“Not at all. Keep going.”
“He seems ancient to me. Totally at one with nature and the world around him, peaceful, serene, as if nothing could ever faze him. And he’s an incredible storyteller. Sometimes, when I’m working the late shift and he can’t sleep, I’ll sit in his room and he’ll tell me old legends, tales filled with wonder and magic, good and evil, tragedy and happiness.”
They left the town limits and headed west on Route 3, heading down the side of a mountain to where Glendale lay at the base, fifteen minutes away. They crossed the covered bridge that spanned the Quinnepeg River, and a few moments later drove into the town of Glendale. It was bigger and more industrial than Harrington Falls, less quaint and more seedy. St. Boniface’s, the nursing home where Sam was employed, was on the far side of town, and it took them another fifteen minutes of fighting the afternoon traffic before they arrived.
Once inside, Sam had Katelynn wait in the lobby while he ran downstairs to the locker room, changed into his uniform, and clocked in his time card. When he returned he led her upstairs to the third floor. Mr. Armadorian was in Room 310, at the end of a long L-shaped corridor.
Outside the door, Sam said, “I told him you were coming, but just in case he’s asleep, why don’t you wait here a sec and let me go in alone.”
Katelynn nodded and stepped back to comply, but a voice called out to them from inside the room. “Are you two going to stand out there all day, or are you coming in to keep an old man company?”
Sam grinned, shrugged his shoulders, and led Katelynn inside.
The first thing Katelynn noticed were his eyes. A clear robin’s-egg shade of blue, they seemed to gaze out at her with the open wonder of a child. They were eyes she’d often read about but never actually encountered—mesmerizing eyes, eyes that seemed to see right through a person. If not for the obvious kindness that poured out of them in waves, their impact would have been quite frightening. As they were, they made her feel warm and welcome.
Once she could tear her gaze away from Gabriel’s, she noticed his skin was a burnished shade of copper, his face so lined with cracks and creases that it reminded her of a well-worn piece of leather. His hair was long and white, flowing over his shoulders in a long snowy mane, receding only a little despite his obvious age. He smiled at her scrutiny. “Sammy,” he said, reaching out and clasping his friend’s hand in greeting with both of his own, “I’ve been waiting for you, just like we agreed.” Gabriel let go and turned to face Katelynn. “And this must be the young lady my friend has been telling me about lately.”
“Katelynn Riley,” she told him, turning to shake hands. His hand was thin and seemed fragile, but his skin was rough with years of hard work, and his grip was still surprisingly strong. She noticed that he was dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a blue chambray shirt that hung loosely on his thin frame. His feet, propped up on the end of the bed, were clad in a pair of soft suede moccasins.
“Please, sit with me, here by the window,” he said, indicating several chairs that had been set up by the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony that formed most of the wall in front of the bed. “I was just enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun.”
Having been there countless times, Sam had already taken a seat, but Katelynn paused a moment to look around, taking in the austerity of the man’s living space. She had glanced into several other rooms on the way up, and she knew that this was not the normal decor. The only furniture in the room besides the bed and chairs was a nightstand that appeared to have been hewed by hand from one solid piece of wood. It was rough and unfinished, but its very simplicity seemed to give it a wholesomeness that a perfectly stained piece would never have possessed. The walls were plain white plaster, unpainted, unadorned except for an intricate macramé piece that looked to her like some kind of bird rising out of a fire.
When she turned away from the wall hanging, Katelynn found Gabriel watching her. She smiled shyly, and he gestured with one hand, indicating with a smile of his own that she should join Sam and him at the window. The three of them sat together in silence for a time, letting the heat of the sun warm the chill from their bones. Eventually, Gabriel turned to her, and said, “Sammy thinks that I may be of some help to you?”
“Yes,” she replied eagerly, leaning forward in her chair, anxious to get down to business. “I’m employed as a teaching assistant while I work toward my doctorate in sociology at Benton University. I’ve been doing a thesis on the dynamics of communities that arise from one central, familial influence. The impact of the Blake family fortune on the rise of Harrington Falls has been a perfect model. Sam tells me that your family had some association with the Blakes in the past, and I thought you might have some information that might add some local color to my work.”
He nodded, a curious expression on his face. “I’d be delighted to help if I can, but most of what I know would be second- or thirdhand information.”
“That won’t be a problem. I’ve been focusing lately on the figure of Sebastian Blake, including the circumstances that surrounded his final disappearance from this area. Anything you can tell me about him would be a great help, since I’ve managed to uncover next to nothing.” As she spoke, Katelynn delved into her bag for her notebook and pen, while at the same time surreptitiously turning on her tape recorder. She left the recorder inside the bag so as not to make Gabriel uncomfortable. When she straightened, she found the atmosphere in the room had changed, the air suddenly charged with tension. The old man was staring at her intently, a strange look on his face. She could feel that his expression was one of fear.
“Why would a pretty young woman like you want to know about a man like him?” Gabriel asked in a soft, quiet voice that somehow carried far more force than his earlier exuberance.
A sudden thrill went through Katelynn, the one that told her she was onto something.Easy, girl, she told herself, not wanting to ruin things by being hasty. Mindful of the old man’s reaction, she answered carefully, “Well, the Blake family has had a tremendous effect on the development of this region. Since so much has been done on the other, more notable members of the family, particularly Elijah and Nathaniel, I wanted to stay away from them and choose a lesser-known figure. My early research uncovered very little information on Sebastian, Elijah’s younger brother, and so I decided to find out why. The more I looked, the less I found and the more curious I became.”
“And now, like a child with a lost treasure map, you just can’t seem to put it down,” Gabriel said gently, almost remorsefully, in reply.
She nodded in agreement.
He turned away, staring off into space, as if considering whether or not he was going to help her. His hands, idle until then, were suddenly in motion as he began wringing them together in an outward expression of some internal conflict. That went on for several long moments as Katelynn and Sam sat holding their breaths wondering what had so upset the man. Finally, he seemed to return to himself and looked over at them. Turning to Sam, he said, “Shut the door, Sammy.”
Katelynn watched as Sam complied, and on his face she could see an expression of bewilderment that probably matched her own. Her feeling of excitement was growing. The old man was acting as if he was about to impart national security secrets, and that could only mean that he knew something good.
Gabriel waited until Sam had resumed his seat, then addressed Katelynn. “There is no way I can turn you from this course and suggest you choose another?”