Mississauga Hospital
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Vicki Nelson found herself admitted to the hospital for the second time in a week. Her Medicare records were missing again. The hospital couldn't find her files from her last admission. With nothing to work with, the doctor admitted her for observation. With the ongoing security concerns, the hospital gave Coreen an exception to visiting hours.
"Mike arranged for security." Coreen shut the door to the private room. "I'm the only guest allowed." She walked over to the window holding a bottle of water. "I told Henry I would open the window."
"It shouldn't open."
It did. "The lock's broken." Coreen held her cell phone against the window.
Not the best security. But how many people could enter through the windows. "Did he arrange the room?" Vicki wondered.
"I don't know." Coreen moved away from the window. "Henry said he talked to security."
Moments later he entered through the window. "The police are expecting another attempt." He closed it.
Vicki knew she shouldn't be impressed. She'd seen him do it before. "Did you talk to Mike?"
Henry sat on the edge of the bed. "Officially. It's connected to what happened in Curtis Park." He set a hand on hers. "I should have been there."
"You couldn't have known it would happen." That summed up several problems at once. They couldn't anticipate problems because they hadn't figured out what they were dealing with. Vicki continued before he commented. "Did Mike say anything about the gunman?"
"He thinks it's connected to the antique store and Colin Harris." Henry sounded frustrated.
"It burned," Coreen said from across the room.
Was the gunman retaliation? For who? He came prepared for magic. He could have known Henry wasn't there. Nicholas said in the store he wouldn't enter the building because of Henry. The gunmen either didn't know about the baby or didn't know the baby was actively affecting her and her surroundings.
"We need to figure out when this started," Vicki said. "Was it the guy summoning a demon? Was targeting us." Any of them. "Coincidental?"
Coreen added quietly, "My boyfriend's death brought us together."
Vicki nodded. "If someone caused any of it. Why? How?" Then she remembered what Nicholas took from the shop. With it destroyed they had no obvious way to trace the scrying stone. "Who benefits?" Especially if it was started when she was convinced he arrived in Canada.
"The author of the angel book."
Vicki and Henry turned, looking at Coreen.
"He was a patient at Lakeshore Asylum."

Police Station
First thing the next morning, Mike Celluci sat in a conference room with case notes from the crime scene techs and initial witness statements. They had the gunman. CCTV, prints, eventually ballistics. With the exception of the hoodie, he made no effort to conceal his identity.
Without Mike's timing, which he couldn't reasonably explain, it's possible the gunman would have escaped without being identified. Even if they later connected fingerprints, or the gun, there would have been reasonable doubt as to whether he was the man wearing the hoodie.
Despite the fact he had already requested a lawyer, it was a simple case. There would be argument over who his intended target was because he tried breaking into Henry's apartment instead of Vicki's. Mike needed to find a connection to the antique store or the Sophie Lewis case.
The door opened and Crowley entered. She looked unhappy as she closed it behind her. "The defense attorney wants you removed from the case."
Mike reluctantly asked, "Why?"
"She's arguing you developed an unhealthy relationship with your partner. One that involves her getting pregnant. She says your problems with Kate indicate a pattern of inappropriate behavior."
"Vicki and I haven't had sex." Not much of a defense. Whatever the baby was, he wasn't the father. Only then did he wonder how the attorney knew about the baby. Vicki didn't tell the hospital when she was admitted and there was no records from her previous hospitalization. Why would anyone tell the attorney instead of a reporter?
Crowley crossed her arms. "Why were you there that night?"
Mike wished he had a solid answer. "I had a bad feeling. I don't know. Seeing the fire at the store. Talking to Harris. I went to check on Vicki and Coreen."
"Did you know Mr. Fitzroy wasn't home?"
"No."
"You violated your agreement to avoid suspension."
Mike nodded. Not that the department could suspend him for anything involving Vicki. Not after the media coverage involving the police not taking her injuries or the break-ins seriously. Especially since his concern was warranted.
"What is your relationship?" Crowley demanded.
"We're friends." If that. Mike agreed to stay away from her, effectively ending any chance at a relationship, to keep from being suspended.
"Have you spoken to Vicki this morning?"
"No." Mike held up his cell phone. "Coreen called, saying the nurse was asking if the police are offering protective custody. I told her who the hospital needed to contact."
Crowley waited a moment. "Is Vicki able to give a statement?"
"If you ask her." After everything she went through in the last week, Mike doubted it was a good idea. He couldn't mentioned the inhumane baby she was carrying that caused her to pass out from it's magic usage.
"Who's the baby's father?"
"Vicki didn't say anything about a pregnancy."
Crowley didn't believe him. "You didn't blink."
"I don't know. It could explain why she collapsed during the attempted break-in." Pause. "If she's pregnant. How did the attorney know?"
"The nurse stalking her? The stolen medical records?" Crowley looked frustrated. "Is attacking Vicki connected to what happened to Lewis?"
"Best guess. Lewis and Johnson. Arnaud's abduction. The cemetery thefts. The antique store arson. If Harris can be believed." Mike had his doubts. "It's connected to a cult that broke into an underground crypt." Catacombs in Toronto sounded insane. "Stole a body. Then threw it off a bridge. More than twenty years ago."
"The group trying to bring their leader back from the dead?"

Lakeshore Asylum Cemetery
It was a bad idea.
Henry Fitzroy parked in a lot across Evans Avenue from the cemetery. He only agreed because Vicki would have talked Coreen into driving. While he suspected the baby would protect them, he wasn't sure how much more Vicki could endure.
"I can walk."
Coreen thankfully convinced Vicki to sit in the wheelchair. Henry followed behind as they cross the road toward the gate. It looked more like a park surrounded by hedges and trees between an industrial site on one side and self storage across the road on the other.
"The catacombs are sealed," Coreen commented as she stopped the chair on the sidewalk.
Henry suspected he knew why. The energy reminded him of the river but was older. It seeped out of the underground in places, shimmering in parts of the light spectrum most couldn't seem. He set a hand on Vicki's shoulder and described it to her.
"Something happened in the late 1800s." Vicki sounded uneasy, gripping his hand. "Nicholas arrived. The asylum was built. The angel book was written."
Somehow it caused a series of events for more than a hundred years.