It was ten minutes past two. Michael stopped only because he had to stop. His eyes were closing, and there was nothing to do but give in and sleep for a while.
He sat still for a long moment, staring at the folder, which he had just closed. He was startled by the knock on the door.
“Come in,” he said.
Aaron entered quietly. He was dressed in his pajamas and a quilted silk robe, sashed at the waist. “You look tired,” he said. “You should go to bed now.”
“I have to,” Michael said. “When I was young, I could just keep swilling the coffee. But it’s not like that anymore. My eyes are shutting down on me.” He sat back in the leather chair, fished in his pocket for a cigarette, and lighted it. The need to sleep was suddenly so heavy, he closed his eyes and almost let the cigarette slip from his fingers. Mary Beth, he thought, have to get on to Mary Beth. So many questions …
Aaron settled into the wing chair in the corner. “Rowan canceled her midnight flight,” he said. “She’ll have a layover tomorrow, and won’t reach New Orleans before afternoon.”
“How do you find out things like that?” Michael asked sleepily. But that was the least of the questions on his mind. He took another lazy drag off the cigarette and stared at the plate of uneaten sandwiches before him. A sculpture now. He had not wanted any supper. “That’s good,” he said. “If I wake up at six, and read right on through, I’ll make it by evening.”
“And then we should talk,” Aaron said. “We should talk a great deal before you go to see her.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. Aaron, why the hell am I involved in this? Why? Why have I been seeing that man since I was a kid?” He took another drag off the cigarette. “Are you afraid of that spirit thing?” he asked.
“Yes, of course,” Aaron answered without the slightest hesitation.
Michael was surprised. “You believe all this then? And you yourself have seen him?”
Aaron nodded. “I have,” he said.
“Thank God. Every word of this story has a different meaning for us than it would for someone else who hasn’t seen! Someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to see an apparition like that.”
“I believed before I saw,” Aaron said. “My colleagues have seen him. They have reported what they’ve seen. And as a seasoned member of the Talamasca, I accepted the testimony.”
“Then you accept that this thing can kill people.”
Aaron reflected for a moment. “Look, I might as well tell you this now. And try to remember it. This thing can do harm, but it has a devil of a time doing it.” He smiled. “No pun intended there,” he said. “What I’m trying to say is, Lasher kills largely through trickery. He can certainly cause physical effects-move objects, cause tree limbs to fall, rocks to fly-that sort of thing. But he wields this power awkwardly and often sluggishly. Trickery and illusion are his strongest weapons.”
“He forced Petyr van Abel into a tomb,” Michael said.
“No, Petyr was found trapped in a tomb. What likely happened was that he went into it himself in a state of madness in which he could no longer distinguish illusion from reality.”
“But why would Petyr do that when he was terrified of … ”
“Oh, come now, Michael, men are often irresistibly drawn to the very thing they fear.”
Michael didn’t say anything. He drew on the cigarette again, seeing in his mind’s eye the surf crashing on the rocks off Ocean Beach. And remembering the moment of standing there, his scarf blowing in the wind, his fingers frozen.
“To put it bluntly,” Aaron said, “never overestimate this spirit. It’s weak. If it wasn’t it wouldn’t need the Mayfair family.”
Michael looked up. “Say that again.”
“If it wasn’t weak, it wouldn’t need the Mayfair family,” Aaron said. “It needs their energy. And when it attacks, it uses the victim’s energy.”
“You just reminded me of something I said to Rowan. When she asked whether or not these spirits I saw had caused me to fall from the rock into the ocean, I told her they couldn’t do something like that. They weren’t that strong. If they were strong enough to knock a man into the sea and cause him to drown, they wouldn’t need to come to people in visions. They wouldn’t need to give me a crucial mission.”
Aaron didn’t reply.
“You see my point?” Michael asked.
“Yes, I do. But I see the point of her question also.”
“She asked me why I assumed that they were good, these spirits. I was shocked by that. But she thought it was a logical question.”
“Maybe it is.”
“Oh, but I know they are good.” Michael stubbed out the cigarette. “I know. I know that it was Deborah I saw. And that she wants me to oppose that spirit, Lasher. I know that as surely as I know … who I am. Remember what Llewellyn told you? I just finished reading it. Llewellyn told you that when Julien came to him in a dream Julien was different. Julien was wiser than he had been when he was alive. Well, that’s how it was with Deborah in my vision. Deborah wants to stop this thing that she and Suzanne brought into the world and into this family!”
“Then comes the question. Why has Lasher shown himself to you?”
“Yes. We’re going in a circle.”
Aaron switched off the light in the corner, and then the lamp on the desk. This left only the lamp on the bedside table. “I’ll have them call you at eight. I think you can finish the entire file by late afternoon, perhaps a little sooner. Then we can talk, and you can come to some sort of … well … decision.”
“Have them call me at seven. That’s one good thing about being this age. I get sleepy but I sleep less. I’ll be fine if they ring me at seven. And Aaron … ”
“Yes?”
“You never really answered me about last night. Did you see that thing when he was standing right in front of me on the other side of the fence! Did you or didn’t you?”
Aaron opened the door. He seemed reluctant to speak. Then he said, “Yes, Michael. I saw him. I saw him very clearly and distinctly. More clearly and distinctly than ever before. And he was smiling at you. It even seemed he was … reaching out for you. I would say from what I saw that he was welcoming you. Now, I must go, and you must go to sleep. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“Wait a minute.”
“Lights out, Michael.”
The phone woke him up. The sunlight was pouring through the windows on either side of the head of the bed. For one moment he was completely disoriented. Rowan had just been talking to him, saying something about how she wanted him to be there before they closed the lid. What lid. He saw a dead white hand lying against black silk.
Then he sat up, and he saw the desk, and the briefcase, and the folders heaped there, and he whispered: “The lid of her mother’s coffin.”
Drowsily he stared at the ringing phone. Then he picked up the receiver. It was Aaron.
“Come down for breakfast, Michael.”
“Is she on the plane yet, Aaron?”
“She’s just left the hospital. As I believe I told you last night, she’ll have a layover. I doubt she’ll reach the hotel before two o’clock. The funeral begins at three. Look, if you won’t come down we’ll send something up, but you must eat.”
“Yes, send it up,” he said. “And Aaron. Where is this funeral?”
“Michael, don’t bolt on me after you’ve finished. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.”
“No, I’m not going to do that, Aaron. Believe me. But I just want to know. Where is the funeral?”
“Lonigan and Sons. Magazine Street.”
“Oh, yeah, do I ever know that place.” Grandmother, grandfather, and his father, too, all buried from Lonigan and Sons. “Don’t worry, Aaron, I’ll be right here. Come up and keep me company if you want. But I’ve got to get started.”
He took a quick shower, put on fresh clothes, and came out of the bathroom to find his breakfast waiting for him under a series of high polished silver domes on a lace-covered tray. The old sandwiches were gone. And the bed was made. There were fresh flowers by the window. He smiled and shook his head. He had a flash of Petyr van
