Deadly Night (42 page)

“
It may have been pricey,” said Peter, “but the thing was definitely worth it, you’d have to admit. It had the spiral slides you mentioned and all kinds of other fun stuff between them, and could keep up to twenty kids occupied for hours. I thought the coolest thing about it was the clubhouse on top, fifteen feet above the ground and large enough to hold five or six kids at once. You could only reach that part of the Tower Den by way of a rope ladder or a striped fire pole. Hell, if it wasn’t for all of the outdated Raven Wolff insignias plastered across the damned thing, I’m sure most any kid would still dig it now.”

Peter paused again, a dreamy look on his face.

“
As soon as Bobby discovered this ‘surprise’ birthday gift waiting for him in the backyard, he immediately went nuts, thrusting his fists in the air as he ran screaming and dancing over to the Tower Den,” he resumed, a wan smile on his lips. “All the other kids converged with him and remained there until each one’s parents arrived later that afternoon to pick them up from the party.

“
Around four o’clock the temperature started to drop. Once Bobby’s aunts, uncles, and cousins had also left, he and his older sister, Jenny Northrop, went back into the house. Jenny decided to remain inside and visit with her grandparents for a while, who were in from New Orleans. Before long, she went upstairs to play Bobby’s Playstation with her eighteen-year old uncle, who came up from New Orleans with her grandpa and grandma. Meanwhile, Bobby grabbed a jacket and ran back outside. Along the way out, he picked up the Raven Wolff mask, cape, and glove-claws that his sister gave him for his birthday to go along with the Tower Den….”

Unable to finish, Agent McNamee lowered his head and began to weep.

Jack didn’t know how to properly respond. Why was he
so
upset? Fighting his own weariness and a growing sense of dread, he wondered how this incident connected to him. He started to say something, but Peter abruptly looked up, causing him to recoil. Peter’s face was red with fury, and his eyes were now blurred by grief. Jack prepared to hear something horrible.

“
That was the last time anyone ever saw him!” he nearly shouted. “At least on record the last time. But, you know what? Bobby’s uncle saw something!
‘
Damned right he did!!
”

Peter now openly sobbed. Deeply alarmed, Jack looked toward the door, expecting the agent’s colleagues to bust into the room at any moment. Yet, the door remained shut.

Hey, dudes, in case you haven’t noticed, your partner here has blown a gasket upstairs! ‘Time to get me the fuck out of here!!

Undeterred, Peter continued to sob. “And, you know what else?? Some kid in Carlsdale, Alabama saw the
exact
same type of thing just two months earlier!”

Jack felt the words hit him physically, since obviously the kid he referred to was him.

“
Yes
, Jack! I
am
talking about
you
!!” he declared. “Bobby’s uncle just happened to look outside into the backyard from an upstairs window the same instant the little boy jumped down off the deck. Dressed in his Raven Wolff outfit with arms stretched out in front of him, as soon as he landed on the grass he stopped in his tracks. Do you have any idea why?”

Jack quietly shook his head from side to side, knowing why, but wishing he didn’t.

“
A goddamned golden mist started pouring out of the Tower Den’s clubhouse. It headed right for him, and then the thing
took him!
”

Peter drew closer to Jack, his rage and pain radiating heat fervent enough for Jack to feel it from where he sat.

“
The uncle and his niece screamed through the window for him to get away from the mist, but this innocent little kid walked right into it!” His voice trembled, the tempest within gaining strength. “All of a sudden, the mist began to shimmer, growing brighter until the entire backyard seemed immersed in an ethereal fire. The intense energy from this thing became so unbearable that Jenny and her uncle were forced to turn away.

“
They ran downstairs crying, and alerted the adults about what had happened. As it turned out, Robert noticed the strange glow and passed it off as the setting sun enhanced by the security lights that had just come on. Once Jenny and her uncle explained what they witnessed from upstairs, he recognized his discernment error. The golden light emanated from the east—not the west, as it should have.

“
Bobby’s parents sprinted for the door and threw it open. But when they stepped out onto the patio, the strange mist and its incredible intensity had already vanished, along with any trace of Bobby….”

Peter looked away from Jack and sat down on the concrete floor.

“
Carrying on like this must look pathetic, I’m sure.”

He dabbed at his eyes with his suit coat’s sleeve, looking back up into the younger man’s bewildered face.

“
If you can bear with me for just while longer, I’ll tie everything together,” he said, his voice hushed. “I believe you can guess that Bobby was never seen or heard from again. When his mom and dad ran out onto the patio, Eileen fell to her knees and cried uncontrollably. She kept saying, ‘They came to take my baby, and he’s
never
coming back!’ Robert couldn’t console her, nor could anyone else.

“
Jenny, her uncle, and her grandparents were outside with them by this point, searching for Bobby throughout the area. All efforts to find him proved in vain, as if he vanished into thin air! The last thing ever found of him was the Raven Wolff outfit, which Jenny discovered lying on the floor of the Tower Den’s clubhouse.

“
The entire neighborhood soon joined in the search, and later the police. Eileen’s father had recently retired from the FBI, and obtained the agency’s assistance.

“
A small breakthrough came the very next day…. A police canine unit picked up Bobby’s scent and followed it for nearly three miles into the forest, until it abruptly disappeared near a small bubbling hot spring. For much of the distance tracked by the dogs and their trainers, a strange set of markings lined up next to Bobby’s scent. At first, the only thing determined from the markings was that they were some kind of footprint. No one could tell what kind of creature had made them, but they weren’t human. Near the end of that week, a prominent zoologist flown in from Memphis identified them, though only generally. The tracks were reptilian.”

Peter’s eyes danced, intently studying Jack’s reaction to this last statement, as if fully expecting some important revelation to come forth. When it didn’t, he looked away and shook his head, frustrated.

“
Goddamn it
,
Jack! What’s it going to
fucking
take??” he implored, wearily. “You’ve
got
to help me out here! I mean, you’ve got strange reptilian footprints in Carlsdale, Alabama. Then, there are smaller, but nearly identical ones found near Jackson, Mississippi…. You’ve got a strange golden mist outside your home in Carlsdale, that your next-door neighbors, the Palmers, confirmed they witnessed. Then another one is witnessed by Bobby Northrop’s sister and uncle just three months later.”

Jack silently met Peter’s expectant gaze head-on, unwilling to concede anything just yet.

“
All right ...that’s fine,” Peter acknowledged, nodding as if he just read his thoughts. “Let’s move forward, then. Apparently it’s not enough that I’ve humiliated myself before you and my colleagues. Or, is it?”

Jack remained stoic. He needed more time to absorb this story before responding.

“
Very well. Follow me deeper into my personal hell.” The agent sighed, forcing a pained smile that almost broke Jack’s steadfast refusal to validate the account.

“
I’ll bet you’re wondering why this means so much to me...right? Did you know Eileen Northrop told her husband, Robert, that she felt like they were being watched by an unseen presence located somewhere in the woods, which started soon after they moved into the house?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at hearing this. Encouraged, Peter continued.

“
Did you ever see a photograph of this amazingly beautiful woman, Jack?” he asked. “Here, check this one out...taken the day before Bobby’s disappearance.”

Peter pulled out several photographs from the inside breast pocket of his jacket. He placed one of the pictures directly in front of Jack on the table, who recognized the image of the woman standing in the middle of the photograph. The last time he saw this person’s likeness was on a tabloid cover years ago. Over time he forgot the names involved, but always knew the Northrop’s tragedy was connected to his own.

“
I thought so,” Peter whispered, after seeing Jack’s subtle nod.

His tone completely void of any triumph, he stood up and brushed his suit off. He moved back to his side of the table. Jack’s blurry eyes followed him.

“
Eileen never recovered,” he resumed, his voice hollow and barely audible. “She died the very next spring, leaving her grief stricken husband to care for their only remaining child. Shortly after that, in June, Eileen’s mother passed away suddenly from a stroke. The doctors told her husband and Eileen’s younger brother, who had just turned nineteen and was finishing his first semester at Lehigh University, that her health was likely impaired by the stress and sorrow she’d endured over the previous eight months.”

Jack sniffed and Peter abruptly stopped. The younger man’s façade was crumbling.

“
This only gets worse, my friend,” said Peter. “Remember I told you we share the same hell? I’m quite serious about that.”

He slipped back into his chair, his shoulders trembling as if he might start bawling again at any moment.

“
You see...Eileen Northrop was my sister. I was the nineteen-year old uncle at Bobby’s birthday celebration, and the only one to watch him disappear into that
goddamned mist!!
I’m still the one who routinely checks up on my niece to make sure she doesn’t take her life when she enters one of her many deep depressions. And it’s up to me to make sure her grandpa, my dad, the former FBI agent Merten McNamee, doesn’t do the same thing by swallowing the barrel of his service revolver!”

Peter buried his face in his hands, the burden of sorrow far too big for him to carry any further. He broke down and sobbed, seemingly oblivious to how he looked to anyone, either inside or outside the room. He could’ve remained like this for quite a while, but a pair of strong hands grasped his shoulders from behind.

“
Agent McNamee,” said Jack, just inches above him. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. I’ll tell you everything.”

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