Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (4 page)

“
Good work,” Seth
said.

Ava blushed in response to his praise.

“
We were able to collect
DNA from both chains,” Ava said. “It sounds gross but these chains
are very hard to clean. They’re collectors of DNA. If we’re lucky,
we’ll get DNA from the killer on both chains.”

“
You sent the DNA to us?”
the head of CBI asked.

“
Yes sir,” Ava
said.

“
I’ll personally expedite
this,” the head of CBI said.

Surprised that the cash strapped CBI would
take on the expense, the men looked at him.

“
You have to ask yourself:
How did this Saint Jude know Norsen was a Gilmore?” the head of CBI
said.

“
Gary Gilmore was
incarcerated eighteen of his last twenty years,” Seth said. “I
wondered about that too.”

“
What?” his Captain
asked.

“
The killer must have met
Gary Gilmore, Sr. in prison,” the head of CBI said. “Must have
known him well enough to know how volatile he was.”

“
The killer’s got to have
a record somewhere. CBI has a better chance of finding it than we
do,” Seth said.

“
If we’re lucky, we’ll
have his DNA on file,” the head of CBI said.

“
We can only hope,” the
Captain said.

“
You could find the
killer’s DNA on the chain even though Norsen has had his twenty
years?” the Police Chief asked.

“
Yes, sir,” Ava said.
“It’s crazy how little DNA we need and how much is caught in these
chains.”

“
That’s disgusting,” the
head of CBI said.

“
Yes sir,” Ava said.
“You’ll never see a forensics person wearing a chain. Too gross,
sir.”

“
But for our purposes…”
Seth looked through the window at Aden. “Looks like we’re going
back to the property. Can you get a team of your folks
together?”

“
Of course,” Ava
said.

“
Great work,” Seth
said.

Ava smiled and left the room.

“
Special service?” the
Police Chief asked.

“
Sir?” Seth
asked.

Shaking his head at Seth, the Police Chief
turned back to the interview room.

“
You’re going out there
tonight?” his Captain asked.

“
I don’t see anyway around
it, sir,” Seth said. “We’re running out of time.”

“
Take a team of uniforms,”
the Police Chief looked at the head of CBI. “Are you coming
too?”

“
Of course. We’ll bring a
team of forensic people to back you up. I’ll go with
you.”

“
What are we going to do
about these ghosts?” the Captain grinned as if he’d made a
joke.

“
Good question,” the head
of CBI said. “I’ve had more than one experience I’d rather
forget.”

“
Peabury Mansion?” the
Police Chief asked.

“
The Peabury. Croke
Patterson,” the head of CBI said. “Molly Brown. Every one of those
God damned mansions connected to the coal tunnels. They’re all
filled with… ‘unexplained phenomena.’”

“
I’ll make some calls,”
Seth said.

“
You do that,” the Police
Chief said.

“
Yes sir,” Seth
said.

The men turned their attention back to
Aden.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday night — 11:40 P.M.

“
You’re sure they’re
coming?” Aden said.

Aden’s anxious voice broke the silence.
After a few rudimentary comments, the men spent the entire drive
out to the mansion in silence. Seth’s police sedan turned right
into the semi-circle drive of the haunted mansion.

“
I called,” Seth
said.

“
God, this place creeps me
out,” Aden said. “I don’t want to go in there… I…”

Approaching the front of the mansion, Seth’s
headlights lit up an old silver Mercedes Benz. Jacob was sitting on
the hood of the car while Delphie had her head in the trunk.

“
Oh thank God,” Aden
said.

“
My sentiments,” Seth
said.

Seth pulled in front of the ancient
Mercedes. The trail of police cruisers, forensic vans and other
official vehicles parked around them. Before Aden could get out of
the car, he heard someone hail Jacob.

“
Whatcha doing here, man?”
the uniformed police officer asked Jacob.

“
Had to drive,” Jacob
nodded toward Delphie. Delphie gave the young man a wave. “I
couldn’t really let her come out all this way by
herself.”

“
Friend?” the police
officer asked.

“
Dad’s girlfriend,” Jacob
said.

“
Is she really… you know,”
the police officer said.

Jacob nodded. The officer shrugged his
shoulders and nodded.

“
Aden!” Jacob hugged Aden
and turned back to the officer. “Do you know Aden Norsen? He
doesn’t play hockey but he’s a good guy anyway.”

“
Nice to meet you,” the
police officer said.

Aden hugged Delphie hello. Delphie searched
his face and hugged him again. She turned back to the trunk to
retrieve a large canvas bag. She slung the bag over her
shoulder.

“
What’s going to happen?”
Jacob asked.

“
The psychic is supposed
to go in with Norsen. Check out this crypt,” the police officer
said. “You can just wait out here if you want.”

“
I can’t let her go into
an old house by herself,” Jacob said.

“
Jacob can’t resist an old
house,” Delphie laughed. “He loves to buy them for nothing and then
restore them to their original glory.”

Jacob shrugged his shoulders as if he was
caught.

“
You’ll stay with me,”
Aden leaned close to say.

“
With Delphie,” Jacob
said.

Aden nodded. His eyes expressed his anxiety.
Jacob smiled and slapped his back.

“
We’ve done this before,”
Jacob said in a low tone.

“
What do we know about the
house?” Seth asked.

“
The real estate listing
says it’s a little more than ten thousand square feet. But, in my
experience, these old places are larger then advertised,” Jacob
said. “Three floors plus a basement. Five doors to the
outside.”

“
It has about thirty rooms
including the basement,” Aden said.

“
Forensics?” Seth
asked.

“
We found evidence of
people living here, Detective O’Malley,” the CBI Agent in Charge
said. “But nothing that relates to the killer.”

“
There’s a basement,”
Ava’s superior officer said. “Creepy but clean.”

“
Who has the key?” Jacob
asked.

A police officer came forward with a key. At
the head of an uncomfortable parade, Aden, Seth, Jacob and Delphie
approached the front door. The uniformed police officers followed
behind them. The Agent in Charge for the CBI forensics stepped
forward to pull their tape off the door.

“
We need to…” the Agent in
Charge of CBI forensics started.

“
Why don’t you let us deal
with this first?” Seth asked. “We’ll get you when we’re ready to
look at the property.”

Clearly relieved, the Agent in Charge nodded
to Seth.

“
I need a couple of
uniforms…” Seth said. A man and woman wove their way through the
crowd of agents to the front.

“
Gretel! Jeff!” Delphie
said. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“
Sir, we’d like to support
Delphie,” Jeff said.

Embarrassed, the officer’s hands
instinctively went to his belt.

“
Friend?” Seth
asked.

“
She saved my sister’s
life,” Gretel said. “Told her she had cancer when no one knew what
was wrong with her. Helped Jeff find a house he could
afford.”

She looked at her partner.

“
What?” Gretel said. “I’m
not the least embarrassed. I’d follow Delphie into a fire. A big,
spooky house is nothing.”

Jeff looked around at all the people
watching and nodded. Smiling, Delphie led the way to the front
door. Seth unlocked the door and opened it. Jacob, Delphie, Aden,
Seth and the two uniformed police officers stepped into the
entryway. The door slowly creaked closed and shut with a bang. Aden
flicked a switch behind him. A dim light shone from the overhead
bulb.

“
The powers had always
been on,” Aden said. “Power and gas. Weird because the building is
basically abandoned.”

“
Can’t easily turn it
off,” Seth said.

“
Gas and electricity would
have come with a posh house like this,” Jacob said. “There’s no
shut off?”

Seth shook his head.

“
I need you to…” Seth
turned to Jacob.

Jacob turned around so that his face was
right in front of Seth’s.

“
This is what’s going to
happen,” Jacob said in a low voice. “Delphie and I are going to
collect the spirits into the central room. We need to be left
alone. No matter what you hear, or think you hear, stay here. There
is an entity in this building that will do anything to lure you
into its power. Do not give it the chance. Delphie?”

Delphie pulled a round container of sea salt
out of her large bag. She poured a large circle of salt around
them. From her bag, she retrieved four plastic bags filled with
salt.

“
This is pure sea salt.”
Delphie gave a bag of salt to each of them. “Spirits can’t easily
move over salt and don’t like it. Use your salt if you need it. It
should keep you safe.”

“
If you hear or see
something, check it out with the others,” Jacob said.

“
Hear something?” Seth
asked.

“
I used to hear the sound
of a child crying,” Aden shivered. “I looked and looked and looked…
Every night for months. I never found her.”

“
But…” Gretel
said.

“
Gretel, they will need
you the most,” Delphie gave the woman a bright smile. “Just like
everything else in life, men and women rarely see or hear the same
thing.”

“
If Gretel doesn’t hear
what you hear, see what you see, it’s not happening,” Jacob said.
“Aden, you have some experience with this thing. Use it to help the
others. But stay here.”

“
We should go,” Delphie
said. “It’s…”

Jacob’s head jerked toward the hallway. He
took off running. In his wake they heard him say, “I fucking hate
this…”

“
Stay here. Stick
together. It can’t get to you if you’re together,” Delphie said.
She gave them a bright smile. With a nod, she ran after
Jacob.

Aden watched them run into the dark house.
For a moment, he could see Jacob in the dim light. Then there was a
burst of bright light followed by total darkness.

Aden flicked the switch behind them.

Nothing.

Instinctively, Aden, Seth, Gretel and Jeff
shifted closer to each other. In the darkness, they waited.

~~~~~~~~

Monday early morning — 12:07 A.M.

Running toward a wisp of a dark shadow,
Jacob heard his mother’s voice in his head.

“
There are creatures in
this world that are dark. Not dark like dark chocolate or simply
black in color. Their very essence is the deep darkness. They draw
energy and light from the living and the dead. They use this energy
to control the living and the dead,” Celia’s voice said. “They
quest for control and power. Some human beings have a tiny portion
of this energy – dictators, Stalin, Mengele, Hitler, Mao, even
Delphie’s tormentor, Johansen. This creature is a raw source of
their… perversion.”

The shadow threw a surge of dark energy at
Jacob. Every light in the building came on. With a pop, the power
went off.

“
Remember how I told you
that you’d never see one of these creatures?” Celia’s voice asked.
“I was wrong. This creature is worse than anything I’ve ever seen
or heard of. It’s like something out of legend. You must protect
yourselves very carefully.”

“
Delphie?” Jacob
asked.

“
I heard her,” Delphie
said.

“
He’s going to want to get
a hold of you, Jacob,” Celia said. “If he controls you, he controls
all of your power and capacity. Do not give him the chance. Even
the tiniest piece of his energy can infiltrate you and you will be
under his control forever.”

“
She’s right,” Delphie
said.

Jacob and Delphie stayed in one place until
their eyes adjusted to the dark. The entity appeared and then
disappeared.

The apparition of a young girl stood where
the entity had been. The child wore a clean Victorian nightshirt.
She coughed into her hand.

“
Child, why are you here?”
Delphie asked.

The child shook her head and pointed to what
looked like a black belt around her midsection.

“
The entity binds her
here,” Jacob said.

With his words, ten children of various ages
appeared. They were wearing the same clothing and had similar
coughs. The hollow eyes of these trapped souls of these children
stared at them. Each child pointed to the black thread around their
midsection.