Lynette held the scarf to her face and inhaled deeply.
"I'm sure he's okay," said Tonya.
"I appreciate you coming." Lynette sighed. "You don't even like me."
Tonya shrugged. "Roberto's important to you."
Lynette slipped the scarf into her pocket as she stood, studying the ground.
"It's gonna be okay." Tonya put a hand on Lynette's shoulder. "Let's go in."
Aunt Helene lived above the Herbal Healing Shop, in an old Victorian farm house she inherited. It was drafty in the winter, and attracted mice in the fall, until Aunt Helene redid it. As a child, Tonya remembered walking through the gutted building, asking her Aunt why she didn't just sell and buy a new one. 'Location,' her Aunt had said, but wouldn't explain.
Aunt Helene tolerated a filthy building site for months during renovations, despite her obsession for order. Mom claimed she should have been a scientist. After the reno, she kept all surfaces sterilized, as if the building were a lab.
Crossing the parking lot, Tonya noticed yellow crime scene tape, and a shattered window beside the front door. Pulling the tape aside, she stepped out of the cold morning air, expecting warmth.
"Hello? Aunt Helene?" It was as cold inside as outside, and she smelled smoke. The wind gusted in through the end of the room, which was punched through, leaving a large, charred hole. The walls were streaked with soot near the floor, but the ceiling remained pristine. The countertop, which ran parallel to the left hand wall, was untouched, but the glass case beneath it, and every jar and container inside, seemed to have exploded. This was no natural fire.
A female constable strode out from the workroom behind the counter. "You can't come in here." She had mousy hair and pale eyelashes, like a little girl. She gave Tonya a hard look.
"I'm looking for my Aunt."
The woman tilted her head slightly and squinted at Tonya, despite the light streaming in from outside. "You're Helene's niece? I didn't recognize you."
Without the extra pounds and big sweaters. "I remember you. Didn't you volunteer at the hospital?"
"I work with police services now. Constable Purrell." She shook Tonya's and Lynette's hands.
"I'm so sorry about your Aunt. She's in hospital."
"How did you know?"
"They sent her, after the fire."
"She was here?" Her parents had lied. She wasn't in Toronto.
"What happened?" Lynette asked.
The constable's face gained twenty years as she snapped into authority mode. "This is an active investigation. You both must leave the building."
"What about my boyfriend, Roberto la Bega?" Lynette asked. "This was where he was going, and now he's disappeared."
"Your boyfriend saved Helene's life."
"Is he okay? Where is he?" Lynette rocked agitatedly on her spindly boot heels.
Purrell pulled out her phone. "Let me check." The woman held up a hand, gesturing for them to stay where they were, then walked back into the workroom, speaking into her phone.
While she was talking, Tonya slipped upstairs. She hoped to find clues in her Aunt's apartment, something to explain why her parents lied that she was in hospital in Toronto.
At the top of the stairs, was the living room. Tonya ran her finger across the dustless china hutch. From here she could see into the kitchen, where the counters gleamed. Her Aunt had either been here to clean, or she had hired a cleaner as fussy as her.
It was warmer up here, so Tonya unzipped her coat. Where to look next?
Tonya decided to check the 1940s Frigidaire, which her Aunt insisted was better than modern refrigerators. If it were stocked with fresh produce, it would prove her Aunt never left. She went into the kitchen and pulled the chrome handle. Inside, the light had burned out, so she swung the door wide, illuminating darkly filled jars, and resealable containers. Didn't Aunt Helene eat anything from the grocery store?
She moved aside to let in more light. No aluminum takeout containers. Not even a plate of leftovers.
Tonya fished out a carton of milk and smelled it. She poured a bit down the sink to see if it looked sour, but it was fresh. She was replacing the milk when she saw it. A glass jar filled with smoky fluid, and pale, thin, pointing... fingers! Ugh! There was a hand in the jar!
Of course her crazy Aunt had a hand in a jar.
Heavy boots stormed up the stairs. Tonya grabbed the jar and shoved it deep into the pocket of her coat, hoping nobody would notice the bulge.
"Hey! What are you doing up here?"
Tonya slammed the heavy fridge door shut and scooted out of the kitchen. She recognized Constable Cram, a fleshy local man with a buzz cut. He swaggered across the living room, practically forcing Tonya back into the kitchen.
Tonya didn't know what to do. She needed to dispose of the hand without getting caught, but he wasn't letting her pass. He towered over her, so close she smelled stale coffee on his breath.
"Well? What are you doing here?"
"This is my Aunt's place. I'm worried about her."
"She's in Loon Lake General. I think you should go see her. Now." His crossed arms and puffed out chest left no doubt this was an order.
At times like this, Tonya wished she had her Aunt's rumoured gift of persuasion. Then she could magically convince this lunk to go hunt butterflies.
"Oh my God. You're that kid. You're the fat kid." Cram took a step back so he could look her up and down. His eyes rested uncomfortably long on her chest, then her newly-chiselled waist. This was a new sensation for Tonya. She was conscious of her chubby little belly, but men stared just the same. She zipped up her coat.
"Can I go?"
He stepped aside to let her take the stairs. Tonya felt his eyes on her as she descended, but she had no time to worry about creeps.
Downstairs, she apologized to Constable Purrell. "My Aunt Helene and I are really close. She would want me to check her apartment, and make sure everything was okay."
"We'll keep an eye on it. Don't worry."
Tonya didn't like hearing Constable Cram's heavy steps above her head. He was poking around, but at least she got the hand. I hope there's nothing worse.
A horn honked, outside.
"Your friend is waiting for you," said Purrell.
Tonya thanked her and headed outside. Lynette was running the engine before Tonya got in.
"What were you doing upstairs?" Lynette asked. They pulled onto the highway and headed toward town.
"I don't know." She didn't dare say more.
Lynette sighed and goosed the accelerator. Tonya wished she could reveal more, but she had no idea what anything meant. What Tonya had seen didn't square with the helpful Auntie she worked for as a teenager. That Aunt was caring and kind, and swore she made her cures using only plants and minerals.
The fire proved Aunt Helene was in trouble. Were there more skeletons in the closet, to go with the pickled hand? Tonya pondered where her parents might be. What she wouldn't give to speak to them on the phone!
Lynette drove silently, and fast, to the hospital. They didn't speak again until they reached Reception, in the front foyer. It was a relief when Tonya recognized Donna, seated behind the glassed-in desk. She was a middle-aged brunette, Tonya knew as a member of her mother's choir.
"We're here to visit my Aunt Helene," Tonya was bent over to speak through the window in Donna's Plexiglas cage.
Donna typed a few words into her computer, and announced that Aunt Helene was gone. She had checked herself out.
Lynette nudged Tonya aside. "What about Roberto La Bega?"
"Not here either," she said without checking.
"Are you sure?"
Lynette spelled his name and provided information, as Donna checked her computer six different ways. "He was never admitted."
Tonya stooped to speak through the wicket again. "What about Professor Rudolph? I know he was here."
"Full name?" Donna asked.
"That is his name. And I know he was here. Me and my friends called him an ambulance because he sleepwalked off campus, all the way through the cemetery, and then lay down at the base of the Three-Century Ash.
Donna's carefully made-up eyes widened. "Did your Aunt know about that?" Donna tented her red, manicured fingers together.
"I haven't been able to reach my Aunt, or my parents, for days."
"That is a problem." Donna worked her crimson lips, pressing them together in thought. "What are you going to do?"
"I have to see the professor. Are you sure you can't find him?"
"I probably shouldn't tell you, since you're not family, but he checked out this morning." She beckoned Tonya to lean in closer and whispered: "Against doctor's orders." She shook her head. "His colour was terrible, and he walked like a robot, but he still came around the partition and stole the cookie tin off my desk."
Lynnette inhaled sharply.
Tonya said: "That must be him. Know where he was headed?"
Donna had no idea. She only knew he checked out alone.
Lynette turned to Tonya. "We still have to find Roberto."
"Try his phone, he could be home by now."
Tonya checked her phone while Lynette checked hers. Still no reply from Priya.
As they walked back to the car, Tonya said: "We should go back to campus. Somebody must have seen him."
"I hope so. It isn't like him not to answer his phone."
Lynette had known him a short time, so how could she be sure? Tonya wondered if that was love talking, but kept her ideas to herself. In the car on the way back, Lynette fell quiet again. Tonya tried to distract her with chit chat, but the conversation died every time.
"At least you know Roberto is okay."
"He's been acting funny," said Lynette.
"Maybe he lost his phone in the fire," Tonya said. "I'm sure he'll call as soon as he can." She tried to sound hopeful, but she suspected the reason for his silence. He had spent too much time in the cemetery, and had caught the same disease as Professor Rudolph.
They turned off the highway onto the service road that encircled the university campus. As they slowed down, Tonya noticed a telephone pole papered with flyers for the Halloween Bonfire and Art Exhibition. Thinking Priya might have missed stripping one pole, Tonya didn't worry until a few poles further on, when she found another, covered in flyers.
"Let me out in front of the dorm?" Lynette could keep searching for Roberto on her own.
Tonya went inside where large full-colour posters on the bulletin board advertised the art installation. There were also plenty of flyers posted on people's doors. Tonight, the cemetery would be full of people.
She had to stop them! Tonya ran up the stairs to Priya's room, but there was no answer. She didn't have a mobile number for Ducky or Zain, but guessed where to find them. She rushed down the stairs and headed for the cemetery at a run.
She was out of breath by the time she reached the path leading off campus, but she didn't dare slow down. She had to stop this catastrophe. The bonfire would draw the biggest crowd and put the largest number of people in danger. She had to convince them to move it somewhere safe.
Her feet pounded the cement path and her laboured breaths were white in the chilly air. Hitting a patch of ice, her legs flew up from under her, and she landed on her backside. She sat there, for a few minutes, waiting for the pain to ease.
She got up and started to run again, until she got a stitch in her side. Slowing to a fast jog, Tonya pondered over arguments to convince the 'cool kids' to move their party. It was a small campus, with few Halloween parties advertised. Most of the student body could be there. How could she, one lowly freshman, oppose the will of the majority?
Fatigue forced her to a panting walk, by the time she reached the cemetery. From the entrance, she detected hairy things, hiding in the trees. Priya had never shown Tonya more than a few sketches, but these animals looked like the work of years.
Priya's vision was a nightmare, in which animals lay in wait beside the forest path. Priya might just be a genius, with a horrific theme park mentality. From now on, every time she walked this path, Tonya would expect to be ambushed by Toyota-sized tarantulas.
She was so impressed with the giant rabbit with sad eyes, and blood on its chin, that she wanted to forget why she was there. She had to keep everyone away from this masterpiece. Somehow. At once her confidence collapsed. If she were going to stop mass infection, she was going to need more than circumstantial evidence. She needed proof that the cemetery could kill.
Marta's near-miss aside, she was only really sure the feeding frenzy was caused by magic, probably cast by the same person who burned her Aunt's shop. A nasty magic user was at work here, one who had probably hurt her parents, or forced them into hiding. She suspected that his spells caused irrational binge eating, and the mindless stagger of Professor Rudolph, but how to prove it?
And what was so bad about a little binge eating? Could she be sure the effect didn't wear off? How could she know Professor Rudolph wasn't home right now, doing a crossword and drinking tea?
Tonya followed the path through the whole cemetery. At the end, she hopped the fence to reach the Three-Century Ash.
Wow. Somehow Priya had turned the tree into a mythological monster, with subtle slits for eyes, and a mouth that looked like a slash in the bark, but which revealed the tips of fangs. At its base, the clean-picked skeletons of its prey were piled in a jumble, as if the tree had eaten them whole, and spit out the pellets like a giant owl.
Tonya went around the back of the tree as usual, to make sure her forbidden ladder had not yet been absorbed by the growing tree. The moment she came around, she saw Professor Rudolph, lying at the base of the roots. Up through the ground, hair like roots were growing into the unconscious man's ears, nose, and mouth. A few more were growing upward and around the side of his face, straining to enter through his eyeballs.
"Professor!" Tonya tugged at his arms, slapped his face. When nothing else would rouse him, she even poked a toe at his foot. Slowly, being careful not to disturb or touch any of the white tendrils, she put a hand on his chest. He was cold. His chest was still, without a heartbeat. His wrist had no pulse. He was dead.
Tonya, have you done your homework? His voice demanded inside her head. When his unseeing eyes opened, she ran.
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