“I don’t know his name. Everything was just fine until he showed up and then it all went to hell in a handbasket. He brought the evil with him.”
Chuck was angry. He stared at us as if he expected us to call the county mental health authority, and when we both nodded, he looked surprised.
“What building did the guy with the shriveled face use?” I asked.
“Building Four,” he spat. “Polluted the whole place. Mark my words – Jimmy Redshoes would still be alive if it weren’t for him.”
If you have a storage shed, why did you keep your clocks at Stor-Your-Own?”
Chuck uncrossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Because the shed’s full. So’s my garage. But the clocks out there don’t work anymore.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said. “Why do you need so many clocks? What’s so important that you would go into such a dangerous place to get more?”
Chuck let out a long sigh. “I have to keep them running. If they stop, I’ll die.”
I must have looked baffled, because he went on. “The night I took my wife, Emma, to the emergency room, the night she died, there was an old woman sitting out in the hallway. She didn’t seem to be waiting for anyone, just sitting and knitting, and staring. She told me that time was running out, and that I was going to pay for my sins when the clocks wound down.”
“What sins?” Teag asked gently.
Chuck looked up, and glanced toward a black and white photo on the wall. It was a picture of a much younger man wearing an army uniform from the 1990s, and I recognized Chuck.
“I did things, in the war, that I’m not proud of,” he said. “Special Forces. Black Ops. Doesn’t matter that I was under orders. I shouldn’t have done them. Emma didn’t hold them against me, but I’m sure God will. I won’t rest easy when I’m dead, and I won’t see Emma again, I’m sure. So I don’t want to go any sooner than I have to.”
“That’s why you have to keep getting more clocks,” I said, meeting his gaze He nodded soberly. “Wind-ups are dependable, but I can’t let them run down. Nothing runs as well as those old-fashioned Big Bens, but they’re hard to find, which is why I stockpiled them in my storage unit.
The new ones break too quickly. And I don’t dare use electric clocks – what if the power goes out? But even the old clocks wear out after a while. Then I’ve got to get more.”
“After the last time, I don’t want to go back,” Chuck blurted. Then he pointed to the table in the kitchen, where several clocks lay in various states of disassembly. “But I’m going to have to go soon. I lost a couple more clocks. Over the years, I got pretty handy fixing little stuff, but nothing lasts forever. I can’t fix those.”
“If we agreed to help you get your clocks out, would you show us the best way in and out, where you saw the shriveled face man, anything else noteworthy? I have a map.” Teag asked. “We think we know how to get rid of the shadow men and the ghosts – and we can help you move your clocks somewhere safe.”
Chuck looked wary, but I could see the struggle in his eyes. He wasn’t sure he could trust us, but we were holding out the two things he wanted the most. Finally, he nodded. “It would be better if I took you. The best paths change depending on the haints. You need me.”
Teag and I glanced at each other. “We’re not sure it would be safe for you and don’t want to put you in danger. We’ve also got a couple more people who’re part of this,” I said. “We need to work around their schedules too – we’ll need to check with them before we can give you an answer.”
Chuck raised an eyebrow. “I can take care of myself. You got muscle? That suits me.”
I chuckled, thinking how Sorren might feel about being described as ‘muscle’, but decided it wasn’t an altogether off-base description, and certainly fit Mirov. “Something like that,” I said. “And we’d have to go at night.”
I could see that Chuck didn’t like that, and I didn’t blame him. But Sorren was a vampire, and broad daylight just wasn’t a possibility. To my surprise, Chuck gave a curt nod. “Night’s best for staying out of the way of the cops over at the Navy yard. They might not admit to believing in ghosts, but they don’t like it over there after dark, either.”
“I’ll call you a soon as I have an answer,” I said.
“Where can I store my clocks?” Chuck asked. “I don’t have a lot of money.”
“Let me look into a couple of options,” Teag said. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“I’ll be ready,” Chuck promised. “It’ll be nice having some back-up for once.”
He walked us to the car, and I was surprised when he grabbed my arm. “I told you I was Special Forces,” Chuck said. “The Black Ops unit I was part of, they weren’t your usual crew. We de-fanged things that were alien or dark magic.” He met my gaze. “I hope you know what you’re doing, because that’s what we’re up against, at that godforsaken place.”
I nodded. “Yes it is. And we mean to put things right.”
We left Chuck with assurances that we would be back in touch, and he watched from his window as we drove away.
“What’s Anthony doing tonight?” I asked.
Teag sighed. “Preparing for his big presentation tomorrow. I hope it goes well. But either way, I’ll be glad when this trial is over and he can come up for air. We haven’t gotten to spend much down time together lately.”
Anthony’s loss was my gain. While I was crazy about Anthony and thought he and Teag were amazing together, having Teag at a loose end because Anthony was working late had certainly made our skullduggery easier to manage.
“Let me know when Anthony finally has some free time, and I’ll juggle the schedule around so the two of you can take a long weekend,” I said. It was only fair, given the amount of off-the-clock time Teag put into Trifles and Folly’s ‘other’ business. Sorren made sure Teag and I were paid well for the risks we took, and we both appreciated it, but money only went so far when it came to erasing the stress of being chased by ghosts and menaced by monsters. On the other hand, a few days on a sunny beach was the cure for a multitude of ills.
Chapter Twenty-Five
WHEN I GOT home, I found yet another bundle tied in brown paper lying in the middle of my kitchen table. I recognized Sorren’s handwriting on the note: this should help put the pieces together for you.
“Another one?” Teag asked. With Anthony working late and me not having a social life at the moment, we had picked up takeout again, along with the papers and journal Alistair had given us at the museum.
I sighed. “Want to bet what’s inside provides a wallop of a vision?” I held my hand just above the package, sensing its supernatural strength. Dark, but maybe not an all-out spooky. If luck was with me.
Teag held up Russ Landrieu’s journal and papers. “You know you’re going to need to take a look at these, too, once I’ve read through them.”
I nodded, resigned to the fact that it was going to be one of those kinds of nights. “Let’s eat first, please? I deal better with the visions when I’m not hungry, and besides, the food’s getting cold.”
I eyed the package the whole time we ate. Even from a distance, I could tell that whatever was in the box had been party to a tragedy.
When we had finished our meals, I couldn’t put it off any longer. I took a deep breath, and then slid the package over in front of me. Teag watched, alert to help out if my vision caused trouble.
“Do you want me to anchor you again?” He asked.
“No, let’s try it without you or the ring and see how it goes.” I raised an eyebrow. “If I have trouble, feel free to jump in.”
The wrapping paper gave me an insight into Sorren’s mood. Handling the brown paper and the twine, I sensed his worry. He was concerned for Teag and my safety, and justifiably uncertain about how we were going to stop Moran and his demon. While I would have liked to have read total confidence, just to shore up my own nerves, I knew Sorren’s worrying was a good thing. It would make for caution, and with luck, we could handle our demon problem without more deaths. With luck. That was the tricky part.