Page 136 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

People decorated the graveyard for the October holiday. Nomatter how bizarre it might seem, dangling skeletons and witches on broomstickswere scattered here and there throughout the burial ground.

Gordon Town was an active cemetery.

And so it was that the freshly dug land in the center of asociety plot or an extra body in a mausoleum might go unnoticed. But a youngwoman had come to pay homage to her father that afternoon, bringing aFrankenstein’s monster doll and a stuffed ghost to set upon his grave, only tosee a dark figure brandishing a knife—one she could have sworn was covered withblood. The local police had thought her hysterical or a victim of a Halloweenprank since the cemetery had been done up to the nines for the holiday. ButCassandra Valois, one of the managers at the cemetery office, had heard aboutthe so-called prank. And since her father was one of Adam Harrison’s closestfriends, she’d called the Krewe’s assistant director. Adam had called Jackson,and...

Here they were. They weren’t alone in the cemetery asdarkness fell. Colleen Law, with fellow special agent and spouse, MarkGallagher, had also arrived, along with Special Agents Kat and Will Chan.

The cemetery was laid out in a triangular shape that cutinto the Virginia woods, and they had agreed to start separately at the threeangles and meet in the middle.

The place was something of a stone jungle from the get-go.Family and society crypts or mausoleums were mixed with single, abovegroundtombs, stone headstones, and flat markers. The growth of trees and brushbetween all provided ample opportunity for shadows and mysteries—along with themany Halloween decorations now haunting the place.

Angela glanced over at Jackson. He hunched, studying thedirt of a family plot. While there was still light in the sky, Angela lookedacross the distance. An especially fine family mausoleum stood before them,probably right where they would meet up.

She started walking toward it, noting the name Robertsoncarved deeply into the stone over the archway that rose above the metal doubledoors.

Things hung on either side of the massive entrance. Shewalked forward to get a better view of the place, shaking her head.

The decorations were ghouls: skeletons with folded handsclad in long, brown robes with hoods and attached to hooks on the mausoleumwalls—probably intended to hold flowers.

“My God!”

Angela jumped. She hadn’t realized that Jackson had come tostand behind her.

“Okay, we both talk to ghosts,” he reminded her, smiling.

“Right. And I haven’t seen any here.”

“Probably too bizarre for the dead,” Jackson suggested.

“Possibly. I mean... I think decorating for holidays toremember those we have lost and who are still family is great. Still...”

“Halloween,” Jackson said. “Have you ever seen anything likethis before?”

“I was in Savannah once, and we went to see Bonaventure.It’s a truly beautiful cemetery. It was Christmas, and many of the stones andtombs had been decorated with ornaments, stars—pretty things,” Angela said.

“I think the decorating thing is okay. Kind of like the Dayof the Dead, but...”

“Halloween is a favorite holiday for lots of people, andit’s the spooky fun that makes it so,” Angela murmured. “Some of this, though.”

“Seems to be the wrong side of... I don’t know.” Jacksonshrugged. “But, hey, I have no family here. Who am I to judge, hm?” hemurmured.

Angela laughed softly. “As you tell me, we are all entitledto our opinions, so long as we don’t attempt to force them on others. So, I’llsay it. It’s creepy.” She frowned suddenly, noting that the great metal doorsto the mausoleum weren’t locked—they weren’t even fully closed.

“Jackson?” she called.

“Ahead of you,” he said and was already moving forward.

She wasn’t sure why she felt the way she did. She had workedin law enforcement in one way or another her entire adult life. She was acapable agent and armed, and she was an expert with her Glock.

But she was glad Jackson was with her. Of course, she lovedher husband. More, she respected him as an agent and as a human being. Evenmore than that, though, she couldn’t imagine anyone she’d rather have at herback. It was an extraordinary situation with the Krewe of Hunters. Agents oftenwound up with other agents as their spouses and partners, which the bureaudidn’t accept in most situations. But the Krewe, under Adam’s assistantdirectorship with Jackson as the supervising field agent, was a differentcreature altogether. Their gifts—or curses—were strange anddifficult to share since only a percentage of the population was born with suchstrange abilities.

No one ever said publicly—or even privately to others whoweren’t in on the minuscule spectrum of those born with the ability to speakwith the dead—that the deceased helped with their cases.

They’d be laughed out of usefulness.

And Jackson was also determined that such things never betwisted to injure truth and justice. Half Indigenous, he was a passionatestudent of history. With the early witch trials, the dead had been helpful. AndJackson was extremely appreciative that they still were to this day.

But they could not testify in court. That was reserved forthe living and restricted to good investigative work—how to prove beyond areasonable doubt that a criminal was guilty.