He shrugged. “I grew up around it, so yeah, I know some.”
“What can you tell me about spirit possessions?” I pressed, urgency seeping into my voice.
“Believers say the Lwa will possess their followers,” he replied.
“Have you ever seen it happen?”
“Whoa, hold on a second,” he objected. “I said I grew up around it. That doesn’t mean I actually believe in it.”
“But have you ever seen it happen?”
“No.”
“Okay then, have you ever seen anyone claiming to be possessed by a Lwa?”
“Look, I really shouldn’t have…”
“Just answer me. It’s important!”
“Yeah. A couple of times,” he said with a dismissive shake of his head. “Look, like I was saying, I shouldn’t have said anything, and I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Okay, fine, but just answer me this then. Veve. A heart with a crosshatched pattern and a dagger piercing it. Do you know who that is a symbol for?”
“With a dagger would be Ezili Danto. She’s the Petro aspect of the Lwa of love.”
“Petro aspect?”
“Negative. You know, like the opposite.”
“You know quite a bit for someone who doesn’t believe in it,” Constance remarked.
He shrugged again but remained silent.
“Come on, Emile,” the other paramedic interjected. “We need to roll.”
“You. Shut up,” Mandalay barked at the paramedic over her head then looked back to the foot of the gurney and said, “You. Answer the man’s questions.”
“Button it, Constance,” Ben told her then glanced over at me and declared, “She needs to go to the hospital, Rowan.”
“No, I don’t,” she objected.
“Stay out of it. You’re goin’,” he retorted without taking his eyes off me. After a second he huffed, “Make it quick.”
I turned back to the paramedic and quickly asked, “What purpose would Ezili Danto have in a ritual?”
“I don’t really know, sir,” he replied, kicking off the brake and starting to maneuver the gurney out of the room. “Like I told you, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry.”
“No. This is important!”
“Look, all I know is that she represents heartbreak, jealousy, and vengeance. That’s about it.”
“Hold on. Please. Just one last question,” I pleaded, insinuating myself between them and the exit. “A round circle with three curved lines radiating out from the center and a single dot in each third. Whose veve is that?”
He scrunched up his face and then shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Are you certain? Think.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve never seen that one. I can tell you it’s definitely not one of the greater Lwa, but maybe it belongs to a lesser or an ancestral spirit.”
“Okay, Rowan, that’s enough. Get outta the way,” Ben ordered.
I stepped back and they continued rolling the gurney toward the front door.
I had hoped for more information from the young man, but what he had given me was definitely beyond what I’d had before. I didn’t know that it was going to help find Felicity though.
Ben was still following along with them, wearing an expression of intense concern. He hadn’t said much of anything for the past several minutes, except the terse orders he’d barked at Constance and me. I wasn’t sure if it was simply his disquiet over her condition, or if he was angry.
Given the circumstances, I suppose he had plenty to be irritated about, not the least of which was me.
“I’ll be right back,” he grunted as he brushed past.
A second later, as they approached the front door, Constance called out, “Rowan?”
I stepped quickly over to her even as they continued to muscle the gurney out into the night air.
“Yeah, Constance?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch my arm.
“Whoa, hold on a second,” I said to the paramedics, motioning for them to stop. Then I looked back to her. “Sorry about what?”
“I had to tell them about my weapon,” she replied. “They had to know for…”
I cut her off, shaking my head vigorously as I spoke. “I understand. It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it right now. You didn’t have any choice. Now, let them take you to the hospital.”
I stepped back again, and they continued out the door. I certainly hadn’t expected the apology from Constance, and to be honest I almost wished she hadn’t made it. The mere mention of the sidearm brought my fear oozing back to the surface, and I felt my stomach somersault yet again.
As the storm door swung shut, I looked around and realized that in a very real sense this time, I was suddenly very alone. The Briarwood officers were out in the front yard talking to one another and occasionally looking toward the house. I knew that the female officer who had been questioning me had still been inside when Mandalay and I started discussing the reason behind Felicity’s actions. How much she had heard, I couldn’t say, but I was guessing that it was a big part of the conversation going on right now.
At this point, however, I didn’t care what they thought of me. I needed to figure out where my wife was likely to go and find her before this got any worse than it already was.
The problem at the moment was that I had no idea how I was going to do that.
CHAPTER 27:
Once it was safe to do so, I had let the dogs out of the basement and shuffled them out the back door after some half-hearted strokes of reassurance for them both. I hated that they’d been traumatized this way. Simply ushering them into the back yard wasn’t much better, but I had more than enough to worry about right now. Unfortunately, they were going to have to wait in line.
I had given the Briarwood police officers a list of the pertinent individuals from our address book along with contact information as they had requested. While I could tell there was still a bit of suspicion regarding my cooperation, after only a few more questions they had headed back outside.
Nothing had been mentioned about the conversation with Mandalay and the paramedic, or at least not directly to me. I did, however, happen to be staring blankly out the door when both of the cops went over to Ben and said something to him while nodding back toward the house. Eventually the officers went to their cars, and the one across the street left almost immediately. The officer parked directly in front of the house, however, didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. My guess was that I was going to be watched. Given the earlier questions, I could only assume that it was for my safety.
At the moment I felt like every nerve in my body was sparking, and there was a hollowness in my chest that I had only felt twice before. And, both of those times had been when there was an undeniably palpable threat to Felicity’s life, just as there was right now. I wanted to go out looking for her, but I got the feeling that there might be some resistance to that idea from the cop parked outside. It also didn’t help that I had no real idea of where to start, so driving aimlessly about the city wasn’t going to be any more productive than waiting here at the house.
Of course, that was logic, and at the moment I was being driven by emotion.
It wasn’t long before my subconscious coping mechanisms kicked in, and I found myself mindlessly straightening up the room just to keep myself from toppling over the precipice into hysteria.
Even though I didn’t remember doing it, I had righted the remains of the lamp and end table then picked up the larger pieces of the glass and ceramic and tossed them into the trash. By the time Ben came back into the house, I was occupying myself by cleaning up the rest of the mess with the vacuum. I looked up as he stepped through the door, closing it behind him. I turned my gaze downward and took another pair of swipes across the
