I shrugged with my coffee cup, creating a tiny tidal splash of caffeine. “I wouldn’t call him the bad guy, necessarily, but he’s definitely the most famous supernatural resident. Or he was, anyway. He’s gone. I think that’s why all the ghosts are out—they’re upset that he’s gone AWOL. ”
“You think?”
“I do. Some of the EVP we snagged backs up the theory, and besides, I think I know where he went. I just don’t know why he went there. And I don’t know how to bring him back. ”
“Talk to me,” Dana said. She put her elbows back on the table and propped her head on one hand. “Tell me where he is, and let’s go and get him. ”
I copied her position without realizing at first that I’d done so. “I don’t think it’s that easy. ”
“Why not?”
“Because it never is. ”
She wrapped her fingers around and through the handle of the mug, as if she was trying to decide about another round. Finally she decided what I always do—that there’s no such thing as too much coffee—and excused herself.
“I’ll be right back. ”
I twirled a coffee stirrer while I waited.
She returned in under a minute, sliding herself onto the chair with something that looked like fresh resolve. Despite the red streaks in her eyes and the dark circles under them, she looked more awake; but that might’ve only been the half a gallon of caffeine coursing through her veins.
“You said you got EVP,” she said, downing another hearty swallow of brew.
“The other night, the first time your group was attacked. We were out there then, too—but not close enough to be involved. We were over on the other side of the Wilder Tower, by the suburbs. There was a party over there that night. ”
“And you used it as cover to sneak down the road into the fog. ”
“You got it. ”
Dana nodded, like she was stalling or thinking. “Did you get anything good? Off the EVP, I mean? It got you out to Dye
r’s field, anyway, I’m guessing. ”
“Right. Sort of. Between what we were able to decipher from the recordings and what happened to you guys, we put two and two together. How did you learn about it?”
“Same way. That, and the channeling—though it’s hard to get much out of them that way. They find themselves in a body and get distracted by the sensation of it all. Besides, none of them seem to know much about what’s going on either. Being dead doesn’t make them omniscient. ”
I was relieved to hear someone else say it for once. “No kidding. I wish more people understood that. ”
“You and me both. But either they don’t know, or they’re not very good at communicating it. The best I got out of anyone was that the source of the problem looked to be coming from the old Dyer’s place. But what would that have to do with the local chief spook going missing?”
“Well, while you were indisposed,” I said, “I did get one potentially useful thing out of the ghost. He said something about Green Eyes watching the place until the last of the general’s line had died. That’s strange, but God knows I don’t have any other theories about what would make the guardian leave his post. ”
“That’s a funny thing to call him,” she observed.
“It might be. But I think it’s right. I saw him. Or I’m pretty sure I did. ”
Now she looked impressed. “You don’t say? How’d you manage to pull that off? What, did he leave a forwarding address?”
“It was an accident. Dumb coincidence, that’s all. I was out there for something else. Though in retrospect it makes perfect sense that he would’ve been there. There was nowhere else for him to go, after he left the battlefield. ”
Dana picked up on extra stirrer I’d brought and used it to swirl her coffee. “Okay, so where did you see him?”
“At the Bend. Moccasin Bend,” I specified, remembering she wasn’t local. “It’s this spot a few miles from here; it used to be a sacred Native American burial site, hundreds of years ago. ”
She frowned. “And why would he go there? Was he some cohort of the natives?”
“Probably. They knew about him, anyway, before the incoming settlers did. There are legends about him from before there were any white people here. They knew about him, and cohabited with him, long before Chickamauga was set apart as a park. At the very least, I think he would’ve been more familiar with them than he was with us. I think that after he abandoned the battlefield, he went looking for them. And the only spot nearby he could remember was the Bend. ”