Chapter 71 #8
Ashley handed Beth a slip of paper with a phone number.
“I think you’ll know when the trouble starts.
When that happens, call me. We’ll arrange a time and move everything you want to save.
I’ll get Jack and Ethan to help us haul boxes.
We’ll bring a pizza and call it a decluttering party.
Your neighbors won’t think twice about it—or they’ll think enough about it to mention it to the police if the police are called in. ”
Beth tucked the paper into her pocket. “I need to talk to Lucas about one other thing before I head…across the river.” Home didn’t feel like the appropriate word now.
She found Lucas in his office, talking to Jack. The men gave her a long look, and Beth wondered if the Arcana had a way of communicating with each other that wasn’t known to humans.
“Do you want to look at the available cottages and choose one now?” Lucas asked. “Or we can store your possessions in a private room at the hotel. They will be secure there.”
“The hotel room would be better for now,” Beth said.
“I have to give two weeks’ notice and work out the time.
I’d rather not dump that on Captain Forrester just before he goes on vacation.
I’ll wait a couple of days, then hand my resignation letter to Detective Castelletti.
” Who will be glad to see the back of me.
Jack smiled. “I gather Ethan and I are helping you and Ashley move your things.”
“That’s the plan.”
They waited. Finally, Lucas said, “Anything else?”
Beth drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “I’d like to talk to you about Yaron Kali.”
44
Devl slowly became aware of his surroundings. This wasn’t the same as waking up. This was…
Dead people. He was on a bus full of dead people. A few of them still looked normal, like the scary guy he suspected was not really dead and on the bus for some other reason, but the majority of the passengers weren’t really…lively…until dark.
The conductor approached him. From where? The guy just seemed to appear and disappear.
“The bus’s next stop will be a station close to your starting point. You will be required to leave.”
“What will happen to me when I get off the bus?” Devl asked.
“You will be found, and your family will be notified.” The conductor disappeared.
Home. He was going home.
Devl started to look at his belly, then turned to stare out the window.
The last time he looked at the wounds made during that fight, he knew they were bad and getting worse.
There were little wormy things crawling around in the wounds.
If he got home in time, his folks would get him to a hospital and the doctors would clean him up and sew him up.
He would be okay…if he got home in time.
Hours later—maybe days later—he heard the conductor say, “Next stop, Lovecraft.”
45
Charles Forrester came around his desk when Captain Stan Wozniak appeared in his office doorway.
“Stan.” Charles smiled and held out a hand to his friend. “What brings you to Penwych?”
“I have some information that you should have. I thought it was better to tell you in person since it’s going to add to the shitstorm that’s been raging about the Arcana since those four boys died.”
He didn’t want to know about any of this today, but if Stan had driven over from Lovecraft to tell him something, he owed the man the time to listen—and then make it clear that assistance would come from other members of his team.
“Good thing you showed up today. Aisha, Jazz, and I are leaving tomorrow morning for a two-week vacation.”
“Oh? Where?”
“A resort a couple of hours away from here. Hiking trails, horseback riding trails, swimming, tennis, and whatever else Aisha and Jazz want to do. A friend of Jazz’s is coming with us.
” Charles stopped, then added, “I have some information for you, too, although I don’t know if it’s relevant to you right now. ”
Stan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You first.”
Charles gestured toward the visitor’s chair before he took his seat behind his desk.
“In the past few weeks, five people crossed the river and landed at various points on Wyrd. The most recent person is an English professor working at Jackson University. I didn’t find missing person reports for the other four.
Maybe no one realizes yet that they are missing—or maybe no one cares enough to report the person to the police. ”
“Or maybe they landed on Wyrd, came to their senses, and went back home.”
“Possible but unlikely. Apparently, there is a ‘neutral zone’ around the island that extends for about fifty yards inland.”
“Are your kids big on Star Trek reruns too?”
Charles nodded, but he didn’t feel lighthearted about using the words.
“That’s pretty much what it is, Stan. Neutral ground the length of half a football field.
If you aren’t focused on what you’re looking for when you leave the neutral zone, the odds are good that you won’t be coming back because whatever else is on that island will swallow a person whole unless they are very, very lucky—or it’s part of their destiny to be there. ”
Stan stared at him. “I don’t think any of us have ever heard about this neutral zone. How reliable is your source of information?”
“Solid.” After a minute’s silence, Charles said, “What have you got for me?”
Stan seemed uneasy. “Have you heard anything about your son?”
Wary now, Charles nodded. “Someone had seen him recently and passed along the message that he was doing all right.”
“One of the other boys who went missing at the same time turned up early this morning in one of Lovecraft’s cemeteries.”
“What the hell was he doing…” Charles sucked in a breath. “Dead?”
“Yes.” Stan looked down at his hands, then met Charles’s eyes.
“It looks like the boy, who went by the name of Devl, got into a bar fight and was stabbed in the abdomen multiple times with what the coroner speculates was a broken bottle. The wounds weren’t immediately fatal, for reasons the coroner can’t explain, but they were the cause of death. However…”
Charles pushed away from his desk and left his office. He returned with a glass of water.
“Thanks,” Stan said, taking the glass and drinking half the water.
“According to the crime scene investigators, the evidence suggests that the boy left one of the roads through the cemetery, then stumbled a few yards before collapsing next to a grave. We haven’t found a connection between the family name on the gravestone and the boy, so we think that’s just as far as he could go.
” He drank the rest of the water. “Except the coroner thinks the boy died several days ago.”
“No sign of being carried or dragged to that spot?” Charles asked.
“Nothing like that. And no indication there was anyone with him. We found a bar coaster in his jacket pocket that said ‘Devil’s Den,’ with an address. We located the place. Christ almighty, it’s not even on this side of the country. How did he get there?”
“He got on a bus in Wyrd, and he got off at a place that must have a sufficient concentration of the strange and uncanny that the bus would stop there,” Charles replied wearily. “He must have lived long enough to get back on the bus, and then…”
“Then he got off for the last time at a cemetery in Lovecraft and collapsed after taking a few steps?” Stan rubbed his forehead. “Are we saying there’s a bus stop for the dead located at that cemetery?”
“We’re not saying anything. We don’t know anything.” Charles sat back in his chair. “The press will be all over this, and the anti-Arcana crowd will be howling about the police not finding the boy who is still missing. If simmering anger reaches a flashpoint…”
“It won’t take much at this point,” Stan agreed. “If the people in Penwych and the other towns turn against them, what do you think the Arcana will do?”
“The truth? We have been living across the river from them for generations and still have no real idea what the Arcana can do, let alone what they will do under those circumstances.”
Stan rose. “When you leave tomorrow, turn off your phone, have the rest of your family turn off their phones. Don’t watch TV. Leave the resort’s number if someone has to contact you, but don’t make it easy for them to ‘keep you informed.’ Get away from this, Charles. Get away while you can.”
Sound advice, Charles thought after Stan left. He just hoped he could follow it.
46
“Mama, that ghost took my sandwich!”
“Don’t be silly. Ghosts don’t eat sandwiches.”
“He did take it! And I’m hungry.”
So am I, kid, Acid thought as he hurried away. It was tempting to wolf down the sandwich while he walked, but he didn’t want to swallow wrong and choke.
Could he choke? What was he now? Kids could see him; adults couldn’t. There was always a place in a cemetery to find water, but the sandwich was the first food he’d been able to acquire in days.
He slipped behind a large headstone and took a big bite of the sandwich. It didn’t taste like much. Either the kid’s mom didn’t know how to make a good sandwich, or he was losing the ability to taste anything.
He’d passed through cemeteries whose names he couldn’t pronounce. He’d passed through cemeteries where the most recent dates on the stones were from two hundred years ago. He felt like he was being whittled down, layer by layer, becoming a little more insubstantial every day.
Maybe the kid was right. Maybe he’d started turning into a ghost the moment he’d boarded that damn train.
Finishing the sandwich, Acid continued walking. He kept the tracks in sight. They were the only touchstone he had, the only way to keep from being thoroughly lost among the dead.
The only way to find the train again and hope it might take him home.
47