She smiled. “Sure. And thank you.”
“If it’s quite all right with you, sir,” he inquired ofAndre.
Andre shrugged. “Cheyenne makes her own decisions in allthings. But it’s a lovely gesture. If she wants my opinion.”
“Brilliant. Then be off, my new friends. I believe you havea tour coming up.”
They thanked Smith and left the shop.
“What do you think?” Cheyenne asked.
“I think it’s an interesting gadget. And you never know,that’s a pretty damned sharp little blade. It could come in handy.”
“I mean about the man.”
“Well, I know I don’t like Birmingham.”
“We don’t know him.”
“It wasn’t his place to tell others what we were doing.”
“Ah. Maybe he thinks we need looking after.”
“I don’t know. I don’t like it. Anyway, we’ve got threeminutes. We need to hurry down the lane. I think the main entry is ahead.”
And it was. Huge, stark, and in Gothic decay despiterevitalization, the main entry awaited them. They rushed ahead, ready to meettheir guide.
And enter the Highgate realm of the dead.
Chapter 4
Cheyenne quickly determined that Monte Bolton was a goodguide. From the start, he seemed eager to meet them, curious, friendly, andready to answer any questions.
He was in his early forties but moved with the agility andenthusiasm of a much younger man and was obviously very knowledgeable.
Cheyenne immediately liked him and his easy manner.
He wore a simple tailored shirt and jeans, brushing a lockof sandy hair from his forehead before they shook hands.
“I hear you two are intrigued. And I’m impressed,” hegushed. “You’re from Louisiana, right? They have quite amazing cemeteriesthere, as well, yes? Cities of the Dead! One day, I’ll get there.”
“Yes, we’re from Louisiana, but we live in D.C. now,” Andretold him. “And this…well, it’s huge, for one. And the landscaping…remarkable.”
“So many buried here,” Monte told him. “You don’t mindwalking, do you?”
“Not at all,” Cheyenne assured him. “We’re grateful to you.”
“Not a problem. My, uh, cousin asked me to do this,” hesaid.
“Your cousin?” Andre asked.
“Inspector Michael Adair.” Monte lowered his voice slightly,though there was no one around to hear.
“He and old Birmingham get along all right, but Mike thinksBirmingham is being a wanker. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be here—and helpingif possible. So, cousin Mikey called to make sure I gave you the old A-1 tour.And I hope to!”
“We’re sure you will.”
“The stakes are high for me, eh? I mean, you come fromLouisiana. I’ve seen pictures and have read up on some of your places. Fantastic.”Again, he lowered his voice. “And this Krewe thing of yours…it’s intriguing. Doyou really solve just about everything?”
“We try our hardest,” Cheyenne said.
“Deep, dark secrets of the investigations?” he asked.
“We go through the academy. We work all hours of the day.Pretty much like any law enforcement officers,” Andre said.
They headed through the cemetery, Monte pointing out variousspecial graves, either because of the person buried there or thefunerary art.
One grave with an obelisk marker set by a stunning weepingangel, caught Cheyenne’s attention. The epitaph was beautiful.
Here lies she in beauty and grace,
Kind in soul and gentle in face,
And surely now with angels she soars,
Watching over all she adores,
For goodness ruled her every breath
Stolen so cruelly, unto death.
Oh, bitter loss, while we shed tears
Let her killer know new fears
For in Heaven she will gently tread
Eternal, while flames shall fill the other with dread.
“Lovely, and so sad! I’m taking this to mean she wasmurdered?” she asked softly, thinking Andre was still at her side. But he was abit away, studying a small mausoleum tomb created in the Egyptian style.
She thought he looked at the tomb but also…
Beyond it.
Monte was talking and moving ahead. “See the cherubs? Severalchildren are buried here. There was a time in London when four out of fivechildren died at tender ages.”
Cheyenne and Andre looked at one another and smiled. Theirguide assumed they were still with him, so they hurried to catch up.
Art was plentiful, diverse, and fantastic in the cemetery.There were various styles of monuments such as pianos and other instruments,those that celebrated pets and animals and, of course, weeping angels, life-sizeChrist statues, and children with lambs. Many graves were merely headstones,but others were so much more.
“The owners of the cemetery could no longer maintain it backin 1975, so it was closed, and the gates were locked. But, eventually, theFriends of Highgate Cemetery took over and did a tremendous amount of workrestoring what they could. Imagine first the ground. It rises and falls. Overtime, it shifts naturally. Trees and underbrush take over. But a good deal ofwork has preserved much of what was,” Monte informed them as they moved.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Cheyenne observed.
“Yes, it follows the concept of a garden cemetery. First,think back to Christian history. Burials were customarily done in churchyards,but then populations soared, and space became scarce. In England, entrepreneurscreated private burial grounds, but corruption was rampant, coffins werere-used, and bodies were dumped. And, of course,” Monte said, “there wereghouls who stole bodies to sell to medical schools and then took to creatingtheir own corpses—à la the infamous Scots, Burke and Hare! Now, the greatarchitect—and scholar, astrologist, mathematician, and so on—Sir ChristopherWren, was ahead of his time. In the 1600s, he stated that cemeteries should beat the city limits. But after people started to complain—especially after feveroutbreaks—that it was terribly unhealthy and that the dead were killing theliving, the idea became far more mainstream. It took a few hundred years, moreincreases in population, fevers, and so on, but the great Victorian cemeteriessprung up around London. Highgate opened in 1839. There are in-ground burialspots, tombs, small family mausoleums, huge family crypts, catacombs, statues,monuments, and more.”
He stopped and spread out his arms, indicating the areawhere they now stood. “There is nothing else in the world like this. The Circleof Lebanon. These magnificent—or magnificently creepy—catacombs we see here,allowed for families to be together. Or individuals to be buried. The Egyptianthing—some people wanted their remains to be above ground. Remember, theVictorians were fascinated by all things Egyptian, so you have Egyptian Avenue,the beautiful arch, the chapel, and so much more. But there are so many typesof graves and
