Gatekeepers

GATEKEEPERS

R.D. Goullette & A. De Guerre

Copyright © 2016 R.D. Goullette

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2016

ISBN 978-1-68348-425-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68348-426-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

CHAPTER 1

THE DEATH OF A LOVE

CHAPTER 2

DAVID’S PAST

CHAPTER 3

INTRODUCTIONS

CHAPTER 4

MEGAN

CHAPTER 5

THE DARK SIDE

CHAPTER 6

VAMPIRE

CHAPTER 7

SOLO?

CHAPTER 8

THE DEVIL’S VICTORY

CHAPTER 9

TEAM 3’S REVENGE

CHAPTER 10

PAN’S DAGGER

CHAPTER 11

TRAINING DAY

CHAPTER 12

THE RITES OF VENUS

CHAPTER 13

MEGAN

CHAPTER 14

GETTING CLOSER

CHAPTER 15

GOING AFTER THE DENTIST

CHAPTER 16

FITTING IN?

CHAPTER 17

CLEANSING RITUAL

CHAPTER 18

KELLY TO THE RESCUE

CHAPTER 19

FLYING FERRETS

CHAPTER 20

GINGER’S TEAM GOES TO ENGLAND

CHAPTER 21

THE VISIT

CHAPTER 22

DANCE COMPETITION

CHAPTER 23

AIMÉE

CHAPTER 24

THE UNRAVELING OF LIES

CHAPTER 25

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

CHAPTER 26

THE END

Author’s Notes

While this book is a work of fiction, many of the characters are based on real people. This included physical descriptions, personality traits, and strengths and weaknesses; all these qualities were brought into account when building the backgrounds for the characters. Of all the amazing people whose personal traits and abilities were used in the creation of characters, none were more fascinating than a young French girl that went by the name Aimée. If you would like to know more about her real life and death, you can find that information in the nonfiction book about her, titled Finding Aimée, by A. De Guerre. Distributed by page publishing ISBN 978-1-68289-313-5, or on the website dedicated to chronicling sightings of her, FindingAimee.com. This book could not have been written without her spiritual influence.

CHAPTER 1

THE DEATH OF A LOVE

David had fallen in love with Shelby many years ago. She was his soul mate. He loved her unconditionally. She completed him and added to his life in ways that most can only dream about. When tragedy struck, David had only what he would describe as a feeling, but that feeling came from a voice in his head that he knew and recognized well. It was because of these feelings that David left work and raced to Shelby’s home. They hadn’t gotten married or moved in with each other just yet, but due to Shelby’s pregnancy, that was soon to come.

The door to her apartment was wide open. The apartment was empty, vacant, not a sign of Shelby anywhere. David stopped and glanced back over his shoulder to examine the open door. It showed no sign of forced entry; whoever last came through the front entrance must have been someone she knew. David had feared this would happen. He knew the history between her and her father. Why she still protected him was beyond David’s understanding. He ran to the bedroom, calling her name, Shelby, sweetheart! But he could already hear Aimée in his ear. She was always whispering in his ear. Shelby! he cried. The bed was perfectly made. David stopped and stared at the white bedspread and the soft pillows that had held Shelby’s pretty face as he gazed longingly into her hazel eyes earlier that morning.

David had a quick flashback to her looking up at him as he lay on top of her. It wasn’t sex; it was love. The way her hair fell into his hands, the look on her face, the love in her heart. The soft touch of her skin on his—heaven on earth. It was a moment exactly like that, the moment of their child’s conception. He never intended for her to get pregnant, but then David didn’t mind either. She was the woman he would spend the rest of his life with, and he couldn’t wait to be the best father he could to their unborn son.

The subtle breeze of the ceiling fan still rotating jerked him back to reality. It was a subtle though jarring reminder that something was wrong. Shelby never left it on when she went out. David checked the bathroom and the guest room as well; both were empty. Nothing had been taken or was out of place; the apartment was immaculate, just as she always kept it. The front room was clean and neat, as always. As the reality of the situation dawned on him, David felt a shot of electricity to his soul. David somehow knew this would be the last time he would be at her apartment; sinister actions had taken place. The love of his life had been taken. David sadly knew what had to be done, what he would be forced to become. It had happened just as he was afraid it might, just as Aimée had warned him. David became resolute. He frantically reached under the bed and pulled out the katana from its resting place, the red metal scabbard and white handle carved in the shape of a dragon. The sword would slice through bone cleanly; it would also be quiet, and David needed all the weaponry he could muster on such short notice.

He ran down to his car, dialing a friend on his cell phone as he went. No time existed for pleasantries or subtleties. The woman he loved had just been taken, and he knew it could be her last day on earth. When Kelly answered on the other end, David cut to the chase and said Priority one, I don’t have time to explain, find this phone and gave Kelly the cell phone number of his fiancée, Shelby, the love of his life, the reason for his existence. About a minute later, Kelly secured approval from her supervisor, Mark, and gave the location of the closest cell towers in the mountains of California, close to Lake Gregory near Crestline. David now had it confirmed; he knew what was going to happen to her there. She had talked about what happened at the cabin a couple of times with him before but had never given David a location.

David needed to get there soon if he was going to have any chance of saving her. All he wanted was to get her back unharmed. Maybe this time she would let him protect her from those that would hurt her. In this case, her own father. Maybe this time she would let David go after her father and put an end to the constant fear in her life. Sadly, later, David would realize how simplistic and foolish his thought process was. He was just thinking about Shelby, nothing more, yet her unborn child was a factor in all this as well. David needed to protect his son also, but for now, he just focused on finding his Shelby.

David drove like a madman: possessed, worried, and angry. When he started up the winding dirt road off the main highway, he became keenly aware that he was no longer sane, yet it did nothing to detour him. The back tires of his car kept sliding as he raced around the mountain turns going way too fast. David had a feeling in his heart that he had only felt a few times before in his life. Now it had surfaced again. The feeling was ominous, like death, pain, and suffering were certain to follow him, like something was trying to tear him out of his own skin. When David felt he was getting close to the destination, he pulled the car over and parked a little ways down the road from the cabin.

David pulled his Colt 1911 from under the car seat and grabbed the extra magazines stored with it. It seemed ironic in a way; Shelby and he had fought about the fact that David always carried a gun. Now, it would be the one thing that might be able to save her. David holstered the gun in the swell of his back and untucked the tail of his shirt. Then, David drew his katana, leaving the scabbard in the car. David started off to the top of the road and the cabin beyond. David could just see the rooftop of the cabin when Aimée chimed in loudly. David’s attention went back to the road. Thanks to Aimée’s warning, David would not be spotted. He heard another car coming. David ran and hid behind a large pine tree to watch, and sure enough, the vehicle he was stalking came screaming up the road.

It was a very nice, very new Mercedes, not the typical dirt road type of car. The Mercedes parked next to a bunch of other vehicles, just short of the cabin entrance. David could see he was going to be greatly outnumbered. The driver of the car, an older man, frantically got out and started to fumble with his keys and check his watch. David approached the man from behind. During this time, Aimée was screaming in his ear. Anger was in her voice. David could almost feel the evil within him, and he was definitely full of hatred by now. The elder driver never heard David approach. As the trunk popped open, David swung his katana like he was hitting a baseball. The razor-sharp blade landed square on the victim’s neck, quick and bloody. The man’s decapitated body spurt blood all over the car. Surprisingly, the blood went away from David, keeping him clean, and the head of his victim rolled off the car and landed at David’s feet.

David’s victim was an older male with white hair and leather-like skin. When the body fell, David spotted a Rolex watch on his wrist. The Mercedes, now with a bloody stripe down the center, spoke of his former wealth. David wondered if this could have been Shelby’s father, the evil man responsible for all this. The man David would have spared nothing to find and kill. David didn’t know if the corpse on the ground represented an innocent person or not. David just assumed that he had something to do with Shelby’s disappearance. The elderly man may have just been killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but David’s mind was about to be put at ease.

David opened the trunk of the car. Inside were a crimson-colored robe and a satanic ceremonial sword. On the hilt of the sword was a horned deity, probably Pan or the devil. The blade was long and not very sharp. It was not a sword that was made for combat but more of a ceremonial sword. Engraved on the blade was a depiction of a man walking through fire, following the devil, dismembered bodies in torment reaching from the flames. Shelby had been right, but that mattered little at this time. They did come back to take her unborn child—again! David had hoped that it wasn’t real but an exaggeration that Shelby had told him, but now the truth was all too evident.

David threw the dead worshipper’s robe on and pulled the hood up to cover his face then hid the katana underneath the folds of the robe. David held the devil worshippers’ ceremonial sword in his left hand as he walked into the one-room cabin. David’s entry went mostly unnoticed. The cabin was large and probably about eighty years old. Some trees and foliage had taken root in the wooden shingles of the roof. The structure was circular and about forty feet in diameter, with plain wood planking along the side. David approached like a wolf on the hunt. He didn’t know what was about to happen, but he didn’t care either. David had just broken federal law by not only violating his security clearance but also committing murder. David didn’t feel the need to survive; he was so full of anger only focus on the kill was keeping him from exploding. David’s whole life had come to this moment. Whatever happened, he just needed to save his Shelby. David was angry, overcome by hate and vengeance. He was as far on the dark side as he could be. David slowly entered the cabin and was ready to kill and be killed before he ever realized the horror of what had actually been going on within those deathly walls of this haunted cabin.

In the dark shadows, surrounded by the smell of blood and burned flesh, there they were: robed, standing in a circular pattern around a large wooden table. David could only see small portions of Shelby, but he knew it was her. David could see her thighs marked and scarred, his whole world, his reason for living. The love of his life, she was now tied down; heavy rope bound her around the wrists and ankles. Blood was dripping onto the floor. David could hear her crying and see her struggling against the binds, weeping as he had never heard her weep before. Outside the circle to his left were instruments of torture. On the table were knives, clamps, chains, spreaders, hot pokers, and branding irons with emblems on them. David recognized the emblems; some of them had been burned to her skin years ago when her father had first sold her into this devil’s cult.

Shelby was only eight years old the first time she was violated and beaten by this group, forced to endure horrible sexual things: rape, torture, and even forced intercourse with animals in bizarre sexual rituals. This continued until she became pregnant at the age of fifteen and then at seventeen and two other times. Each time they used her; they then removed her child and sacrificed it to Pan, the demon angel of this satanic cult. After they took the innocent child and destroyed the heart and mind of a dear young girl, they forced her to watch as the child was sacrificed.

Each time the assaults resulted in pregnancy, they would sacrifice the child and brand Shelby’s body with the hot pokers. This had happened four times before, plus a host of other unconscionable acts. Even so, this time was different. This time, the child was born of love, not rape. This time, it was David’s child, a soul he had helped bring into the world that they were sending to hell. Why Shelby thought that they would leave her alone this time was beyond David’s understanding. How did her father even know about the pregnancy? Once again, they had taken Shelby, but this time would be their last. This time, they underestimated the evil that lay in the heart of her child’s father, David’s heart. David took a step back and placed the ceremonial sword through the handhold of the doors that led out of the cabin. It might not do much, but at least it would slow down anyone trying to escape the soon-to-be bloodbath.

David untied his robe but let it hang on his shoulders, keeping the disguise intact. All the other robed bastards were paying attention to the man talking at the head end of the table. He was lowering something he held toward the table, toward the head of his love. A fire lit the back wall directly behind the evil leader of these people, casting an ominous shadow in the room. David was still hiding in the shadows when he planned his attack. David felt fire in his veins. He kept mulling over what he was about to do. David let go of any thoughts of compassion and let his training take over. David had succumb to hate and anguish. David felt no mercy, no honor. These were not humans. These were less than scum, a disease that needed to be expunged from the earth. No foul word could accurately describe the hatred felt within David’s heart all the way down to his soul. He wanted them to suffer; he wished them to die slowly, pleading for a mercy that would never come. David wanted every nerve ending in their bodies to howl in pain. David changed in that moment as he lost humanity and became a monster. He felt his aura change, and then . . .

David grasped the handle of the katana, planned his move, shrugged the robe off, and drew the sword back then swung. The katana found its mark! The closest three devil worshippers lost their heads before the adrenaline could ever get pumped into their bodies. Their devil-face ceremonial necklaces hit the floor. Blood flew, and this only fueled David’s hatred for them as screams from the others erupted. David then lunged forward and to his left only to miss his target. David swung backhanded and only managed to cut the face off his next victim. The blade hit him at the base of his chin and went up, slicing the skin off to the bone, removing the upper lip to the gums. Nose and parts of the eyes came off as well, as did part of his forehead and scalp, some hair too, but the faceless man was still alive.

Beyond him, David thrust the katana into the belly of the next man. The worshipper turned as he fell, lodging the blade in his ribs tightly; this pulled the sword out of David’s hand. David could feel swords and daggers being drawn all around him and heard the screams of the man who by now had no face at all. He kept yelling Kill him! his voice muffled with the blood dripping from his former face. Amid all this commotion, Aimée warned David of a man approaching around the edge of the table on David’s blind side. As the attacker attempted to thrust his dagger toward David, David swiftly drew his Colt from the swell of his back and fired. The barrel of David’s Colt discharged only inches from the attacker’s face; the head disappeared in fragments of bone and blood, covering the room in a grim and disgusting red mist.

David brought the gun directly forward, reaching over his lover’s blood-stained body, and fired rapidly, hitting the three or four worshippers that stood in front of him. They were cornered between the table and the wall. David fired six shots, all the while thinking, Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. By now, half of them were dead. David wasn’t even fazed; he needed to deal out more pain. David needed to obliterate them all. With one round still in the chamber, David dropped the empty magazine and reloaded his firearm. While on the move, David also pulled his sword from the dying man’s stomach. By now, David had crossed the line separating good and evil so far that he felt himself turn into the essence of evil and hatred.

David needed to attack in a different style to continue the slaughter; he jumped up on the table, switching weapons in his hands in midflight. David landed on the table, his legs straddling Shelby, his boots making a splash in the blood on the table, the katana settled in his right hand, the gun in his left. David was a man possessed. It was as if a demon had taken over, a beast that had lurked within him for a long time. Any residual fear that he had felt during the attack was now replaced with rage and hatred. David had wholly become an animal in human form. David let out what could only be described as a demon-like battle roar as he swung down on the remaining worshippers huddled together. He struck the one closest to the door in the jugular. It was like a blood sprinkler had just gone off. The last ones were huddled in the corner for mutual protection. Though less accurate with his left hand, David aimed and fired, managing to hit all of them, choosing to target their chests rather than their heads as they would suffer longer that way. David emptied the magazine into them. They didn’t die instantly but were out of the fight.

David had strategically left just one—the one, the one who had pulled his child from its mother’s womb. By the emblem on his robe, David knew this worshipper was important; Shelby had described the emblem to David before. This was the man who had raped her several times before and had gotten her pregnant a couple of those times. The old man with his former prestige made a break for the door. As David dropped the now-empty firearm, it hit the table and splashed in the blood. The leader was running. Slowed by the sword that had been wedged in the handle of the door, David grabbed him by the robe then the hair. Standing behind him, David placed the sharp steel of his bloody blade against the worshipper’s neck and demanded his identity. Before he could answer, David heard his Shelby cry out in a weeping voice, Kill him, let me see you kill him. It wasn’t so much a command as a plea in her voice. She was sobbing and in great pain. David dragged the worshipper over so she could see him and as he was screaming and begging for mercy and offering David riches. David looked into the eyes of the woman he loved and then slowly slit the worshipper’s throat. David had no sympathy for anything now and felt that they had gotten off too easy. David was enraged about them dying too quickly.

All in the room were dead with the exception of David and Shelby. She lay there tied down, the smell of burned flesh from the hot pokers emanating from her body. She was bleeding from her vagina, eyes, mouth, wrists, and ankles. Laying in her own blood, Shelby’s face and body were slowly turning white. Above her head lay the unborn child, their child, ripped from her womb in a satanic abortion and sacrificed on what appeared to be a specialized knife. The evil device looked more like a candleholder as its blade was large and three-sided. Adorned with gold and diamonds, it would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been for the fact that David’s son, still red in color, umbilical cord still attached, was impaled through his center. Blood still dripping out, the three-pointed blade opened up the skin so that his innocent body would bleed out faster, filling the cuplike hilt.

Upon seeing such a grotesque act of evilness, David went weak as his stomach churned. He was about to fall when he heard Shelby say, Kill me, please, love me, finish me. Tears were in her eyes, blood coming from inside her lips. David knew not to think. He knew he couldn’t save her; she was too white, she had lost too much blood, and her body was in too much pain. She wouldn’t be in this world much longer no matter what he did. David cursed himself for coming too late, for not being there to protect her in time. David knew she was in both physical and emotional turmoil.

It happened quickly as Aimée gave David strength. With a twist of the wrist, his dragon-handled katana gathered momentum. He started bringing the blade around but released it from his grip at the last moment. David was overcome with every negative emotion fathomable. Despite his loosened grip, the weight of the steel moving through the air carried the blow that ended Shelby’s pain. Her life ended in the most tragic and sickening of ways.

In an instant, she was gone, and with her, all the good in David’s world was also taken. David felt strange, like he had just watched it happen. He felt disassociated from his body, as though he had watched these terrible things. Shock had taken over, but he realized by his own hand he had just taken the life of the woman that he had loved with all his heart. He fell to his knees, her severed head still looking at him as he cried uncontrollably. The whole room was covered in blood. To David, it seemed like the room was spinning. He was dizzy. His tears washed the splattered blood from his face, and they dripped to the floor with a crimson hue. David sat there, holding her head in his hands. She was still beautiful to him. He sat there crying for hours, it seemed, almost waiting to die from a broken heart, but no deathly grace would befall him. Aimée was there by his side. David couldn’t help but believe that it was Aimée who had shown his Shelby the way to the light; however, that didn’t matter to him at that time. David was still so fundamentally alone.

David was still there crying, more like weeping as a child would, when he heard the door. It creaked as someone tested it against the sword that held it locked. David jumped to his feet and tried to pull his katana free from the table, but it was embedded too far into the thick wood. He heard a forceful kick at the door. The wood started to give against the well-placed blow. David reached over the corpse of the woman that he loved and picked his gun out of the now caramel-like blood. He slammed the last magazine in and brought the slide forward, blood flying off the slide of the gun when it hit the stop, just as the door forcefully swung open.

Four girls took one quick step forward then were stopped by the blond girl in front. Her arms stretched out to either side, holding the other girls back. Looking through the sight of his gun, all David could see was her pretty eyes. Of course, he had every intention of putting a bullet between them; he was once again focused on the kill. The only reason David hesitated was for the fact that he didn’t know who these girls were. The athletic girls were dressed in an odd enough fashion to give David temporary pause before taking their lives.

After the initial entrance into the cabin, the four girls entered the rest of the room slowly, three of them covering the door but not advancing. As they surveyed the damage, their expressions told of awe and confusion. The four were comprised of a blonde, a brunette, a redhead, and a girl with jet-black hair, dyed, of course. They were all good-looking, athletic, and their eyes scowled as they looked like they knew how to fight. Ginger, the short blond leader, approached David, her sword at her hip, crossbow in her right hand. She lay her handheld weapons on the table, resting them between the legs of Shelby’s corpse. Ginger approached with palms open, like she was approaching a wounded animal. She walked slowly forward as David held his ground. Ginger was striking, with bright-blue eyes and a soft smile. Regardless of her soft appearance, David did not lower his firearm. Ginger asked Did you do this? in a voice that was sweet and caring. It almost sounded like a proud mother addressing her small child, but somehow, her voice also carried a sultry note that seemed out of place.

They killed her . . . and my son, David responded.

Ginger told David her name and also that she and David shared a common enemy. Ginger asked about Shelby and called her by name. Ginger wanted to know how David knew Shelby. As they talked, the barrel of David’s firearm became heavy, too heavy, as though it was being pulled down by some magnetic force. He finally just set the safety and released the gun from his hands. As he did, his body dropped uncontrollably, once again next to the head of his slain love, and resumed weeping. He was crying like a baby in front of these strangers, strangers that Shelby had never mentioned before. With her short blond hair and blue eyes, Ginger produced a small piece of cloth commonly used to wipe the blood from a sword and used it to sweep aside the tears from David’s eyes.

Jaime approached slowly, her tight abs and strong legs visible in her meager outfit. Though he wasn’t certain, Jaime looked to be about nineteen. She had a look in her eyes like a hawk’s. David’s first read of her was that she didn’t much like men, not in a sexist sort of dislike, but in a hunt-them-to-extinction way. Jaime got closer to Ginger and asked, What are we doing, Ging? Ginger responded with authority, We dig graves and do what we always do. Jaime gestured toward David as though waiting for an execution order. And him?

Ginger was smart and cunning. She held a commanding presence that was second to none and had a certain calm about her. With a calculating mind, she was complex and most certainly a strategist; it surprised David when she responded, Nothing, we do nothing.

David was happy to hear that they weren’t going to do anything sinister while also quite aware that these were not women to be trifled with. Their demeanor kept him on the alert, which was further heightened by Aimée. She was speedily delivering warnings into his ear again. These four well-armed and well-trained young girls were certainly not ordinary, and David was in more danger with them than with the older bastards he had just dispatched. These girls came ready to kill something, and David was the only living one left. It was as if sharks were circling around him. David wasn’t entirely focused on self-preservation at that time but resolved that working with them would be wiser than against them, at least for the time being.

David needed to find out more about these girls. They could become potentially useful on his new hunt. He decided to try to become useful to them and carry his own weight as a temporary member of their group. He broke the silence by suggesting that digging graves would take far too long. Ginger responded by asking him to suggest a solution. This piqued their interest, and the four women were suddenly focused on only him, waiting for his explanation.

David informed Ginger that he had friends that were less than honorable. David just needed to get the bodies to Burbank, and they could be made to disappear after that. When Ginger rose and said I’m not leaving your side, David took it as more of a threat than a simple statement of events to follow. He knew he was clearly a prisoner in some capacity for now, but logic also told him that if Ginger was going to kill him, she would have made an attempt by now. His focus on these realizations was clouded by his continuing anger and desire to have his love back. David felt a gaping hole in his heart, and as his anger welled up, he resigned himself to the idea that perhaps these girls could lead him to kill more of the bastards who had a hand in torturing his Shelby.

David holstered his gun and collected his sword. He made sure to get the bullet casings and the spare magazines. David wanted the weapons of the fallen as well. The engraved emblems held clues about these people, their cult, and their individual identities. David needed to find out who these people were.

Cleanup was simple, but the whole process was very emotional for David. Ginger was always next to him as the three other girls set about their chores. In a show of compassion, they saved David from the grief of cutting Shelby’s corpse away from the table and removing his son from the dagger that had impaled him in his first moments of life. Amanda, the soft-hearted brunette, offered David the ceremonial dagger with its attached cup that still held his son’s blood. She handed it to him like a soldier giving a flag to a mother as they lowered the fallen’s body into the grave. Amanda was holding back the tears as she handed over the unusual dagger. The other girls seemed to be emotionless about the scene. David took what he could and mournfully walked to the car.

The girls did most of the work, loading bodies into two vehicles. They unceremoniously used an axe where needed to make the work easier. They wrapped Shelby’s body in a white sheet and delivered it gently to the rear seat of one of the cars. David appreciated the respectful gesture, but the practicality of the situation was questionable as the sheet quickly soaked through with her blood. David wasn’t ready to completely let go, so he cut two long locks of Shelby’s hair. He tied one in a knot around the hilt of his katana; the other he just put in his pocket. The girls continued their work, removing all items from the bodies, including cash and credit cards. David held on to any identification that was found. He wanted to know who these people were and where they lived. Blinded by his grief, David wanted to find the families and loved ones of these people. The goal would be to kill them all and strip their lives of anything he could. David really could respond with an eye for an eye, hunting their families, right down to the unborn children. He was more than emotionally capable of removing their bloodlines from this planet. He had become nothing more than a wounded monster on the prowl, ready to kill.

As David regained his composure, he helped the girls collect money from wallets. The group planned to keep the cash to pay the crematorium and to ultimately help finance other conflicts. The girls lay claim to all the cars and dispatched all but the two that were headed to a chop shop. The checkbooks found on the bodies helped Ginger and David identify those that had been killed. This also allowed Ginger’s team to hack into and ultimately sweep clean their banking accounts. The money was then stashed in an offshore account for future use.

Ginger’s team then drove the rest of the stolen cars to Burbank, the trunks loaded with the dead. They arrived around midnight. Once at the crematorium, David rang the bell twice then once. The old man just opened the gate, and they drove though. As the five of them walked inside, the old man running the place looked at David and said, David, I didn’t think you made deliveries, just pickups. He was old and gray, his glasses well-used, but he was a nice man. This was just business to him. David told him this time it was personal and handed him a healthy sum of money.

David asked the caretaker to give a proper burial to Shelby and his son. The elderly caretaker offered them a nice plot next to each other with their names carved in stone. David voiced his appreciation for the kindness. The other bodies were to be cremated.

With payment made and the furnace fires roaring, it would still take until morning before the ashes were ready for collection. Usually, David would