Part 26 (1/2)
”I'm sorry, M. J.,” he said. ”I should've gotten you something.”
”Don't worry about it.”
Gilley returned with a vodka-cranberry with two lemons and a bowl of nuts for us to share. And I think that finally broke the ice and relaxed the mood among all of us, because we settled into easy conversation for a bit until Alex brought us around to the topic at hand. ”So, tell me about your encounters with the phantom.”
We took turns telling her the story of our first, second, third, and fourth encounters. I was the one who filled her in on our last dance with that hateful spook, and how we'd been so fortunate to discover the hidden stairway in the church and the underground tunnel underneath the causeway, which-I also pointed out-had not been outlined on the castle blueprint.
Alex was surprised and I think quite impressed by our discovery. ”I so wish we'd known about that four years ago,” she said with a hint of sadness.
”Well, we know about it now, and I think we can use it to our advantage,” I told her.
Alex nodded and took a sip of her sparkling water. ”We're going to need all the advantages we can get when we take on the phantom.”
”What can you tell us about it?” Heath asked.
”The phantom?”
”Yes.”
Alex inhaled deeply and seemed to gather her thoughts. ”It's an incredibly dangerous spirit,” she began. ”I've been able to trace its origins, in fact.”
”Don't tell me,” I said. ”It came from South America, right?”
Alex's eyebrows rose. ”Yes,” she said. ”How did you know?”
”We met the ghost of Gaston Bouvet. He more or less took us through what happened to him the night he died. A lot of what he said was in French, but we managed to decipher a few words.”
Alex leaned forward. ”Tell me more about your encounter with him.”
”He was in the tunnel with the crypts, and Jeffrey Kincaid brought him a present, which Bouvet indicated came from South America. When he opened it, the phantom was released.”
Alex's face registered a mixture of emotions, from shock to understanding to great sorrow. ”I always suspected the rumors were true,” she said softly. ”That Jordan's father was somehow responsible for the phantom.”
”What did Jordan think?” Gilley asked.
Alex shook her head sadly. ”He didn't believe it, which was why he came here, actually, to clear his father's name, find the gold, and send the phantom back to h.e.l.l.”
”Did Jeffrey ever tell his son what happened that day with Bouvet at Dunlow?”
”No. Jordan was only twelve when it happened, but he clearly remembered his father leaving for a bit of treasure hunting with his dear friend from France, and returning a week later so distraught that he had to be admitted to a mental hospital for several months.
”According to Jordan, once Jeffrey was released, he was never the same, and he never spoke about what happened that day at Dunlow. I met Jeffrey Kincaid only once, when he came here to take Jordan's body home, and our exchange was heated.”
”Why was it heated?” Gilley asked.
Alex looked down at her hands. ”Jordan never told his father he was coming here, and in his grief Jeffrey accused me of convincing him to come, even though it was the other way around.”
I wanted to learn more about the phantom. ”You said you know of the phantom's origins. What can you tell us about it?”
Alex took another sip of her water. ”I've traced its birth all the way back to the Incas,” she said. ”There is a legend that goes back to the Tupac tribe in Peru that speaks of a time when the Spanish conquistadors invaded their society and corrupted it, taking their gold and disrespecting their people. At that time, some of the most powerful shamans within the great nation gathered together and invoked their ancestors to bring to life a powerful protective spirit. This spirit emerged as a dark phantom, and the shamans invoked it to protect their gold, because they knew the conquistadors valued that above all else. They also gave the phantom spirit the ability to call up the conquistadors' worst nightmares, driving them mad and chasing them from their land, which was hilly and treacherous. Many conquistadors were driven right off the high bluffs that made up the Tupac's terrain.
”The phantom worked wonders to secure the tribe from the conquistadors, but the shamans didn't realize that it might have worked a little too well until they encountered their own issues with the wraith. According to the legend, when the phantom was created, it wreaked havoc, not only on the Spanish invaders, but also on the Incan youth too, whose hearts had not yet learned to hold their courage and steel their minds against a force like the phantom. The shamans decided that their protective spirit was too dangerous to remain on the loose, so they then created a talisman to trap the phantom and hold it until such time as it was needed again.”
”That sounds an awful lot like our phantom,” Heath said.
”I'm convinced it's the same one of the legends.”
”And this talisman sounds like a portal key,” I said.
”Like the knife we've got back in Boston?” Gilley asked, referring to another very powerful spook and its portal we'd had to contain in a magnetically lined safe.
”Exactly like that, Gil.”
”Portal key,” Alex repeated. ”That's an interesting description. But I don't believe this talisman is a portal to anywhere. It's simply the phantom's cage.”
”So where can we find this talisman?” Heath asked.
Alex shrugged. ”I don't know,” she admitted. ”But that's what Jordan and I were here four years ago trying to locate. Jordan came to South America, in fact, to find me and convince me to aid him in researching the phantom. When we thought we knew where it came from, and how to control it, we set out for Ireland to see if we could find the talisman and the treasure. But none of it went according to plan.”
”Alex,” Gilley said, ”I know this question might make you uncomfortable, but can you tell us what happened that night on the rock when Jordan was killed?”
Our guest s.h.i.+vered slightly and looked down at the tabletop. ”It was an awful night,” she said. ”The worst of my life, really.”
I put my hand on her arm and squeezed. I'd seen what'd happened from Jordan's perspective, and I could only imagine what she'd gone through. ”I'm so sorry to drag you back here,” I told her. ”But we're desperate to help our friend.”
Alex took a deep breath and forced a small sad smile. ”Yes,” she said. ”I know. And if I help you, you'll help Jordan, right?”
I held up my hand and vowed, ”I promise I will not leave Dunlow until I've helped Jordan Kincaid cross over to the other side.”
Alex nodded, blinking back tears, and she took another big breath. ”We'd been at it for several days,” she said. ”And we'd already encountered so many setbacks. Our friend Antonio had been ambushed by the phantom for several hours in one of the smaller rooms of the castle, and he was tortured for all of that time until we were finally able to break through to him and get him out.
”He'd been so traumatized that we had to admit him to the hospital, and Jordan and I almost quit because of it. My greatest regret in the world is that we didn't.”
Alex's voice had dropped to barely above a whisper, and the three of us were leaning in close to listen to her.
”Jordan wanted to carry on,” she said. ”He was convinced that the phantom was far too destructive to allow it to remain free. More than anything, he wanted to find the talisman and contain the phantom. And I believe he wanted that even more than the gold.
”We made plans to make one more thorough search of the castle, but that night I had the most amazing dream, and I woke up thinking that I might know exactly where Dunnyvale's treasure was.”
”In the crypts,” I said, remembering her backpack next to Dunnyvale's tomb.
Alex smiled. ”Yes,” she said. ”How did you know?” I told her that I'd found her pack filled with spikes and she nodded. ”I was so stupid to venture there alone,” she admitted. ”I should have woken Jordan up to go with me, or waited until the morning, but he'd had such little sleep in the four days we were there, and he was resting so peacefully that I thought I could just check to see if my hunch was correct before disturbing him.
”I was sure I could do it on my own, so I wrote him a note telling him where I'd gone in case he woke up, and I took most of the magnetic spikes and left him sleeping in our camp. After I'd made my way to the crypts, I began to use my dowsing abilities to look for the gold I was convinced was there. It took me some time, but eventually I thought I had discovered the location. Just as I was about to get to work to recover it, I heard Jordan's scream. I grabbed several spikes and ran to help him.” Alex's eyes had filled with moisture, and her voice began to shake with emotion. ”But by the time I reached the cliffside, it was too late.”
”I'm so sorry,” I said, reaching out to squeeze her arm again.
She nodded and wiped at her eyes. ”Thank you,” she said after a moment.