More cobwebs. The silhouette of what I feared might be a hanging body.
And that smell. It was everywhere, permeating every crack and crevice, clinging to my clothes, my skin, the inside of my nostrils…
I pulled my shirt tighter against my nose.
As I stepped through the opening, water sloshed over my boots. The smell rose again, stronger than ever, and I wondered about that liquid beneath my feet.
I wouldn’t think about it…
My feet slipped from under me and I landed with a horrible splash. Water splattered into my face and I screamed. I pulled myself up, gasping and gagging.
Careful of my footing, I eased along in the darkness.
The drone of flies filled my head, making me thankful I couldn’t see beyond the anemic illumination of my cell phone.
I walked in a straight line as best I could until I came to another wall, and then I searched and searched until I finally stumbled upon a second opening. Wet and shivering, I crawled through only to find myself in a similar room.
Just when I despaired of ever getting out of that maze of chambers, I crept through yet another hole into a long, narrow tunnel. The air was fresher here and the fetid odor faded. I hoped that meant I was near an outside entrance.
I stood for the longest moment in an agony of indecision. Which way to go? Then I heard footsteps coming up hard behind me, and I didn’t wait to see who would emerge from those shadows. Who else could it be but Meakin?
Turning, I fled down the tunnel, the cell phone barely lighting my way.
Scurrying through yet another hole, I found myself in a round, well-like enclosure and I knew exactly where I was. I glanced up and saw the soft lavender of a twilight sky and felt like weeping for joy.
I began to climb. I was almost all the way to the top when I heard footsteps, the scramble of a body through the hole and the clang of the metal ladder as my pursuer came up after me.
He said my name. Just that.
I would never have thought Daniel Meakin so strong, but he dragged me through the opening, slammed the cover shut and shot home a bolt that had not been there when Devlin and I had come up through the well weeks before.
Devlin pounded on the door and I tried to get to him, but Daniel grabbed me and I went at him like a demon, clawing, kicking, pounding him with my fists.
He cowered away, then whirled with a knife, slashing the blade across my upper arm. I felt searing pain and a gush of blood as I staggered back and fell to the ground.
He stood over me, but he was no longer alone. Now that twilight had fallen, the ghost of Clayton Masterson had slipped through the veil.
It was Clayton who had slashed my arm…
Daniel whimpered. “You can see him. I know you can. All you have to do is acknowledge him and it will all be over. Please…please…let it be over.”
It would be over for him, but not for me. So I did not acknowledge the ghost. I lay with my gaze fixed on Daniel. As blood gushed through my fingers.
He fell to his knees, face crumpling, and for a moment, he and the ghost were caught in a terrible struggle. I saw my chance and lunged for the well. My fingers closed over the bolt and I shot it back just as Daniel rose with the knife. I knew what he meant to do, but Devlin did not. As he flung open the door and came up out of the well, he saw Daniel standing over me with a bloody blade. He couldn’t see Clayton. He couldn’t know the battle that waged between them.
He called Daniel’s name once, twice, and then he fired.
I lay sprawled on the ground, head spinning.
The paramedics had arrived on the scene. One of them applied pressure to my arm while the others worked on Daniel, but they were too late. I knew the second he died. I saw his spirit drift away, still bound to the ghost of Clayton Masterson. For all eternity.
And then from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a dark silhouette emerging from the edge of the woods. Then another and another, until they surrounded and engulfed the two ghosts.
The shadow men had not come for me after all. They had come for Daniel Meakin.
My arm would need stitching, but for now the bleeding was under control. I sat at the back of the EMT van, my gaze riveted on Devlin, until I spotted a familiar face lurking in the background. It was odd to me that no one paid him any attention, but then I remembered why.
I walked toward him, a little unsteady from the painkillers. “You were down there with me, weren’t you? You showed me the way out.” He and Shani had saved me. “Why?”
I could feel his icy gaze on me through his dark glasses. “Because I mean to have justice,” said the murdered cop. “And you’re the only one who can help me.”
“Amelia?”
I turned as Devlin walked up beside me. He stared at me with a strange look on his face. “Who were you talking to?”
I glanced around. No one was there.
He put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“No,” I said with a shiver. “But I will be.”
I wanted to ask how he’d found me tonight, but at the moment, it seemed too much trouble. I had a feeling Robert Fremont had played some role. I shuddered to think what his ghost wanted from me, but that was a worry for another day. Right now, I wanted to savor my moment with Devlin.
I laid my head against his chest and he held me so tenderly I wanted to weep.
But the moment was fleeting. Twilight was upon us and his ghosts were waiting.
Epilogue
Days later, I still didn’t understand how Devlin had found me that night. He said they’d tracked my cell phone signal to the mausoleum, but I didn’t see how that was possible when I’d been so far underground. I couldn’t shake the notion that Robert Fremont had somehow been instrumental in leading Devlin to me, just as he and Shani had guided me out of the chamber. I was indebted to him, but the thought of what he would require of me made my blood run cold.
So many questions…so many mysteries…
I left it all behind to recuperate in Trinity with my parents. I was there for a week and on my first day back home, I dug up the tiny ring I’d buried in the garden and drove down to Chedathy Cemetery, where I placed it in the center of the cockleshell heart. I suppose I meant it as some sort of thank you or maybe even a farewell, but I had a feeling I would be seeing the ghost child again.
Devlin drove up as I was leaving. If he thought it strange to find me there, he didn’t say so. I waited for him at the edge of the cemetery and he caught my hand as he walked by. We stood there for a long moment—I on my way out, he on his way in. I tried to pull away, but he held on to me.
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened that night?” His gaze burned into mine. “Why did you run away from me?”
I shivered and glanced away. “Someday I’ll explain. But not now. It’s not our time.”
He didn’t question me because I think he knew it, too. He had his ghosts and I had my demons.
I slid my fingers from his and walked back to the car.
