With Silent Screams (20 page)

Caitlin hugged her father tightly. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“Because I know you, I know how angry she makes you. Telling you about her threats would have done little, other than made you even more determined to find her. And I didn’t want you within a hundred miles of her. It’s not your job to protect me, it’s mine to protect you.”

“But, Dad, you should have told me. All these years you’ve kept that to yourself. Is that why you kept turning down the job in Washington, because of her threats?”

“I couldn’t risk it, couldn’t risk having to look over my
shoulder
for the rest of my life.”

“So, you don’t think she’d come after you anymore?” I asked.

“She has no reason to, although I’ve no idea what her warped mind thought at the best of times.”

Caitlin stood and took her phone out. “I’m getting some protection here.”

“Caitlin, no,” Norman argued. “I won’t be kept here like some prisoner. Besides do you really want to explain why the serial killer you’re after is your mom?”

“Call Roberto and ask him for help,” I said, throwing my phone to Caitlin. “Last call on there. Tell him I’ll owe him.”

Caitlin nodded and walked off to make the call.

“This is unnecessary,” Normal protested again.

“You know what, Norman. I’ve lived for a very long time, and in that time I’ve seen people like Patricia lash out at those who used to love them. If she thinks she can to you, she will. I promise you that. Do you think you could kill her, or your boy, if they came calling?”

Norman’s expression told me he couldn’t.

“Just let Caitlin do what’s best. In the meantime, I have a few more questions. Did Patricia ever mention a Simon or a plan in Maine?”

“Simon, yeah. Not until we’d been together a few years, though. She was in love with him. That was obvious. She said he was her ex from many years ago. The rest, no.”

“So, you didn’t want to see anything was wrong, and by the time it was obvious, it was also too late.”

“Maybe you’re not quite as stupid as you first appeared.”

“And maybe you’re not quite a crotchety old asshole,” I said with a smile. “Maybe.”

“You think you can stop Patricia and her people?”

I nodded. “I have to, because otherwise a lot of people are going to die. You and your daughter included.”

I went for a walk on the grounds of the lavish house when Caitlin returned, allowing her some time with Norman. She found me after an hour or so as I sat by a sizeable pond watching the fish swim around without a care in the world. Lucky buggers.

“I think your calling as a ninja is pretty much shot,” I called out to her as she made more noise than a stampeding rhino as she approached me.

“Well that’s a terrible shame,” Caitlin said and sat beside me.

“So, how are you holding up?”

“Well, I just found out that my mom, who I already think very little of, blackmailed my father and threatened both him and me. Although, none of it really surprises me.” She exhaled deeply before speaking again. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my mom and her
…
pride, I guess. I should have done it sooner.”

“Yes, you should. But you didn’t and we’ve moved on. Your dad likes me.”

Caitlin laughed. “Yeah, he said you were a cocky son-of-a-bitch. I think that’s about as high praise as you’re going to get from him.”

“You know if you come with me, it’s going to result in you crashing into them both again.”

Caitlin nodded, sadly. “I figured that out. We have to stop them from hurting anyone else. Something big is happening here. Karl, the senator, and my mom are all working together. They’ve killed multiple people, including your friend Bill and those who survived Simon’s original attack over thirty years ago, and no one goes to that much trouble for anything small.”

“Okay, so what do you think is going on?”

“I think my mom, brother, and the rest of the werelions are being used as muscle. If anything goes wrong they’re the ones in the firing line. My mom said that they were Vanguard. What’s that?”

“The Vanguard are a group of terrorists who exist to cause problems for Shadow Falls. They see the place as an affront to Avalon. They’re insane, but they’re also highly trained and don’t employ people as far gone as your mum and brother. Someone helping Simon said the same thing back in ’77.”

“So, Karl, and before him Simon, was using the Vanguard name as a way to get people to hurt Shadow Falls?”

“Simon told me he’d let them believe it to give them purpose. You make people think you’re fighting against an aggressor, make them believe there’s a cause at stake and they can be pretty damn motivated. Doesn’t explain why your mum is involved though. I mean specifically, why her?”

Caitlin shrugged. “No idea. But this is all looking like a trip to Shadow Falls in is order.”

“Unfortunately, you’re right, it does.”

Caitlin stood and walked back toward the house before stopping and turning back toward me. “Nate, you can’t hold back if we go up against them. You have to do whatever you can to stop them.”

“I promise, if they give me no choice, I’ll stop them. But you need to be able to do the same, and I’m not sure you can.”

“This isn’t about my mom and me. This is about stopping a serial killer from causing more harm. I need to do my job and bring her to justice.”

“You know she won’t go to a human prison. Not in a
million years.”

“Then we’ll find a great big pit and throw her in it. But she will pay for her crimes.”

The way she said that final sentence made me wonder if she meant the murders Patricia had committed, or the crimes perpetrated against Caitlin’s family.

CHAPTER
22

R
oberto’s agents, a man and woman, arrived after about an hour and confirmed that both Charles Whitehorn and Karl had vanished from Washington, which certainly didn’t make me feel any better about whatever they had planned.

A taxi took us to the airport, where true to Felicia’s words, the jet still sat. Whatever fault they had told the staff was with the jet was suddenly solved and a few hours later we were in the air. The pilot told us that he was taking us to Portland, where my Audi would be waiting. Apparently, Felicia liked to make sure her friends were well taken care of. That and she probably liked the idea of me owing her a favor.

Once at Portland we took my car and a short time later were sat opposite the Mill.

“So, this is the entrance to Shadow Falls,” Caitlin said, sounding about as impressed as if I’d just taken her to the dump-it site.

“Yep, it’s in that bar,” I told her and glanced around the neighborhood. A lot had changed in over thirty years. The Mill was much bigger for one, maybe twice the length it had been. Dozens of new builds had been built-up around it, most of them what appeared to be a mixture of bars and restaurants.

“So, do you feel like telling me what Shadow Falls actually is?”

“It’s one of the Hidden Realms.”

Silence hung inside the car. “Yeah, I’m going to need more than that,” Caitlin eventually said.

“Okay, imagine a large white board. The kind of things you see in school. That board is our current realm, realm A, Earth, or whatever the hell you want to call it. Now imagine that board is covered in post-it notes, hundreds of them. Each one of those notes represents one of the Hidden Realms.”

“So, you can only get to the Hidden Realms through this realm?”

“Not exactly,” I said trying to figure out how to explain it. “Some are linked to one another. The only constant is that every single realm is linked to this one via a gateway, which serve as both the entrance and exit.”

Caitlin sat back in the seat and rubbed the side of her neck. “What are the realms themselves?”

“Each realm is its own, self-contained world. They all have their own species, weather, plants, day/night cycle, and a host of other things. You’ve heard of many of the realms before, just without knowing that they were in fact real:
Tartarus
, Olympus, Valhalla, Albion, and countless others, all exist as realms.”

“So,” she said slowly, obviously turning the idea over in her head. “If you’re a criminal, you could just hide in one of these places and jump from realm to realm never getting caught?”

“It’s happened more than once.” Mordred had done it for
centuries
; it was why I’d never managed to track him down for any real length of time. “It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do though. The problem is that to go from one realm to another, without coming back to this one, means you need to know where the gateways are. Very few maps of the realms exist; usually
whoever
lives in one realm maps it out, but then keeps the map in the realm. Most people who try to evade capture usually get stuck in one realm. Then it’s just a matter of sitting outside the gate and waiting, or going in and getting them.”

“Can you tell me about these realms?” she asked. “Do they look like earth?”

“Some do, some don’t. I know that’s not exactly the most
scientific
of answers, but it’s true. Shadow Falls, for example, can’t use electricity. At least not in the way we can; they have gas lamps in the street.”

“Why is it called Shadow Falls?”

“There’s a huge mountain range called Shadow’s Peak,” I continued. “Once a day it casts a huge shadow that stretches all across the rest of the realm. The people who first found the place probably thought the name was more original several hundred years ago.”

“And the entrance to Shadow Falls is in a bar in Portland?”

“Well, under it, but yeah, essentially.”

“What’s stopping everyone from walking through the gateway, then?”

“The guardians of the realm. Or guardians, for short. They’re the only ones who can activate the gate. Each gate has between four and six guardians, who can only activate the gate by touch. They’re basically immortal, so long as they stay within a mile or two of the gate. Once outside that cordon, they’re just as easy to kill as any other human.”

“So, what happens if the guardian is away from the gate and someone wants in?”

“If anyone touches the gate who isn’t a guardian, those linked to that realm will be alerted. Doesn’t always mean someone’s going to come let you through.”

“How do they become guardians? Are they born like that?”

I opened my mouth to answer and realized that I didn’t have one. “No, at least I don’t think so. I vaguely remember being told that they used to be human. In fact I think only humans can become guardians. To be honest, there is a lot about them I don’t know. They’re a secretive bunch, and beyond knowing that their power is based on proximity to a gateway, I don’t know much else. Oh, they’re linked to a gateway. One gateway per person. But my knowledge of guardians is now exhausted.”

“Anything else I should know?”

“Your phone won’t work, leave your gun in the car, and try really, really hard not to tell anyone that you’re FBI. Plenty of humans live there though, so it shouldn’t be something to concern yourself about.”

“How many people are we talking about?” Caitlin asked as we both got out of the car.

“Including humans and all the species who live there? About a million,” I said and walked off toward the bar, aware that
Caitlin
was still staring at me from the car.

“I’d like to see Rebecca Dean,” I told a young waitress who came toward us and asked if we’d like a table.

The young woman glanced around, ever so slightly nervous, but the smile on her face never wavered. “Miss Dean is currently in a meeting. Is she expecting you?”

I shook my head. “I doubt it very much.”

“In that case, I can’t disturb her,” she told me, clearly unimpressed that she’d pulled the short straw of coming to talk to me.

“What’s your name?”

“Anna,” she told me.

“Well, Anna, how about this? You go tell Rebecca that N
ate Garre
tt is downstairs in her bar having a scotch. She’ll probably yell a bit, so you may want to make a hasty retreat then.”

“Mister Garrett, she’s in a meeting and can’t be disturbed.”

I lent in closer so I could whisper. “Ask her if she’d prefer to be disturbed or get to bury her king?”

Anna swallowed and then walked off. I did feel a little bad about getting her to tell Rebecca I was here, and the bu
ry-her-kin
g part was probably overkill, but considering Rebecca arrived under a minute later, I guess it worked.

“Get the fuck out of my bar,” she snapped as she stamped her way toward me.

Several people who were eating stopped and glanced at the curvaceous woman who was bearing down on me like a force o
f nature.

“No,” I told her.

Rebecca hadn’t aged a day in the over thirty years since I’d last seen her, but her eyes were harder than they’d been and I wondered what had happened to cause it.

“You can leave, or I’m going to throw you head first through that window.”

“Is everyone you used to know like this when you turn up?” Caitlin asked as Rebecca grabbed me by my jacket and slammed me up against the wall.

The air rushed out of me, and my head bounced off the hard brick, making me momentarily dizzy. “Nice to see you, too,” I said.

“I heard what you did. I told you back then that you weren’t going to put your hands on him.”

“To answer your question, Caitlin, it usually depends on how much I’ve pissed them off.” I met the eyes of the woman who held me against the wall with ease. Guardians were strong as hell, and if she’d wanted to she could have really hurt me. But the same was true of me. And I really didn’t want it to get that far. “In your case, Rebecca, that was probably a lot.

You can either let me go and I’ll tell you why I’m here, or I’ll make you let me go and still tell you. I’ve been shot at, attacked, and generally had a shitty night. I’m not in the mood to piss around.”

Rebecca released me and took a step back. “You have thir
ty secon
ds; come into my office.”

She turned and walked away, leaving some shocked diners to stare in disbelief at what had happened. I noticed the skull shaped hole in the plaster and rubbed the back of my head, ignoring the customers as I followed Rebecca upstairs to the office. Apart from a different paint job and some modern appliances, it appeared to be identical to the one I’d been in over thirty years earlier.

I almost bumped into Rebecca when she spun abruptly, and with Caitlin directly behind me I couldn’t step away in time to avoid the punch to my stomach. I dropped to my knees and sucked in air, while I tried not to cough up my lungs.

Caitlin quickly stood between me and my assailant. “That’s enough! You’ve made your point, now let him tell you why we
’re here.”

Rebecca smiled. It wasn’t pleasant. “He deserved that.”

“Probably,” Caitlin agreed. “Hell, I’ve wanted to do it myself more than I can remember and I’ve only known him a few days. But this is important, and we don’t have time for childish shit. Too many people are already dead. I don’t want to stand around while that tally increases.”

Rebecca leaned up against the desk at the far end of the room. “Thirty seconds.”

“I need to go see Galahad,” I said as I stood, the pain in my gut finally subsiding.

“I think we can end it there,” Rebecca said.

I told her about the werelions and how they were working to Simon’s plan. It probably took longer than thirty seconds, but the second I mentioned Simon’s name and got a reaction, I knew she wasn’t about to kick Caitlin and me out.

“When they brought Simon here,” Rebecca said, “he winked at me. I thought nothing of it at the time, until I was told that he would only speak to Galahad with me present. So, for one day a month, every month, I used to travel to Shadow Falls and sit with Galahad. We did that for the first ten years.”

“And how’d that work out for you?” I asked.

“Simon never said anything of value. He talked about the people he’d murdered or told me how much he liked seeing me. Never anything about what happened in Stratford. He’s a cruel, vile, little man. But he’s also locked up in a dungeon and there’s no way he’s had any visitors.”

“Well he might not be giving the orders, but he knows what they are. Galahad needs to be made aware of what’s happening.”

“You’re right, he does,” Rebecca agreed. “Although I’m unsure why you have to be the person to tell him.”

“Because despite whatever might have happened, we were friends. I’m hoping I can get him to allow me to see Simon and try and figure out what the hell is going on here, because if we don’t, a lot more people
will
die.”

Rebecca remained quiet for a short time until she picked up the phone on her desk and pressed a button on the base unit. “Get the gateway ready; I think we’re going to have to send two people through it.”

“Thank you,” I said when she’d replaced the handset.

“I didn’t do it for you, Nate. I don’t give a shit if you go through or not, but if I can stop Simon or those who are working with him once and for all, I will do it.”

“Even so, thank you.”

Rebecca went and opened the office door, grabbing my arm as I walked passed her. “One thing, Nate. If you hurt my king ever again, if you lay your little finger on him in anger, I will gut you like a fish.” She released me and walked off without a word, expecting Caitlin and me to follow.

“What the fucking hell did you do back then?” Caitlin
whispered
.

“Oh, you know. The usual.”