Dark Rites--A Paranormal Romance Novel Read online

  “Right where I’m pointing,” Graves said.

  For a moment, Griffin couldn’t see anything. Then he saw what appeared to be a slight scratch on the bone.

  It was easy enough to see, once it had been pointed out to him.

  The flesh was all but gone.

  “Her throat was slit,” Griffin said.

  Graves nodded. “Her throat was slit. I have a feeling that, if we disinter the young lady supposedly killed by a bear attack, we’ll find similar marks. Here’s the thing. I’m taking nothing away from the previous coroner. The victim—Brenda Noonan—was found in a terrible state, completely decomposed, just about. We have had a few bear attacks in the area. Lost in the woods, wandering... Even if the bear hadn’t killed her, it was more than possible that a bear had mauled her remains, or that other creatures had set in on her.”

  “We were already looking to disinter Brenda,” Griffin told him. “My colleague was working on paperwork to make it happen earlier today,” he assured him.

  Graves looked unhappy. “There’s talk, you know. There’s always talk around here. Wild parties out in the forest! Usually they tend to be frat parties—kids who come out here from Amherst, or one of the colleges in Worcester or elsewhere around the state. Most of the time, when we hear about something illegal going on, it’s because of a bunch of drunk frat boys. But...”

  “But?”

  “There’s talk. There’s always talk. A tourist heard something crashing through the woods. Bigfoot, usually—and, if bigfoot were to exist, hell, why not in the midst of deep woods like these. They’ve reported hearing music. Oh, of course people hear all kinds of things, late at night, in the woods. Ghosts. A lot of people enjoy creating drama. There are stories that there were old farmers who didn’t want to leave the Swift River Valley—they died, flooded out. There are stories that all the graves weren’t moved when the valley was flooded—the ghosts of those who were ignored rise above the water at night, calling out for help.”

  “Dr. Graves, we believe that there is a Satanist cult alive and well and working in the area somewhere.”

  “And I believe they’re killing a girl once a month,” Dr. Graves said.

  Griffin hadn’t realized that Vickie had come to stand beside him at the back of the ambulance. She was staring in at the corpse—at what remained of the corpse.

  “I think that Dr. Graves is right,” she said. “Maybe Brenda Noonan was his first victim—and he hadn’t learned how to dispose of the bodies. Or maybe he was just learning with her. But I do think that he’s killing once a month. Once a month—possibly when the moon is full. Referencing many religions and cults, there’s power in a full moon.”

  “Just two days to go until the next full moon,” Dr. Graves pointed out.

  “Just two days,” Griffin murmured.

  He looked around. Night was falling on the Quabbin. The water glistened, bizarrely serene and peaceful. In the half-light, it was all exceptionally beautiful.

  Endlessly big, or so it seemed. Old mountaintops now perching here and there in the water, having become little islands.

  The forests grew darker, cloaked in mystery as the day came to an end.

  “Forty-eight hours,” Vickie said. “Griffin, two days. If that’s true, we have just two days to save a woman who is being held out there somewhere. And Alex... Alex is out here.”

  “There’s a slim chance. Vickie, we all want to catch this guy—just as quickly as possible.”

  “Of course. But this guy has something special planned. He wants to know where Jehovah is. And he’s killing a woman a month now, at every full moon! I am so afraid.”

  Griffin realized that he didn’t know if the woman was or wasn’t alive; he didn’t know if Alex Maple was still living.

  He was very afraid that someone else was going to die.

  And, looking at Vickie, he was suddenly very frightened that the killer intended for it to be her.

  14

  “I know you’re going to argue with me, but I really believe that it’s absolutely too dangerous for you to stay here,” Griffin told Vickie.

  She stared back at him, frustrated. That afternoon—between Gloria’s words and reading the book by Nathaniel Alden—she felt as if she was coming closer than she’d ever come before to figuring out just what was going on.

  She shook her head.

  With all the officers from various departments milling about, and Griffin by her side, she couldn’t feel safer, really.

  “Griffin, that’s just being ridiculous,” she said. Though she was uneasy. She hadn’t mentioned anything to him about the part in her nightmare where it had been indicated that she might be in danger. She didn’t understand why he had suddenly decided that she shouldn’t be involved.

  “Ridiculous? You’re a civilian,” he reminded her.

  “I was a civilian when you came and asked for my help during the Undertaker case!” she reminded him. “Griffin, you need me. And where are you going to send me? Helena Matthews from Rhode Island was apparently abducted in Fall River. We don’t know where the other victims came from—because we don’t know who they are. Seriously, just where would you send me?” she demanded.

  “Virginia,” he said flatly.

  “What?”

  “Virginia. Let me finish—if they know you’re out of the picture, it may be a catalyst,” Griffin told her. “Someone might make a mistake. It could help us.”

  “Or get someone else killed,” Vickie snapped.

  “Okay, sorry, stepping in here!” Devin said, glancing at Rocky and then taking a deep breath and literally standing between Vickie and Griffin. “Vickie, we can keep in contact with you daily. Or they can. I can go with you. We—as in the Krewe of Hunters—have a safe house in Virginia with all kinds of alarms and bells and a half dozen agents on call at any time. You can be in constant contact, but there, you’re also safe. If this killer has a thing for you, as we suspect from the things Gloria said, it doesn’t have anything to do with being a civilian, or less capable, or anything of the like. Sometimes we have to step back. If we’re being targeted, we just have to step back.”

  Vickie looked at her. Devin had spoken earnestly. She was speaking the truth.

  But it wasn’t right.

  Vickie let out a breath. “Let’s sleep on this, please?” she asked Griffin. “You’ve been teaching me to shoot—I’m not bad. I’ll be with you. Rocky and Devin are with us. Please, let’s just sleep on it!” she begged.

  Griffin looked at Rocky, who looked at Devin, who looked at her.

  “You can’t make me go,” she said flatly.

  “Try me,” Griffin told her.

  She smiled. “Hmm. Lots of cops around here. And not all of them like special agents.”

  “Oh, really?” he inquired. His tone was cold and distant.

  Angry.

  “I’m not saying that you’re wrong. I’m saying that we need to sleep on it,” Vickie begged.

  “It’s late. It’s been a really long day,” Devin said. She was trying very hard to sound bright and cheerful.

  Griffin nodded. “All right,” he said, glancing at his watch. “Dinner? Is anything still open around here?” he asked.

  “The place we went this morning. It’s open until midnight—I saw it on one of the signs,” Devin told them.

  A half hour later, they had gathered there.

  Once again, Charlie Oakley was there, as well. Griffin excused himself the minute they got into the restaurant and saw him, speaking with Charlie where he sat.

  He looked to be just finishing up.

  “Why isn’t he asking him to join us?” Vickie asked, irritated.

  “Maybe he thinks we need to talk as agents, and doesn’t want a retired cop around,” Rocky said.

 
Vickie watched. Griffin just spoke with the man, and then excused himself because his phone was ringing.

  She watched Griffin’s expression. He gave little away.

  He hung up, said something else to Charlie and then came over to join Rocky, Devin and Vickie.

  “We could have all spoken with him,” Vickie said. “We could have found out what he’s been doing all day.”

  “He’s heading home now. I did ask him to join us. He said thanks, but he’s worn out—he’s been walking in the forest,” Griffin said.

  “Walking where? The area is huge,” Rocky said.

  “He wasn’t specific,” Griffin told them. “He was with Isaac Sherman for part of it. Charlie still seems pretty tough. I just hope that Isaac Sherman can hold his own if...”

  “If a mob of Satan-worshippers comes after them?”

  “Whatever is happening, the main person has tremendous control over the others. And he considers them all to be expendable. In a fight, he’d sacrifice everyone he has. He wouldn’t think twice,” Griffin said. He hesitated. “That’s where this is most frightening. He has the power to make people commit suicide. I’m very afraid of how many young people he has with him, listening to his rhetoric—besides those he intends to use as ‘Mary’ receptacles for his own entertainment or to create his own tribe. I have a feeling it’s more for his entertainment. But he managed to get people to attack others in Boston—and when Darryl Hillford was caught, he killed himself. Gloria Martin nearly killed herself. In fact, I’m worried about people just enjoying the wildlife and the trails in the Quabbin area.”

  He paused, looking at Vickie. “You might have been on to something else, too.”

  “What’s that?” Vickie asked.

  “Angela Hawkins just called from our main office. Our best people have been on it all day—and they still haven’t found out where Cathy and Ron Dearborn are really from. They were scheduled to play a number of parks in Worcester—they canceled. Just out of the clear blue. They are now entirely in the wind, too.”

  “They’re gathering!” Vickie said.

  “Maybe,” Griffin said. “Which makes it all the more important that you—”

  “That I find Jehovah by tomorrow, and figure out exactly what it is that this person really wants!” Vickie said.

  “You don’t think that...that he wants Satan to come to earth?” Devin asked.

  “I think that Ezekiel Martin was a spoiled rich kid who didn’t get his way. He lived in a repressed society. He couldn’t get what he wanted one way. He was going to get it in another. Listen! He left behind the main congregation and the larger cities or towns. He wanted to live as a lord—he became a high priest, rather than a minister. He eventually wanted to create a world where he lived in splendor, I believe.”

  “And what would that have to do with now?”

  “This ass isn’t trying to bring Satan to earth—he’s trying to find the treasure that Ezekiel Martin left here on earth,” Vickie said.

  “How close are you to finding Jehovah?” Griffin asked her.

  Vickie made a tiny measurement with her fingers. “This close. I need to finish the book—the Alden book on Ezekiel—and then drive the circumference of the Quabbin. I’m pretty sure I can find the landscape that Alden talks about.”

  “What are we looking for?” Rocky asked.

  “First, dinner—waitress!” Devin warned.

  They ordered. Before Vickie could start describing what they were looking for, she noted that their co-guest at the bed-and-breakfast—Isaac Sherman—had come in.

  He appeared to be looking for them, and she wondered how he would have known that they were here—unless, of course, he was aware that they ate late and there weren’t many places open that late in the vicinity.

  He waved, and hurried over to join them.

  “May I?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Vickie said.

  Griffin skooched over in the booth and she did the same and Isaac sat by her side.

  “I heard another body was found,” he said. “Brenda... Brenda was a year ago. It made me think there may be a lot more,” he told them grimly.

  “Yes, they found another body,” Griffin said. “And we have to hope that there aren’t any more. We just saw Charlie Oakley. He said that you were walking with him today.”

  Isaac nodded. “Yes, I was out with him. Someone out there—those murderers are keeping up some kind of a... I don’t know! A campground. Or they’ve made houses deep in the woods. But I know it—they’re out there somewhere.”

  “Did you find anything?” Vickie asked.

  “Charlie picked up some cigarette butts and beer cans. Probably from kids fooling around in the woods, but...hey, do Satanists smoke? Cigarettes, I mean. And do they drink beer?”

  “None of us is an expert, I’m afraid. And I don’t think there are hard and fast rules. I imagine that someone is making a lot of it up as they go along,” Griffin told him.

  “Well, anyway, can’t hurt to look, right?”

  “Just so long as you and Charlie are careful,” Rocky said.

  “We’re careful. He still has a license to carry a gun, so we’re good,” Isaac said.

  Griffin glanced at Rocky, and Vickie was pretty sure they were worried about the others who might be out there. Charlie seemed to be a little too involved, although it was certainly possible to understand his emotion over the case that haunted him still.

  “How long do you have out here, Isaac, before you have to be back at work?” Devin asked.

  “I work for myself nowadays. I’ll go back when I’m ready. Which won’t be until after you dig up Brenda,” he said, running a finger along the sugar container.

  Their food arrived.

  “Did you want something to eat?” Griffin invited Isaac. “Coffee, anything?”

  Isaac smiled at the waitress and then them, a slightly apologetic smile. “I’m going to leave you to your dinner, late as it is. I just wanted... I just want her killer caught. And,” he added, his voice growing husky, “I want them to stop saying that she was killed by a bear.”

  “We’ll tell you what we uncover, Isaac,” Griffin said.

  “Legally, I can be there, right?” Isaac asked.

  No one answered for a minute.

  “Legally, you can be at the cemetery, yes,” Griffin said. “But...not at the morgue. The ME we have working with us is Dr. Graves. He’s excellent.”

  “You’re kidding,” Isaac said.

  “Dr. Evan Graves,” Rocky said, “and he is really good at his job. He’ll get answers for us.”

  “I don’t want to see her, but... I feel I should be there when you...when you dig her up.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” Griffin said. “We’re waiting on paperwork.”

  “You will let me know.”

  “Yes, we will,” Griffin assured him.

  Isaac Sherman stood up to leave. “Okay, then. Enjoy dinner. I’ll be seeing you.”

  He gave them a wave and headed out of the restaurant.

  “That’s scary,” Rocky said. “Him and Charlie Oakley, running around the Quabbin with a gun.”

  “A little scary. Charlie does have training—and when he left the police force, he worked security. I’m sure they’re... Okay, I hope they’re fine. If he’s licensed, there’s nothing we can do. He has the right to walk in the woods.”

  “I need to drive around the Quabbin. See the access roads. And,” Vickie added, “I need to use the printer at the police station. I want to scan a map from the Nathaniel Alden book and a map from the present site of the Quabbin. I can make an overlay, and see how they work together.”

  “You don’t need to do that,” Devin said. “I can take pictures with my phone and get them to the main office. They can mock up what you
want.”

  “Can we do that tonight?” Vickie asked.

  “Yes, of course. You’ll have anything you want by the morning.”

  “So, let’s eat up,” Vickie said, “and get back!”

  “Fine, but you’re never anywhere without one of us!” Griffin said.

  She nodded, lowering her head slightly. “Hey. I do remember being buried alive by the Undertakers! I plan on being careful—so careful it will make you crazy!” she promised.

  * * *

  The bed-and-breakfast was quiet when they made it back for the night.

  Vickie showed Devin the Nathaniel Alden book in the empty dining room, and Devin took pictures of the map that was in the book.

  “I really think that this map is the key,” Vickie said. “I think it’s the reason that Professor Hanson wanted the book.”

  “Maybe,” Devin told Vickie. “But you have to be careful and not see people as guilty because you don’t like them.”

  “I do know that. Honestly. But he’s missing—that means he could be out here. He would have been around twenty or twenty-two back when Sheena Petrie was killed. His image is that which two of the best artists I know came up with from descriptions linking him to Helena Matthews before she disappeared.”

  “There is an APB out on him,” Devin assured her.

  “They’ll arrest him?”

  “They’ll bring him in for questioning when they find him. The fact that he was with her—and that he’s old enough to have killed Sheena Petrie—isn’t enough for an indictment.”

  “But what about a lineup? Those gas station attendants might recognize him!”

  “Even if the brothers were to identify him, it’s still an eyewitness account, and we’d need a lot more to take to court.”

  “People are dying.”

  “That’s why they’ll bring him in, get search warrants going...all that,” Devin assured her. “But you have to remember, it may not be him.”

  “I’ll try. He’s looking very suspicious to me. Why else would he want that book?”

  “Maybe we need to be grateful he was just after the book, and didn’t kidnap you to interpret it, the way they took Alex,” Devin said quietly.