Ghost Canyon (The John Decker Supernatural Thriller Series Book 7), Anthony Strong [classic fiction txt] 📗

Again, the old man shrugged. “I do not know. I’ve never met a Baykok. In theory, the spirit should not be able to pass beyond the protection symbol and harm those on the other side of it. At least, that’s what the dead prospectors pictured in this photograph clearly believed. One of them must have possessed at least a smattering of Native American knowledge. According to legend, the Baykok rips its victims open to reach their internal organs, which it then devours, after leaving stones as replacements. Those men might have died sheltering there, but they show no signs of being attacked, so their assumption regarding the symbol was probably correct.”

“Good enough for me,” Decker said. The legend of the Baykok was accurate on some counts, but wrong on others. It did indeed rip its victims open, but it didn’t leave stones in place of their internal organs. At least if the bodies he’d examined were any indication. He didn’t mention this to Bobby, though. He slipped the phone back into his pocket as Barnes returned, map in hand.

“Here we are.” Barnes spread the map on the coffee table and offered Bobby a pen. “You think you can mark Shilah’s location on this?”

“I believe so.” The old man leaned forward in his chair, studying the well-worn map with a furrowed brow. He reached out with a shaky hand and marked a spot southeast of Haley and the Ghost Canyon Mine. “This is where you will find the warrior, Shilah.”

“Thank you.” Decker picked the map up and folded it, feeling a renewed hope. With this knowledge they could defeat the creature, at least if Travis Biggs had correctly interpreted Karuk’s instructions about returning the warrior’s summoned spirit back to the realm of the dead. Yet a lingering doubt remained at the back of Decker’s mind since Biggs himself had not managed to lift the curse.

“You ready to get back to Haley?” Barnes asked.

“Yes. The sooner the better,” Decker replied. He turned to the old man. “No need to get up. We’ll show ourselves out. You’ve been most helpful.”

“My pleasure. If you need more information, please do come back.” Bobby looked up with watery eyes. “I assume that you’re going to visit Shilah’s grave.”

“We are.” Decker nodded.

“I have just one request then,” Bobby said. “Tread lightly and treat the site with reverence. Shilah might not rest in our traditional burial grounds, but his grave is still a spiritual place.”

“You have my word,” Decker said. Then he turned, clutching the map, and started toward the door.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Decker and Barnes left the Paiute colony behind and drove back toward Haley. It was rush hour now and getting dark, the November sun already out of sight behind the distant mountains. The traffic on the interstate was bumper-to-bumper. Decker fidgeted in his seat, frustrated by the slow going. After fifteen minutes, during which they only moved half a mile, Barnes reached the limit of his patience. He switched on the car’s strobes and steered into the emergency lane. Soon they were around the worst of the downtown traffic. He turned the strobes back off and they continued to their destination, arriving back in Haley a little before 6 PM. The sun had set now. The rugged desert landscape was bathed only in the reflected light of the moon. Decker wasted no time in jumping from the vehicle and heading inside, where he encountered Robyn and Special Agent Fowler standing in the hotel lobby, deep in conversation.

When he entered, Fowler turned. “You’re back. Good. I hope you have some clue how to proceed, because the raid on Wagner Mitchell’s house was a complete bust and I’m out of ideas.”

“He does,” Special Agent Barnes replied, following behind Decker.

“The skeleton in your museum,” Decker said, looking at Robyn. “Where did you find it?”

“Up near the mine entrance, along the trail,” Robyn answered. “I already told you that.”

“No. I mean, where exactly did you find it? You said the body was dumped over the side of the trail. How far from the mine?”

“Not far. Maybe a few hundred feet. The body was at the bottom of an overgrown ditch. We were cutting back the creosote bushes to run a power line up there from town. That’s when we found him.”

Decker turned to Barnes. “It has to be Karuk. The skeleton’s location and method of death fit.”

“Who’s Karuk?” Fowler asked.

“He was an associate of Travis Biggs, a prospector back in the late 1800s. The two of them are responsible for the creature in the mine.”

“Travis Biggs?” Fowler shook his head. “Who’s he?”

“An ancestor of Harlan Biggs, one of the two men we found at the second mine entrance. Travis wrote a journal detailing everything he’d done and the reason. Harlan still possessed the old journal—it was probably a family heirloom—which is what prompted him to seek out the mine,” Decker said, quickly explaining about the previously undiscovered gold the prospector had found, and his plan to use Karuk’s knowledge of Native American belief to keep it for himself. “The disgraced Paiute warrior, Shilah, is the key to all of this. His restless spirit became the Baykok. That’s what has been killing people.”

“This is getting weirder by the minute,” Fowler grumbled. “I’ve never even heard of a Baykok.”

“Neither had I until today.” Decker was already crossing the lobby toward the corridor leading to the museum room. “Right now, I must see that skeleton.”

“What does the skeleton have to do with all this?” Robyn asked, as the other three tagged along behind.

“Everything. It’s the key to defeating the creature.” Decker waited for Robyn to unlock the door and then stepped inside, hurrying across to the glass display case in the center of the room. “Something’s been bothering me ever since I first looked at the skeleton, but I couldn’t figure out what. It was only after I read the Journal that I realized.”

“Are you going to share?” Fowler asked.

“Just as soon as I confirm my suspicion.” Decker turned to Robyn.