The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)

David nodded.

“What happened next?” I asked softly, easing my hand free of Benji’s so I could put my arm around his shoulders.

“Nothing,” Benji assured me. “It was fine.”

Brasher turned to David. “Was it fine?”

“I’m not going to lie; I was scared to death. It was dark, we were stranded at a graveyard, the wind was gusting, tree branches were creaking and moaning, and leaves were flying around like something out of a goddamn horror movie. At least it wasn’t raining for once, but it was still creepy as hell,” David groused at me. “That’s how I felt.”

“How you felt?”

“You’d have thought it was a sunny walk in the park based on how he was acting.” David gestured at Benji. “He was all, ‘Okay, you stay here. I’ll be back.’”

“Christ,” Brasher grumbled, abandoning the Jesus.

“And what made the overall experience even weirder was that while I was waiting for Javier, not a single car drove by.”

“Why was that weird?” Rodriguez chimed in. “I know that cemetery, I’ve been there. It’s on a two-lane country road with not much else around. It makes sense you wouldn’t see much traffic.”

“Sure, I get that,” David agreed. “But think about it. Someone drives to an abandoned cemetery in the dark of night and disables a car belonging to a guy who’s already been shot at and attacked with a knife. Why? Were they there to finish the job? The answer is yes, probably. But they didn’t count on someone being there with him. When they realized I was there, they disabled the car so I couldn’t leave to get help. But why did they disappear before they accomplished what they set out to do? Bottom line is they intended to kill him but something spooked them, and they ran. Doesn’t that make sense?”

Both Brasher and Rodriquez were staring at him.

“Well,” he prodded them, “doesn’t it?”

“That would seem logical,” Brasher conceded.

“But I saw no one enter the cemetery on foot, no one left, and no one drove by. I didn’t see a single other person the entire time we were there. How is that logical?”

“One thing you haven’t taken into consideration is that the cemetery covers a lot of acreage, and it has more than one entrance,” Rodriguez countered. “There are hills and trees to factor in as well, so someone could have easily parked in an area where you’d never see their car from where you were, the one near the elementary school, for example. Kids cut through that section all the time.”

“True,” David agreed. “Someone could have bypassed me altogether, hopped the fence at the back, and I would have never seen them.”

“So it’s possible someone was hunting Benji.” The hair on the back of my neck stood up at how scary that sounded.

“I think so,” David agreed, “but Benji, he’s fearless, right? He’s not sitting there pissing himself like I am. He’s––”

“Stop. You were not scared,” Benji said, defending David from himself. “You––”

“Are you kidding? I was freaking out,” David assured him. “Javier was on the phone with me, and I was jumping at my own shadow. You have no idea how terrifying that whole experience was.”

“Really?” Benji asked him. “All I remember about that night is that I got so much done while we were waiting for Javier. The air was so crisp, and the wind was lovely.”

“Dear God,” David moaned.

“You got what done?” Brasher questioned him.

“Well, I had some people to find, so I walked around and checked some dates on various gravestones, and then I started noticing all the different types and styles, some so old, all of them beautiful, and I got pretty engrossed in what I was doing.”

“Here’s my hunch,” David began. “I think whoever stole the distributor cap expected Benji to be the one waiting at the front entrance for help, and they were going to pick him off there. It would have been a quick drive-by and easy getaway, but when they saw me there instead, they left.”

“But even still,” Rodriguez argued, “Benji was walking around in the dark by himself. Anyone could have seen his flash––”

“Oh,” Benji interrupted cheerfully. “I wear night-vision goggles because I don’t want to disturb the spirits.”

“Night-vision goggles,” Brasher repeated.

Benji nodded, smiling.

“I guess it makes sense, then,” David clarified, “that if someone else had been there looking for Benji—if there was anyone else out there—it would’ve been nearly impossible to locate him.”

“I was taking rubbings too,” Benji revealed happily, “so I was on my knees a lot, up and down, behind some of the bigger markers, inside a couple of crypts, so it wasn’t like I was hiding, but I wasn’t exactly exposed either, but if someone had actually been looking for me, I think they could have found me.”

“I disagree,” David insisted. “I think finding you out there in the dark, with you not using a flashlight, was highly unlikely, if not altogether impossible.”