The Edge Of The Cemetery (13 page)

All eyes turned to Aris. He was the oldest and most knowledgeable amongst us. If this was possible, he'd know. The unasked question appeared to weigh on him, and he finally replied, “If this is true, this demon has incredible power. There are a few unsubstantiated accounts of this happening, but we believe they are accurate. If a powerful demon is able to converge and live again, and is killed and rematerializes as a ghost yet again, it retains its original power, and from what we understand, it gains a great deal more. If this second life is through someone of our nature, a ghost killer or a longaevus, then that power would be exponential.” He paused and looked around the room. “It is possible that he could possess our most powerful ghost killers. He would then be in possession of your strength and speed in addition to the strength a possession brings on, it would turn you into an almost invincible weapon.”

“Well, the coroner noted that the dead guy should have been much older, so I'm guessing the second coming of Gilles was a longaevus. He might have been known in the ghost killing community. Do you have a picture we can circulate?” Pete asked.

Phil shook his head. “Not yet. The online articles didn't have pictures, but I ordered copies of all the print articles relating to this guy from the newspaper's archives, and hopefully there will be a picture. I should have them by tomorrow morning. There might be something in Vokkel's papers though, since Frankel believed that Gilles was hiding at Vokkel's school, but I just haven't had time to go through it all.” He looked embarrassed, like he was letting us down. His next statement was hurried. “I'll be staying up all night until I find it,” he finished with an apologetic smile. Phil was incredible at this stuff, and we all knew he was doing the best he could. I started to tell him that he'd done good when Carol came to his rescue.

“I'll help; two sets of eyes are better than one.” She smiled sympathetically at him. Eric, Billy, and I all agreed to help too, although I thought it might end up being a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. But at least Phil didn't feel like he'd let us down anymore.

Aris looked around. “Thank you everyone.” Turning to Billy, he asked, “Were either you or Jonas able to get anything additional from Calvin?”

She shook her head. “No, he wasn't in a talkative mood most of the day, even on our little walk. But Jonas is up there now, so maybe he's having some luck.”

“What's our next move, aside from an all-nighter in the 'sanctum'?” I gave Phil a quick smile and turned to Aris for the answer, who looked to Carol.

Carol spoke. “I got some replies on G&G about our missing ghost killers.” She looked around the room. “No one has heard from them. But there were some interesting additional posts.” She had an uneasy look in her eyes. “We've got a few more guys that haven't checked-in for a while. They were most recently seen in Northern California, and thought to be headed to us for an assist, but all attempts to contact them since early last week have gone unanswered.”

“Are you saying we have more missing GKs?” Billy asked.

Carol looked directly at her. “Well…you know how it is Billy, you used to travel all over the place. Sometimes you didn't always check-in, or just went off the grid for a bit.” She smiled, but there was no humor in it. “These guys are all nomadic like you used to be, so maybe that's what's going on.”

Billy's eyes narrowed suspiciously. “But you don't believe that, do you?”

Carol sighed. “No, not really. These days everyone has a smart phone, and they're able to check-in on G&G pretty often. These particular guys depend on us for income, so generally, they're pretty diligent about staying in touch.”

“How many is that total?” Pete asked. Now he was suspicious.

“Six.”

Pete looked over at Aris. “What are we doing about this?”

“At the moment, there is not much more we can do. Carol has posted a plea of sorts, asking them to check-in right away. In addition, she has asked anyone with information on their whereabouts to alert us.”

Without thinking, I stretched out my arms and yawned audibly. Suddenly all eyes were on me, and in an amused tone, Phil said, “Dude, we boring you or something?”

I smiled, a little embarrassed, and said, “Sorry. I didn't sleep well last night, and that drive to the Sierras really wore me out.”

Aris looked around the room, stopping ever so briefly on each of us, as if to impress the importance of what he was about to say. “I know you are all aware of the dangers Calvin, Edgar, and the musketeer present, but I would be remiss if I did not remind you all to be very careful and diligent in observance of your surroundings, both in this building and outside of it.” He rose from his chair and said, “Billy, George, while it is greatly appreciated that you want to assist in Phil's research, I do not think having our two most powerful ghost killers on the verge of exhaustion is a good idea. Perhaps one of you could decline to help and get some rest tonight instead, so you will be in top condition tomorrow while the others sleep. I believe the next few days will be quite trying, and we will all need to be at our best.”

Aris stood, making ready to take his leave, but before he got too far, I said, “Aris, we need to be sure Justine and my dad have extra protection.” Vokkel had put them both in harm's way before, and there was no doubt in my mind that Edgar would get a great deal of pleasure out of hurting them now. Aris nodded and left. Pete said he was going to check in with his men, and then head home for some sleep.

Phil smiled and said to me, “Since I'll be here all night, I guess I'm your new roomy…if we ever get to bed, that is.” The room Eric had put me in had two double beds, one of which I was dying to get in to. Phil got up and left the room with Carol and Eric following, leaving Billy and I to decide who would help Phil and who would hit the sack.

I asked her, “You okay?”

“I guess. Why wouldn't I be?”

“Because, I could tell you were hoping to get through to Calvin, that you were starting to get close to him, and now you know he was just using us. I want to be sure you're okay.”

She waved her hand aimlessly. “I'm pretty sure you were right about the possession thing. While we were in the park I asked him again how often Edgar controlled him, and he started to say that it wasn't Edgar, then he backtracked. I pushed him on it, and finally he just blurted out that Gilles was his protector, like a father.”

“That's not good. But why would he let the demon possess him? It doesn't make any sense to me.”

Her tone had turned brusque. “I don't know, George. Maybe Edgar got in his head and programmed him to think it was a good idea. I mean, we don't know the full extent of Edgar's power in that regard.” She was tired and further conversation would probably exasperate her less than shining personality, and I was too tired to defend myself at that point. But I needed to get her to back down a bit too…she'd been entirely too bitchy with everyone.

We were still sitting next to each other, and I grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she was facing me. “Look, I know you're stressed, I know all of this is pissing you off, but biting everyone's head off isn't going to make things better.” She scowled at me. “Come on Billy, stop that. We're your friends…treat us respectfully.”

She slumped a little, then looked up at me and smiled, a very pretty, genuine smile at that. “You're right, sorry.”

Getting up from my chair, I said, with deliberate exhaustion in my voice, “I'll work with Phil tonight; you go to bed.”

She shook her head. “No, I may not be in a good mood tonight.” My eyebrows shot up—a good mood was a rarity for her on any night—she punched me lightly in the arm and said, “Go to bed, you're obviously exhausted and therefore useless.” With a sly smile she continued, “I promise to be on my best behavior and do what I'm told, and I'll only stay for a few hours. That way I can get some sleep too.”

Fortunately for all of us, it was a quiet night; no nightmares and no demons, just the way I liked it. At some point Phil made it to bed, but I was so wiped out I never heard him come in. Calvin's alarm went off around 8 a.m., and like the morning before, I intercepted him in the hallway and we made our way to the kitchen together.

I made coffee and Calvin poured himself a bowl of cereal and took a seat at the table. Coffee in hand, I sat opposite him while he loudly shoveled spoonful after spoonful of cereal into his mouth. He might be really smart, but he hadn't mastered manners as far as I could tell.

“Calvin, what do Gilles and Edgar really have planned?”

He shrugged, ate more cereal, and glared at me until he swallowed his food. “Gilles wants to be human. I don't care about Edgar anymore, he scares me.”

There's an optical phenomena known as the green flash. If the conditions are just right, it will occur right before sunrise or right after sunset. A bright green spot—or flash—becomes visible just above the upper rim of the sun as it sets or rises and usually lasts for no more than a second or two. I realized when Calvin was lying; the green in his eyes, dull and lost most of the time, flashed quickly, then dimmed again, reminding me of the green flash. However, in his case it wasn't the result of a luminous heavenly-body, but instead, a bright spark of intelligent deception. I saw it just then, when he said he didn't care about Edgar.

“So how do you plan to help Gilles?”

“'Dunno yet.” Another flash, then he said, “You or Billy could do it, right?”

“Yeah, probably, but we won't. Gilles kills people Calvin…I think you know that. If we converged him, someone else would essentially need to die in the process, and God only knows what sort of person Gilles would be if he could walk the earth again. Has he ever told you about his previous life, or lives?”

“Whadda ya mean?” he asked, eyes flashing again, and even though his expression feigned ignorance, I was pretty sure he knew all about Gilles's history.

I cocked my head to the side and narrowed my eyes. I wanted him to know I was onto him. “Calvin, I think you
do
know, but in case I'm wrong, here's what
we
know; Gilles died in the 1600s in France, he was put to death for killing several people, he was a serial killer, he reemerged as a ghost many years later and started haunting people. At some point he got his ghostly self to America, and by then he was well seasoned as a powerful and nasty demon.” Still no reaction from Calvin. “He somehow managed to get converged back to human form and he was even more evil…another serial killer. Do you really want to make him human again? A tiger doesn't change its stripes. If he's walking the earth again, he'll be killing people again! Do you want that on your conscience?” I wasn't sure what conscience, if any, Calvin had, so the question was probably moot.

“You're wrong. He just wants to be human again. He isn't going to hurt anyone.” The deadpan manner in which he said this was frightening. It was clear now that he wasn't bothering to deceive me anymore, and didn't care if I believed him or not.

I leaned toward him, my jaw tight with annoyance. “Calvin, we're going to get Edgar and we're going to get Gilles, with or without your help.”

He stood up and left the room, and I got up and watched him head down the hallway and up the stairs. A few minutes later, Carol came into the kitchen carrying her tablet and cell phone.

She stopped at the table long enough to smile at me and drop off her electronics before heading to the coffee pot. Carol had a Goth sort of thing going on. Her hair was shoulder length and dyed a deep purple that bordered on black. She tended to wear similar colors in her clothes and make-up, although she maintained her attractive olive complexion, as opposed to the ghoulish white that seemed to be favored by many in the Goth community. She was wearing the same clothes from the night before—black jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a silver skull etched across its front—but her feet were bare and her studded jewelry was missing. When she sat down she rubbed her eyes, spreading the remnants of yesterday's mascara around.

“You get any sleep?” I asked.

“Yeah. I called it quits a little before one, so I logged a few hours,” she said between sips.

“Did you guys find anything in all that paper?”

“Phil started with Sam's diaries and had Billy and Eric going through boxes of stuff we brought back from Vokkel's house. I spent some time running Drew Adler, and then helped Eric and Billy for a little while. Phil was mumbling incoherently and writing notes down the whole time. They were all still going at it when I finally went to bed.”

“What did you find on Drew?”

“Well, it's not an uncommon name, so there were plenty of hits, but I didn't find anyone that fit our assumed profile of Calvin's father.” She shrugged. “Not that we have much of a profile to begin with. I posted on G&G too, and asked if anyone knew him. Since we know he was in the Ontario Province in the mid to late ʼ90s, I specified that timeframe and mentioned that he was involved with a young woman whose father was a GK. I haven't checked yet to see if there's been any responses.”

Eric and Phil wandered into the kitchen, apparently with the same goal as Carol…coffee. All three of them looked exhausted, and I felt a pang of guilt for crashing on them last night. A few minutes later, Billy groggily joined us. Phil jovially said, “Hail, hail the gangs all here!” Phil's cheerful demeanor tended to be contagious, even when the recipients were exhausted, Carol and Eric smiled in response, and much to my surprise, so did Billy. A spark of pride swept through me…our little chat the night before had actually taken root in our darling green-eyed vixen.

As everyone settled at the table, coffee in hand, Phil looked around and said, “Sam's diaries were very interesting.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

Phil got up. “Hold on, I'll be right back.” He scampered out of the room and returned a minute later with Sam's diaries and some lose sheets of paper.

“Okay, well, combined they contain about thirty-five years of entries. The first diary starts in the mid-1970s, when he was a teenager, and finishes off in mid '98, the second one is from mid '98 until he disappeared. His entries are pretty sparse…he documented where he was for the most part, and some of the things he was involved in, but just the basic facts and whether or not it paid well. The response Carol got from the G&G site seems pretty accurate if Sam's entries are to be believed. Based on what he documented and his level of involvement, I'd say he was more than a mid-level GK. He'd been employed to help in some nasty infestations, and had killed some nasty demons. And he's done a lot of work for Vokkel over the years. I guess that's what the G&G responder meant by 'playing both sides.' His work with Vokkel seems to have been mild for the most part, mostly reporting on other ghost killers that he encountered and what their power levels were, and if they were open to coming over to the dark side. Luckily, he didn't come across too many that would betray us, but he did come across a few. He only lists their first names and where and when he found them. I'll pass that on to Aris so he can try and track them.

“There are a few significant and detailed entries though. One is about a job he did in 1997, and the rest relate to his time with Calvin. So, in early 1997, Vokkel had hired another GK to hunt someone down, and in turn this GK sub-contracted some of the work to Sam. The guy Vokkel was looking for was a powerful ghost killer. Vokkel gave few details; a general description, the name Aaron, but no last name. Sam was told that the guy was very dangerous, extremely unstable, and he was only to be located, but not approached. Vokkel had told the other GK that Aaron was last seen in the Toronto area, but he was long gone by the time Sam got there. It took Sam and this other guy more than six months to get another solid lead on Aaron. They used a combination of online forums and personal networks, and each piece of information sent them to the next city, and the next, and so on. Some of his notations mention what he learned about Aaron along the way.” Phil rummaged through one of Sam's diaries…he'd put sticky tabs on various pages and thumbed through until he found what he was looking for.

“Listen to this. '
Sources say Aaron was a patient of Vokkel's in Switzerland. Description for Aaron is that of a young man. Is he also a longaevus? Also told that he's mentally unstable.
' Next he writes, '
Found Aaron. Local contacts say he had betrayed Vokkel and there was a bounty on his head, but not even the most powerful GKs were willing to go after him, very interesting.
' ” He paused to flip to another tab. “This is a later notation, '
Observed him for several days. He's been seeing a woman, she's pregnant. His? Witnessed him kill a man last night, tore him from limb to limb like a crazed animal. Will report, but no more.
'

“Apparently, Vokkel was desperate to know who the woman was, but Sam told his contact that he never got a good look at her face and didn't know who she was. Vokkel wanted them to pursue it, but he refused. He made a side note in 1999 stating that another GK had told him that Aaron was dead, and that it was rumored that Edgar had killed him at Vokkel's behest.” Phil looked up, eyes bright and large. “Pretty ominous stuff.”

“I suppose, but what does it have to do with Calvin?” I asked.

“I'm getting to that,” he smiled. “All right, so in 2004, Vokkel hired Sam for '
an extremely sensitive and important project.
' He wanted Sam to become Calvin's tutor/bodyguard. Sam wanted to know what was so important about the kid, and Vokkel told him the boy's father was one of the most gifted and powerful ghost killers that ever lived and the boy had the potential to be the same, if not more. But it was imperative they keep the kid's existence a secret. He also told Sam that he wasn't to teach Calvin about ghost killing…he was only to observe and document what Calvin did in relation to ghosts, and what the boy's instincts were when he encountered them. Sam figured that Vokkel didn't want the Watchers or other GKs to know about the kid, and Vokkel was paying him an obscene amount of money, so he agreed to take on the job without further questions.

“For the first few years Sam notes that the kid is learning his reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. without any issues, but he notes the kid is sort of strange, introverted, and doesn't want to hang out with other kids, but likes to go up and see Uncle Leo. On one occasion Gail asked Sam to drive the kid up to Leo's for the weekend, and that's when he sees Gilles for the first time. The kid's about eleven years old at this point. He notes that Gilles isn't haunting Leo and he asks the kid about him. The kid says that Gilles is his friend and has been hanging out at Leo's for at least a year. This sort of alarms Sam, because he realizes that Gilles is a really old ghost, and he can sense that he isn't a good one. So he tells Vokkel, and apparently Vokkel is thrilled about it and comes up right away to see Calvin, and Sam overhears the conversation. Vokkel tells Calvin that Gilles has come to guide him, that it's all written in the prophecy, and Calvin's destiny is intertwined with Gilles's. He said that one day, they will join as one and their power will be immense. He explains to Calvin that now that Gilles has arrived, the prophecy is being fulfilled.

“Like Gail told you, Vokkel and Edgar visited a few times a year up until the last couple of years. In the more recent years, Vokkel and Calvin would retreat to Calvin's room and talk for hours. Sometimes Sam would just leave for the day, but other times he'd stay in his own room. The two bedrooms shared a heater vent, and for the most part, Sam could hear what was being said. Vokkel had started to teach Calvin a foreign language that he didn't recognize. Sometimes, when Calvin repeated the phrases that Vokkel was teaching him, they sounded like chanting or prayers or something.”

Phil paused long enough to insure he had our rapt attention, then smiled and continued. “When Vokkel heard about Leo's death, he made a special trip up to see Calvin. Sam was in his room and overheard the conversation clearly because Vokkel was pissed and sort of yelling. He assumed that Calvin had tried to perform the convergence with Gilles and Leo and he was scolding Calvin, telling him that Gilles was not to be converged until the specified time, and that time was almost two years away. Calvin lowered his voice in response and Sam didn't hear what else was said.

“So, the kid's pretty upset after this visit and Sam goes to him later that night to try and comfort him, but the window is open and the kid's gone. Laying on his bed is a notebook that Sam recognizes as the one Calvin used to take notes when Vokkel was teaching him. Calvin had always kept it hidden from Sam and Gail, so naturally Sam had to peek. Most of the writing was in a foreign language, but there was one paragraph in English, which said….” Phil paused and flipped to another tabbed page in Sam's diary. “I'll read it to you, '
Prophecy: he says that a child of great power, born to the risen dead = me. He said when the time comes, we'll become one and release them, and my father will be reborn.
' There were some other things too. '
Chamber is at edge of cemetery, but he won't tell me where. He thinks I'm stupid and will go without him, but I heard him tell Edgar something about a park. If he keeps treating me this way, Gilles and I will find it on our own!
'

“Some of that is going to make more sense in a minute, but let me finish with the diaries first. So one day,” Phil looked thoughtful for a moment, “in late 2013, I think, on one of Vokkel's visits, Sam got home before Vokkel and Edgar had left, so he came in through the back, intending to hide out in his room until they'd gone. Anyway, he overhead Vokkel and Gail. She was upset because she thought something was wrong with Calvin. She said she knew he had a ghost friend, and she thought they were hurting small animals together, killing them. Sam wrote that Vokkel was firm with her, telling her that her son was very important, and if she wanted to continue her lifestyle, she'd do as she was told.

“The day after Gail's tantrum, Vokkel called Sam and told him to keep a closer watch on Gail and the boy and anyone that might be interested in the boy. But Sam's worried too, because he's seen some strange stuff from the kid, and he told Vokkel he thought Gilles was getting in the kid's head. He told Vokkel that Gilles had been preying on, and killing, frail sick people, and he thought Gilles was trying to build more strength and power for something big, something that might have to do with Calvin—something that could hurt or even kill Calvin.”