Crowley's Window (Novella) (7 page)

“Hopefully this is the last time too,” David said. “Not to be rude, but can we get on with it. Time is of the essence in these kinds of cases.”

“Certainly, sir. Sorry. She’s through here…follow me.”

Chambers led them into the only other room in the morgue, a small rectangular room with a large freezer-like door at the far end. The air hissed and a cloud of cold air billowed out into the warm room as he pulled open the door. Inside there was only the one metal gurney and Abby and David waited outside until Chambers has pushed the little table on wheels out to them and slammed shut the cooler door.

“Think I’ll leave you two alone for a bit,” Chambers said. “Take all the time you need little lady. And good luck with…umm, whatever it is you’re going to do. I’ll be in the office if you need me.”

“Thanks,” David said, shaking the man’s hand on his way out. When they were alone, he led Abby over to the covered gurney and prepared to remove the white sheet covering Trisha’s body. “You okay?”

“I hope so. Let’s do it and see if we’re wasting our time.”

For the first time in ages, Abby was truly glad she was blind and therefore spared having to see the mutilated corpse of the poor girl. When she held her hands out toward the gurney, she received several pictures of Trisha in her mind, but knew they were only mental representations and not nearly as upsetting as the sight surely would have been in cold hard reality. Abby steeled her nerves and moved closer. Her sweaty left palm touched the chilled skin of the dead girl and the walls of the viewing room instantly faded away…

…leaving Abby standing in a grassy field with Trisha lying in a discarded heap near the feet of a tall man dressed in a black coat with matching fedora. With his pale skin and bleached white hair the man had a textbook villain look to him but he wasn’t the criminal Abby had been expecting to see. The man with the knife on his belt who’d taken the girl from the carnival was there too, but Abby could only see his back as he walked away from the scene into the field, never once looking back, his part in this despicable deed apparently over. Something about Trisha’s abductor—the way he walked, perhaps—was eerily familiar but Abby couldn’t grasp what it was and at the moment she had more important things to worry about.

He’s got a partner,
she thought.

She watched the man in black approach the dead child and roll Trisha over onto her back. Abby could clearly see the girl’s throat had already been slit and her suffering, however long it had lasted, was at least already past. The man removed a long bladed knife from the folds of his jacket and also a small glass mason jar filled with amber liquid. He bent at the knees and went to work removing the girl’s eyes, quickly harvesting them from her face and depositing them one at a time inside the jar.

As she watched, Abby felt a sudden wave of horror wash over her like she’d been dropped naked into the Arctic Ocean. The act was terrible for sure, pure evil, but it wasn’t what was causing the fear to freeze her shivering spirit. It was a memory trying desperately to worm its way to the surface of her frozen conscience, a figment of a nightmare long past and buried deep where she wasn’t meant to ever find.

Not a partner…a boss. This guy’s definitely in charge.

Trembling uncontrollably, Abby watched as the sinister man hid the knife and Mason jar back inside his coat and stooped to pick the mutilated child up off the grass. He lifted her as if she weighed nothing, hardly even an ounce of strain showing on his gaunt expressionless face as he turned and started walking toward where Abby’s phantom body watched. The man in black walked right through her and it was then that Abby smelled the lavender and honey odor, along with the underlying stench of death and decay.

Oh my GOD!

Abby began to scream, in real life as well as in this vision; her internal memory blocks shattering like straw houses in the path of a cyclone. Abby remembered. She remembered everything.
It’s him! HIM!
There had been no sickness. No cancerous growths causing her to hallucinate and have seizures. It had all been lies. All of it. This…monster carrying the dead girl out of the field onto the tarmac and heading for the blue garbage dumpster behind Walgreens was the same man who’d cut out her eyes as well. The memories were still lost within a network of fever dreams and buried truths but she’d never been more certain of anything in her entire life.

He stole my eyes! The filthy beast stole my…

…Abby woke up in a pitch black room hearing a voice calling to her from what seemed like miles away. For a moment she had no idea who was talking to her or where she might be. All she knew was that she was lying on her back on a hard concrete floor, looking up at nothing but feeling the presence of someone as they rushed closer and knelt at her side.

“Talk to me, Abby,” the male voice said, and it was then she fully woke up and realized what was going on and why she couldn’t see. Like a child in peril, Abby flung her hands up and wrapped her arms around his neck, desperate for human contact and the comfort of being held close, her entire body trembling from the recent psychic experience. David pulled her to him, feeling her heart racing against his chest and held her for a full minute before gently easing her away. She was still shaking but the color was coming back into her face. “You okay, kiddo?”

Abby pulled in a deep breath and took a long moment to gather her senses before answering.

“I think so. I’m cold but okay. Sorry for nearly tearing your head off, I kind of needed a hug. You probably think I’m a baby.”

“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re okay. You scared the heck out of me. You were calm as can be but all of a sudden a look of fear spread across your face and you started screaming at the top of your lungs. I tried to shake you awake but just as I grabbed your arm you passed out cold and dropped to the floor like a rock. I thought for a minute you’d died! Jesus!”

“For a minute there, I wanted to.”

“What happened?”

“Help me get up first, okay?”

“You sure? Maybe you’d best lie—”

“No, I’m okay now,” Abby said, and David took her into his strong arms and lifted her to her feet, setting her down gently as if she were fragile as decorative glass.

“What did you see that scared you so badly?”

“I saw Trisha’s killers.”

“Killers? Plural?”

“Yeah…two of them. The man with the knife from my first vision but he’s not the leader. I think he just collected the girl for the man in black. He’s the guy most responsible for what happened.”

“The man in black?”

“I know…sounds a bit cartoonish but you wouldn’t think that if you’d seen him. I didn’t get a look at anything except the back of the guy who abducted Trisha from the carnival, but I got a close up on the other bastard. He walked right through me on his way to the dumpster with the girl’s body. He’s probably six feet two or three and scarecrow thin but he’s super strong. He was dressed in a long black coat with a black fedora hat and his skin and hair are white as can be.”

“An albino?”

“Not sure. Maybe. Maybe just really pale.”

“Anything else? Even the small details can be important. You get a name for either of them?”

“No. Sorry. I was scared and having trouble staying focused but I never heard either of them speak. The dark man smells like Lavender, though. Reeks of it, actually. And something else. Something sweet but rotten at the same time, like bad meat or week old road kill drenched in honey.” Abby came within a heartbeat of blurting out that this was the same man that had taken her eyes six years ago but she bit her lip and kept that revelation to herself. She wasn’t even sure why but knew she wasn’t ready to deal with that information yet. She needed time to process what it all meant and why her parents had lied to her about her childhood illness. Did they know this evil man somehow? That wasn’t possible, was it?

Questions best saved for later, when she was alone and could think clearer.

“That’s great work. Truly amazing. Come on, let me take you home.”

“No…wait!” she said, wanting to do exactly that but still trying to piece together her fragmented memories and knowing she might never get a better chance than this to learn about her hidden past. “I think I want to try again. Other than being frightened, nothing bad can happen to me during my visions and I wanna see if I can connect to the man in black and get more information on him. Maybe his name or where he lives.”

“No Abby. You’ve done enough. Seriously. I don’t want—”

“I don’t want to either, David, but this is something I
need
to do. Just five more minutes, then we can go.”

David clearly wasn’t happy about her idea and Abby caught a quick mental flash if him stoking his chin thinking of some way to talk her out of this.”

“I’m doing it, David. Please. For the investigation as well as for myself. I can’t explain it but trust me; I need this more than you know. I’ll be careful…promise.”

…Abby slipped back into the vision easily, more mentally prepared this time, the joy of perfect sight an extra special thrill to her now that she realized her real eyesight had been taken from her by the hand of the wicked man she now hunted. She had no idea if she could actually do what she was attempting but all of her life she’d been told how extraordinary her gift was and that it would continue to grow as she matured. Now was the time to stretch her wings and push her psychic powers to their limits. If the man in black was still around, she’d find him. She had a connection to him now, a mental tether clinging to his dark aura since he’d passed directly through her ethereal form earlier. All Abby had to do was follow her highly-tuned senses to lead her to him. Besides, she knew his filthy-sweet scent now and no matter where he tried to hide, she was confident she could follow.

Abby found her mind’s eye rising from the ground, drifting quickly away from the garbage dumpster at Walgreens and flying over the city streets of downtown Gainsville. Faster and faster her spirit flew, exiting the town limits and crossing fields and forests at an alarming rate. Roads and highways flashed by, rivers and streams, the rolling landscape of Pennsylvania blurring together until Abby had no idea where her senses were taking her or how far she traveled. She was just along for the ride.

Eventually she felt her ghost body slowing down and floating back down to the ground out front of an old, dilapidated church. Once it had been painted white, its shutters and roof a dark brown, but now many of the windows were cracked or broken, the roof shingles lost to the wind and its bright coat of paint cracked and withered in the hot sun of too many neglected years. Abby looked around but she was on the edge of a dense forest with only one dirt road leading away from the church to a desolate two lane road about half a mile away. No other buildings or homes were visible in any direction and there were no signposts or landmarks close by that might help her locate where she was.

This is his place
, she thought, certain she was right.
I’ve found him!
”

Like the wraith she essentially was, Abby passed through the heavy oak doors of the run down church and floated down the center aisle of the garbage-strewn assembly hall. Inside, it smelled strongly of lavender and it only took a moment to realize why. Where the old pews had been, row after row of flowerboxes were lined up in the large room, every one of which was overflowing with wild lavender bushes. Abby followed her nose past the fragrant purple plants and forward through the wall behind the desecrated pulpit and found herself in a dark, candlelit room with no windows or electric lights. The sweet odor of honey assaulted her senses but Abby could find no source to account for it. It was hard to see much of anything in the dimly lit room, but Abby could just make out the tall shape of the man in black on the far side of the room. He had his back to her, lighting more candles and happily whistling an off-key tune Abby didn’t recognize but thought might have been an old religious hymn.

Who the hell are you?
Abby thought, and was surprised to see the dark man flinch and spin around to face her direction as if she’d startled him and he’d actually heard her thoughts. The man picked up a lit candle and squinted in her direction, even going so far as to take a few steps closer to try get a better look at what surely must have been an empty room. He started smiling, staring directly at her. It was unnerving, to say the least, and Abby felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Can he see me?
she wondered.

“Of course I can, Abigail. Wouldn’t be fair if you were the only one allowed to have such fun, now would it?”

A scream built in Abby’s throat but she swallowed it down in several small gulps, still not convinced this was entirely real, but not wanting to let him know her fear. She stood ramrod still, just in case, trying not to think, to not give her position away anymore than she already had.

“My my, but you’ve grown strong, girl. Just like I always knew you would. I’m seriously impressed. Unfortunately I have a lot of preparations to make before I’m ready for you so run along now and mind your business. We’ll meet again soon; I promise.”

Abby wasn’t sure what to do, wasn’t even sure there was anything she could do, but since her ruse was apparently over and the man in black somehow already knew who she was, there was no sense hiding any longer. She ignored her fear and came straight to the point. “Who are you? And why did you kill that little girl.”

The dark man laughed. “You know me, child, but you’re not thinking straight. Go away and think things though. Search your heart. The answers are inside you, if you’re brave enough to face them. You and I can talk later…face to face.”

He clapped his hands together and every candle in the room extinguished simultaneously, plunging Abby into a world she was all too familiar with. Abby reached out trying to get her bearings and…

…and fell into the strong embrace of David in the morgue’s viewing room back in Gainsville. Not being able to see, she fought against him for a moment, convinced she was in the grasp of the dark man still inside his decrepit lair.