The Visitor(38)

“I have some photographs I want to show you.”

“Of what?”

“Kroll Cemetery.” I turned to the desk so that he couldn’t see my trembling fingers as I tore open the package that Dr. Shaw’s assistant had left on the porch. The packet had been waiting for me when I got home from the churchyard, but I’d delayed my examination of the images until I’d shown Devlin the stereogram.

Now I eagerly glommed on to the distraction because I didn’t want to think about Mariama’s assertion that she would never leave Devlin or Darius’s warning that Devlin could be my undoing. I didn’t want to dwell on my evolving gift or the history of the Order of the Coffin and the Claw or the possibility that Devlin and I might never find our happy ending.

“Where did you get them?” he asked as he moved up beside me.

“Dr. Shaw had them sent over. He told me that Kroll Cemetery is thought to be a puzzle because of all the keys and seemingly random numbers engraved on the headstones. Now I can see why.” I sifted through a few of the pictures. “The symbols are unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Devlin picked up one of the photographs, turning it toward the windows for a closer scrutiny. While he studied the image, I studied his profile as something distressing occurred to me. Had he been thinking about Mariama earlier when we’d been so close, or had I entered a memory that was deeply buried in his subconscious?

If his dead wife had been on his mind, why? Why now?

“I’m not sure there’s anything mysterious about the numbers,” he said.

“What?”

“The numbers on the headstones. Most of the bodies were decomposed beyond recognition. The remains were probably numbered in the order in which they were found.”

With an effort, I tore my focus from the past and tried to concentrate on the here and now. On the mystery of Kroll Cemetery. “That makes sense, I guess, but I can’t help thinking those numbers are a code or a message. They have significance. They’re another piece of the puzzle.”

“If it’s a code, someone would surely have figured it out by now,” Devlin said.

“Not necessarily. The cemetery is located on private property. How many people have even been allowed inside those walls?” Spreading the remainder of the photographs across the desk, I stared down at the final image, the headstone of the last person to be buried in Kroll Cemetery. Amelia Rose Gray.

Seeing her full name—my full name—on the headstone rattled me.

Devlin put a hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”

It was all I could do not to move away from him. Maybe it was just nerves, but I felt an unpleasant sensation where the scar in his palm touched my bare skin. I looked up, probing his face, scrutinizing those tiny new worry lines around his mouth and eyes, but his expression revealed nothing more than concern for me.

“I’m fine,” I said.

He tilted his dark head, observing me carefully. “I don’t think you’re fine. You look upset.”

“Maybe a little. First I find a photograph of a woman who looks enough like me to be my twin and now a headstone with nothing but my name on it. No date of birth or death. Nothing. It’s almost as if that grave has been there waiting for me all these years.”

“That’s nonsense,” Devlin said with a scowl. “The headstone doesn’t have anything to do with you. The woman buried in that grave has been dead for decades.”

“Laid to rest in a cemetery of suicides.”

Was the cause of Rose’s death the reason she couldn’t move on? Did her cryptic message have something to do with the tragedy at Kroll Colony? After all these years, had she found a way to reveal the truth through me?

So many questions...

“Maybe she just wanted to be near Ezra Kroll,” Devlin said. “Did you notice that her headstone is different from the others? No number or key symbol.”

“You can just make out something at the top of the marker,” I said. “See? Right there.” I pointed to some faint etchings in a shaded area of the stone.

“Doesn’t look like much to me,” Devlin said.

I gathered up the photographs and placed them in a neat stack on my desk. “These images only tell part of the story. I’m more convinced than ever that I need to see that graveyard in person.”

Devlin looked worried. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. The cemetery is remote. No houses or roads for miles.”

“All I know is that I’m drawn to it,” I said. “There’s so much about my background I still don’t understand. So much of my family’s history that remains unknown to me. I’m not like you. You can trace your roots back centuries. You know exactly where you came from and who your people are.”

“That’s not always a good thing,” he said obliquely.

“Still, can you blame me for being curious?”

“No, but try to keep some perspective. Just because you never knew about Rose doesn’t mean there’s some great mystery behind her death.”

“I really hope that’s true.” But the signs and visitations told me otherwise. I could no more ignore Rose’s clues than I could stem the tide of ghosts that came through the veil at twilight.

She had sought me out for a reason. Not to latch on to my warmth and energy or because she wanted to be human again. She needed me to find a key. Unless and until I could give her what she wanted, she wouldn’t go quietly back into the afterlife.