Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (16 page)

“Nothing,” Eliza said.

Again, Winn turned and walked. Every time he turned, Steven
caught Eliza staring at Winn’s backside.

I wonder if she looks at me like that when I’m walking away,
Steven wondered.

Eliza dropped back to where Steven was walking and leaned
over to him. “Yours is nice, but his is magnificent,” she whispered.

Steven blushed. “You like him?” he asked her.

“He’s nice enough,” Eliza whispered.

“You want to sleep with him?” he whispered back.

“No!” Eliza said. “Really, Steven! Why do men always make
that leap?”

“Because we’re men, I suppose,” Steven whispered.

“You’re all pigs!” Eliza whispered back, smiling at him and
giving him a wink. It made him smile, too.

“I’m not the one checking out his ass,” Steven said.

“You’re the one checking me out checking out his ass,” she
said. “Worse.”

Winn turned. “Eliza, can you check again?”

Steven stifled a snicker and Eliza closed her eyes.

“Nothing,” she said.

Winn turned and they marched on.

They continued for half an hour, slowly crisscrossing through
the town. Eliza had checked dozens of times. Winn stopped in front of a
foundation that was larger than the others. Steven slipped into the River; it
looked like a schoolhouse. Eliza closed her eyes. “Well,” she said, “there’s a skull
in there. Towards the middle. Want me to walk to it?”

“A skull wouldn’t be it, would it?” Winn asked Deem.

“Could be, I don’t know,” Deem said.

“There’s nothing special about it I can detect,” Eliza said.
“I usually know if there’s something odd about it.”

“Skip it,” Winn said. “We’ll come back if we don’t find
anything else.”

They continued on another hour. The process was becoming
tedious, but Steven kept himself on alert by dropping occasionally into the
River and seeing the ghostly town appear before him. As they got closer to the
Gentry Hotel his alert level raised, and he stayed in the flow longer.

Winn stopped for what seemed like the hundredth time, about
two blocks away from the Hotel. Steven dropped into the River and looked
around. He was horrified to see ghosts leaving the hotel.

“Winn!” Steven said. “We’ve got a problem!”

Winn joined him in the River and they watched as three ghosts
left the hotel and walked down the street towards them.

“Back behind this building!” Winn whispered to the group,
stepping twenty feet back in the direction they’d just come and waving for the
others to follow him quickly. They all dropped into the River and watched as
two of the ghosts passed in the street ahead of them.

There was a third,
Steven thought.
Don’t know where it went.

Where are they going?
Roy thought.

To their homes, here in St. Thomas,
Winn thought.
They sleep in them
like they live here. If the meeting’s over and they’re all heading home for the
night, we’ll soon be penned in with ghosts all over the town. Eliza, do you
think a ghost would know when you’re checking, if it was inside your radius?

They absolutely would know,
Eliza thought.
I’ve seen it happen.

We only saw three ghosts,
Steven thought,
and two of them have passed into
the part of town we’ve already checked. That means there’s only one out there.
We can keep going.

Let me take a look at the hotel first,
Winn said. He crept around the back
of the building and slipped between the next two structures, poking his head
out to look in the direction of the hotel. After a moment he returned.

Looks clear,
Winn thought.
But look, if I make the decision to bolt,
you all need to follow me without question, OK? Remember, I’m the one with the
EM gun.

They all nodded, and Winn returned to the pattern they’d been
following. Eliza checked again, with no luck. They kept on.

After two more crossings, they were only a block from the
hotel. Winn stopped at the back corner of a building opposite the hotel and
asked Eliza to check.

There’s something here!
Eliza thought.
And it’s unusual, it’s glowing.

Like the one in Oregon?
Steven asked.

No, not evil like that one,
Eliza said.
Could be a curse though. It’s
definitely not normal.

Sounds like we’ve hit it,
Roy thought.

Where exactly?
Winn said.

Come with me,
Eliza thought, and walked towards a back door of the
building. She dropped out of the River and saw that she was simply walking up
and over an old foundation. She led the group about five feet inside, and
stopped.

It’s about seven feet down,
she thought,
originally under the wooden planks of
this room. Whoever buried it didn’t want this body found.

Steven slipped back into the River. They were inside a back
room of a store. There were no windows or openings between them and the front
of the store, but two large windows faced towards the side of the building and
the back. Ghosts walking outside those windows might be able to see in.

Start digging,
Winn said.
Who wants to go first?

I will,
Steven said, grabbing one of the shovels.

Eliza, would you mark it out as exactly as you can?
Winn asked.
We can get a second
shovel going. We’ve got to move quickly.

Eliza took the other shovel and used it to mark out a rough
square about six feet by six feet. Steven began shoveling at one corner, and
Winn took the shovel from Eliza and began shoveling at the opposite corner,
careful not to bump into Steven.

Someone needs to keep an eye on the hotel,
Winn thought.

I’ll go,
Roy thought. He made his way out of the room, following the layout of the
building. It seemed to act as an effective block from the sight of ghosts,
though he knew they could pass through the walls if they chose. He dropped out
of the flow to check where he was walking, then he flipped back into the flow.
He felt Deem’s hand on his back.

I’ll come with you,
she thought,
so you can stay in the River. I’ll watch
where you walk.

Roy walked through a small room and then into a third, which
was a large open space at the front of the building. It was laid out like a
small commercial shop, with a large open area in front facing the street. There
was a small staircase running up to a second level, and the front of the shop
had large windows that started at waist level and went up to the ceiling. Roy
walked to the extreme right edge of the shop so he could look out in the
direction of the hotel.

Shit!
he thought.
Two more, coming this way.

Back,
Deem thought, and grabbed Roy by the back of his shirt. He began
stepping back until they reached a door that passed into the back room. Deem
pulled Roy just inside the door, and Roy closed the door leaving only a crack
open.

He watched through the crack, waiting for the two ghostly
figures to pass the front of the shop.

Roy could hear the sound of Steven and Winn digging in the
room behind them.
You should stop shoveling for a second,
Roy thought,
and the shoveling ceased.

Roy watched as the ghosts appeared at the edge of the shop
windows at the left, and slowly walked towards the right.
What if they turn
and go between the buildings?
Roy wondered as they passed out of his sight.
They’d walk right past the windows in the back! I need to know where they
go!

He opened the door and quietly walked back into the front
room of the shop. He approached the windows from the left side, hugging the
wall where the staircase was. He saw the ghosts disappearing from view, walking
further down the main street away from them.

In the clear,
he thought. After a moment he heard the sound of the digging
resume.

He shifted his position to the right side of the windows to
once again look at the hotel a block away. There were no ghosts coming from it
at the moment.

How far along are we?
Roy thought.

No bones yet,
Winn replied.

Three more feet,
Eliza thought.

We’ve got to speed this up,
Winn thought.
We’re coming up on midnight. There
will be a mass exodus from the hotel any moment.

Steven and Winn redoubled their efforts. Roy craned his neck
to get a better view of the hotel. It looked calm. The lights were still on
inside, and if you watched a window long enough you could make out movement
behind it. Roy looked at the grounds surrounding the hotel. From around the
back, a group of four ghosts emerged. They passed by the shrubs that lined the
walkway in front of the hotel and began heading down the street towards him.

More company,
Roy thought.
Get ready to hold off again.

Roy ducked down below the level of the windows and raised his
head just enough to keep an eye on the ghosts. They continued to walk in his
direction, silently floating down the street. One peeled off and turned left,
disappearing down a side street. The other three kept coming.

They’re a hundred feet away now, hold off on the shoveling,
Roy thought. The ghosts continued to
advance. As they approached where he was hiding, one of them broke from the
other two and began to walk towards Roy.

The other two continued walking straight down the street, but
the one that had broken off was coming straight for the shop where Roy was
crouched behind the window. He ducked his head down, afraid he might have been
seen.

One’s headed into the building,
Roy thought.
I’m gonna need the
gun, Winn.

THIS building?
Winn thought.

Yes, this goddamn building!
Roy thought. He raised his head just enough to look
over the window sill. The ghost was coming through the front door.

Roy froze, pressing his body against the wall under the
window, hoping the ghost wouldn’t turn. It was a man, dressed in tattered old
clothing. The flesh around his face looked mottled and leathery. He didn’t turn
to look around the room. Instead he headed straight for the staircase and began
to float up it.

It’s going up the stairs,
Roy thought.
It’s going to be right above us.

Shit,
Winn thought.
We’ve got to keep digging, if we stop we’ll never get
out of here. We’ll have to dig as quietly as possible. Slowly, try not to make
any sound.

Roy watched as the ghost turned at the top of the stairs and
drifted down a hallway beyond his sight.
I can’t see it anymore,
Roy
thought,
but it has to be right above you.

Deem,
Winn thought,
take this gun out to Roy. It’s an extra. Do it as
quietly as you can.

Deem alternated between the real world and the River every
two steps to make sure she didn’t step on something wrong and lose her balance.
After a minute she reached Roy and handed him the EM gun, then she started
back.

Anything to know about how to work it?
Roy thought.

Aim and pull the trigger,
Winn thought.
Then run. You saw how long it takes
to work.

How far are we now?
Roy asked.

I don’t dare check,
Eliza thought,
with the ghost upstairs.

Roy raised his head above the window’s edge once more, going
back on lookout for passing ghosts. There were no new ghosts in the street, but
he felt the hair on his neck rise, as though he was being watched.
Maybe
Deem stayed,
he thought. He turned to look.

The ghost had returned at the top of the stairs. It was looking
down at him.

He froze again, hoping a lack of movement would fool it.
It’s
seen me,
Roy thought.
It’s looking right at me.
Deem hadn’t yet made
it back to the other room; she was slowly taking a step at a time. Roy watched
as the ghost shifted its gaze from him to Deem. Then he saw its face snarl.

Deem!
Roy thought.
Above you!

Deem stopped and looked up. The ghost began to descend
towards her, not bothering with the stairs.

As Deem started walking backwards towards Roy, Roy ran
towards Deem, his arm extended with the EM gun. As Deem backed into him, he
reached his arm past her and aimed at the ghost, still five feet from the floor
but rapidly descending. He fired. There was an electronic hum that quickly
built into a loud pop.