Page 46 of Investigation of a Quest

“Ten years. His aunt contacted me after his paranoia became too much for her to handle. He was so convinced that an ancient evil was coming to kill him that he couldn’t keep a job. He was becoming dangerous to himself, so that’s when Emily hired me. We’ve made progress. Not enough to get him to leave his home, but he can now hold a steady remote job and maintain limited virtual relationships.”

“Has he ever accepted that his missing memory is a self-preservation mechanism, not an entity?” Olivia asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” Dr. Linda said. “To this day, he holds steadfastly to his belief that an entity lives in that jungle… but you said the other three men from that trip died? So maybe something else was in the jungle… like a fifth hiker. Maybe they agreed never to talk about what they did, but the fifth doesn’t trust them to keep their mouths shut.”

“A fifth hiker.” Olivia nodded. “That’s a theory we hadn’t considered. Thank you for the insight and your time.”

“Of course. I’m just sorry I can’t help you find Leo.”

“In your professional opinion, is Leo capable of leaving his apartment if he feels threatened?” Bel asked. “Is he missing because he heard his trip mates died, and he’s trying to escape that fate? Or did someone get to him first?”

“Leo Craven hasn’t left his home in twenty years,” Dr. Linda said. “Only the devil himself could make him leave of his own free will… then again, he believes they came face to face with the devil in that jungle. If he was afraid evil had found him, it’s possible he fled on his own, but I can’t say. Fear makes people unpredictable.”

Out of questions to ask the therapist, the detectives thanked her and said their goodbyes, aiming for Bel’s SUV without the slightest idea where to search for the missing Leo next.

“There wasn’t a fifth man in the jungle, was there?” Olivia asked once they’d locked themselves inside the car.

“Absolutely not,” Bel said. “They found something at that temple. Something they shouldn’t have, and it’s here to finish what it started twenty years ago.”

“We need to find Leo,” Olivia said. “We need to know what’s hunting in our town.”

“Oh my god!” Bel’s hand flew to her heart to catch it from beating out of her chest at the sight of a body sprawled across her kitchen floor, and for a split second, her fingers twitched for her sidearm until she recognized both the shoes and the deep rumble coming from under the sink.

“Eamon, I thought you were a dead body.” She sank to the floor beside his torso and pulled her pitbull into her lap. “What are you doing down there?”

“Your sink is leaking.” He peeked out of the cabinet at her.

“That’s a job for my landlord.”

“I was here.”

“I see.” Bel let her intrusive thoughts win and laid her chest across his, trapping him where he worked. “Why are you here?”

“When I didn’t hear from you, I figured you’d be late, and I was lonely. I came to pick up baby boy.”

“You were just going to steal him without telling me and leave me all alone.”

“I was going to text you.” Eamon adjusted her weight on his chest so he could reach the pipes and resumed his work. “But I got distracted.”

“Don’t you have better things to do than fix my cabin’s sink? Like make millions?”

“Ye of little faith. My multitasking skills rival even a detective’s.”

“I would rather not multitask right now.” She rested her head above his heart and listened to the thunder as the trio lay together on her kitchen floor. “We have a fourth victim.”

“You found another body?”

“No, and I hope we won’t.” Bel traced a pattern on his shirt as she told him about Leo Craven’s trip to Mexico and his sudden disappearance. “I spoke to the haunted house committee. We’re canceling the competition after Oscar Diggs-Zoroaster’s murder. They think the contest is triggering the murders, and I’m happy to cancel if it makes people feel safer, but it’s not what’s causing these deaths. Something happened in Mexico, and this yellow brick is why they’re dying. I’m certain of it.”

“I spoke to my contact, and she made some calls. There are a lot of covens in Central and Southern America as well as creatures who wish to remain hidden, but no one has heard of temple ruins built from yellow-tinted brick, myself included. I don’t know what they found on that trip.”

“Which is concerning,” Bel said. “Something unknown even to you… Are we dealing with something worse than a dhampir? Or something that just chooses not to be found, so they’re cleaning up the witnesses?”

“God, I hope it’s the second one, but I don’t know.”

“I’m nervous, Eamon. If whatever this is can out-power you⁠—”

“Hey.” He ran a hand over her hair, and Bel didn’t bother to push his dirty fingers off. She needed to shower the day off her skin anyway. “Whatever this is, it isn’t after you. It doesn’t want you. It wants whoever desecrated its unholy grounds, so just like when Aesop’s Files was in town, if it comes for its final victim, and I’m not there, get out of the way. Your life is not worth their mistakes.”