The Arkana Mysteries Boxed Set

by N. S. Wikarski

Leroy Hunt hated loose ends. First, little Miss Hannah and now this. Hunt was sure the yahoo he’d shot in the cave was dead till he got down off the mountain. From his hotel window he could see an ambulance tearing through town, sirens wailing. He didn’t figure they’d go to all that trouble for a corpse. A little further investigation was in order. He had to make sure the patient couldn’t identify who’d shot him. He figured he’d wait out the night. With any luck, the feller wouldn’t make it til morning.

  ***

  Bright and early the next day, Hunt dragged Daniel into the car to make the rounds of the hospitals in Durango. The kid was still babbling something about it being a ghost, but there was a guy somewhere in town with a bullet in his gut who was real enough. Leroy stopped along the way to pick up a nice bunch of posies. He figured it would be more convincing if he pretended to be a friend of the injured man, paying an innocent social call. He’d already visited two clinics with no luck and was about to enter a third. He ordered Daniel to wait in the car. The boy had been acting owly all morning, and he had no patience for crazy today.

  Leroy approached the nurses’ station, flowers in hand. “Buenos dias. I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am. Any chance you speak English?”

  The woman nodded.

  “That’s good. I hear there was a terrible accident on the mountain yesterday. Lots of commotion. They said that a feller was brought to a hospital in town with a gunshot wound. I’m pretty sure I know him. Any chance he was treated here?”

  The nurse pointed down a hallway to the left and gave him the room number.

  “Muchos gracias.” Hunt tipped his hat and ambled down the corridor. If the stranger was still alive, he wouldn’t be for long. Leroy was planning to introduce the patient to his maker via a pillow to the face. Hunt hadn’t used that technique for a while. It was a classic—a lot quieter and less messy than a gun.

  When he reached the room, he was surprised by the sight of a uniformed policeman standing outside the door.

  “Howdy, officer. Any chance I can pay a neighborly visit to the feller inside? I’m pretty sure I know him. American like me.”

  The policeman sized him up coldly before replying in perfect English. “He was not American. A tourist, yes, but not American. He died last night.”

  Hunt adopted a mournful expression. “I’m right sorry to hear that. Any family about? Maybe I could call on them to extend my condolences.”

  The policeman shrugged noncommittally. “No family here. The body has already been taken away. See, the room is empty.”

  Hunt peeked around the door. The room was already tidied up for the next occupant.

  “Well, that’s a shame,” he said.

  The policeman was still eyeing him. “This man was murdered. We are investigating who killed him.”

  Leroy never blinked. “Really? Anybody get a good look at somebody else comin’ down the mountain?”

  “No, too much fog but we are asking many questions about how this could have happened.” He paused and stared pointedly at Leroy. “Do not worry. We will find the killer.”

  Leroy tipped his hat. “I surely wish you luck with that, officer. The world is a sorry place these days when a body can’t take a stroll up a mountain without findin’ a bulls-eye on his back.”

  “The man was shot in the stomach.”

  “My mistake.” Leroy turned on his heel. “Adios.”

  ***

  Daniel was in the same state as when Leroy had left him—still twitchy and mumbling to himself. Hunt rolled his eyes, unlocked the driver’s side and climbed in.

  “Well?” the scion demanded impatiently.

  “The feller’s dead. At least that’s one loose end tied up.”

  “Who was he?”

  “Not a ghost, that’s for sure. Some tourist. The police already took his body away.”

  “We have to find out who he was,” Daniel insisted.

  Hunt rounded on him. “We’re gonna do no such thing. That cop inside was givin’ me the stink eye somethin’ fierce. I ain’t hangin’ around this town long enough for somebody to ID me. You got what you came for. Now we’re goin’ home.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he revved the engine and pulled away from the curb. “Maybe we hurry, we can catch the next flight to Chicago. I got a hankerin’ for deep dish pizza.”

  Chapter 46 – Asylum

  Cassie made a vain attempt to sleep on the hard cot in her cell. Even if the bed had been comfortable, her anxiety about what was going to happen next would have kept her awake. Shortly after the guard brought her some breakfast which she couldn’t stomach, the waiting was over.

  An officer unlocked the door and motioned for her to come out. She was led through the side entrance of the station where a car waited. In the back seat was Erik, dark circles under his eyes from a night as sleepless as hers had been.

  “Am I ever glad to see you!” he exclaimed when she climbed in beside him.

  The policeman wordlessly cuffed them together.

  “Did anybody hurt you?” Erik asked in a low voice.

  Cassie shook her head. “Not unless you count giving me a raging case of insomnia. How about you?”

  Erik pointed to his swollen ankle. “They gave me an elastic bandage.”

  “That’s more than I thought they’d do,” Cassie murmured sarcastically.

  “Where are you taking us?” Erik demanded as the officer got behind the wheel.

  “To see the superintendent.” He nosed the car into traffic.

  Erik and Cassie exchanged concerned looks.

  “I sure hope he believes our version of what happened.”

  Erik didn’t reply. His eyes were wandering all over the back of the car, checking the roof, the windows, the door locks. Cassie guessed he was trying to figure an escape route in case things didn’t go well.

  She leaned over to whisper in his hear. “We should at least talk to him before you try putting us on Spain’s Most Wanted list. Besides, we don’t know what happened to Griffin. Maybe we can find out where he is. If he’s still...” She trailed off, unable even to voice the words.

  They travelled in silence as the policemen drove through the outskirts of town. Much to Cassie’s surprise, he kept on going. They were in the countryside now.

  “What’s the superintendent doing way out here?” she asked suspiciously.

  “He had other business. He said to take you to him.” The officer didn’t seem inclined to give any more details.

  Cassie sighed and slumped back in the seat. “You don’t think this guy is taking us out into the country to execute us, do you?” she whispered to Erik and then laughed weakly.

  He didn’t reply. His jaw was set.

  “That was supposed to be a joke.” Cassie took his silence as an ominous sign.

  About ten minutes later, the car approached a three-story building with white columns nestled in the foothills of the mountains. It was surrounded by a high fence and protected by a massive iron gate complete with a sentry.

  “Oh, this can’t be good.” The pythia sat up straight and swallowed hard.

  The gate swung open as the sentry motioned for the car to proceed.

  The driveway was long and bordered by parks on either side. They passed massive trees, benches, and gravel walking paths. Cassie noted people in white coats guiding other people dressed in robes. “What is this place?” she asked her teammate in wonder.

  “You got me, toots.” He gave a baffled shrug.

  The car finally swung to a stop at the stairs in front of the building. Standing on the top step was a man in uniform. He wore a red jacket, white belt, and black trousers with a red stripe up the side. On his head was a red beret.

  As the two suspects climbed out of the car and stood blinking in the bright sunlight, he came down the stairs to meet them. It wasn’t until he reached the bottom step that Cassie recognized him. “Iker!” she exclaimed.

  Their friend, the s
entinel, gave them a brief smile before instructing the officer to remove their handcuffs.

  “I’m sorry for all the mystery. It was for your own protection.” He dismissed the driver who saluted, got in his car, and drove back the way he had come.

  “Are you the Superintendent of Police?” Erik asked in amazement.

  Iker nodded. “In Durango, yes.” He winked at Cassie. “It is what you would call my ‘day job.’”

  “I take back everything I said about needing to find you a hobby,” Cassie said. “Clearly, you’ve got enough on your plate already.”

  “I know you have many questions and I will answer them all, but first you must come this way.”

  He led them down one of the gravel walks on the shady side of the building. They walked slowly to accommodate Erik’s halting gait. There, under an oak tree, sat Griffin in a wheelchair.

  “Oh, my goddess!” Cassie ran forward and threw her arms around her teammate. She felt a flood of relief at the sight of him.

  Griffin winced happily and wrapped an arm around her shoulder “Perhaps I should allow myself to get shot more often.”

  Erik wasn’t far behind though he chose to be less demonstrative in his greeting. He limped over and patted Griffin on the back. “It’s good to see you, man. We thought you were a goner.”

  “Can you walk?” Cassie asked worriedly. “You’re not paralyzed, are you?”

  “No,” the scrivener replied. “The wheelchair is just to keep me from straining and pulling apart the stitches in my abdomen. “Please, sit,” he indicated a bench a few yards away.

  Iker rolled the invalid over to the spot, so they could all talk together. The Police Superintendent remained standing by Griffin’s chair while Cassie and Erik took seats on the bench facing him.

  The pythia scowled intently at the Brit. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I beg your pardon?” Griffin was taken aback.

  “Throwing yourself at Hunt that way was suicide!”

  ‘And yet I’m still breathing,” the scrivener joked weakly.

  “She’s right, Grif.” Erik agreed. “You should never have pulled a stunt like that. It was way too risky.”

  “Of the three of us, you’re the least impulsive. You always think things through,” Cassie reproached him. “So, I repeat the question. What the hell was going through your head?”

  The scrivener sighed. “Honestly, I thought the game was up. Hunt was about to close in, and there was nowhere left for us to run. It occurred to me that if I could spring out at him and catch him off guard, I might at least knock the torch out of his hand. In the ensuing confusion, that might buy us a little time to beat him unconscious.”

  “That would have been a great plan,” Erik said sarcastically,” if he hadn’t been carrying a gun.”

  “In the darkness in the cave, I rather hoped his aim would be off,” the scrivener said ruefully.

  “At point blank range while you were wrestling him to the ground?” the security coordinator countered. “You’re lucky he didn’t shoot you right through the heart.”

  While the two men were speaking, Cassie stood up, walked over to Griffin and gave him a silent hug.

  “I say, I quite like all the attention I’m getting today,” the scrivener chuckled.

  Cassie sat back down and regarded him solemnly. “What you did was the most amazing thing ever.”

  “Hardly,” the scrivener demurred. “When I think about Erik leaping off a mountain or you facing down a pack of armed thieves, I’d have to go a long way merely to catch up.”

  “Throwing yourself on a grenade for the team trumps what we did.” Erik shook his head in wonderment. “That was hardcore, man.”

  “I guess it’s official,” Cassie said resignedly.

  “What is?” Erik and Griffin both looked at her in puzzlement.

  “Since we started this treasure hunt, each of us has gotten the chance to do something colossally stupid and / or incredibly brave.”

  “Since you’re giving me a choice of adjectives, I’ll take ‘incredibly brave,’” Griffin quipped.

  Looking first at Iker and then at Griffin, the pythia said, “Tell us what happened after you got shot. Iker disappeared, and we didn’t know if you were going to make it.”

  The sentinel replied first. “I had gone out to check the trail that leads from the other side of the summit. The fog was very bad, and I could not see below. By the time I returned, your adversaries were already entering the cave. I was cut off and could not warn you. That was when I called for some of my men to hurry to the mountain.”

  “Our cell phones didn’t work up there,” Cassie said.

  “Fortunately, mine does,” Iker replied. “I did not know whether the thieves would take the bait and go quietly or whether they would discover you inside. I did not want to take chances. Then I heard the shot, and I believed something bad had happened. I thought I might frighten them off by shouting. With the echoes in the cave, it might sound to them like many people were approaching. I had to wait outside until I knew they were clear of the mountaintop, but I could hear you inside saying that your friend had been hurt. That is when I called for a medical team.”

  “They sure got there fast,” Cassie said.

  “Why didn’t you come inside once the cops arrived? They took us into custody.” Erik sounded vaguely reproachful.

  “There was no time,” Iker replied. “I had to follow your enemies to make sure I would not lose track of them once they reached the bottom of the mountain. I told my people to take you into custody for your own protection.”

  “What for?” Cassie protested. “They practically accused us of murder.”

  Iker sighed. “We could not hold you without charging you with something, and I had no time to explain to my men what was happening.”

  “You’d think when I dropped your name to the cop who interrogated me that he might have stopped bullying us.”

  Iker smiled. “He would not have known who you meant. Among the Ertzaintza, I have a different name.”

  “There was good reason to keep you both out of harm’s way,” Griffin interjected. “Shortly after I regained consciousness, I was informed that Hunt and Daniel were still in the county.”

  “Why would they hang around?” Cassie asked in surprise. “They got the relic and thought you were dead.”

  “Apparently Hunt is of a suspicious nature,” Griffin countered. “He may have noticed that the ambulance carried me to an emergency room and not an undertaker’s parlor. Iker thought that he might try to visit me in hospital.”

  “Visit?” Erik echoed skeptically.

  “I was certain that if this man Hunt found his victim alive, he would not leave him that way,” Iker said softly. “He feared Griffin would be able to recognize him.”

  “It’s a good thing the reverse wasn’t true,” Cassie chimed in. “Back in the cave, Daniel was pitching a fit when he saw Griffin’s face. He ID’d him, but Hunt didn’t. I guess Griffin can thank his seedy-looking beard for that.”

  The scrivener wistfully rubbed his now clean-shaven chin. “I may try to grow it again once we’re back in the States. Something of a good luck charm, don’t you think?”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. “If Hunt had recognized him in the cave, it might have made him wonder if Erik and I were still alive, too.”

  “Fortunately, he didn’t get a second look at me in hospital because Iker ordered me moved to this place,” Griffin concluded.

  “And where are we exactly?” Erik asked.

  “In a place where people come when the stress of living in the big city is too much,” Iker explained.

  “You mean this is a sanitarium,” Erik concluded.

  “Like a lunatic asylum?” Cassie asked.

  “We do not call it that. It is a convalescent home where people can recover from whatever is troubling them, either physical or mental.”

  “Uh huh,” C
assie said, not convinced.

  “In any event,” Griffin continued, “Iker posted a constable by my hospital room door should Hunt happen to call. True to form, he arrived with flowers in hand inquiring about ‘an American feller’ who’d been shot on the mountain. He left after being informed that the tourist in question had, regrettably, expired.”

  “So why didn’t you just arrest him when he showed up? We could have nailed him for attempted murder,” Cassie objected.

  “And what would have become of your secret quest?” Iker countered. “If you do not want the Nephilim to know of your organization, this was the only way we could solve the problem. Let this man go away thinking there were no witnesses and that he has stolen the real treasure.”

  “I see your point,” Cassie admitted. “But did you really have to keep us locked up overnight?”

  “I had to be sure you were somewhere completely safe. If this Leroy Hunt were to cross your path while you were visiting your friend in the hospital, then what? Durango is not a large city where people can move about unnoticed by one another. He might have seen you anywhere in town. That would not have ended well. I waited until I received word that your enemies had boarded a plane for America. Once they left the country, I knew it was safe to bring you here.”

  “A very well-thought-out plan,” Griffin said approvingly. ‘It’s not an exaggeration to say we owe you our lives.”

  Somewhat chastened, Erik and Cassie both mumbled their appreciation as well.

  Iker bowed his head in acknowledgment. “It is I who should be thanking you. You have ended the need to keep watch on the mountain. You brought me news of what happened to my ancestor, and you found my lost family. Such deeds are beyond my power to repay.”

  “I guess when you put it that way,” Cassie joked.

  “While you are all here, we should have one of the doctors X-ray your friend’s foot,” Iker suggested.

  Erik looked ruefully at his swollen ankle. “I’m not gonna argue. Something might be broken. But it’s still less painful than what’s coming next.”

  His listeners looked at him quizzically.

  “We have to call Faye and Maddie,” Erik suggested. “That’s when the real pain starts. Trying to explain all this.”