“I have more to tell you, but first I would like to read your future. Will you let me do that?”
Willis shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am, but that just ain’t my thing.”
Rose gave him a long, level look. “You may go, then.” She held her arm out, palm up, toward the porch. “Besides,” she said, turning to Maddock and Bones. “It is these two whose souls are troubled.”
“I’ll wait outside, guys.” Willis left the abode and then Maddock and Bones sat back down on the couch. Rose pulled her chair over so that she sat directly in front of them.
“Take my hands.” Maddock held one and Bones the other. Then Rose took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to chant softly. Maddock was less than comfortable with the scenario, but the woman had helped him and so he didn’t want to be a spoil sport. He looked briefly over at Bones, who seemed to go right along with it, closing his eyes and relaxing.
Maddock forced himself to do the same, but soon he felt a cool breeze and opened his eyes in time to see the candles flicker. Rose was swaying back and forth, eyes closed, trance-like. After a time, the priestess released their hands and picked up a wooden bowl. She shook it gently and Maddock swore he could feel her whispered chant and the rattling of the bowl washing over him.
Rose dumped the contents of the bowl onto the table, spilling chicken bones, shells, and pebbles onto the rough surface. She gazed at them through glassy eyes until Maddock and Bones exchange puzzled glances. Had she gone into some kind of psychotic trance? What if she didn’t snap out of it? Just as Maddock was about to express these very concerns, her head snapped up, her eyes clear.
Rose turned first to Bones. “The man is not lost; he is trapped. Release him.”
Then she faced Maddock. “Tragedy waits at the end of every path. Harden your heart but do not turn to stone.” Then she lowered her head as if in prayer.
After a long silence, Maddock cleared his throat. “Thank you for that, Rose. You said there was more you had to tell us about zombii.”
She slowly raised her head, a smile that Bones would later describe as “creepy, dude” spreading across her face.
“Yes, there is only one more thing. Before you called the zombii a legend. That is wrong. They are very real.”
Chapter 17
Fabi pulled up to the house, ready to unwind after a long day at work and eager to hear how Bones, Maddock and Willis had fared with the priestess. Perhaps she’d even talk Bones into giving her a shoulder rub, provided he agreed not to let his hands drift.
“Right. That’ll happen,” she muttered as she cut the engine.
She found the front door ajar and shook her head. Three grown men and every one of them was raised in a barn. But as soon as she stepped over the threshold she knew something was terribly wrong.
Furniture lay overturned. Framed pictures removed from the wall, their backs slashed open. Rugs pulled up, the contents of drawers emptied onto the floor, broken glass all over the place…
She froze in the entranceway. What if whomever had done this was still inside? Suddenly frightened for her safety, Fabi turned and ran back out of the house. She had almost reached her car in the driveway when another vehicle turned onto the street and headed in her direction. She crouched behind her car in case it was whomever had perpetrated the breaking, entering, and destruction of the property now returning, but as the vehicle approached she recognized it as the Jeep she’d loaned to Bones.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she stepped out from behind her car and waved both hands in a distress signal. Maddock pulled up right next to her, killed the engine, and the three men got out. Bones walked over to give her a friendly hug but could immediately see that something was wrong.
“The house — someone turned it upside down. I just got here five minutes ago and I was afraid to stay inside in case whoever did it is still in there.”
The three ex-SEALS eyed one another, immediately transforming into operator mode. Maddock told Fabi to get into her car and lock the doors until they came back for her. Then they split up, Maddock going in straight to the front door while Willis went around the right side of the house toward the back, and Bones the left.
Each of them carried pistols, and they held them at the ready now.
Maddock reached the house first and slipped inside, remaining silent. He stepped past the entranceway into the living room so as to be visible from only one direction. He crouched and listened for signs of an intruder, but heard nothing. He knew Bones and Willis would have reached the back door by now and would be covering that. Maddock moved through the house cautiously, head on a swivel, until he reached the kitchen. That clear, he moved through it into an adjoining laundry room which had a back door out to the yard, open, the window smashed out.
“It’s me, this room clear.” Maddock let Bones and Willis know he wasn’t an intruder before reaching for the door and opening it.
“Clear out here,” Bones said, entering the house. Willis followed, and then Maddock closed and locked the back door, even though the window had been busted out. In a low voice, Maddock explained that he had not yet checked the bedrooms or bathrooms, and to proceed with operational caution.
The three of them spread out throughout the house, first moving to the unchecked areas, clearing them, and then double-checking everything again.
“We’re all clear.” Maddock nodded toward the front yard. “Go get Fabi and bring her in.” Bones left while Maddock and Willis surveyed the damage. At length, Willis shook his head.
“Somebody sure was after something in here. This isn’t the work of an ordinary thief, no way.”
“I agree. Let’s see what she has to say about it.” Maddock looked toward the front door, where Fabi and Bones were walking in, the shocked look still on Fabi’s face.
“Thank you for making me feel safe.” Fabi hugged Maddock and Willis in turn.
Maddock glanced around at the destruction then back to Fabi. “Unfortunately, I worry that by us being here looking for treasure, we’re making you less safe. Do you get the feeling that someone knows your cousin may have sent you something before he died?”
Fabi nodded. “Let me check something. Come with me.” She moved to the living room where an old rolltop desk lay overturned on the floor. She frowned as she looked at it. “I’m guessing they’re gone…” She stooped down to the floor and began rummaging through the desk drawers…
Maddock’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me… .”
She looked up from the desk, her eyes red rimmed. “They took the papers that were in the cigar box.”
Bones and Maddock made noises of distaste, but Willis looked puzzled. “Wait a minute. That box wouldn’t fit in those drawers…”
“I took the papers out of the box and stored them in here. I’m sorry, I never thought anyone would go to such lengths to get them.”
Maddock patted his pants pocket. “At least I have pictures of the critical pages, most of them, anyway.”
Bones didn’t look much happier in spite of that news. “Now we’re in a race against… someone… to figure out those clues and get to the treasure.”
Maddock looked to Fabi. “Any idea who that someone might be? Enemies of David’s? Of yours?”
Fabi thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly. “Me, no. Not that I’m aware of, at any rate. David… also none that I know of, but for years he’d been living here while I was in Miami, so it’s not impossible he got involved with something I didn’t know about. He was my cousin, we were reasonably close, but not super-close.”
Maddock nodded. “Okay, so we both have the same information to go off of. But it hasn’t led us to the treasure so far. Hopefully, it will be just as hard for whoever stole the documents.”