You Can Save Me: Carnival of Mysteries by R.L. Merrill

Author:R.L. Merrill [Merrill, R.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Celie Bay Publications LLC
Published: 2024-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Walter

The captain hadn’t really been that upset. In fact, he’d handled me with kid gloves, which made me even more nervous. Had command just been waiting for me to lose it like my father? Were they sitting around worried I would eventually embarrass them? Or worse?

And now, I had irrefutable proof that my father had actually seen Dane’s battered and bloody body, and I couldn’t tell anyone in an official capacity. That was probably the worst part.

Dane and Denny climbed into my truck with me, and Ryan and Kal rode in their truck with Gene. I appreciated how my guys had shown up and taken over, taken on the protection duty for not only Dane, but also Ryan and Kal, who were a couple of good Samaritans who didn’t deserve to get hurt because they were trying to help a guy out.

I’d been a little skeptical of Dane’s talking board when I’d watched him and Ryan use it together the first time, although their explanation had made sense. But when I’d jumped into Dane’s second attempt, I hadn’t been prepared for the visceral reaction I’d had to what I’d seen. It was horrifying. The man’s voice was playful in a Hannibal Lecter way that had my stomach turning and its contents wishing to check out of Motel Walter Muse. It was realer than any nightmare I’d ever had, and the thought that Dane had been through it multiple times already had me worried about the aftereffects this board’s power would have on him.

I suppose my interaction with Dee Dee—The Troubadour and his Talking Board—all those years ago had me open to believing what I’d seen. Dad also used psychics when he was looking for missing people. I’d gone with him once when I was in the cadet program. I was probably seventeen years old. He worked with a woman named Charlene who lived in Grand Teton in the Grapevine, a small community in the mountain range that was famous mostly for the necessity to drive through it if you wished to take the quickest route between Southern and Northern California. We drove out to her house one Saturday, and he made me promise not to say a damn word to anyone that he’d taken me.

“This woman knows things she shouldn’t, but she knows things that help in my cases sometimes. I don’t want her knowing nothing about you, is that understood?”

I’d agreed… but my curiosity got the better of me.

When we got to her house, which wasn’t more than a shack amidst high desert brush and the wildflowers brought on by a winter with heavy rains, I forgot myself. She met us at the door and I stuck out my hand. I’d been taught manners, and if Dad didn’t want me to use them, he shouldn’t have brought me.

“Walter Muse, Junior. Pleased to meet you.”

Charlene took my hand in one of hers, ran the other one over the top, and led me to her table. My father cursed under his breath, and I knew this was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to happen.

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