The Demon Conspiracy (32 page)

“I think we’re done,” said Angie, removing
her shoes and propping her feet on the ottoman. “I’ll get up early
and put the turkey in the oven. Who likes sweet potatoes?”

Granny gave her the thumbs up, but Travis
shook his head. “No, thank you!”

“Not really,” I said. “They smell good, but
they don’t taste anything like they smell.”

“I’ll cook enough for three. They’re Chris’
favorite, you know.”

Travis felt very comfortable wedged into the
tight space on the couch with me and the new family. There was a
sense of security being with Angie and Granny that he hadn’t known
for most of his life. I felt it too. We had a home now and we had
most of our family together again. Nearly everything felt
right.

All of a sudden Travis was bombarded with
waves of warm, loving emotion. It startled him, which startled me.
We sat up quickly, confused about who was having the feelings. He
looked at me and I scanned the others. He studied Angie and Granny,
narrowing down the source.

It came from
Granny!
He’d never detected anything like
that from her before, and now I sensed she was thinking about
something incredibly important to her.

A moment later she cleared her throat. “Uh,
Angie, I have a small favor to ask. Would you mind if I invited a
guest to dinner tomorrow?”

Angie’s eyes burned when she heard the
request. “After what’s been happening around here lately I’m not in
the mood to have one of your biker friends or some drunken bar fly
show up for Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t think I could handle
it.”

“He’s a very nice man, really.”

“I said no. You’ve only lived here a few
weeks. The least you could do is think about the children.”

“Actually, I am thinking about the children.
It’s Mark Parrish.”

The shock that came over Angie almost
knocked Travis off the couch. I felt it too, through him. She
glared at her mother in complete surprise, unable to speak for
several moments. “How do you know Mark?”

“I’ve been helping him on his place next
door. He’s a wonderful man, you know. Very good with his
hands.”

“We don’t need to hear about that.”

“I’m talking about woodworking. He’s
marvelous.”

Travis tuned in to both Angie and Granny,
greatly confused by their contrast of emotions. It didn’t take him
long to figure out how each of them felt. Angie was confused and a
little angry. But Granny had other emotions working.

Granny’s in love with Dr.
Parrish!
he mentally said to me.
Really
in
love!

I tuned in to Matilda
Price’s more intimate thoughts. Her happy thoughts made me
wide-eyed and happy.
You’re right! Isn’t
it sweet?

It’s gross! Do you think they get all
slobbery, like Jon and Maria?

I’m sure of
it
.

Bleah!

“Mark Parrish.” Angie said it like the name
held some sort of stability in her life. “I’m sorry, Matilda. I
didn’t realize you knew each other. Yes, certainly, Mark is always
welcome here. Maybe he can bring Chris out of his funk and get him
back to teaching.”

“I hope so, too,” said Granny. “Still no
word from the police about Jon?”

Angie shook her head. “I’m not going to
worry about Jon anymore. If he can disappear in the middle of a
crowded room with everyone watching he can certainly take care of
himself. He always could, I guess. I say we let him do his magic
and if it works he’ll get famous. If not, he’ll be home soon
enough.”

“But he said he was staying in New York
until New Year’s Eve,” I reminded. “He has something big planned
for that night.”

“That’s over five weeks from now,” said
Granny. “What’s he gonna do in the meantime? What about Christmas?
Surely he’ll come home for Christmas. At least for a visit.”

“What if we never see ‘im
again?” said Travis. “What if he disappears doin’ one of his tricks
and
nobody
ever
sees ‘im?” Travis hung his head despondently. I could tell being
reminded about Jon’s departure put a real dent in his happy moment.
His family was separated all over again, but this time Jon had left
them because he wanted to, not because social services said he had
to live in a different place. The whole thing was both
mind-boggling and numbing at the same time. Travis got up and
wandered into the foyer. I stayed discreetly inside his thoughts to
make sure he was okay. He gazed out the storm door as if he thought
Jon might appear at any moment with a big smile on his face and
tell them he’d been kidding about going to New York. What would he
do without his big brother?

TRAVIS

Travis looked out the door, but of course
Jon never showed up. Instead Chris’ reflection appeared in the
storm-door glass. Chris was right behind him. Travis turned and
looked fearfully into the man’s crazed eyes.

“Move out of the way,” said Chris gruffly.
“I need to go home.”

“You are home,” said Travis, stepping to the
side.

“My
real
home.”

His real home?

Chris went outside to the edge of the
driveway and stood along the curb. Travis decided to follow him,
watching every move he made. He thought Chris might try to follow
Jon to New York, but instead he just stayed in one place and kept
an eye on the far end of the street. So what’d he have in mind?

Moments later, a yellow taxicab arrived and
rolled to a stop in front of the house. Chris clapped his hands
excitedly when the driver opened the window and leaned out.

“Where ya headin’, buddy?” asked the
driver.

“Crystal Creek Park,” said Chris. He reached
into his pocket and took out some hundred-dollar bills. He passed
the bills to the driver.

“Crystal Creek Park?” repeated the driver.
“Isn’t that where that cave is? What’s it called?” He thought for a
moment, then snapped his fingers. “Pandora’s Cave! Is that the
place?”

“Yes,” said Chris. “I’m going home.”

KELLY

Travis burst into the house and yelled at
the top of his lungs. “Chris is goin’ to Pandora’s Cave!”

Granny and I ran into the foyer. Angie
stumbled in behind us, pulling on her shoes as she went.

“How do you know that?” asked Granny.

“I heard ‘im tell the cab driver where to
go!”

“He took a cab?” said Angie. “We’ve got to
stop him!”

We quickly piled into the minivan and flew
down the road. Angie had never driven so fast in her life. Even
Granny clung to her seat with both hands. “You kids have your
seatbelts on, right?”

I looked at Travis. We were strapped in the
back, wide-eyed and scared. The minivan wove in and out of traffic.
“You’d better believe it!”

“She’s gonna get us killed!” said Travis in
a low voice.

“Either that or get arrested! She’s only got
one thing on her mind. Chris!”

“Why would he wanna go back to the
cave?”

“I don’t know, but one
thing’s for sure. Chris is all out
nuts
.”

Somehow we arrived safely at Crystal Creek
Park just after eleven. Sure enough, the taxi drove off when we
pulled into the parking lot. But the park was closed and the lights
around the cave had been turned off. It was too dark to see Chris
or anything else for that matter.

“Kelly!” said Angie. “Get the ranger! Get
those lights turned on!”

I ran to the ranger station without
question. The office was lit up and the TV was on as a figure moved
around inside. I got to the door and burst in without knocking.
Ranger Ned Taylor sat before the TV with a sandwich and a cup of
steaming coffee. I startled him so badly he spilled the coffee on
his leg.

“Ow!” he yelped, setting the mug on the
desk. “I thought I locked the door.”

“Sorry!” I said. I pointed to the cave. “You
gotta turn on the lights, fast!”

“You’re Kelly Bishop,
right?” he said, surprised. “What are
you
doing here?”

“I’ll tell you! Just turn on the
lights!”

“Hell, I didn’t notice they were off! That’s
the third time this week.”

While I explained what was going on, I
followed Ned outside where he opened the breaker box and flipped on
the floodlights. The area around Pandora’s Cave lit up brightly
enough to look like mid afternoon. But the cave itself was pitch
black, as always. I kept a wary eye on it, expecting a host of
demons to rush out and grab us at any time. I didn’t like being
here, and if Chris had already gone inside the cave, I sure wasn’t
going in after him.

A figure charged out of the shadows, running
toward the cave. Chris! I pointed, but Ned was confused. We were
too far away to do anything. Angie and Travis were getting a
flashlight out of the car. Travis also pointed. Nobody was going to
stop him in time.

From out of nowhere a stocky figure sprinted
across the lawn. Granny! Before Chris realized she was coming, she
closed the gap and tackled him. Chris landed hard as they slid
across the grass. He tried to wrestle himself free.

“Let me go!” he cried. “You can’t do this!
Let me go!”

He nearly got away. But Granny put him in
some kind of cradle hold. She wrapped him up and squeezed tight.
Chris wasn’t going anywhere.

“Wow, Granny!” said Travis, running up
beside them. “You can fly!”

“Not exactly,” said Granny. Chris wiggled
madly. Granny tightened her hold.

“Ahhh!” Chris yelped. “You’re breaking my
back!”

“Then stop moving!” said Granny.

“No! Let me go!” Chris was furious. His eyes
flashed yellow. He gnashed his teeth at Granny, but she had him
good. He couldn’t bite her and he couldn’t break free.

Ned arrived and took out some handcuffs. He
and Granny rolled Chris onto his stomach. They cuffed his hands
behind his back.

Granny whispered into
Chris’ ear. “Now you know what I can do to you, right? So listen to
me well. If you don’t stop upsetting my daughter, I’m going to
upset
you
.” Chris
hissed at her like a wildcat. Granny released him and stood up,
breathing hard.

Angie ran up with me.
“Chris, darling! Why would you want to go back in
there
?”

“My work is done! Let me go! My work is
done!”

“You’re not leaving my only daughter so you
can go live in a cave,” said Granny. “Even if you are crazy.”

“What do you want me to do about him?” asked
Ned.

“We can’t leave him here,” said Angie,
looking hopelessly at Ned. “You were right, Matilda, he needs help,
I see that now. Is there some place we can keep him safe? Can we
lock him up?”

“I could arrest him for trespassing,” said
Ned. “It’s only a misdemeanor so they won’t keep him long. But the
magistrate will be off tomorrow for the holiday. If we put him in
jail, you can get him back out Friday.”

“Jail?” Angie paled. “I hate to do that to
him, especially on Thanksgiving. Isn’t there anything else we can
do?”

“He needs psychiatric help,” said Ned. “I
know because my aunt’s going through the same thing. My cousin’s
been acting weird ever since he came outta that cave. He just keeps
talking about having work to do, and all that.”

“I did my work!” said Chris. “I have nothing
else to do! I want to go back!” He struggled to his feet and tried
to run toward the cave. Again, Granny tripped him up, but this time
she sat on him. I sat on him, too, and so did Travis.

“I say put him in jail,” said Granny. “At
least you won’t have to worry about him for a night or two. We can
find a good shrink on Friday.”

Everyone looked at Angie, who gazed
pitifully at her husband. She slowly nodded. The ranger and Granny
hauled Chris back to the station. Ned locked him in a storage room
and called the local police. “They’ll be here in a few minutes,” he
said.

“Where’s Ripper?” I asked, noticing that we
hadn’t heard any barking since we got there.

“At the vet,” said Ned. “He choked on a
squirrel bone and had to have surgery. I’ll pick him up in a few
days and bring him back. I’ll tell you, this place is scary when
he’s here, but when he’s not, well, I don’t like working this shift
so much anymore. I can’t believe I didn’t lock the door.”

“Don’t blame you,” said Granny. “But why
were the lights turned off?”

“I don’t know.” Ned scratched his head.
“Those lights have been cutting on and off randomly since before
the night of the rescue. I’m gonna have to put some kind of alarm
on the box, I guess, to warn me.”

Angie leaned closer to Ned and placed a hand
on his shoulder. “So, Mr. Taylor, what happened to your cousin? Is
he…crazy, like my husband?”

Ned lowered his voice, as
if he were afraid somebody else might be listening. “I don’t know
what happened exactly. It was like he’d gotten knocked in the head
and was suddenly smarter. I’m not talking about a couple of IQ
points, here. I mean
way
smarter! He wasn’t stupid before, you know, but
he wasn’t any rocket scientist. He had his associate’s degree from
the community college, but he was just a regular guy, you know? The
biggest dream he ever had was to own a house, have a family and
race his Corvette on weekends. That’s it! Now you wouldn’t believe
it.”

“Try us,” I said. “We’ve got our own stories
to tell.”

Ned looked us over and apparently decided he
could trust us. “He came out of that cave saying he had to work
hard and fast. He must have said it fifty times that night, I got
tired of hearing it. I finally asked him what he had to do that was
so important. He said he needed me to drive him to the university
in the morning because he forgot how to drive. I figured he just
wanted to take some classes, you know? But it wasn’t like that at
all.