Hamelyn's Curse
Prologue
They call it the Anaros Flute. Legend says those who hear, it's tune are destined? To follow it to their grave within a year and a day.
Chapter Eight
Colby and David interviewed five further families that morning. All told the same story. A tale about a very accomplished musician. That had everyone dancing - especially the children. The brilliant sunshine had heightened everyone's pleasure. But when asked? Two also mentioned. They thought he'd been in town before. Colby was starting to get a uneasy stirring in his gut. It churned harder. Then he saw a boy across the street.
"Who is he? How did he escape?" he asked
"That's Deaf Danny!" the father answered. "I'm ashamed to my admit my Liam kinda teases him because he can't speak. He uses sign language." Colby glanced at David and knew from the look on his face. That he too remembered the poem. As they got into their car David looked at Colby.
"A cripple, a deaf boy, an unpaid debt, rats? This is beginning to sound a little too familiar for comfort."
Colby slid into the car. "I think they're of German extraction too. Did you hear her accent?" David raised an eyebrow at him.
"From the look on your face I'm guessing that the research? You did implied the other missing kids were too?"
"Yeah!"
"And the debt thing? Is that's common to the other cases as well?" Colby nodded. "I think we need to find the blind child," David decided "The three disabled kids may be the link. We need to put a stop to this flute playing immortal weirdo."
"I don't think the piper is immortal," Colby replied. "I think the key is actually the flute."
"The flute itself? How?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It's sort of like an echo. That continues to bounce back and forth through time. Long after the initial incident."
"What exactly do you mean?"
"Some people think - that ghosts are just echoes of the past. A pressure point in time That lingers at the spot of some momentous happening. A bit like a stuck record playing the same segment of music over and over."
"How does that relate to a flute?"
"The flute may hold an echo from long ago. Something happened in the past. An incident so terrible. It keeps replaying itself down through the ages." David shivered then quoted
"Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them."
Colby inhaled and adroitly changed the subject. "His Flute is old very old. Maybe more than five thousand years." David blinked.
"How did you find that out?" He put the car in gear as Colby began to relate. I recently re-read The history of Ireland and in particular. The tale of Saint Patrick and the expulsion of the snakes. From the Ancient Kingdom of Ireland.
"As you probably know across much of Great Britain and Europe. There are clusters of strange standing stones Usually either in a circle or laid out in long avenues." David grinned at him.
"Hey Man! I grew up in New England There were dozens of those old stones all over the place. Colby blinked. "I thought you came from Brooklyn?"
"I did live there for a time. Just after leaving high school."
"And there are Stone Circles in New England?" Colby was surprised. "Yeah! People reckon the original British colonists actually bought them. All the way over from England with them."
"Why?" Colby was astonished. David shrugged "When I was young my Grandpa said. That some of the settlers were pagan and bought their old religion with them So they could escape from Christian persecution and practice their true faith openly." David smiled as he remembered his childhood. "The Stones were every where. There was a group of sixty in the fields just beyond my village. My friends and I used to play on them. One of us would be the High Priest - another would be his sacrifice."
Colby's stomach began tying itself in knots. "What part did you play?" David laughed then blushed.
"Generally I was the dashing hero riding to the rescue of the victim."
"And did you kids ever play music during these games?" David blanched. and shot an alarmed look at his passenger.
"How can you possibly know that?"
"So you did?"
"Yeah! One of the kids. Evan; I think. He had a wooden flute. That he used to play as the Priest Kid led the victim into the circle."
"And did you dance?"
"Dance?"
"Spiral in and out and around the stones." David was almost white despite his negroid skin. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Colby what are you suggesting?"
"Let's go back to Saint Patrick for the moment." David tried to concentrate on driving as his friend. Began to relate an eerie story.
There are no Snakes in Ireland never have been. Most people attribute this to Saint Patrick. Who? It is said was praying on a hillside. When an Adder slithered out of the grass and attacked him."
"Know that story," David interrupted. Learned it in Sunday School.
"But!" Colby held up a finger "When I say - there never has been any snakes in Ireland. I mean it literally! No Snakes! Not since the last Ice Age ten thousand years ago," David frowned. Colby anticipated his next question. "So what did Saint Patrick drive out you wonder?" David nodded. Colby brushed a speck of dust from the sleeve of his jacket then said. "The snake or serpent was the symbol of the Celts and their spiritual elite. The Druids. Who inhabited the island of Ireland? Long before the arrival of Christianity. In the 5th century AD. When Patrick arrived The only pesky and dangerous creatures he wished to cast out were the native Celts." David understood.
"And since snakes often represent evil in literature. When Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland? What he really did was abolish? The old pagan ways of Ireland and usher in the Christian Age."
"There is slightly more to it but basically yes." David signaled left. then queried
"More to it?"
"The old religion didn't go far just across the Bristol channel to Wales." David grimaced
"Which is why they have so many old monoliths and standing stones? Standing Stones that got bought here with the first colonists?"
"Yep!"
"So what was all that nonsense about the games I played as a kid?"
"I said there was more to it," Colby glanced out of the window before continuing
"The Prime God of the Ancient Celts was a rather disreputable chap. That went by the name of Cromn Cruach, Cromn the Dark, Cromn the Black."
"Lotta Names for just one guy!"
"They all describe his nature,"
"Which was?"
"Cromn promised his followers riches and good crops. All their hearts desired he supplied." David raised an eyebrow.
"He doesn't sound so bad to me? What was the catch?"
"There was a price to pay for his bounty," Colby's voice had dropped to a low ominous tone. That made the David' pull over. He cut the engine then turned to look at his partner.
"What was his price?"
"Every seven years his followers had to offer up. Seven perfect children in Sacrifice to their Bloody God," David went cold but Colby hadn't finished "And every forty ninth year they had to offer up seven times seven children. They called it the great year." David felt sick. He forced down the contents of his stomach and once in control of his voice asked.
"Just exactly how were these kids sacrificed?"
"A single piper playing a wooden Flute carved with Cromn's emblem. Led the children on a long dance around the stones That once stood on a wide plateau in the Irish County of Cavan. The poor kids were forced to dance until they dropped down dead." Up ahead rising in the distance David saw the flat topped mountain Edward's Plateau. He turned his wide horrified eyes from the road to stare at Colby. "A plateau? He led them up onto a Plateau?"
"It was named in the Ancient Erse as Magh Slecht. Which roughly translates as the Mountain of Blood."
"You say this flute had emblems carved on it?" Colby nodded "Would I be correct in assuming they were Snakes?" Colby again gave an affirmative response. "We have got to talk to Don!" David decided to cut short the interviews.
"I passed the information onto Charlie!" Colby said.
"But he doesn't know about the disabled kids or the unpaid debts or the German connection, does he?"
"I guess not," Colby concurred. A thought occurred to David
"Just how did Saint Patrick over throw this cult? It sounds like it was pretty firmly entrenched." Colby shrugged. Legend says he had a staff blessed by the Pontiff of Rome Embedded into its apex was a glowing eye." David braked hard throwing Colby forward against his seatbelt. "Hey careful!"
"A glowing eye Colby?"
"Yeah So?"
"Like that stone fossil you used to have. The one. you say is a beetle but looks like an eye? Colby blinked as his partner made a connection. That hadn't occurred to him.
Just before he had been arrested. Colby had secretly hidden the artifact. Buried it. In a place known only to him. He had waited many weeks Before he had dared to retrieve it. Only when he was sure - he was truly exonerated had Colby risked digging it up again.
David frowned at his partner. "How did Homeland Security miss snatching that off you?"
Colby shrugged "The writing was on the wall. From the day Dwayne was arrested. I took it some where safe and hid it. After all the only person who knew of it was you? I figured you wouldn't say anything? In fact I am surprised you even remember it. To my knowledge you only saw it once." David inhaled
"It was like your fishing lure. So unusual it isn't something. I am ever going to forget."
Colby started to wonder. Did they already have a weapon? To counteract the evil of the Piper's Flute? He slid his left hand into his pocket and felt the shape The fossil was warm. He gently cupped it in his palm. David saw Kolby had his hand in his pocket. Have you got it with you now?" Kolby gave a sheepish lop sided grin. "Yeah!" David gave a small satisfied nod then restarted the car.
Colby and David had only just entered the hotel. When they heard the dreadful news. A body had been found on the plateau and identified. David grimaced as he learned it was the Sheriff's Grand-daughter. That was going to seriously complicate their case. The poor man would probably be distraught with grief. Yet still want to be involved with the investigation. He saw him in a side room. Talking to a sobbing woman and a grim faced man. Colby noticed them too.
"Do you reckon they are the poor kid's parents?" he asked.
"Probably! Must be hell for Sheriff Jarvin? Not only has he lost his grand-daughter? But he's got to tell his son and his son's wife."
The pair climbed a short flight of stairs and entered their temporary Squad room turning immediately left into the side conference room That had been set aside for their exclusive use. David looked around for Don he was nowhere in sight. But he did recognise a face from the FBI's Violent Crimes Unit and waved him across. When Kurt joined them David asked. "Do you know where the boss is?"
"I think he's at the County morgue with the Coroner and your Medical Examiner."
"Thanks!" David flicked his head at Colby and they retreated to a quiet corner. "So what happens now?" Colby asked.
"After we've filed the transcripts of our interviews. We'll probably be assigned out to the Crime Scene. To search for more evidence," David replied. "Actually it would be a good idea for me. To take you through the basics. You've never had any real Forensic's training have you?" Colby shook his head. "No I am essentially a second line Investigator." David scowled as Colby put himself down. For the fifth time that morning. Since the Lancer affair. Colby had grown quieter - less exuberant. The doctors and psychiatrists all said. That the chemicals injected into Colby. Had affected his brain and induced a form of Autism. It could be months. Before his original personality. Reasserted itself and his self-confidence returned. Aloud now David said. "Well if I take you through some preliminary protocols. It will save time later." Colby gave a slow smile "Sounds fun." For one second David saw a glimmer of the old Colby. Shine from his partner's eyes. "But I kind of know that stuff. I do read Crime Novels remember."
David shook his head. "A lot of the trash you read is so outdated it makes the Dinosaurs look modern.
Colby frowned. "Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie were leaders in Crime detection. Sherlock Holmes is read worldwide." David chuckled. "Spoken like a true fan. But Forensics and Crime Scene Investigation has come a long way. In the last one hundred and fifty years. Nowadays it's based on the Locard's Exchange Principle."
"Which is what?"
"It's the assumption. That whenever someone enters or exits an environment. Something physical is added to or removed from the scene."
"In other words: Every contact leaves a trace of someone having been there?" Colby quickly grasped the meaning, impressing his partner.
"Exactly," David grinned then continued "But it's more than just a snagged piece of cloth on a nail or a scattering of tobacco ash from a pipe." Colby flushed. He'd read that very scenario in his last novel. David chuckled at his discomfort and patted his arm. "Let's start at the beginning?"
"Okay!"
"Right the first LEO on the scene has a duty to secure the area. To prevent corruption of any evidence. That the perpetrator may have left." Colby frowned then queried
"LEO?" He knew the term. That's a Law Enforcement Officer. Right?" David nodded then added "Once the Crime Scene is taped off . It's his duty to restrict access until the CSM arrives," Colby knew this acromym as well. CSM meant Crime Scene Manager! David pressed on. "Once he or she arrives and takes over The LEO at his direction lays out the CEP." This time he saw a query in Colby 's eyes, "Common Entry Path and off course oppositely The Common Exit path."
"Off course!" Colby indicated he was following David's tutoring. "Everyone walks in and out the same way to prevent disturbing evidence."
"Yes and talking of evidence how about you try and list a few examples?" Colby stroked his chin.
"Well we've already discussed tobacco ash and snagged clothing?" Colby replied then furrowed his brow and thought "Eh! Footprints?" he hazarded. "Fingerprints obviously," David nodded
"Anything else?" Colby floundered for a moment then brightened and replied. "Weapons!" David gave a half nod then leaned forward.
"What if there aren't any?" Colby blinked then jumped as Don interrupted. "And you both are forgetting something vital. Colby looked even more confused
"What?"
"The proof of a crime." Colby frowned then laughed.
"The body!" He gave a low snort of amusement. That died as he realized his boss had been standing listening. To them for several minutes. Don looked to David and swiftly changed the subject. "What did you learn from the Interviews?" David waved to Colby. Don shifted his gaze to the younger agent "Well?"
"We've discovered several things the most important being all the towns visited by this predator are of German extraction." Don's face registered disbelief.
"Are you sure?"
"Very!" It was David who answered. And they've all reneged on some sort of deal. They made with a rat catcher." Don frowned "Anything else?"
"We're not certain about the others but in this town it looks like that three children survived."
"Any idea why?" Colby took up the story. "One is blind, one has a broken leg and the other is deaf." Don swallowed then like Colby earlier, quoted the poem.
"One blind, one a cripple and one so deaf he never heard the music,"
"A virtual Dead Ringer for the Hamelyn event." David remarked. Don inhaled. "Okay! Put that line of investigation aside for now. Let's just treat this as an ordinary Copycat Kidnapping case." He laid a file on the desk between the two men. "These are the photos from Edwards Plateau. Since you've made a start teaching Colby. Basic Crime Scene Protocols You can carry on by going through these. I want a full analysis by Fifteen Hundred!" He turned and walked away.
TBC