I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved. - Soren Kierkegaard
Eleanor:
People watching could be very boring. Stakeouts looked exciting on TV, but in reality they were long and dull. I'd taken to following Vince and Dave around for a while as a distraction, having grown bored with watching Julia. No, not bored, just pained. I couldn't do anything for my daughter in this state, and I was still convinced she wasn't alone in her body. It hurt too much to watch her.
Vince and Dave were trying to work with Garland's body and get him to pull himself together. Literally. I absently wondered if superglue could have helped with that. I didn't sense Garland, but then I didn't sense any other ghosts, so it may be he was just stuck in his rock form. I was so intrigued by them trying to repair Garland, and being amazed at Vince's sheer power, that I'd managed to put off watching my daughter. I abruptly remembered when I followed Vince and Dave out to the shore. They were concerned they might have been missing a piece of Garland. I stopped when I saw Duke's boat was back in the harbor. I figured, hell, I might as well strike out with everyone and decided to confirm that Duke couldn't see me either. I avoided going before because of all the legends about water dissolving ghosts, but really, what did I have to lose now?
I abandoned Vince and Dave and boarded the Cape Rouge. She was empty, but then Duke might have been out and about. Generally he stayed away from town, though, keeping to the outskirts of Haven unless he needed supplies. I decided to wait for him to come back. I mean, if Nathan had gone numb again, what's to say Duke hadn't been Troubled, too, and his affliction was to see spirits? That boy could lie like a rug when it was in his best interest to do so. I'd long been suspicious that he would turn out be troubled too, but never saw him do anything like the rest of the afflicted.
Eventually I saw Audrey and Nathan approach the Cape Rouge. Audrey was hunched in on herself as they scanned the deck of old boat, looking like she'd been crying. Nathan was doing a fine impression of the Old Man of the Mountain, just after he fell off the mountain in NH. Audrey was held protectively under one of his arms, close to his chest. He rested his chin on her head when they stopped in the middle of the deck.
"I can't believe he left her to me. I mean, I don't even know what to do with a boat," Audrey spoke into Nathan's chest.
Nathan lifted her chin up with one of his fingers. "You don't have to keep her, you know. I can help you sell her. I know a couple of fishermen that would use her. She'd be taken care of, and she'd be useful. He would have wanted that, I think."
I got a very bad feeling about this.
"No, I don't want to sell her, not yet, anyway. It would be like abandoning him." Tears danced down her cheeks, catching the lights like diamonds before falling to be absorbed by her clothing. It was like she'd been crying so long she no longer even knew she was doing it.
"Well, if you change your mind, let me know. Come one, let's take a look around. Make sure she's ok." Nathan held her close for one more moment, then put an arm around her waist and walked into Duke's living quarters.
The dust danced in the air, and I saw Duke's bosun's whistle, and a bear claw talisman on the floor in the kitchen area. Nathan picked both of them up and looped the chains around his neck. Bags and wrappers littered the floor, and I recognized them as being the refuse of a medical emergency. Nathan must have smelled the dirty dishes in the sink because he drew back with a look of repulsion on his face. I'm guessing it must have smelled bad. I couldn't smell it myself so guess there was some advantage to being dead.
Audrey looked through the living space, trailing her hand against books and furniture. She picked up a copy of Siddhartha from the nightstand by Duke's bed. It had been shelved next to a battered copy of the Dhammapada and The Art of War. Lying out as though it was still being read was The Art of Peace. Audrey held the book close to her heart, and I wondered if she'd given it to Duke.
Nathan cleaned up the mess on the floor, and ran some water into the sink, then began to scrub the dishes. After he'd cleaned up the modest pile, he set them on the drying rack and joined Audrey in the bedroom. "We should look at the rest of her. We can come back here when we're done."
He then began to take her around Cape Rouge, pointing out important things like the emergency shut off for the engines, bilge pumps, and giving a simple explanation of the complex mechanisms that would allow someone to navigate the ship. When they found the chart room, Audrey laughed. "I guess I won't have an excuse to get lost, not with this many maps." She and Nathan stared at all the charts the Duke had collected over the years. That boy must have had a map of every body of water anyone had ever bothered to create a map of in that room.
Nathan ended the tour, where it started, back in Duke's living quarters. Both he and Audrey sat on the couch. "I can't believe he's dead. I keep hearing people on the dock, and think he'll come bouncing through the door. I keep looking for Duke, and he's not here. That's just so… wrong," she said, leaning against Nathan.
"Yeah." Nathan was monosyllabic at its best. I knew that the fewer words he said, the more he felt, though. He wrapped an arm around her and gently kissed her forehead. "I miss him, too."
"Any word on where his body is?" Audrey asked softly, as though she feared offending the ship or disturbing ghosts.
"No. Near as they can tell, it was stolen between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. It's not like they have a rash of body thefts, so the morgue was pretty much empty all night. They are questioning the folks with key card access and who had logged as being in the morgue that night, but so far, there's been no luck." Nathan sighed heavily.
My godson was dead and his body was stolen? I was shocked. I knew that Duke had frequently been in trouble, some of it morbidly serious, but I couldn't imagine his enemies stealing his body.
Morgan chirped, and appeared from some hidey-hole, probably in one of the bookcases. Audrey's head whipped sideways at the sound. "Hey buddy, where have you been? People have been looking all over for you."
Morgan walked over to Audrey, jumping up on the couch and curling up next to her. She reached down and scratched behind his ears, but he didn't answer with a rumbling purr like he normally did. Nathan got up and searched briefly under the cabinets until he found a bag of cat food. He filled a small bowl and after a moment filled another one that he had washed earlier with water. He set them down beside the couch, but Morgan didn't move. The cat didn't respond even when Nathan offered to pet him, which historically had been greeted with a hiss and an arched back.
"I miss him too, boy," Audrey muttered to the cat.
Nathan continued to stare at the orange cat that had wrecked so much havoc in Duke's life, and who the smuggler had loved without reservation. "We'll need to take him to the vet if he doesn't eat." It appeared as though the word "vet" was a motivator. After a few more pets from Audrey, Morgan got down and ate a few mouthfuls of food. Having staved off the vet visit, he curled up again next to Audrey, ignoring Nathan completely.
It felt intensely indecent to watch Nathan and Audrey mourn Duke. I wondered what could have possessed anyone to steal Duke's body. I looked the boat again, and saw a book in one of Duke's overflowing bookcases and came to a horrifying realization. I could think of a terrifying reason to kill Duke and steal his body. It wouldn't be outside her experiences by much… It was a long and anxious night I had waiting for Audrey and Nathan to leave.
I ran to find Julia as soon as Nathan left the next morning. It was still dark when I saw her get into a small 7' boat. The outboard chugged to life after two quick pulls, and the boat headed out to one of the outlying islands, just beyond the protection of the deep harbor. Julia turned off the motor when she got close to the island, and jumped out. She heaved the boat ashore onto the rocky beach, then crunched up into the tree line. She ducked beneath the branches of the pines and headed to the eastern side of the island, facing the sunrise. The sun rose over the water, and skipped merrily across the waves.
Julia took a lower path when the island started to slope upwards, and came across a small cave system in the cliff face. I entered the cave close on her heels, determined to stay with her. I'd played in these caves when I was a girl, chasing Vaughn and Garland. The tunnels went back quite a ways, and had some areas that were only accessible during low tide. I sincerely hoped we weren't heading there, and was relieved when she'd veered away from that part of the cave.
We came to a small round room. A coffin had been set on an old mortician's cooling table. Duke was in the coffin, his eyes open and sightless. The pupils were blown; only a slight ring of brown was visible at the edges of the whites. All over his body sigils had been placed, and over his heart there was the Labyrinth painted. His chest rose and fell with jagged little breaths. Julia lit the candles at the foot and at the head of the coffin. Noah Jameson came out of the shadows and forced Duke to swallow some sort of home-made pill. Julia led a prayer in some foreign language and Duke reacted lethargically. Whatever they had given him had nearly fully subdued him.
If I had to guess, I'd guess that Julia was trying to perform some voodoo magic, or trying to convince Duke she was performing it. When he had completely stopped reacting and lay still, I saw her slice open healing wounds on her own and Noah's hands, and then open matching wounds on Duke's hands. Julia and Noah bound Duke's hands to theirs, cut to cut, and began chanting in Latin. This I recognized. She was trying to bind Duke's spirit to her and to Noah through shared blood.
When I squinted I could see the strong threads that already tied Duke to them, connecting their hands to his heart. As she completed the ritual I saw the threads strengthen and become rope. I stood there and cried for my godson, and for my daughter. She was trying to kill Duke's spirit and turn him into a mindless puppet, probably to use against the Troubled. She was binding him by blood and his part of his name, and it would be very, very hard to break the bond.
I didn't think there was anything I could do to stop it. I couldn't even interact with them. Then Duke's head turned, and I saw his pupils contract slightly. "Duke, can you see me?" I asked, hoping for some recognition, anything. He fled back to whatever depths of his mind he was inhabiting. When they were done, done with the binding, and had untied their hands I tried to grab the bond and snap it, but it was too strong. I could feel it, but I couldn't break it. Well, at least I found one thing I could interact with, not that it did me much good.