Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (148 page)

I said that I could book our flights and get hotel reservations. He said he was fine with that and we agreed to get started two days later.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The air was desert-dry and the sky was without a cloud as we exited Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The van driver for the auto-rental company we were using commented on how nice the weather was this time of year but that they were expecting some rain over the next few days.

“Great timing guys”, laughed Kate as she heard his weather commentary.

“Let’s enjoy the sunshine we have, kids, I advised in a fatherly way.

“Can you recommend a place for authentic Mexican food?” Kevin asked the driver.

“Don’t go any further than Caroline’s. It’s only two blocks from here.” We had hotel reservations at the Pointe at South Mountain which was just a few miles from the University. It was very much a resort style place, and we were very happy to be there.

Kevin had the room next to Kate and mine, and as we went into our room, he joked about the walls being thin and the necessity of our keeping that in mind.

We had a couple hours before dinner so we agreed to leave for Caroline’s at six or so.

Kate unpacked and took a bath while I laid out all of the visual equipment in order to inventory it one more time, just to be sure we had everything.

After that, I decided that it might be time to try calling Dennis again. But as before, his phone went straight to voice mail.

“What are you doing Honey?” Kate called out from her relaxing bath.

“I’m trying to reach our son.”

“And?”

“Same old. All I got was his voice mail. It’d sure be nice to hear his actual voice,” I lamented while settling back into a very comfortable chair.

I started to doze off but was startled back to awakened status by my phone ringing. I felt around for my reading glasses so I could see the caller ID but before I could find them I answered the call.

“Jeremy what are you doing?” My blood went cold as I realized that my deceased father was on the other end of this call. I was flabbergasted.

“What are you doing?” he asked again.

“Dad, where are you? How are you able to call me? Please tell me, please tell me.”

“Be careful, Jeremy. You must be careful to not speak the word. No matter what you are being told, or who is doing the telling.” Then the phone went dead.

Before I could gather myself, Kate came out of the bathroom covered in a towel asking, “Who was that on the phone, Tell?”

I put my face in my hands after I handed her the phone pointing at the number on the caller ID. “Ulster 5-8076”, she said slowly as she ran her hand down my back.

“It was my father again, Kate. He asked me what I was doing and told me to be careful.” There is so much that I want to ask him… so very much. It’s like a dream… a confusingly bad dream.”

Kate said comfortingly, “Honey… this thing with you being able to speak with your departed father is like something out of a science fiction, fantasy supreme, movie, but when you pause to analyze what has been going on… all these crazy things, it sort of has a place in it all.”

“What place, Kate? It’s like the Divine Comedy. Paradise was lost but the players were way bigger than me… or you. I keep thinking, ‘why is this happening here, in this time… to us… Maybe… maybe even our kids? It is fantasy no matter how it ends. I am blown away by this. It’s like being in a blast… caused by a bomb far more powerful than the one dropped by the Enola Gray.” Despite my complaining, I was getting a feeling of a galactic event which was unfolding right before us, Kate and me. Whatever this was, we were square in the middle of it for whatever reason. I promised myself to keep it together somehow because it was coming to a head, I just knew it.

I took a shower while Kate dried her hair and put on some makeup. The water felt invigorating and relaxed me somewhat. I got dressed and rang Kevin’s room. “You hungry?”

“I’m ready to roll,” was his response.

We drove to where we were told Carolina’s Mexican restaurant was located. Sure enough it was there and worth the effort.

We discussed the coming schedule over dinner and made plans to drop by the university the next morning to start setting up for the project debut press conference.

Eventually, after a wonderful meal, we drove back to the hotel and went through a neighborhood that had a strange familiarity to me. “Are we still in Phoenix?” I asked while looking around with my eyes coming to rest on a church. “That church looks familiar.” I said pointing as we passed a small church sitting on a street corner just a mile or so from our hotel. It was dark but I could make out what the front looked like. Looking out the window I noticed a man standing, waiting to cross the street with a dog on a leash. As he passed in front of the car I blurted, “Hey, that’s Harry Rosenman! What the hell is he doing here?”

“Who are you talking about?” Kate asked.

“He’s walking slow, if he hopes to get across the street before the light changes—” Kevin commented.

“You guys,” Kate said… “I may need glasses for distance Teller, but either I’m going blind or you two are seeing things. “What are you talking about? There’s no one there. And how would old Harry Rosenman be here in Arizona?”

“It was him… I saw Harry Rosenman, Kate.” I was sure it was him.

“Okay,” she said with some exasperation.

We got to the hotel within the next five minutes, where Kevin dropped us off saying, “I’m going to try to find a bar where the beautiful people are. See you two for breakfast.” And he was off into the Arizona night.

“Harry Rosenman? Tell?”

“It was him, Kate. I should have called to him, but I was so shocked to see him, I didn’t think.”

“The same Harry Rosenman whose deli you worked in in high school? That Harry Rosenman?”

“Yes it was
that
Harry Rosenman.”

“And that was how long ago?” she asked, leading me.

“A long time, yup. But I remember him from over the years after high school and while I lived in the neighborhood after getting home from the Army.” It all seemed reasonable to me that he could be living here in Arizona.

“Wasn’t he an older man back then?” she asked.

“Everyone seemed older back then. So maybe he hid his age well.”

There was a message light blinking on the phone. It was Warren of Warren and Louise asking me to call him ASAP.

“Who is it, Teller?” Kate asked, stepping out of the bathroom with moisturizing cream slathered on her face.

“Yikes!!!!!!!!!!” I feigned surprise and jumped back.

“Who was the message from?” she asked again.

“It was Warren and I have no idea how he found us here in Arizona. Do you?” I immediately called him back.

The phone rang three times before Warren answered. “I hope it isn’t too late,” I apologized.

“So do I,” he replied, sounding troubled. “Jeremy, I need you to listen to what I have to say and remember the words because I can only say this once.”

“Warren… are you alright? Is there something wrong with Louise?” I stammered slightly, and as I did I felt Kate’s eyes on me.

“What now, Tell?” she mouthed.

I stood up and then sat down again as Warren’s words poured through the phone. “Jeremy, Louise and I weren’t honest with you when you asked about the possibility of your grandmother having had another child. The truth is, she did. His name was—”

“Joe.” I completed the sentence for him. Kate stood over me listening to hear what was being said. “Your Uncle Joe asked us to get this message to you… please listen carefully. He said that you should remember that it is the tone of the voice as much as what is being said. The tone of the voice…” And the phone clicked loudly as the call ended.

“Warren! Warren!”

“That was exactly what I thought I’d be told,” I said to Kate.

“Who were you talking to, Tell?” Kate asked, seeming a bit upset.

“It was Warren… he said that my—”

“He said what? He said how? Tell, there was no one on that phone,” she said, pointing at the phone with a look of pity and frustration moving across her face and settling into her eyes. “Are you imagining this or are you setting me up with something?” She did something very unusual for her she raised her voice at me.

“What are you saying, Kate? That was Warren and he said that my grandmother did have a child named Joe.”

“So even if she did have a child named Joe,
so what
Tell?! So what?!” She turned from me and then suddenly spun back around, eyes filled with tears, she said, “Do these phone calls end someday? Do they EVER end?”

I grabbed her shoulders and then pulled her close, looking directly into her eyes. “Kate, this is way bigger than anything you or I… have ever even imagined could happen to us, or to the world, for that matter. I have been talking on the phone with my dead father… I have been treated by a doctor who doesn’t seem to exist… I’ve come face to face with my high school Latin teacher who doesn’t look a day older than when I last saw him almost forty years ago… a kid who claims to be my uncle shows up in our yard, and then in my car.”

“Teller, please listen to me.” Kate’s mood changed and with it her whole aura. “We have been running from something that somehow knows where we are and when we’re there. Doesn’t it seem strange to you Tell, that whatever this is always can reach out and touch you… touch us… no matter where we are or what we’re doing? Doesn’t that seem strange to you?” She was very intense in her questioning. “Don’t you get what’s going on here?”

“What are you saying, Kate? Do you think this is all my imagination?” I was hurt by the sudden realization that maybe she doubted what was going on here. “Do you think that I’m lying to you? Or do you think that I’m hallucinating… that all this is only in my head?” I didn’t wait for her answer as I grabbed my jacket from the closet and stormed out of the room and walked rapidly down the hallway toward the elevators.

I didn’t know where I was going but I was going somewhere so that I could try to sort through this blowup with the person I loved most in this world. We had become cross with one another on very few occasions through all our years of marriage and I didn’t know how to handle losing her support when she had always been there for me whenever I needed her most.

The elevator was empty and as I rode it down two levels to the lobby and when the doors opened I came face to face with Kevin who was soaking wet. He looked at me with a concerned expression as he asked, “Say man, what’s wrong Teller? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“Maybe I just spoke with one.” I said briskly as I passed him on the way into the lobby.

“Where are you going? Hey, slow down… I’ve got something to tell you.” Stopping abruptly, I looked down at the floor before turning to face him. Then I put my hands palms up as if to ask ‘What now?’

“I just got a call from your son.”

“Which son?” I couldn’t restrain the caustic tone in my voice.

“Dennis. He said he had been trying to reach you on your phone but couldn’t get through to you, or Kate. He said both of your phones went directly to voicemail.”

I took my phone from my pocket and examined it for missed calls. I found none. “Then how come he’s not on the ‘missed calls list’ Kevin? This makes no sense and it’s starting to look like maybe there’s something you’re not telling me. Is there Kevin?” I was now lashing out at Kevin. I realized I needed to get control of myself immediately.

“What do you mean?” He seemed puzzled by my question. “Why would you ask me that?” He crunched his shoulders in disbelief. We were all showing signs of stress. Why did I have to act like such an asshole with my wife, and now to Kevin?

“What did Dennis say? Kevin, I’m sorry I’m so testy.”

“He said he is here in Arizona and he needs to see you, but he can’t come here. He wants you to go to him.” Just then a loud crack of thunder broke right over our heads punctuating the storm that was starting outside. It caused me to jump.

I was stunned by Kevin’s words. “My son Dennis is here… in Phoenix? That can’t be. He was in the mountains of Spain or was on his way there.
Isn’t that what he asked you to relay to Kate and me?
What’s he doing here?”

“He didn’t tell me anything more than what I just told you, but he sure sounded like he was rattled.” Kevin seemed somewhat uncharacteristically rattled himself as he related the conversation he had with Dennis. There was something different about the way he was looking at me. Maybe it was due to a sense that something bad was going on and he didn’t want to alarm me any more than I was already.

“I need to get Kate. Gimme a minute,” I said turning back into a waiting elevator.

“I’ll get the car.” He wiped his forehead which was still very wet from the pouring rain.

I pushed the elevator button and the doors closed smoothly. I thought about how I should present this to Kate, as the elevator climbed.

When the doors opened I rushed through and down the carpeted hallway toward our room. Taking the key card from my shirt pocket I quickly inserted it and as the door opened I was expecting to tell Kate that we needed to go to meet our son… but she wasn’t in the room. I checked the bathroom. I dialed her phone… and it went directly to voicemail.

Standing in the middle of the room I searched for some indication of where Kate might have gone. After checking the closet it became apparent that she had taken her jacket. After our argument she must have been as upset as I, but even so, where could she have gone?

Leaving the room again, I headed for the elevator where I impatiently hit the call button repeatedly. Lost in thought I moved automatically when the bell rang announcing the elevator’s arrival and as the door opened I jumped back as there, standing in the middle of it was a small person covered with a veil. I froze in place as the doors slowly closed. Although stunned by seeing the veiled dwarf I felt the urgency of finding my wife overruled the moment of panic as I rapidly walked to the stairwell and went down to the lobby.

I checked the restaurant off the lobby, but she wasn’t there. The gift shop yielded the same result. She was nowhere in sight and I had a decision to make.