Petrified (34 page)

‘
That
is one hell of a coincidence, Professor. Or maybe it's not a coincidence. I interviewed one of the gardeners when that gargoyle was found at Bartram's Gardens. A young kid called Andy Something. He told me that he'd had nightmares about gargoyles ever since he was little, just like Sukie Harris, and
he
called them Spooglies, too.'

Nathan sat down on the edge of the bed. Denver snuffled in his sleep and turned over and said, quite loudly, ‘
No
! Not hot dogs!'

Nathan said, ‘It sounds to me like Sukie Harris and this gardener could both be sensitive to gargoyle activity.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘It's the same sensitivity that many animals have, especially dogs. They can sense things like impending earth tremors, and they can tell if somebody is harboring aggressive thoughts about their owner, even if that person is outwardly trying to give the impression of being friendly.'

‘You mean they're, like, psychic?'

‘You could call it that. But so-called “psychics” are simply people who have a highly-developed sensitivity to other people's auras.'

‘Auras? I thought that was all hippie new-age stuff.'

‘Not at all. All of us continuously give off a strong electro-photonic vibration, especially when we're angry or upset or belligerent. It's called the Kirlian Effect, and it's even been photographed. Zauber's gargoyles are extremely vicious and their physiognomy is in tremendous turmoil, so they probably give off a very intense vibration indeed. Sukie and this gardener could well have the ability to pick up on it.'

Jenna thought for a moment, and then she said, ‘There was somebody else who picked up on it, too. A Pink Sister from the Convent of Divine Love on Twenty-Second Street. I interviewed her when the first gargoyle dropped out of the sky. She said that she felt the gargoyle fly overhead, even though she never actually saw it, and she said that it felt “dark and cold and evil-hearted”. Those were her exact words.'

Nathan said, ‘This could be what we're looking for. Three people who are all sensitive to the aura given off by gargoyles.'

‘I don't think I follow you.'

‘Triangulation, detective. We ask all three of them to point to where they can feel the strongest gargoyle activity. Then we ask your crime scene specialist to draw all three lines on a map, and where they converge . . . that's where we'll find Theodor Zauber.'

Jenna said, ‘It's worth a try, isn't it? But – ah – I don't think I'll tell my captain what I'm doing, not just yet. A five-year-old kid and a mentally-challenged gardener and a nun who's been shut up in a convent for the past seventeen years . . . they're not your classic reliable witnesses, are they?'

‘How about meeting at Temple University Hospital? We can take the first bearing from Sukie Harris, and go on from there.'

‘OK, Professor. I guess I've tried nuttier ways of solving a crime, but I can't remember what they were.'

Nathan and Jenna met in the hospital reception area. Jenna had brought Ed Freiburg with her. He had been working all night and he looked bug-eyed and exhausted.

Up in the burns unit, Sukie was dressed in a bright red cable-knit sweater and jeans and was all ready to go home. Both Braydon and Melinda Harris were there, as well as Doctor Berman and Doctor Mahmood.

Sukie was coloring a picture of a pony with a pink Cosmic crayon. Jenna hunkered down beside her and said, ‘How are you feeling, Sukie?'

‘I'm
fine
, thank you.'

‘She had no nightmares last night,' said Doctor Mahmood. ‘I don't know if there is any significance to this, in the light of what has happened.'

Nathan said, ‘She doesn't know about it, does she?'

Melinda shook her head.

‘Maybe there is a connection,' said Nathan. ‘I believe that those creatures that attacked the city last night were the same creatures that Sukie has been having nightmares about. The Spooglies. In reality, they're gargoyles.'

‘I do not understand you,' said Doctor Mahmood. ‘Gargoyles are made of stone, are they not?'

‘Well, yes, they are normally. It's a little too complicated to explain right now, but take it from me that they
are
gargoyles, and that we need very urgently to find out where they've been hidden. What happened last night, we don't want that to happen again, at any price.'

Jenna said, ‘We need to ask Sukie to point out exactly where she thinks they are.'

‘No,' said Melinda. ‘Absolutely not. Don't you think she's been through enough?'

‘Ma'am,' Jenna retorted, ‘three hundred thirty-four innocent people were killed last night. Torn to pieces, all of them. What do you think
they
went through?'

Braydon laid his hand on Melinda's shoulder. ‘Come on, Melinda. These people are asking for our help. It was my fault that Sukie got burned, but Professor Underhill here, didn't he fix her up? I've learned a hard lesson out of this, and that's to swallow my pride and listen to other people's advice and allow other people to help me. The least we can do is help them in return.'

Melinda looked across at Sukie, sitting at the table by the window, the tip of her tongue clenched between her teeth, trying not to crayon over the lines.

Braydon said, ‘I don't know how it all got so hostile between us, Melinda. Maybe you don't want us to get back together, but at least let's be friends, for Sukie's sake. Or at least let's
pretend
to be friends.'

Doctor Berman stepped forward and laid a hand on each of their shoulders. ‘In my entire career, I have never seen a patient with third-degree burns to the face heal as quickly and as perfectly as Sukie. Maybe it's not my place to say so, but I do think you both owe Professor Underhill a serious debt of gratitude.'

Melinda remained tight-lipped for a moment, but then she said, ‘Very well. You can ask her, so long as you don't upset her.'

‘Thank you,' said Jenna. ‘This could save a whole lot of lives.'

Next, Melinda turned to Braydon. ‘Yes,' she said, as if she had just swallowed a mouthful of white wine vinegar. ‘I
can
pretend to be friends.'

Jenna said, ‘Sukie, will you do something for me? Will you show me again where the Spooglies live?'

Sukie nodded, without looking up from her coloring. Ed Freiburg opened his satchel and took out a Coherent laser compass, a yellow box about nine inches long and six inches wide.

‘This man is called Ed. Ed has this really cool light. He's going to shine a light along your arm so that we can find out exactly where the Spooglies are.'

Sukie put down her crayon. ‘Are you going to put them in prison?' she asked.

Ed said, ‘No, we're not. We're going to send them off to Disney World, that's all, so that they never come back and give you nightmares, ever again, because they'll be having too much fun with Winnie the Pooh.'

Without hesitation, Sukie pointed to the south-west. ‘They're
there
,' she said, emphatically. Ed switched on his laser, and a narrow beam of green light shone along her arm toward the opposite side of the room.

Jenna looked at Nathan. She said nothing, but they were both praying that this triangulation was going to work.

They drove to Bartram's Gardens and managed to catch Andy Fisher as he was leaving to go home. The wind was rising and the sky had turned charcoal-gray and they could hear thunder in the distance, like the cannons of an approaching army.

‘Andy,' said Jenna. ‘Can you feel where the Spooglies are hiding?'

Andy blinked at her, and then looked at Nathan and Ed. ‘The Spooglies – they killed all of those people last night.'

‘We know they did,' Jenna told him. ‘That's why we need to find out where they are. We want to stop them from killing any more people.'

‘I don't know
where
they are,' Andy told her. ‘And if I knew where they were, I wouldn't go there, ever.'

‘But do you know which direction they're in?' asked Nathan. He pointed to the north, and then to the east, and then to the south. ‘Are they over
that
way, or
that
way, or
that
way?'

‘I don't know,' said Andy, wringing his hands together.

‘You don't know?' Nathan retorted, with mock impatience. ‘What are you, stupid or something?'

‘I'm not stupid! You can't call me stupid! You're not allowed!'

‘What do you mean, I'm not allowed? If you're stupid I can
call
you stupid! All I'm doing is telling the truth.'

‘It's discrinimation.'

‘Oh! It's discrinimation, is it? Thank God I'm not guilty of discrimination!'

Andy clenched his fists in distress. ‘If I tell you – if I tell you – they'll come find me! They'll come find me, and they'll tear me to pieces, the same way they did all of those other people!'

Nathan went up to Andy and put his arm around his shoulders. ‘Andy,' he said, ‘they won't find you. You know where
they
are but they don't know where
you
are. They don't even know you exist.'

‘That Spoogly opened its eyes and it saw me.'

‘Maybe it did and maybe you were just imagining it. Whichever it was, that particular Spoogly is all locked up in the CSI laboratory now and its wing is broken off and it's not going to come and find you, I promise.'

Andy's eyes darted from side to side. ‘I'm scared of them,' he said. ‘If they don't come find me for real, they'll come find me in my nightmares.'

Nathan hugged him even tighter. ‘Andy, they won't. I promise you.'

‘You said I was stupid.'

‘Yes. That's because you won't tell me where they are. So I want you to prove that you're not stupid.'

Andy sniffed, and nodded. ‘OK.'

Nathan waited for almost half a minute, but Andy said nothing. All he did was repeatedly sniff.

‘Andy,' said Nathan.

‘Yes, sir?'

‘
The Spooglies, Andy
!' Nathan roared at him. ‘
Where the fuck are they
?'

Andy made a whinnying noise like a nervous foal and pointed in a westerly direction, toward Elmwood and the Holy Cross Cemetery.

‘That's terrific,' Nathan told him. ‘Now keep your arm as still as you possibly can while Ed lines up his laser.'

Ed Freiburg shone his green laser beam along Andy Fisher's arm and took a note of the compass bearing. ‘OK then,' he said, ‘that's two readings. That's enough for a rough triangulation, but I think we ought to go for the third, just to make sure. These two kids only had to waver their fingers a couple of inches and our final reading could be miles out.'

‘You're sure they won't come find me?' asked Andy.

‘Cross my heart and hope to die,' said Nathan.

‘But I don't want to die!'

Sister Mary Emmanuelle came along the long echoing corridor to greet them. She looked even paler than she had when Jenna had first talked to her, and there were plum-colored circles under her eyes.

‘You wanted to see me again?' she asked.

‘Yes, Sister. This is Professor Nathan Underhill and this is Ed Freiburg, one of our criminologists.'

‘How can I help?' asked Sister Mary Emmanuelle. ‘I'm afraid I have nothing more to add to what I told you before.'

Jenna said, ‘You look like you haven't been sleeping very well, if you don't mind my saying so.'

Sister Mary Emmanuelle crossed herself. ‘I've been having nightmares. It's like a moral struggle inside my mind. I believe that God is testing me.'

‘Nightmares about what?' Nathan asked her. ‘Nightmares about creatures like gargoyles?'

Sister Mary Emmanuelle nodded. ‘I know that they are nothing more than a metaphor for evil, but the nightmares have seemed very real.'

Jenna said, ‘Do you know what happened last night?'

‘No. I was praying from midnight until four in the morning.'

‘What happened last night was that hundreds of gargoyles attacked the old part of the city and killed over three hundred innocent people.'

Sister Mary Emmanuelle stared at her. ‘You're serious, aren't you? It really happened?'

‘Somebody has found a way to make stone gargoyles come to life,' Nathan told her. ‘We need to find that somebody urgently, before any more people get killed. Those nightmares, Sister – you weren't just going through a personal moral struggle. You were seeing what really happened. You sensed it. You know that feeling you had when the gargoyle first flew over the convent? That feeling of coldness? Do you have any of that feeling right now?'

‘I don't understand what you mean.'

‘Let me put it this way. When you think about those creatures in your nightmares, those demons or gargoyles or whatever they are, can you sense where they're hiding?'

Sister Mary Emmanuelle opened and closed her mouth, and then she said, ‘
Yes
. I thought I was being neurotic. I thought it was lack of sleep, or because I've been fasting. I've been fasting, you see, to purify my body, and thus to purify my mind.'

‘It's not you who's evil, Sister, it's those gargoyles, and the man who's been reviving them. The evil isn't inside your head. It's out there someplace, and we have to find it. Do you think you can point to where you can feel it?'

Without another word, Sister Mary Emmanuelle turned around and pointed westward. Ed Freiburg took out his laser compass and said, ‘You don't mind, do you, Sister?'

‘Of course not. If you can find those creatures, and exorcize them, I will do anything to help you.'

Ed leveled his laser along Sister Mary Emmanuelle's arm, and it shone directly on to a painting of Jesus on the opposite wall, a brilliant green dot of light directly between the Saviour's eyes. Ed jotted down the compass bearing and then said, ‘God bless you, Sister.'