Bad Bones (13 page)

Gabe looked back at his house, then walked over to the Toyota where Stella was waiting for him. He felt exhausted, but no surprises there as he hadn’t slept that well, and he’d had to get up earlier than he’d wanted so that he could have time to talk to Remy before Stella came. If she was asked, Remy had promised – cross her heart and hope to die – to say she’d seen a strange man, and that she’d told him about it. In return, Gabe had had to swear to be nice to her forever, and buy her a present. His little sister drove a hard bargain.

“Thanks for doing this, Stella.” Gabe felt back for his seat belt, found it and put it on. “I cannot believe last night, and I cannot believe you are here, driving my sorry bones around, my bike still in the back of your car. Sorry about that… Sorry about everything.”

“A girl’s gotta do.” Stella started the car. “You
have to get that medallion to Father Simon, and this is the quickest way it’s going to get done.”

“After everything you saw? I figured you’d drop me and Remy off and that’d be the last I’d ever see of you. Really.” As Stella drove away from his house Gabe leant forward. He stared at the dashboard and massaged his temples while he talked. “I mean the whole school thing – breaking in? That was big, but it was
kinder
garten compared to what happened at Janna’s. I don’t even remember a half of what went on there, which, considering what I do remember, is probably a good thing.”

He glanced at Stella. “I mean, really? I was sure there was no way I was gonna get off this thing lightly, but all I got was my dad wondering how I knew something was going on at Janna’s.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Made some shit up about seeing some guy hanging round.”

“He bought it?”

“Uh-huh,” Gabe nodded.

Stella slowed to a halt at a junction. “Do you always go to such lengths to make yourself seem interesting on a first date?”

Gabe looked at her, amazed.
First date?

“I gotta say –” Stella turned right – “you
really
freaked me out, the way you looked when that guy – what did Father Simon say his name was?”

“Rafael.”

“Right… When he came into the room with the, you know…”

“Coyote?”

“Yeah. Teeth on legs. I thought you were going to, I don’t know what I thought… It was like you’d gone
totally
catatonic? But you were amazing, especially when the cops came to Janna’s house. No panic, just went with the flow, didn’t say too much of anything and let people make their own minds up about what’d gone down. Genius. Let them have it whichever way they want, whatever way makes sense to them.”

“What did you say when they asked you about what happened?”

“Nothing. Acted all girly, cried a bit and took care of Remy. They left me alone.”

“OK…” Gabe smiled.

“I can do ‘all girly’ when I need to!” Stella punched Gabe’s arm lightly. “And now
you
have to tell me,
now there’s just the two of us, what was going on with you and that weirdo? The bleeding, and your face? I mean you looked like you were screaming, but no noise – and all the intense staring, after you’d been trying to bust each other’s faces apart? Man, that was so bizarre.”

Gabe quit looking at Stella and stared out of the car window. Bizarre wasn’t the half of it; he figured the only reason he hadn’t been hauled off to a Psych Ward somewhere was that he didn’t have the energy to have a meltdown. But what was he supposed to tell her? The truth? Oh right.
That
was going to see him get a second date.

“Just tell me, Gabe. How bad can it be?”

Gabe glanced at Stella and then looked out of the window again. “Oh, I don’t know, pretty bad.”

“Come on, no secrets.”

“I’m hungry, you know?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I can’t be totally honest on an empty stomach, and I mostly skipped breakfast.”

Stella pointed at the dash. “Emergency peanut M&M’s stash is in the glove compartment.”

“Cool.” Gabe opened the packet, lodged it in
the central console and took a handful. This was it. “So, the thing of it is, I can hear him, that guy Rafael? I can hear him in my head, Stella. Right
inside
my head. He talks to me. And I can, you know … talk to him. He told me we were connected. And the creepiest thing? D’you remember how I described him?”

Gabe could see the expression on Stella’s face change.

“Yeah, I do… You said he was an old guy.”

“Right, and now he’s a
lot
younger than the first time I saw him.”

In the silence that followed, Gabe’s imagination ran around doing somersaults, constructing all the different ways Stella could/would/should react to what he’d said. None of them very positive.

“OK, right … that is certifiably weird.” Stella took some M&M’s. “So did he say anything else?”

“You don’t think any of this means I’m insane?”

“Yeah, sure, it sounds crazy, but if you say that’s what happened, I believe you. I saw
some
thing going on between the two of you, and actually what you just told me is about as logical an explanation as anything else I can think of right now. Kinda fits
with the rest of the scenario, right?”

Gabe took a handful more candy, wondering at this girl’s ability to stay calm in the face of a crisis; OK, so it was his crisis, his head that had been invaded by The Insane Undead Creature from the Canyon, but still, there were no visible signs she was freaking out. “He said I couldn’t break the connection, and that I had to give him back everything I’d taken. All of it, he said… Give him all of it.”

“Don’t think that sounds like such a great idea, somehow. Leastways, that was the vibe I was getting from Father Simon.”

“But what’s
he
gonna do with it? You know, the gold? Some sort of exorcism ceremony?”

“No idea.”

“D’you think he’ll have to do the same kind of thing with me, to break the connection with…” Gabe stifled a yawn, and blinked gritty eyes. “Sorry, I’m kinda blitzo…”

“Not surprised. I wonder why he just left…”

“Who?”

“What was his name? The man, Rafael… Why’d he just up and leave like that?”

“No idea…”

“One minute he looked like he could spit bricks, the next he just walked out the house.”

Gabe remembered what this Rafael person had said. Something about how he had come to him… ‘
You came to me, you found me
,’ that’s what he’d said. And then the man had repeated that he had to return everything.

“Gabe?”

“Sorry … I was just, you know, thinking…”

“And?”

“And I think he didn’t kill me because he needs me.”

After there’d been no reply to ringing the bell or knocking, Stella tried the door to the rectory.

“I don’t think it’s ever locked,” she said, turning the handle. The door swung open with hardly a sound, revealing a dark, empty hallway leading down to the Father’s study door at the end.

For the third time Gabe found himself about to enter what appeared to be an empty house. But maybe it meant nothing. Maybe the Father was already over at the church doing a service, what did he know? He stood on the threshold, the possibility he might have to face another round of ear-bleeding brain damage making him about ready to throw up. But he knew there was no way he could let Stella go in alone. They had to find out if Father Simon was all right.

“Father?” Stella walked into the hallway, reaching to her left and flicking on the hall lights. “Are you there?”

Swallowing hard, Gabe followed her inside and closed the door. The click of the latch seemed oddly loud in the eerie quiet of the house. They went down the hall, it felt in slo-mo, Gabe noting that the doors to each room they passed, two on either side, were shut. Which did not mean anything at all. He kept walking and as Stella reached for the study’s door handle he beat her to it.

“I’ll go first…”

Gabe stood in the doorway scanning the room, but there was no sign of Father Simon, dead or alive. The place looked exactly the way it had when he’d first walked in, just yesterday. The same, except for a number of open books on the Father’s desk, and more of the same, plus a yellow legal pad, piled on the low table. Research, old-school, pre-Google style, Gabe thought, then saw there was a closed laptop among the books.

No body, no blood spatter, no Father Simon. And no sign of the gold pieces from the canyon.

“You thought I might, like, faint or something, Gabe?”

Stella came from behind Gabe and went over to the desk, where she started looking at the books.

“No, but he’s your friend. I didn’t want you to have to see what I thought might be here.”

“Oh, OK…” Stella looked up and flashed him a smile. “Thank you.”

Gabe walked round the settee to the table and picked up the legal tablet. There was some writing at the top of the page, a message a few lines long in pencil, and a ragged edge where the bottom third had been roughly torn off.

“There’s a note, Stella.”

“What? What does it say?”

“Guy shoulda been a doctor, his handwriting’s so bad.” Gabe squinted at the paper.

“Here, let me see.” Stella took the pad, went over to the desk and turned on the lamp. “‘Stella and Gabriel’,” she read, holding the pad close to the light, “‘I couldn’t wait for you to come back here as there is something I’ve had to deal with as a matter of urgency. If you have brought the last piece with you, please leave it in the top right-hand drawer of my desk. Lock the drawer and take the key with you’.”

“He went without us?”

“Looks like it –” Stella bent down closer to the pad
– “and it also looks like he might’ve written down the address of where he went – I need a pencil!”

“But the thing is,
when
did he go? For all we know it might’ve been last night.” Gabe wandered over to the table to see if he could work out what the Father had been looking for in the books and saw a green light pulsing on the laptop’s front edge. It hadn’t been turned off, and an idea parachuted lazily into his head. Gabe sat down, flipped open the laptop and brought up Father Simon’s browser. He was still using Safari, and the machine was old and slow, but finally Gabe accessed the browser’s Recent History drop-down and smiled when he saw the last site the Father had gone to – a page on Wikipedia.

“Pretty sure he’s gone to something called ‘Mission San Sebastian de los Ángeles’ –” Gabe double-clicked and brought the page up – “in Mission Hills.”

“How…?” Stella looked up from trying to figure out what the Father had written by rubbing a pencil over the imprint left on the second page of the legal pad.

“Magic fingers.” Gabe clicked and clicked again. A small all-in-one on top of a two-drawer filing cabinet next to the Father’s desk chugged into life and started to print.

“You, Gabriel my friend, are either deaf as I do not know what, or got
way
less smarts than I had you pegged for.”

As Stella turned to go to her car, Gabe spun round awkwardly, like he was doing a dance move he hadn’t practised nearly enough. Coming out of Father Simon’s house, neither of them had noticed the pale grey van parked the other side of the street from the rectory. Benny, a lit cigarette stuck in the side of his mean little mouth, was rolling the half-open window the rest of the way down as he spoke.

“You think he’s deaf or stupid, Nate?” Benny said, head on one side.

Looking over his shoulder, Gabe saw Nate Kansky, Benny’s other go-to guy, standing by Stella’s car. As Scotty was no doubt behind the wheel, the full bozo crew was out today.

“Musta got the brains of a hammer ain’t got no head, my opinion.”

“I think you have that right, Nate, nailed it in one.” Benny got out of the van, took a drag and pointed at Gabe, the cigarette between his fingers. “I thought I had made myself, you know, clear, Gabriel. Told you to stay away from little Miss Grainger here? Right? Didn’t I do that?”

Even if he’d been trying to imagine how a day could go downhill any quicker, Gabe was pretty sure it would have taken him some time to come up with this scenario.

“What are you—?”

“I’m not talking to you, missy,” Benny cut Stella off. “Not yet anyways.” He turned back to Gabe and held up the cigarette by its tip, like it was evidence in a trial. “See this? See what you have made me do? I was going so good, until you started acting stupid, Gabriel, not doing what you’d been told.”

Benny flicked the cigarette at Gabe. It missed, sailing over his left shoulder.

“But I am gonna deal with you later –” Benny signalled to Nate – “as I have other business to attend to now.”

Nate, left arm around Stella, had his right hand over her mouth. As he hustled her towards the van, Gabe grabbed at his shirt and tried to haul him back, stopping only when he saw the large gun that had appeared in Benny’s hand.

“Later, Gabriel.” Benny waved the barrel, a little up, a little down. “You hear me now? You feel me?”

Gabe nodded without even thinking, one eye on Stella, struggling hard as she was shoved into the rear of the van. Nate got in after her and slid the door shut. He kept his other eye on Benny and the gun. Benny who had no doubt been watching back-to-back gangsta movies, the way he was talking.

“Don’t deal with her, deal with
me
, Benny!” Gabe shouted. He couldn’t believe this was all going down on a nice suburban street,
and
outside a rectory. Where were all the curtain-twitching neighbours when you needed them? “This is all my fault, not hers.”

“No fret, guy, you-all will have your turn.” Benny smiled, spat and got back in the van. He leant out of the window. “As the cops like to say, ‘Don’t leave town’.”

Gabe watched the Chevy van drive off down the street in total disbelief. How was it possible that
Benny had found them? Except somehow he had and now he’d got Stella. Gabe wanted to slap himself in the face – he’d let Benny take Stella, and done nothing to stop him! Apart from not get himself shot. He was worse than useless. And what was he going to do now, how was he going to get the medallion to Father Simon? Because they hadn’t left it locked in the drawer, like he’d asked, they were on their way to… Gabe’s jaw dropped.

The medallion was in Stella’s bag! It’d be safer in there, she’d said…

Gabe’s heart sank as the full, ghastly implication of what had just occurred slowly revealed itself.

Benny had Stella. Stella had the medallion, and the car keys. And he was left standing on the sidewalk, unable to do anything. On top of which, his bike was in the car. But even if it wasn’t, what could he do? Chase after Benny on two wheels?

He paced up and down, cursing himself for not having been exposed to mega doses of gamma radiation, or whatever else you had to do to become a superhero and leap tall buildings, trash your enemies with your retractable metal claws and save the day. Which was when he saw something on
the asphalt, glinting in the early-morning sunlight. He went over, bent down and picked up Stella’s car keys. Had she dropped them by accident, or on purpose? He looked at the car. At least now he could get his bike. Or…

Gabe stood up. He didn’t have a full driver’s licence but he could drive, kind of. No, he could, he’d had a
lot
of time behind the wheel with his dad, practising in parking lots and side streets and suchlike. But his dad had lost his job and the project ground to a halt. He stared at the Toyota. If he was careful … if he was lucky … he could get away with it.

“But where?” Gabe whispered to himself, thunderclouds of frustration making it hard to think. If he did risk it, where was he going to drive to? It was like being a character in someone else’s game, and he was being given things, but not told what to do with them. Did he go back to Stella’s house, tell her parents what had happened to their daughter, and would they believe a word of what he said? Maybe the cops? Nope, that’d probably be the exact the same deal.

Gabe went over and unlocked the car.

Got in.

Closed the door.

Put the keys in the ignition.

Took a bunch of emergency M&M’s, as this sure as hell was an emergency.

Ate six or seven chocolate-covered peanuts in one go and thought about starting the car.

He wanted more than anything to believe that Benny would not do anything bad. Very stupid? Yes. Possibly motivated by the last dumb movie or TV show he’d watched? Also yes. But not real, actual bad.

Just the thought that he might hurt Stella was driving him crazy, but as there was no way he could figure out where Benny had gone with her, there was no point in wasting time trying to follow a trail that didn’t exist on a map he didn’t have. None at all.

But he did have an idea where Father Simon might be: the Mission San Sebastian de los Ángeles in Mission Hills. The site of one of the early Spanish religious settlements in what was, as Father Simon had told them, then called Alta California and part of the Spanish Empire. According to the Wikipedia pages he’d printed out and skimmed.

And the only reason he could think of for Father Simon to go there was if he thought that was where he’d find Rafael Delacruz, the resurrected man. The evil person whom he believed Gabe had brought back to life. He
had
to have gone there, with the gold, for some kind of religious version of a Dodge City cowboy showdown. Crucifixes at dawn. It would be hilarious if he didn’t have a recent and very personal experience of what the man the Father was up against was capable of.

Gabe started the car.