Part 12 (1/2)

Chapter 7.

The girls had left us a note that they were out exploring the village, so we in turn left them a note that we were back from the castle, and off in search of grub.

We found a lovely pub called Slainte's, and ordered a round of fish-and-chips and a pitcher of beer. While our food was being prepared, I told the group about the two dreams I'd had where I'd been visited by the spirit of Ra.n.a.ld Dunnyvale, and then what he'd told me down in the crypts' tunnel.

”He wants you to personally rid the castle of the phantom?” John asked incredulously.

”Yep.”

Heath looked deeply worried. ”And he won't tell you where Gopher is?”

”Nope.”

”I don't like it,” Gilley said.

”You never do,” I muttered.

Gilley looked at me crossly. ”What'd you say?”

”Nothing,” I said quickly. ”The point is that I don't think there's any other way to get Gopher back. We're not finding him on our own, and we've seen how tricky that phantom can be. I think it's way too dangerous to go back there and continue to explore the castle without knowing a little bit more about what we're dealing with. We need to research the phantom, and this Alex person.”

”But the longer we take to do that, the more danger Gopher could be in,” Heath reasoned.

I knew he was thinking back to the awful time he'd had when he'd been held in the phantom's grip. I understood fully how difficult it was to be patient and do our homework, all the while knowing what kind of torture Gopher was likely experiencing.

”I don't know that we have much of a choice, Heath,” I said honestly. ”Gopher will just have to hang on while we figure out how to find him.”

Our food arrived then and for a little while we ate in silence. Gilley was the first to break it when he said, ”Mwt mabt da bkpwk?”

I smirked. ”I personally know that your mother taught you better table manners, Gil.”

He appeared chagrined. He then chewed thoroughly and swallowed. ”What about the backpack?”

I'd left it in the van and I'd almost completely forgotten about it. Excusing myself from the table, I dashed out to retrieve it and hauled it out of the pa.s.senger's seat. Bringing it back into the pub, I set it on the table with a thud, and unzipped the top.

I gasped when I inspected the contents.

”What is it?” Heath asked.

I tipped the flap so that they could all see inside to the dozens of spikes bound with cord weighing down the pack.

”Whoa,” said Heath and John, while Gilley whistled appreciatively.

”That's why the phantom didn't come after me when I went down those stairs,” I said, pulling one of the spikes free and testing it against the metal zipper. The zipper clinked against the magnetic metal. ”I wondered why it didn't chase me into the tunnel. And I also remember that Ra.n.a.ld had stayed a good distance away from his crypt when he was talking to me.”

”Are those initials?” Gilley asked, squinting at the lettering embroidered on the canvas.

”Yes. They read A. M. N. A. M. N.”

”Do you think the A A stands for 'Alex'?” stands for 'Alex'?”

I nodded. ”I do, Gil.”

Gilley reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. ”c.r.a.p,” he said.

”What?”

”That stupid phantom must have drained my charge again. The phone was working fine after I recharged it last night.”

”Who were you planning to call?”

”No one. I was just going to make a note to research those initials and see what I could come up with.”

I glanced back down into the belly of the backpack, spying a small notebook and a pen. I pulled these out and tossed them to Gilley. ”You can use these.”

He caught them easily and began thumbing through the pages. ”Whoa,” he said.

”What now?”

He looked at me oddly and turned the page around. I squinted at the writing but couldn't make any sense of it. ”What is that?” I asked. ”Shorthand?”

Gilley turned the page back to face him. ”No,” he said. ”I think it's a foreign language. Russian, maybe.”

That surprised me. ”See if you can translate it when we get back to the B&B, okay?”

”On it.”

”While Gilley's researching, what do you want us to do?” John asked.

”We need to talk to the locals,” I said. ”Find out more about what happened at Dunlow four years ago. Kincaid and this Alex guy were obviously doing exactly what we attempted when we first arrived. They were after the gold, but got caught by the phantom. Dunnyvale insists that the phantom was brought to that rock by someone other than him, which means he was likely brought there after Dunnyvale died. Let's find out when the legend of the phantom first appeared around these parts, and see if anyone can link it to a particular person.”

Heath polished off the last of his beer and pushed his empty plate aside. ”Sounds good.”

Plan in hand, we paid the tab and made our way back to the B&B.

Once there we dropped off Gilley and John-who was going to wait for the girls and fill them in and also pick Anya's brain. Heath and I headed to the coast guard station, figuring that was as good a place as any to start.

When we entered the station, which was located right in the middle of Dunlee's port, we saw the constable who had warned us about staying too long on the rock at Dunlow.

I waved to him as we got out of the van, and he shuffled over. ”I hear you've lost a member of your party,” he said by way of greeting.

”Yes,” I told him. ”Our producer went missing yesterday afternoon, and we're really worried about him.”

”You should be,” he said grimly.

Heath and I exchanged a concerned look. ”We're here to see if the coast guard has found any further trace of him?” I said, my voice rising to a question for the constable.