Dae's Christmas Past (13 page)

“What’s the verdict?” Chief Michaels got to his feet and moved the chair.

“I’m not completely sure,” the doctor said. “I think he might be high on something. He needs some stitches and has a broken wrist. We’ll have to keep him at least overnight to try to figure out what he’s taken.”

“He doesn’t do drugs,” I told him. “If he has drugs in his system, someone else gave them to him.”

“You don’t know that, Mayor,” Chief Michaels contradicted. He turned back to the emergency room doctor. “Any chance you could be finished with him sooner? He may be a suspect in a murder case.”

The doctor adjusted his glasses. “It could kill him if we don’t monitor his condition overnight.”

Chief Michaels grunted, and gave me an evil look. “That’s what I get for listening to people who aren’t in law enforcement. Officer Mabry, you stay here with the prisoner. Let me know if there’s any change.”

Chief Palo joined us, removing her hat from her sleek blond hair. “Thanks for the call, Chief Michaels. We’ll take over now.”

“I don’t think you will,” Chief Michaels told her. “It was just a courtesy call. He may be your citizen but he’s my murder suspect.”

“Please don’t fight over my patient in the hall outside his room,” the doctor said. “I have more jurisdiction here than either of you.”

“I’ll leave an officer,” Chief Palo said.

“So will I,” Chief Michaels responded. “We’ll call when we have something.”

“No need.” She smiled. “My man will be here too.”

Since I wasn’t going to hear anything else about Jake right away, and I didn’t want to hear them arguing about him, I left to wait near the x-ray room where they’d taken Gramps.

Kevin went with me. “You were right to have Jake treated first, Dae.” He settled in a chair beside me. “Sometimes I forget that I’m not in the FBI anymore.”

“I suppose it’s easy to fall back into that routine.” I sipped my coffee. “I think anyone, not involved with law enforcement, would opt for medical treatment first. They can always talk to him later. If he was drugged or poisoned, he’ll make a lot more sense when it’s out of his system.”

He put his hand on mine. “You think that’s what made him give you the statue, don’t you?”

“It wasn’t like him,” I told him. “He’s not that kind of person.”

“Everyone knows he’s in love with you.” Kevin glanced at me. “How do you feel about him?”

“Do you even have to ask?” I showed him the beautiful engagement ring on my finger. “You must know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t sneak around even if I wasn’t completely in love with you. I’m too serious to have any fun—that’s what Shayla always says.”

I told him about Shayla leaving and my feeling that she might never come back. “I’ve been having a lot of strong impressions during the last few days. Maybe it’s the horses.”

“Or maybe it’s being around another psychic, even if she only talks to animals.” He grinned. “You manage to get involved with some odd characters. It must be your other ‘gift’.”

“That’s exactly what I first thought about you. Since you worked with a psychic in the FBI, I thought that’s why you were attracted to me.”

“Are you saying I’m odd?”

I shrugged. “You must be since I get involved with odd characters.”

They brought Gramps back from x-ray. It was a different doctor, thank goodness. The break was simple and would be easy to repair. Gramps was impatient and ready to leave. Kevin and I sat with him while he waited for his cast.

“What about Jake?” Gramps asked. “How’s he doing?”

“They’re keeping him overnight for observation,” I told him. “Chiefs Michaels and Palo aren’t happy about it.”

“Not surprising. No one likes to wait for answers.” Gramps looked around the tiny cubicle. “I’m dry as a frog on a sunny day. Could you get me something to drink?”

“Let me.” Kevin put his hand on my shoulder as I started to get up. “I’m sure he’d rather you be here than me.”

“Thanks, Kevin,” Gramps said. “If you see any beer, be sure to get it.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I hugged Gramps. “What a mess. I’m glad Chris was safe, but it sure took a lot to do it.”

“The banner looks good.”

“Yeah. I hope it was worth it.”

He laughed. “It probably will be unless Jamie kills him when she gets him home.”

Kevin brought a glass of water. “You’ll just have to pretend it’s beer, Horace. They’re probably going to give you something for pain. You shouldn’t have alcohol too.”

“You mean you saw beer out there and passed it by?” Gramps chuckled. “You’re not the man I thought you were.”

“I’m sure that’s true.” Kevin sat beside me and squeezed my hand. “They definitely decided to leave Jake here overnight. He’ll have plenty of armed guards so he should be safe.”

“I hope whatever someone did to him will wear off,” I said. “Maybe we’ll have a chance to figure out what really happened to Tom while Jake is getting better.”

Kevin shook his head as he looked at Gramps. “Your granddaughter has an amazing ability to forgive.”

“Yes she does. She gets it from her mother and grandmother. She sure doesn’t get it from me. If I’d seen Jake give her that stupid horse, I might’ve shot him.”

“You would not,” I argued as the attendants returned to have Gramps’s leg put in the cast.

“We’ll never know,” he said. “You better be here when I get back.”

When he was gone, I left Kevin to go to the ladies room. What a day! I’d be glad to go home when this was over. I called Missing Pieces, and Mary Catherine said everything was fine. There were no sales but some customers had wandered through the store.

“Gramps should be done here soon. I appreciate you doing this. I’ll have Kevin pick you up and bring you to the house.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Just take care of you and Horace.”

I put away my phone and walked out of the ladies room. There was a small courtyard in the back of the building. I could see plants and shrubs surrounding some benches and a pretty fountain.

I also saw the man in the animal skins again.

Should I go out and talk to him?
It seemed stupid if he wasn’t really there. I couldn’t understand him either way. What was the point?

But I pushed open the door to the courtyard and looked around. He was waiting for me. “If you were trying to tell me that bad things were going to happen, you were right.”

He answered, waving the bone around again and jumping up and down. My visitor—whether real or imaginary—looked nervous. He kept pacing the marble stones with his bare feet.

“Do you know anything about what happened to Jake?”

He nodded as though he understood me, but didn’t still didn’t say anything that made sense.

I took a step back as he came closer. He stared directly into my eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and yellow around a pale brown iris. I didn’t have a chance to get farther away from him before his hand came down on my head. The world spun dizzily, and finally turned black.

I awakened with a start, gasping as though I’d been holding my breath. I was worried that he was going to hand me an artifact, and grateful when he didn’t, but curious about what had happened to me.

This didn’t seem like a normal vision. This felt real, as though it was happening to me at that moment. But I wasn’t in the garden at the hospital any more. I didn’t know where I was or why I was there. I wasn’t observing as usual. I was part of whatever this was.

I was sitting on a patch of rough, damp soil. It was a dark place, only lit by a few torches that sputtered, leaving shadows on the walls behind them. It appeared to be a cave.

Where were Kevin and Gramps? Were they looking for me?

The tall horse statue I’d only seen complete in my vision was right in front of me. Jake had shown me part of the head when he’d first started digging. The rest of the body had been buried in sand and dirt. It had been excavated by the archaeologists in the past few months. Why was it underground again?

Its craftsmanship was remarkable. It was a beautiful piece of work, with such detail in the dull, brown stone. How long had it taken someone to make it? This was a part of American artistry that would be a shame to lose.

And yet I’d seen it in my vision by a fire where terrible evil was being planned. The horse statue wasn’t really part of that, I reminded myself. It was the human interface that was the problem.

I got up and walked around it, careful not to touch it. Touching it might only make matters worse.

There were meticulous carvings on the legs and face. The eyes appeared almost real, gleaming in the light from the torches. Whoever had carved this had been a master.

I saw the man in the animal skins. He was huddled in a rough corner, the bone at his side. “I wish I could understand you.”

He touched his head. “You understand now.”

His words had been spoken in whatever language I’d heard before, but now I could understand them. “Because you touched me? Is that why I can understand you now?”

“You. Me. The same.” He wrapped his hands together.

The same?
“You mean we both have a psychic gift. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

I glanced around the cave. “Why did you bring me here?”

“I die here.”

“You die here now?”

There were no records of people living here a thousand years ago. There was no way of knowing who they were or what had happened to them. Perhaps there had been an earthquake that had sealed the horse in the sand. Or the sea could have risen on the island and then gone back again.

One thing I noticed—there was no way out. The walls were irregular, but no doors or any other openings existed. I was afraid to run my hand along the edges for fear of what I might find, but I grabbed a torch and searched carefully. If there was an exit, I didn’t see it.

“Now.” He nodded. “I was first. I die to keep the demons away.”

“You were the first to bring the demons through the fire?” I sat close to him for the comfort of being with another human even though we were so different. “You were punished for it?”

“Yes.” His lined face was worn and sad. “Too much killing. Not let demons out again.”

He’d been locked inside the tomb they’d made for the horse so the demons couldn’t be called again. I got it.

And I was terrified.

Panic built inside me. It was hard to breathe. The air was stale, like a basement that had been closed off for too long. The damp and mildew were beginning to bother me.

I tried to think of it rationally. I was really lying on the flagstones or grass in the courtyard at the hospital. That strange little man had touched me and brought me here but it was only in my mind. I wasn’t really here at all. There was no reason to panic. I’d wake up soon or Kevin would notice I’d been gone too long and come find me.

“What is your name?” I asked the man across from me. “I’m Dae O’Donnell. You could be an ancestor of mine.”

“Osisko.” He patted his thin chest and then drew a horse figure in the sand. “Horse man.”

“The horse was your totem.” I tried not to notice that the torches were flickering as the oxygen was used up. “That’s why you were able to call them. That’s why you have to die.”

He nodded. “Dae stop evil.”

“I hope so.”

The underground area was sealed. No air. No fire. The flames grew dimmer and began to die out. My heart fluttered with them. How many times had I asked myself what would happen if I died in a vision? If Osisko died, would I die too because he’d brought me there?

I forced myself to be calm. Any minute now, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be back at the hospital waiting for Gramps. This would all be something I could tell him and Kevin. There was really no reason to be scared. I wasn’t really here.

The last torch sputtered and died. The black was so absolute that I couldn’t even see Osisko right in front of me. I literally couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. There was nothing but endless darkness.

My breath came harder. I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped someone would wake me. I didn’t belong here. I was supposed to be in the light many years from now. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. The air whistled in and out of my lungs. I felt lightheaded and sick to my stomach.

Come on, Kevin!

I finally lay down in the sand. I couldn’t sit up anymore. I gasped for air. The world was beginning to fade away. I didn’t want to let go of my life.

It was ridiculous to even think that since I wasn’t really here.

I had to leave. Now.

My eyes closed and I said a small prayer that I wasn’t really alone in this terrible place. Then I fell asleep, or lost consciousness. I don’t know which.

That seemed to be it for Dae O’Donnell.

Then I slowly realized that there was bright light on the other side of my eyelids. I opened my eyes and looked around. I wasn’t in the dark hole with the giant horse statue and Osisko anymore. I was on a sunny beach with the one man I never expected to see again.

“And what are ye doin’ here?” a familiar voice asked.

“Am I dead?” I asked my nefarious ancestor, Rafe Masterson.

He laughed as he threw some sticks on a fire. He was the same as I recalled his ghost that had visited me when he needed help clearing his name. It was then that I’d learned that the Scourge of Duck was in my family tree.