The Whispering Room

If she had come to visit Johnny’s vault, Evangeline would need to turn right inside the gates, but that wasn’t why she was here. Her plan was to ambush Nathan on his way out.

But after a moment, she found herself threading through the ornate tombs and mausoleums to the row of vaults at the back of the cemetery.

Someone had placed fresh flowers and a votive candle in front of Johnny’s marker, and Evangeline wondered uneasily who had been visiting here while she’d been estranged.

She touched the bronze plaque, still warm from the day’s heat, but she felt no connection to her husband’s remains. It was strange, but here, where his body had been laid to rest, Evangeline couldn’t feel his presence at all.

The sun dipped below the treetops and the promise of twilight settled over the vault. But she knew it wasn’t a sign or a message from Johnny. Not this time. It was just the end of another day without him.

Turning to leave, Evangeline noticed a man coming toward her on the path. He was tall and thin with a pale, emaciated face that was badly scarred on one side. He was dressed all in black and his hair gleamed like India ink.

As he came closer, Evangeline could see that his lips were moving, and she thought at first he was speaking to her. Then she realized that he must be talking to himself.

An icy awareness slid down her neck. She wanted to look away, but there was something oddly compelling about the strange man. She was intrigued by the scar on his face, by the pallid gauntness of his features.

But what held her enthralled were his eyes. They were as black as night, and yet they seemed to burn with an inner fire that chilled her to the bone.

His disturbing gaze was still on her when he drew even with Johnny’s tomb. He said something aloud, which Evangeline didn’t understand.

“Excuse me?”

He kept on walking, cutting her a sideways glance as he went by.

When he was all the way to the end of the row, he looked over his shoulder. He said something else, and this time Evangeline could have sworn he mouthed her name.

She started toward him, but by the time she got to the end of the vaults, he’d disappeared behind a large mausoleum.

Slipping her hand into her bag, Evangeline closed her fingers around the handle of her weapon. Wary of a trap, she gave the mausoleum a wide birth as she circled around to the front.

The man was nowhere to be seen.

Light from the fading sun sparked off the crypt’s stained-glass windows and a cross on the top cast a long shadow across the eerie landscape.

Something had fallen to the grass on the path in front of her, and as Evangeline drew closer, she saw that it was an origami crane.

She thought instantly of the mobile on her son’s crib, and she had the strangest feeling that the dark-haired man had dropped it there for her to find. But why? She didn’t even know who he was.

Searching the path ahead of her, she caught a glimpse of him again. He was looking over his shoulder, smiling at her in a way that made her heart pound in trepidation. Who the hell was this joker and what did he want with her?

Evangeline started after him again, but he was adept at using the maze of crypts and vaults to conceal himself. She followed him for several minutes, catching enough quick glimpses to lead her back to the gates. But when she emerged onto the street, he was nowhere to be found.

Completely unsettled by the odd chase, Evangeline crossed the street and waited beside the red Mustang for Nathan Mallet. She kept an eye out for the scarred stranger, but he didn’t show himself again.

Nathan came through the gates a little while later, but he didn’t see Evangeline until he was almost in front of her. He looked up in astonishment, as if suddenly catching sight of a ghost.

“Evangeline? What are you doing here?” He was a lot thinner than the last time she’d seen him, and like his car, he looked a lot worse for the wear. His clothes were ragged, his hair unkempt and he seemed to have a hard time looking her in the eyes.

“I came to see you, Nathan.”

He glanced around nervously. “How did you know I’d be here? Never mind.” He lifted a hand and rubbed the scruff on his chin. “My sister’s always had a big mouth.”

“Why haven’t you returned any of my phone calls?” Evangeline asked.

Even in the disintegrating light, his eyes looked glassy and unfocused. “You know how it is. You never know what to say in a situation like that. Plus, I’ve got a lot of personal problems I’ve been dealing with lately.”

“We’ve all got personal problems.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Could we go somewhere and talk?”

“About what?”

His darting gaze made Evangeline uneasy. He was on something, which could also make him volatile.

“I’ve still got a lot of questions about the night Johnny died,” she said.

“What makes you think I know the answers?”

“You were working cases with him at the time of his death.”