the attic?"

  "No. As you said, they never seem to be specific when it would be helpful."

  "They?"

  "The guides. Spirits, I guess."

  "Nice to see you're coming to terms with their reality," Quentin said.

  A little laugh escaped Diana. "Reality? I'm not sure I know what's real anymore. Actually, I'm not sure I ever did."

  "You know. You just have to trust yourself."

  "Forgive me, but that sounds a lot like the psychobabble I've been listening to for years."

  "There's a major difference," Quentin said, taking her hand as they climbed. "I know damned well you aren't sick and you aren't crazy, and I'll never try to convince you that you are. You can trust me. And you can trust yourself, you know."

  "Can I? How do you know that?"

  "Diana, what you've been through just in the past couple of days would have sent half the psychics I know into shock or into a coma." He nodded as she glanced up at him. "You're a hell of a lot stronger than you realize."

  "I hope you're right," she murmured.

  A few minutes later they reached the attic, and looking around the vast, cluttered space, Diana really did hope he was right. Because it was going to take plenty of strength and energy just to go through everything up there, never mind coping with anything unexpected they might find.

  "Damn," she said with a sigh. "Why can't things ever be easy?"

  "The universe frowns on that." Quentin sighed as well. "Want to flip a coin, or should we just start at opposite ends and work our way toward the middle?"

  "You're the seer," she said, only slightly mocking. "Why don't you see where we should start?"

  "It doesn't really work that way."

  "Figures." Diana looked around, absently admiring the beauty of the stained-glass windows illuminated by the afternoon sunlight. There were shafts of colored light shining in, almost beaming in, she thought, so that a stack of old storage trunks in the fairly clear aisle down the north/south axis of the attic seemed to glow in a brilliant spotlight.

  Spotlight.

  "Or maybe," she murmured, "it can be easy, after all."

  Quentin followed her gaze. "Well, well. Almost as good as a sign, huh?"

  "You sound a bit doubtful."

  "I mistrust signs, as a rule. They tend to point me in directions I probably should avoid."

  Diana lifted her eyebrows and waited.

  "This is your sign," he said. "Let's go."

  As they worked their way toward the stacked trunks, Diana said somewhat ruefully, "I can't decide if I should blame you for all this or just be glad you're here to help me steer."

  "I vote for the latter."

  "I'll just bet you do."

  "Like I said from the beginning, you and I are both here for a reason. We both need answers."

  Reaching the trunks, Diana eyed them and said a bit tentatively, "Yeah, but what are the questions? You want to know who killed Missy, and I want to know if I'm nuts?"

  "We've already established you aren't nuts."

  "Then what answer do I need?"

  "Maybe the one Rebecca told you was up here." Quentin reached for the side handle of the topmost trunk. "Hang on, and let's see if this is as heavy as it looks."

  It wasn't, thankfully, and they were able to line all three trunks up end-to-end along the aisle. None of the trunks was locked, and when all the lids were raised, Diana and Quentin found themselves contemplating semi-organized chaos.

  "Lovely," Diana said with another sigh. "The one on this end looks like it has mostly old clothes inside." She pulled out a feather boa that more or less disintegrated in her fingers, and sneezed. "Mostly."

  "Bless you. The one on this end and the one in the middle also have old clothes, but — " He knelt at the trunk on his end and pulled out a creased box filled with loose papers. " — we also have what look like letters, invoices, receipts. At least a couple of ledgers and journals. Jesus. It's going to take hours to go through all this."

  "No kidding." Diana knelt at the middle trunk and pulled out a scrapbook that was barely holding together. She checked a couple pages, and said, "You'll love this. Lots and lots of photos of The Lodge, some of them from when it was being built."

  "Great. Set it aside to take downstairs, will you? We'll get Stephanie's permission to look over anything interesting somewhere more comfortable. The light up here is very colorful, but not the best for studying this sort of thing."

  "That's for sure." Diana set the scrapbook aside, along with another one she found in the trunk. Then she pulled out an old box with lost and found stamped on its lid. She opened the box, discovering bits of costume jewelry, several hair clips and combs, a beaded change purse, other small items, and a number of loose photographs.

  She lifted up the photos to see what lay under them, and one slid out to the side. In the bright, colorful light spilling into the box, the old black-and-white image seemed to glow.

  Diana reached for the picture, allowing the box to tumble back into the trunk. She saw her fingers tremble, and wasn't surprised.

  "What is it?" Quentin asked. He
shifted a bit closer, looking at the photo she held, and sucked in a surprised breath. "That's Missy."

  She sat on what looked like the front steps of an unidentifiable house, dressed for summer in shorts, her long dark hair parted in the middle and caught up by ribbons beneath each ear. She was smiling, one hand stretched out to touch the big dog lolling beside her.

  And on the other side...

  Diana's finger lightly touched the image of the little girl on the other side of the dog. She too was dressed for summer, but her fairer hair was shorter and less restrained, her grin not so shy as Missy's.

  "She looks familiar," Quentin said. Then he swore under his breath as he looked at Diana.

  "My father carries this picture in his wallet," she said slowly. "But only half of it." She touched the image of the fair little girl again. "This half. The part with me in it."

  "You might as well use this lounge," Stephanie told Quentin, adding, "It isn't used much even when the hotel is full, and with the early check-outs we've had since yesterday..." She looked across the beautifully furnished third-floor room at Diana, who was standing by one of the windows gazing out over the gardens, and added in a lower voice, "Is she all right?" All Stephanie knew about the photograph they had found was that it might indicate a familial relationship between Diana and one of the children killed here at The Lodge; she hadn't asked for details.

  "I don't know," he replied honestly. "The last twenty-four hours have been... Christ,' rough' isn't the word for it. Her entire life has changed." He shook his head. "I don't know what happens now."

  Stephanie eyed him uncertainly. "Aren't you supposed to? I mean, isn't that your psychic thing, seeing the future?"

  Quentin didn't bother to once again explain that he never saw anything. Instead, he merely said, "The irony hasn't gone unnoticed, believe me. With a couple of minor exceptions, my abilities have pretty much been absent since I got here. Maybe the explanation is that I've been so focused on the past, the future's been out of my reach. At least that's what my boss says, and he's usually right."

  "I don't pretend to understand any of it," Stephanie said frankly. "Look, do you want me to have some coffee sent up? It looks like you guys are going to be here for a while."

  "That'd be great, thanks."

  "Okay. Good luck finding something helpful in that lot." She nodded toward the two boxes filled with stuff Quentin had transferred, with her permission, from the trunks in the attic.

  The lounge could be closed off from the hallway outside by pocket doors, but Quentin didn't bother to draw those closed after Stephanie left. The Lodge really did feel practically deserted, and he doubted they'd be interrupted or disturbed by a guest wandering casually into the room.

  He approached Diana warily, more than a little worried because she'd said next to nothing since they had found the photograph in the attic. The photograph she still held in one hand, though she had stopped staring at it to gaze out the window.

  Before Quentin could speak, she said in a perfectly composed voice, "You were right, you know, about any magnetized cards I carry not working for long."

  He knew she was going somewhere with this, so he followed without question. "Yeah, something about our electromagnetic field affects them."

  "The keycards die faster than credit cards."

  "Probably because they're rekeyed or remagnetized more than once in a process meant to be fairly temporary."

  She nodded slowly. "So the magnetic information on credit cards is intended to be more permanent, and so is more resistant to interference."

  "That's our theory."

  "And cell phones? They only work for me a week or two and then just die. The cell phone companies can't explain it. I finally stopped trying to carry one."

  "Same thing. Our electromagnetic field interferes with anything magnetic or electronic, especially those things that we tend to carry with us or on us most often."

  "You carry a cell phone." It was clearly visible, worn on a belt clip.

  "We've found a rubberized casing that seems to protect them, at least for a while. The batteries still tend to lose their charge faster than what's considered normal, but at least we have the use of the phones for a reasonable amount of time."

  "Ah. I wondered." She paused. "May I borrow your cell phone, please?"

  "Of course." He released the phone from its belt clip and handed it over, beginning to have an inkling what she meant to do. He didn't know if it was a good idea, but he also couldn't think of an argument she was likely to listen to right now.

  Diana examined the casing protecting his phone for a moment with what seemed idle curiosity, then opened it and tapped in a number, murmuring, "Long distance, sorry. Really long distance, since I think he's at his London office. My taxpayer dollars at work."

  Ignoring that, he said, "I can leave, if you'd rather be alone."

  She looked at him for the first time. "No. I'd rather you stayed."

  Quentin nodded, but he wasn't much reassured. The odd, flat shine that had been visible in her eyes when they were in the caves was back, and the very stillness of her face hinted at something frozen. Something that might shatter at the first wrong touch.

  Diana returned her gaze to the window as she waited for the call to go through, then said into the phone, "Hi, Sherry, it's Diana. Is he busy? I need to talk to him. Thanks."

  "He works this late?" Quentin asked, having rapidly calculated the time difference.

  "He works all hours, seven days a week," Diana replied. "And pays his assistants double overtime to work six."

  Quentin wondered if that had always been the case, or if Diana's father had taken refuge in his work when first his wife and then his daughter had tried and seemingly failed to cope with apparent mental problems. But before he could frame the question, Diana's father took her call.

  Elliot Brisco, as it turned out, had one of those distinct, powerful voices that was clearly audible on cell phones, so much so that Quentin was easily able to hear both sides of the conversation.

  Then again, maybe he was automatically calling on the spider sense to listen with unusual intentness.

  "Diana? Where the hell are you?"

  "Hi, Dad. How've you been?"

  "I've been worried to death about you, Diana, and you damned well know it. That doctor of yours has refused to answer any of my questions, and—"

  "I asked him not to tell you where I was, and I asked you to respect that. Besides which, the law agrees my medical information should be confidential. I'm thirty-three, Dad, not a child. And the judge decided I was capable of making my own decisions."

  The one statement about a court decision told Quentin a lot. Clearly, Diana had fought for her independence, probably as soon as the medications were out of her system. And just as obviously, her father had not relinquished control over her life willingly.

  "You've been ill most of your life," he said now, his voice taking on a hard edge. "Am I not supposed to worry when you suddenly go off all your medications and then disappear God only knows where?"

  "I didn't disappear. I told you I was going to try another form of therapy."

  "And I wasn't supposed to ask questions about that? Jesus, Diana, with all the crackpots and New Age nonsense out there, you could have been doing any kind of half-assed thing masquerading as therapy. They used to believe LSD was therapeutic, remember?"

  "No drugs this time," she said. "I'm not smoking anything. I'm not drinking anything. It's an artistic workshop, Dad, that's all. I've been... painting my demons."

  Elliot Brisco made a sound that, to Quentin, indicated either disbelief or withering impatience. "Painting? What the hell is that supposed to accomplish?"

  "It accomplished quite a lot, actually. Certainly much more than I expected it to." Diana drew a breath and then let it out slowly, as if for control. "I'm at The Lodge, Dad. In Tennessee. Does that ring a bell?"

  "The Lodge. You're at The Lodge." Abruptly, her father's voice was flat, and in that flat
ness Quentin heard or sensed something a lot like fear.

  "Yeah." Diana tilted her head slightly to one side, as if she heard it too, then lifted the hand holding the old photograph so that she could see it. "And I found something here I wasn't looking for. An old picture of two little girls. They don't really favor... and yet they do. When you really look at them, you realize they could be...sisters."

  "Diana—"

  "It's the photo you carry in your wallet, Dad. Part of it, anyway. Tell me, is the other half torn away, or just folded back out of sight? Did you rip her out of your life, or just tuck her away where you didn't have to look at her?"

  Silence.

  Diana's voice was quiet but relentless. "Don't you think it's time you told me about Missy?"

  Beau Rafferty dismissed his students for the day, and when they'd gone began to gather up charcoal pencils and colored chalks they had used and put them neatly away in boxes and cans. Then he moved from easel to easel, carefully closing the big sketchbooks to allow his students' work some privacy.

  He glanced up with a brief frown as a low rumble of thunder sounded, then returned to his worktable to clean a few brushes and put away a much-used set of watercolors. He was still silently debating when he finished, but another distant rumble of thunder made up his mind for him. He searched briefly among the organized clutter on the worktable and found his phone.

  The number was programmed into his speed-dial, so he only had to hit one button. And the call was answered before the second ring.

  "Yeah."

  "There's a storm coming," Beau said.

  "Spring in the mountains. Typical weather."

  "Uh-huh. I was just wondering if you knew. Ahead of time."

  "I've spent time in Tennessee," Bishop said.

  "That wasn't really an answer," Beau said judiciously.

  "Wasn't it?"

  Sighing, Beau said, "Well, I can't say I haven't been warned."

  "About what?"

  "About you, Yoda."

  "According to Maggie, you're the Zen-like master, not me."