Part Three

“Let’s go back to the police officers,” Trixie decided, pulling both her friends with her and stumbling a little in the dark.

“Where did they go?” Honey wondered, only a moment later. “I can’t see them anywhere.”

“It was this way, wasn’t it?” Trixie peered along the row of graves. “This row, or the next one?”

“It must be the next, because they’re not here,” Di answered. “And he’s still coming for us.”

But the next row seemed empty as well.

“We’re lost again,” Honey breathed. “We’re never getting out of here.”

“I was right earlier, wasn’t I?” Di shivered as she glanced over her shoulder. “We’re already dead and we can’t ever escape this place and we’re stuck here forever.”

“Shh!” Trixie urged, then grabbing both their arms, pulled them in a different direction.

A short distance along that row, a large tree cast deep shadows. Trixie pulled her friends around it and they huddled there, trying to stay quiet. They heard a hiss of breath as their pursuer stumbled in the dark, but then he passed on to the next row without seeming to look in their direction.

Trixie gave each of her friends a small tug, indicating that they should go back the other way. They moved slowly in order to be quiet, but either the man did not notice them or he was not interested.

“Which way do you think we need to go?” Di breathed, close to Trixie’s ear.

She shrugged helplessly. “I’m not sure any more, but I think this is about right.”

A figure loomed out of the fog. “I thought I told you to wait in the car.”

“Oh! Officer Kravitz,” Honey greeted. “We are so glad to see you. There was a man and he was coming for us, so we tried to come back to you, but we missed the way somehow.”

“Where is he now?”

Honey pointed vaguely behind herself and to the right. “He was going–”

She broke off as the teenage boy lying on the ground opened his eyes and began to scream.

Trixie pivoted to follow the boy’s gaze. “There!” she cried. “He’s getting away!”

“Who is getting away?” asked the police officer, over the continued screams.

“There was a man!” Trixie yelled and made to pursue him.

“Stop!” Kravitz ordered. “You’ll never find him in this, and we’ll never find you.”

Honey, meanwhile, knelt by the boy and tried to calm him. His screams turned to cries and then to gulps of breath.

“It wasn’t a man,” the boy told them, at length. “It was a ghost!”

“A ghost.” Officer Kravitz’s voice remained flat. “What makes you say that?”

The boy’s breaths began to slow to a more normal rate, but it became obvious that he was in great pain. “He has super-human strength. He appears and disappears out of nowhere.”

“I think that’s just because of the fog,” Honey pointed out, very gently. “It really does seem that way – and just now, you and the police officer here seemed to completely disappear for us, even though you can’t have been more than twenty feet away, I guess, and we’d been able to see that far only a short time before – but I think it might have really been a man, just a strong one, and the fog just made him seem more mysterious.”

“He beat up Joey,” the boy argued. “No one beats up Joey.”

“Where is Joey now?” Honey asked, her concern clear in her voice. “And your other two friends, too?”

The boy’s chest began to heave again. “I don’t know. I think they’re all dead. You’re wrong about the ghost. He’s killed them and he’s coming back for us.”

Honey soothed him as best she could and after a minute or two he began to calm down.

“Kravitz?” a voice called.

“This way,” he answered. “Are they coming?”

“They’re here,” the man replied. “We just don’t want to get lost in here.”

“We can help you,” Trixie offered. “If Di and I stand part-way between the road and here, where we can see each other, we can help guide the way.”

Kravitz stared at her. “There is an unknown man in here.”

“But if you can see me and I can see Di and she can see the other officer – sorry, I didn’t get his name – we’ll all be okay.”

“I don’t have a lot of choice,” he muttered, almost under his breath. Then, louder, “Okay.”

“I’ll do it,” Honey offered. “Di, you can sit here with Flynn. Di, this is Flynn. Flynn, Di will sit with you for a little while, okay?”

He made a grunt of reply and Di took that as an invitation to crouch down beside him.

“Ready?” Trixie asked Honey. “We’ll just start together, and when Officer Kravitz gets kind of faint, one of us stops.”

Honey nodded and they began, stopping every step or two to check.

“Okay. I think this is it,” Honey noted. “Am I going on, or are you?”

“I will,” Trixie offered.

She took a few steps and looked back. Kravitz had been lost from view altogether, but Honey could still be seen. A few steps more and she could see a faint glow.

“Officer? Are you there?” she called.

“Here!”

She adjusted her course a little to the left. Two steps further on, she could see him.

“This way!”

He stayed where he was while two paramedics followed the chain back to their patient.

“So, do we have to stay here until they’re done?” Honey wondered, stamping her feet to try to get some warmth into them.

“We’ve laid out a rope to follow,” the unknown police officer called to them. “You can come out, now.”

“I’ll just go back and get Di,” Honey called, then disappeared from Trixie’s sight.

Trixie waited patiently for a few minutes, then impatiently for a few more. The fog between herself and the road had perhaps thickened again, because she could no longer see either the police officer or the light. She could hear nothing and see almost nothing. Then, the sound of breathing caught her ears: heavy breathing, very close by.

She felt around for the rope, but could not immediately find it. Her hand landed on a marble statue, cold and clammy to the touch, and she snatched it away again. She turned her head back and forth, trying to get an idea of the direction the sound came from, but every direction seemed the same.

The breathing seemed louder, now. Trixie realised, with a terrible jolt, that she was no longer certain which way she faced. Was she hearing Flynn, breathing through his pain as the paramedics wheeled him out between the graves? Was this the man who had attacked him? Or was this someone else?

She bumped into something. Turning, she found it to be a monument far taller than herself. After a second of hesitation, she chose a side to duck behind, hoping that if she could not see the person making the sound that they could not see her, either.

Trixie tried to keep her own breathing silent, even as she listened to the unknown person. He grunted, his heavy footsteps pausing as he did so. A moment later, Trixie saw a hefty man pass and it took all of her self-control not to gasp. Over his shoulder, he carried another, more slightly built man who might very well be wearing a police uniform.

He did not seem to notice Trixie, but kept walking along the row of graves in the direction – she thought – of the front gates. In the time before the fog swallowed them, she did not see the carried man move at all.

She looked around for some clue to which way she should go and at last made out the light from the ambulance. Sighing with relief, Trixie set off in that direction, only to trip over something lying just the other side of the monument. She let out a startled squeak as she recognised it as a human form.

“Trixie?” Honey called from somewhere out of sight. “Is that you?”

“I’ve just found someone else!” she called back in a low voice, torn between getting help and trying not to attract the other man’s attention.

She breathed another sigh of relief when she felt the person beside her breathe and heard him groan.

Another figure loomed out of the fog and Trixie tensed, only relaxing when she recognised Officer Kravitz.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I tripped over him,” Trixie explained. “But I also saw a man carrying another man over his shoulder. He went that way.”

He shone his flashlight onto the figure on the ground, who turned out to be a teenaged boy.

“Truman!” he called, over his shoulder.

Trixie listened, but the other officer made no response. She cleared her throat. “I’m not sure, but I think he was the one being carried.”

“Truman?” Kravitz called again, louder this time. “Truman!”

“Maybe you should call for back-up or something?” Trixie suggested.

“I already did,” he replied. “They’re already sending someone.”

The boy on the ground rolled over and vomited everywhere.

“Ugh!” Trixie put a hand over her nose. “That reeks!”

“I think this one’s just drunk; the other one’s leg is broken,” Kravitz commented. “Tell me again about the man you saw.”

Trixie took a few minutes to describe what she’d seen as best she could. As she spoke, Honey and Di approached.

“The ambulance is about to leave,” Honey announced, when Trixie finished speaking. “Oh! What’s happened here?”

“I think this is Joey,” Trixie told her, “and that he’s had a bit too much to drink.”

“Joey?” asked Di.

Trixie nodded. “He’s the one I saw over the fence, I’m pretty sure. And he meets the description that Flynn gave, doesn’t he?”

“I guess so.” Honey took a small step backwards, wrinkling her nose. “Can he get up?”

“We haven’t asked, yet,” Trixie answered, as the supposed Joey vomited again. “But, I’m guessing not right now.”

“Speaking of Flynn,” Di put in, “he gave me a pretty good description of the local legend. Apparently, the boy in that grave back there is supposed to drive fast along this road on foggy nights like this. They came out here to scare people – I don’t think they seriously believed that they could actually steal your car.”

“That might be what he says,” Trixie replied, “but the phone signal blocking thing says otherwise. He’s just trying to get out of trouble.”

Honey shook her head. “He’s really scared. He really does think he’s seen the ghost.”

Trixie frowned. “But the man who followed us – who was, I think, the same one that Flynn saw just before he started screaming – wasn’t a teenage boy. And the man I saw just now, who was carrying the other police officer, was huge. Neither of them could possibly be the ghost, if that’s the ghost we’re looking for.”

“Hold on.” Di grasped Trixie’s arm so hard that it hurt. “What man? And what did you say about the other police officer?”

“Oh. Didn’t you hear that part?” Trixie asked. “I thought you had.”

“So, are there two men wandering around in here attacking people, or one?” Honey wanted to know. “Or, were we right before when we thought there could have been hordes of them?”

“I don’t think there are hordes.” Trixie sighed. “I didn’t get a good look at the first man who followed us. I was too busy trying to get away. He actually was pretty solidly-built. It might have been the same man.” She shook her head. “No matter whether there’s one or two or a hundred, they’re still not a ghost. Ghosts aren’t known for beating people up. And those boys weren’t even born yet when the guy over there died, so they aren’t going to be able to identify him if they see him.”

While this discussion took place, Officer Kravitz had gotten the unknown youth to his feet.

“You’d better come with us,” he told them, interrupting the reply that Honey was about to make.

The three hurried to comply.

“There’s one more thing I want to check on the way,” Kravitz mentioned, as he turned aside. “Come with me.”

He shone his flashlight onto the headstones as they passed, at last finding the one he sought but moving the light away from it before they could examine it. Instead, he scanned the surrounding ground.

“My phone!” Trixie cried, lunging forward to retrieve it.

The officer held out a hand to stop her. Instead, he scooped it into an evidence bag.

“You’ll have to come down the station and make a report.”

Trixie let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, I guess. I wanted to make sure that you were going to do something about these boys, anyway. It’s just too dangerous for them to be driving around in the fog like that.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” he snapped, walking away.

Honey shone her light onto the headstone and they read the name: Blake Kravitz. The date of death and age matched those from the other grave. The suggestion that the two teenagers might have died together was hard to escape.

“Do you think he’s a ghost?” Di whispered, as she eyed the officer’s back. “Should we be trusting him?”

“What was the name on the other grave?” Honey wondered. “Because, if it was Truman, I think we’re in a lot of trouble.”

Trixie shook her head. “It was Phillips. And even if Kravitz was a ghost, he wouldn’t look like a thirty-something-year-old police officer, would he?”

“I guess not,” Di answered, frowning. “In that case, let’s not let him get away from us.”

They hurried to catch him up, arriving at the road just in time to have to step back and let the ambulance pass. Kravitz escorted the second teen to his car.

“Get in your car and follow me down to the gates,” he ordered, not waiting to see if they complied.

“Hurry up. I don’t want to be stuck in here all by ourselves again,” Honey urged, quickly unlocking the vehicle and climbing in.

The doors slammed and Honey locked it up and started the engine. Ahead of them, Kravitz had already pulled away and his tail-lights were about to be swallowed up by the fog. They caught up without much effort and soon arrived at the gates, where another police car waited, three officers standing beside it. The car in front of them pulled up beside it and Kravitz got out. Honey opened her window to try to hear what was going on and Trixie did the same.

“Truman! Where have you been?”

They saw him shrug. “Tripped over and caught myself on a headstone. Knocked the wind out of me for a minute. And when I got up, I must have lost my way. Who’ve you got there?”

“Young drunk. I’m taking him in.”

“Smith and Nordstrom picked up two more just down the road,” one of the officers from the other car commented. “Got some good evidence, too. I think we’ll pin it on the ones facilitating them, this time.”

“It’s about time,” Kravitz replied. “I am so sick of chasing after these boys – and the hysterical girls they victimise.”

A brief, venomous look crossed the face of the fourth officer, a woman who had not yet spoken.

“Have you got names and addresses?” she asked him, nodding to Honey’s car.

Kravitz shook his head. “You can do that, if you like. But they’re coming down to the station anyway.”

She walked away from the three men, her expression neutral and professional, but still giving the impression that she did not like or approve of them.

“Good evening,” she greeted, as she reached Honey’s door. “Can I see some ID, please, and get names and contact details for each of you?”

“Of course, officer,” Honey answered, reaching for her purse. “And, if it’s not too much trouble, maybe you could clear up a couple of things for us.”

“I’ll do my best.” She took the proffered ID and made some notes as Honey supplied the rest of the information. “What did you want to know?”

Honey took back her ID and handed over Trixie’s. “We heard a version of the story about the boys who died in the car accident in the fog from the boy who got taken away in the ambulance. And, of course, he’s probably got most of it wrong – it happened before he was born, of course. And we’ve seen two graves, one of them with the surname Kravitz, which is the same as the officer we were dealing with, and we’ve guessed he’s probably related somehow. And that explains his attitude to the boys, and even to us, in a way, but it doesn’t explain why he won’t listen when we keep telling him we’re seeing a large man.”

“Ah.” The officer hesitated, tapping Trixie’s ID against her notebook. “That’s not so easy to explain.”

“And did Officer Truman just walk down here?” Trixie put in. “Because I was nearly sure that he was the one the man was carrying over his shoulder.”

A tiny frown formed on the woman’s brow. “Sometimes, I hate small town politics,” she murmured, almost to herself.

“So, I was right,” Trixie deduced. “And there really is a man, but you’re not going to tell us who he is, or what he’s doing.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you what he’s doing,” she answered. “He’s taking the law into his own hands.”

“Because he’s somehow connected to the boys in the car crash.” Trixie nodded at her own reasoning. “And probably because of the way that small towns work – we’re from a small town, too, and we know the way it goes. He’s from an important local family. People like and respect him. And they feel sorry for him, too.”

“Can I get your contact details?” the officer asked, rather than confirming or denying the ideas.

Trixie gave them to her and received her ID back. Honey handed over Di’s ID and put one of the back windows down so that Di could speak for herself.

“We could find out who the man was, if we wanted to,” Trixie told Honey, in a low voice. “But, maybe, if the police are handling the boys, the problem will go away by itself. What do you think?”

“I almost wish I could help him, somehow.” Honey sighed. “It’s a sad story, all the way around. And these boys doing stupid things are only making it worse.”

“You could talk to him, I guess,” Trixie suggested. “He’s right over there.”

Honey’s gaze snapped in that direction. “Where?”

“Just behind that column-thing.” Trixie pointed to the place. “It’s kind of shadowy there and it’s hard to see, but sometimes he moves.”

“This is not what I had in mind,” Honey answered, shaking her head.

Trixie unfastened her seatbelt. “Well, maybe I’ll go and see him; find out what he has to say.”

Honey gulped. “Okay, then. I’m coming, too.” To Di she added, “We’ll be back in a minute. Here are the keys.”

They both got out and walked in that general direction, but not directly at the man.

“Can we talk?” Trixie asked, glancing at him sideways, once they drew level. “Just for a minute?”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you,” he growled.

“I think we’re actually on the same side as you,” Honey explained to him, “because we want the boys around here to stop what they’re doing as well, and I think that’s what you’ve been trying to do, in your own way, but I’m hoping that this time it’s actually going to end.”

He laughed bitterly. “While they have someone who keeps setting them up with more equipment? And when one of them has their Dad letting them know when a suitable car is coming? I don’t think so. If the police aren’t going to stop them, I’m going to do what I can to scare them out of this. I don’t want to have to scrape any more boys’ bodies off the road.”

Honey drew in a sharp breath. “You were the first to the scene of the accident?”

He nodded. “I live back there. Foggy nights, this road is always like this. The valley fills up with fog and you can’t see your hand in front of your face. The night of the accident, the ambulance couldn’t find its way here. I waited with one of those boys for an hour and he died before they got here.”

“That’s awful,” Honey breathed.

“Yeah, well, this is a dangerous place.” He shrugged and stepped back a little. “I didn’t break that boy’s leg, by the way. He fought with his own friend and came out the worse for it.”

“I think you scared them pretty well,” Trixie told him with a small smile. “I doubt that he’ll be back again, anyway. And anyway, the police seem to think they’ve got enough to stop the person who’s helping them, too.”

The man sighed. “Maybe you’re right and it really is over. Maybe it really is time for me to let this go.”

“Well, I promise to do anything I can to get this resolved,” Trixie told him. “We’re not going to let them keep doing this, if there’s anything we can do to stop it.”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to,” Honey added. “We’re not going to rest until this is fixed.”

“Thank you,” he answered, in barely more than a whisper. “That’s all I ever wanted.”

“Thanks for talking to us,” Trixie replied.

He did not speak in return and though they peered into the shadows, they could not see him.

“Good night!” Honey called softly, as they returned to the car.

“Are you ready to leave?” the woman police officer asked them, just as they reached it. “I’m going to escort you to the station, if that’s okay.”

“That would be wonderful,” Honey answered. “I’ve been wanting to get out of this cemetery for what seems like forever, and what with this fog, and my not knowing the road, it’s seemed impossible, up until now.”

The woman smiled. “Okay. Let’s go.”

They followed the red tail-lights out of the gates and along the foggy road. It gently rose and fell a few times and then, all of a sudden, the fog seemed thinner. The moon shone down on a lonely road. They turned off a short time later and entered a town. The police car stopped in front of the station and the two officers got out.

The station looked closed, but they were allowed inside, where another officer dealt with taking statements.

“I really wish we’d found that house, rather than the cemetery,” Trixie commented, once everything was in order. “I’d much rather not have spent all that time there tonight.”

“What house?” asked the officer. “There’s no houses out that way. Not any more.”

Honey shook her head. “But we heard that there was a house there. It’s quite close to where the accident happened – the one twenty years ago, I mean – and the man from there found them right afterwards.”

He stared at her. “There’s no house there. Not now. And the man you’re talking about is long dead.”

Trixie and Honey shared a glance.

“Are you sure about that?” Trixie asked.

He gave her a funny look. “I’ve lived here all my life. I know exactly who you’re talking about, and I’m telling you, he’s long dead. And his house is gone, too. Burned down, with him in it.”

“Oh!” Trixie bit her lip. “I guess we must have got that wrong, then.”

“I’ll say, you did,” the officer replied, fervently. “This is not the night for ghost stories.”

“It’s nearly morning,” Diana commented, as they prepared to leave. “I don’t suppose there’s anywhere open nearby where we could get some coffee?”

“Nearest place is about ten miles further on,” he answered, giving some vague directions. “Or, you could wait for the local place to open in half an hour.”

They thanked him and walked out into the pre-dawn grey.

“Was that a ghost we were talking to?” Honey demanded of Trixie, as soon as the station door closed behind them. “Because he didn’t seem especially ghostly, but then again, he did seem to just disappear at the end.”

Trixie shrugged helplessly. “I don’t actually know. I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.”

“Do we try to find out?” Honey looked from one friend to the other. “Is that even a good idea?”

Diana shivered. “I think I’d rather not know. And I didn’t even talk to him.”

“I think I’m going to just worry about the other side of things – you know, the boys and the people who were covering up for them,” Trixie decided, with a shiver of her own. “Other than that, there are some things that should just remain mysteries.”

Honey nodded. “I couldn’t agree more.”

The End

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