Dae's Christmas Past (23 page)

We walked together to the road where the smell of burning flares made my nose twitch. More deputies had been called, and I saw Chief Palo’s car parked at the edge of the pavement. What was she doing here?

“Brickman,” Chief Michaels acknowledged him. “You got those names for me?”

Kevin took my list and added it to his. “What’s going on?”

“Is Jake Burleson on one of those lists?”

“I didn’t see him.” Kevin turned to me. “Did you, Dae?”

“No. I saw him in town hall during the meeting, but not after. He walked out right after Dr. Sheffield.”

“I saw him there too,” Chief Michaels said in a gruff voice. “Looks like they let him out too soon. His business with the archeologist wasn’t over yet. That’s Dr. Sheffield under that tarp over there. He’s dead just like the other man Burleson didn’t like anymore—Tom Watts.”

“That’s why Chief Palo is here,” I muttered as I turned away from the scene.

“Jake’s going to have a hard time getting out of this,” Kevin whispered. “Why was he at one of our meetings anyway?”

“I think he just wanted to wish me well.” I dug the note Nancy had given me out of my pocket. “Dr. Sheffield wanted to talk to me after the meeting.”

Kevin glanced around the parking lot. “So where’s Jake?”

“Maybe he left early like Gramps.” I shrugged. “Just because Dr. Sheffield is dead doesn’t mean Jake did it.”

“I can’t imagine a single lawman who would agree with that supposition right now. I know Horace and Ronnie won’t. Jake was here. He had access and motive.”

“What’s his motive?”

“The same as it was for Tom—getting them off his property.”

“Things aren’t always the way they appear, as with Tom. If Jake were going to kill Dr. Sheffield, why announce to the world that he was here by waving to me from the audience?”

“I don’t know, Dae,” he admitted. “But I’m not buying that Dr. Sheffield was killed by marauding demon horses.”

“I think someone sent them to kill Dr. Sheffield.”

“Even though we know they didn’t kill Tom?”

“Mary Catherine and I saw Osisko today. We sort of talked to him.”

“What did he say?”

“The same thing he said when I saw him in the vision. I can stop the demons, but I don’t understand how. I think he said someone is controlling them. I guess it’s not Dr. Sheffield.”

We got in the golf cart with Mary Catherine. “I was wondering what you two were doing out there,” she said.

“I could ask you the same thing.” I smiled and opened the side of the golf cart so she could see what I meant. “You have your own cattery.”

“Oh my stars!” Her eyes and face were full of delight to see the large number of cats perched on and around the golf cart. “I didn’t even notice them. For the most part, a cat’s thoughts are as quiet as their movements, except for Baylor, of course. He’s noisy inside and out. I never have to wonder what he’s thinking.”

“What are they thinking?” Kevin stared at the cats.

“They’re scared,” Mary Catherine told him. “The horses frighten them. They’d like to leave Duck as so many of the dogs have, but they’re attached to certain people they can’t abandon.”

“Did they see what happened to Dr. Sheffield?” I asked.

“Is that who’s on the road? Is he dead?”

Kevin nodded. “It looks like Jake Burleson again. But as Dae reminded me, it looked like Jake did it last time too.”

Mary Catherine was silent for a moment with her eyes closed. “All the cats are scared. They didn’t see the man die, but they felt the presence of the horses. They think there will be other deaths.”

“Great,” Kevin muttered. “What are we supposed to do against demon horses we can’t see?”

I was staring off into the brush that surrounded the parking lot. The overhead lights picked out a familiar figure. “There’s Osisko. He has a way of popping up at bad times.”

Kevin couldn’t see him. “Are you sure? I don’t see anything.”

“I see him. Don’t you think you should get a net or something?” Mary Catherine asked. “He was jumping around like a gazelle on the boardwalk earlier.”

“We can’t capture him. He has something else to say. I need to talk to him.”

Kevin was skeptical. “How do you know it’s not Osisko that’s responsible for everything, Dae? Maybe he’s just leading you on.”

“He’s not. He died to keep this from happening, Kevin. He wants to stop it again. He’s here to help us.”

“All right. Take Mary Catherine with you since she can see him too. Don’t take unnecessary chances—and don’t let him touch you. We know how that ended last time.”

I told him I’d be careful. I wasn’t sure how Mary Catherine felt about approaching Osisko again, but she climbed out of the golf cart with me.

We approached him cautiously. “Hello again.”

He nodded, hopping from one foot to another with the charred bone in his hand.

“I was wondering if you saw what happened with the horses.”

“Death.”

“You’re right. But did you see the demons? Can you see them?”

“What’s he saying, Dae?” Mary Catherine whispered. “How can you understand him?”

“I’m not sure. I guess we’re on the same wavelength.”

He started toward me with his hand outstretched.

I took a step back. “No. Not again. Tell me what I need to know.”

He pounded his chest and shrieked.

I understood his frustration. “I’m sorry I can’t understand everything you’re saying.”

He closed his eyes, and covered them with his hands. “You. Me. The same.”

That made me want to run back to the golf cart and forget the whole idea. At the same time, I understood what he was saying. He’d purposely touched me at the hospital because he and I shared a similar gift. He could be one of my ancestors, maybe the first with the gift.

“No. I can’t do it again. Just tell me. I’ll get it.”

He shook his head. “No. You see.”

“Dae, I think we should go back to the parking lot,” Mary Catherine said. “He seems to be getting worked up.”

I thought about it for a moment, debating what my next move should be. What if the only way to understand what he was saying was for me to touch him? I had to know what was going on.

It would’ve been a lie to say that I wasn’t afraid. There was always the fear of being trapped in that other place where my visions took me. But I knew I might be the only person who could end the problem we were having. I had to take the chance.

“Okay. Hurry. Let’s get this over with.”

“Are you going to touch him?” Mary Catherine asked, horrified. “Didn’t Kevin say that was a bad thing?”

I braced myself for the contact, but was surprised when he smiled kindly, and took my hands in his. The world tilted and spun away from me. No words were necessary to tell me that I was back in the past again.

There were hundreds of torches and a huge fire in the middle of the pit. It was the same scene as before. People danced in the light, and caressed the big horse. Shadows of flames moved across the runes marked in the stone. Overhead, a full moon watched the proceedings on earth.

The ocean was much closer than it was in present day. The land was swampy, sucking at the dancers’ feet as they twirled and dipped around the fire. A constant drumming sound came from wood stick being beaten against a hollow log.

I looked for my companion. He was still there beside me, clutching one of my hands. We didn’t speak. I understood what was going on without him telling me.

There was an apex to the dancers’ frenzied movements. They dropped to the sandy ground around the fire and the drumming ceased. Out from the shadows came Osisko. He was much younger, barely more than a child. He was also completely naked, his thin body glistening in the moonlight. He raised his arms and threw back his head to shout the ancient summoning at the moon.

It was only a moment before the demons answered his call. From the depths of the fire, they came from the earth below. Their heads and necks twisted as they pushed at one another. Their hooves and legs competed for space as they tried to be the first ones out.

I couldn’t understand the words Osisko was screaming, but I could see it excited and pulled at the demons. He didn’t stop until the first horses were formed in the sizzling red and black skins. Their hooves struck the ground creating sparks and fire where they met the earth. Their yellow eyes stared balefully around them at the night.

The young Osisko stopped the summoning. He stared into those evil yellow eyes, and called out the name of another tribe, pointing in the direction he wanted them to go. The demons ran off, but young Osisko stopped the new demons who tried to struggle out of the fire.

“That’s how we stop them?” The words were hoarse from my throat.

The shaman and the dancers stared at me. They’d heard what I’d said. As they advanced toward me, the version of Osisko who’d died for his sins, pulled at my hand.

“Go. Go now!” he yelled.

“Dae? Dae? Are you all right?” It was Kevin. “Where’s the man? Where’s Osisko?”

It was difficult to catch my breath. It felt like I’d run for miles. Tears were streaming down my face. My mind was so full of the evil horse demons that I could barely think.

“Sorry. He’s gone. He held my hands. Osisko controlled the demons then. Someone controls them now. We have to find out who it is.”

“We will,” Kevin promised as he put his arms around me. “You weren’t supposed to touch him.”

“I couldn’t help it,” I whispered against his shoulder. “It was the only way. He can’t explain and I can’t see it without him. I know—I think I know—how to stop it. He was showing me the scene for a reason. The horses can be sent back.”

We walked back to the golf cart. Duck Road was clear enough that people were leaving the parking lot.

Mary Catherine was anxiously awaiting us. “I’m sorry, Dae. I thought it was better to get Kevin. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I assured her. “Thanks.”

“I think they came for the body. The police are directing traffic out of here. Now might be a good time to leave.”

I told her what had happened as we got back in the golf cart. “All that power and anger. They could take out entire tribes in a night. That was why they finally realized that they had to bury the horse statue and not summon the demons again.”

“But why Mr. Watts and Dr. Sheffield?” she asked. “Whoever is doing this must want the excavation to continue. Why kill them, and not Jake?”

“I still don’t believe that the horses killed them,” Kevin said. “Maybe the person summoning the horses today isn’t to that level yet where he can use them to kill people. We know from the evidence that there was only one hoof print on Tom that struck the fatal blow. I doubt if even a demon horse can be that agile.”

“Even so,” she argued. “Why not kill Jake since he’s the instigator?”

“It’s gotta be the opposite,” Kevin said. “The shaman summoning the demons doesn’t want the dig to continue.”

“But why?” I asked as we were finally rolling down Duck Road toward my house.

“I think that’s something you’ll have to ask him when we find him,” Kevin said.

“Are there any plans to do that?” Mary Catherine wondered.

“Not yet,” I replied. “But I think we’d better come up with one fast.”

Gramps was still up when we got back. He wanted to hear everything about what had happened. I gave him a little more information than he was ready for when I told him about Osisko.

“Kevin, I thought you were going to keep her from doing that kind of thing,” he remarked. “It could’ve been much worse.”

“We talked about it, Horace,” Kevin said. “You know her. She does what she thinks she should.”

Horace frowned. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’ve thought about it since we left the parking lot,” I told him. “I think we have to catch the present day shaman in the act of summoning the demon horses.”

Mary Catherine laughed. “You’ve thought all of fifteen or twenty minutes and come up with a plan that may get you killed?”

“It makes sense. There are a lot of people working out there. It could be any of them—we know nothing about the workers. One of them might have come just to control the demons,” I explained. “We could question them, but I doubt they would admit to it. This is the last night of the full moon. In both visions, they summoned the demons during the full moon.”