Chapter 3 #2
The cemetery required both birth and death certificates before they would allow a stone to be carved and placed on their property.
If I had my way, they would make an exception for the mother and her child.
She couldn’t name him, but I could, as I refused to leave his spirit to wander beyond life without a name.
With a little luck, I might be able to learn what his mother had hoped to name him, although the long years since their deaths made it unlikely.
After settling the kittens and hummingbird at home, I waited for Erik to get into bed before snuggling up against his back and crying myself to sleep.
Morning came, and after breakfast, I located the number for the cemetery in Cheyenne, braced for the worst, and dialed.
“Cheyenne National Cemetery, Cassie speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hi. My name is Kinsley Ramons, and I’m a private investigator in Dragon Heights.
In March of 2068, there was an unmarked headstone for an infant installed.
The body of the infant was not buried, and the mother of the baby passed away a week later.
I am in possession of the infant’s remains and have permission and all required paperwork to transport him to Cheyenne.
Is the burial site still intact? Can it accommodate both bodies?
The mother’s remains were put into cold storage upon discovery. The infant is skeletal.”
The woman whistled. “Please give me a minute. Do you have birth and death certificates for the deceased?”
“No, but the victims are involved with an ongoing murder investigation, and the woman’s spirit is not at rest. It would be prudent to quietly make the issues of the infant’s lack of birth and death certificates disappear and give them the burial they deserve.”
“Has the woman haunted anybody?”
“She is an incorporeal manifestation that has been confirmed and identified by law enforcement in Dragon Heights,” I replied, fighting the urge to drum my fingers on the table.
While I handled the talking, Erik handled cleaning up the kitchen and preparing our little ones for a long day of driving.
“Incorporeal manifestation is sufficient need to bypass the rules and regulations regarding certification at our cemetery,” she informed me. “Dragon Heights, you said?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Excellent. I’ll make a few calls, receive confirmation of the manifestation, and have the site prepared. I have located the plot in our system, which was purchased at the time of the infant’s death. The mother does not have a plot.”
“Please bury them together, and I will cover the additional fee for the plot,” I instructed.
“You said the infant’s body is skeletal?”
“Yes, ma’am. The current intention is to have a medical professional lay the baby’s bones at rest on his mother’s chest. She’s been frozen for quite a long time, and nobody wants to thaw her for the process.
” That discussion had hurt. Ultimately, the woman had involved herself, and she had offered her silent blessing of the plan.
In life, all she had wanted was her baby.
In death, they would rest together. One day, I hoped their spirits reunited and the woman had a second chance to cradle and love her son. In some bright future, should they somehow be reborn, I hoped her son would know nothing but joy through all his days.
“We can have the equipment to the gravesite as soon as today. There is a matter of the stone.”
“I will have it carved. Is there any record of what she wanted her baby to be named?”
I held my breath, listening to the tap of the woman’s typing. “Yes, there is a record. His name was Ajax Amadeus Carlsbad, and his mother’s name is Portica Marigold Carlsbad. The father’s name is Winston Lance Carlsbad, and he is buried in the neighboring plot.”
It wasn’t much, but the family would be reunited, something that pleased me. “Is Winston’s gravestone still intact?”
“He doesn’t have a marker, I’m afraid.”
Rather than ask about the circumstances, I made the only decision I could under the circumstances. “Is it possible to have the original grave marker buried with the mother and child? I will pay to have a family marker installed instead.”
“A family marker is an option, and we can bury the old marker. The marker will take six months to carve and install,” she warned.
“Six months is fine. They’ve been waiting a long time as it is. Six months doesn’t change much. What time will the burial site be prepared?”
“Assuming the bodies can be brought to the graveyard, we can inter them at three this afternoon.”
It only took a few hours to get to Cheyenne, and that was assuming we took our time. “Three works, thank you. We’ll arrive a little earlier to go over the gravestone options.”
“Excellent. We’ll be waiting for you, ma’am.”
“How much will the burial costs be?”
“Oh, you will only owe for the gravestone, ma’am. The cost to inter the bodies is included, and we provide a basic coffin should one not be purchased. If you require a coffin or casket, there is a funeral home next door that can sell you one. They should have stock.”
“Do you have the number for the funeral home? I’ll acquire a casket.”
If I was unfortunate enough to be killed, lingering in a freezer as an unsolved mystery, I would want someone to have the same consideration for me.
Later, I might miss the money, but of all the things I’d purchased as of late, the casket and gravestone would be among the most important, second only to helping Garnet and Tourmaline settle into their lives with me.
After a few more pleasantries, I got the number for the funeral home, hung up, and called them, arranging to purchase one of their nicer caskets they had in stock and could be delivered to the cemetery.
Upon hearing the circumstances, the funeral home stated they would reach out to Dragon Heights, confirm the woman’s identity, and have her transported to the site for burial.
As such, we would bring Ajax to the funeral home so he could be given as much dignity as possible.
By the time I hung up, I wanted to cry.
“Any good news in that?”
“His name was Ajax, and his father is already buried at the site. They’ll be buried at three.”
“Then we better get on the road and reunite him with his mother. I’ll drive. Just grab a few boxes of tissues on our way out. We’re both going to need them by the end of the day.”
I nodded and headed to the hallway supply closet. “Do you think we’ll find anyone living at the end of this road, Erik?”
“I don’t know. But even if we don’t, we’re still doing important work.
Do I want to find living people? Yes. But after seeing the Valley of Thorns, I’m forcing myself to be practical.
That monster had no intentions of leaving any of her victims alive, not until she found a way to raise her son and husband from the dead.
All I can do now is hope that their spirits aren’t among those wandering aimlessly instead of resting.
They don’t deserve to pay for Madam Merorie’s sins. ”
No, they didn’t, and even when we came across more evidence of her evils, I would remind myself of that until I truly believed it.
“We will find Adam’s body, and we will give him the dignity he should have been given when he died.
And if her husband’s body isn’t where it belongs, we’ll find him, too. ”
“We’ll do our best, and even if we fail, we will know we did our best. Today is just the beginning. Tomorrow, the real work begins.”
* * *
Thursday, May 14, 2167
Cheyenne National Cemetery
Cheyenne, Wyoming
While I dished out almost twenty thousand dollars between the gravestone and the casket, someone in Cheyenne made arrangements for flowers.
Pots of roses waited to be planted, and numerous bouquets of flowers decorated the father’s plot.
A pair of temporary stands held a laminated sign including all three names, the years of their births, and the years of their deaths.
Ajax’s entry referenced the date of his birth and his death, only a few days apart.
I wondered what had happened between March 10, 2068 and March 12, 2068, and if Madam Merorie had shown the baby love and comfort the short time he had lived.
The grave marker would display the father and mother’s name on a row with Ajax’s name beneath theirs, and after going over the various designs, I’d settled on a rose motif.
I could only assume someone at the ceremony had spread word about the roses, resulting in the arrival of the plants.
As the family had nobody left living, the funeral home had located a pastor willing to give a short sermon in the hopes everyone involved would find peace in death.
In what I viewed as the truest form of compassion possible, members of his congregation had come at his call, resulting in a crowd of fifty or so people offering their farewells along with a cut rose placed within the casket until the woman and her baby disappeared beneath the blooms.
When the time came to close the casket and lower the pair into the ground, the woman’s spirit appeared.
Some gasped, but in what I viewed as an act of true courage, everyone held their ground.
First, she went to her husband’s plot, sat where the headstone would be, and spoke, her lips moving. No sound emerged, but I could guess at what she told him of her grief and their baby. Then she rose, went to her casket, and her hand dipped into the blooms to caress her baby’s remains.
A breeze blew through the cemetery, whispering through the trees and the roses waiting to be planted, and with each rustle, she wore away at the edges, crumbling away until nothing remained.
Long after all fell still and silent, we stood and stared at where she had, for such a short time, reunited with the child she had loved to her dying breath.
And then, as though afraid the heavy machinery might disturb her long awaited rest, we gathered rope to lower the pair into the ground, made use of buckets rather than a concrete layer to fill in and seal their metal vault so that no one would disturb their eternal slumber, and used shovels to restore the soil.
As the sun set, we took turns planting the roses, leaving space for their marker.
When night fell, we offered a final prayer to the dead. Long after the pastor and his congregation departed, I stared at the roses and swore I would find closure for each and every one of Madam Merorie’s victims, including her son.
It was both the least and the most I could do, and I could only hope it would be enough.