CHAPTER FORTY
‘Hang on,’ Bayliss said. ‘Finish it? Who says we want to do anything other than get the hell out of here?’
Kirby was brushing the grass from her jeans. ‘We’re here to do a job, Nick, we need to find those people.’
Carter lit a cigarette, the flame from the lighter emphasizing how dark the evening had become. ‘Kirby’s right, but it’s more than that now, surely you must know that?’
There were some dull thumps as the final death throes of the Manse played out behind them. The grass beneath their feet felt cool and fresh after the heat from the house. A full moon gave some light but ahead of them the woods were black and filled with trees waving like masts of sailing boats at harbor.
Bayliss had a worried look on his face. ‘You talk about “an entrance.” An entrance to what?’
‘ To wherever deMarco is; to wherever he’s keeping Sian…and…God knows who else.’ Carter couldn’t bring himself to say her name, just in case Jane was lost to him forever.
‘I’ve lived and breathed deMarco for as long as I can remember,’ Bayliss said. ‘When my grandfather wasn’t filling my head with fanciful stories about Satanists and devil worship on Scottish islands, I was filling in the gaps from reading and surfing the Net. Remember those poor kids that got taken into care a few years ago because an overzealous social worker had found out a surefire way to check for sexual abuse? A whole community on the islands was forced to lose their children into care for years. Some of them still haven’t been returned even when the woman was shown to be wrong, so wrong.
‘I thought I was waiting for my chance to ride onto Kulsay on my white horse and save the day. Only it’s night, not day, I haven’t ridden a horse in over twenty years, and I’m scared to investigate anymore. I’m frightened of what I’m going to find.’
McKinley shifted his legs on the grass, where he was sprawled out as if at a leisurely picnic. ‘I used to be like you,’ he said.
‘What? White?’ Bayliss said.
A shadowy smile that touched his eyes showed McKinley took no offense. ‘No, scared. I thought too much. Before any investigation, any possible haunting, I used to wonder, what if it gets me this time? What if it wants me and I’m not strong enough to stop it? Then I realized what the it was.’
Bayliss looked at the night-black face and was impressed by the calmness contained in the features. Whether the control went further than skin deep he couldn’t tell but it was impressive to even appear relaxed under their circumstances. ‘Go on then; what was your it?’
McKinley grunted, a kind of resigned acceptance. ‘My own limitations. I was scared I wouldn’t be able to handle what ever was thrown at me. I was limiting my actions by imagining boundaries. Once you realize you can take on anything, if you react in the right way nothing should be able to restrict you.’
‘I didn’t take you for the “positive thought conquers all” type.’
McKinley shook his head. ‘It’s not that. It’s being open to all possibilities once you’re in a situation. Don’t let fear or convention put shackles on your ability to improvise and take effective action.’
Bayliss let out a long drawn-out sigh. ‘Sounds fine, except for one thing.’
Carter had been listening to what they were saying, and it was him who said, ‘What thing?’
Bayliss stood and looked at the trees and their suffocating blackness. ‘You three have abilities to help you handle what we might come across; I don’t.’
‘Just use your sarcasm,’ Kirby smiled. ‘That’ll get them every time.’