Echoes Through the Mist: A Paranormal Mystery (The Echoes Quartet Book 1) by K. Francis Ryan

before long,” the priest said as he gave Julian a sidelong look. Father Fahey’s blackthorn walking stick matched his pace perfectly as it struck the ground precisely at every third step.
    “Don’t you think it would be worthwhile taking Jimmy to a town with a hospital and top notch surgeons?” It was a mistake and he knew it as it left his mouth. He had said this to the woman who had been breathing fire in the police station. This time it sounded much worse.
    Father Fahey cocked his head to one side and said, “Do you want your head handed to you boyo? If anyone in this village but me heard you say that, your teeth would be on the ground about now.
    “Dr. Dwyer is like a saint to these people and they will not hear a word otherwise.”
    “I am sorry, Father. I meant no disrespect.”
    Before he could finish, Father Fahey cut in, “Oi know what you meant. You wanted the best for Jimmy, as do we all. What we know and you don’t is that he has the best right now. Dr. Dwyer is top notch. There is not a hospital in all of Ireland, and a few outside too, that have not tried to add our good doctor to their staff. A finer physician and a finer person you will never meet.”
    “I’m sure that is true and I look forward to meeting the doctor. I’m sure he is an excellent physician.” As Julian said this he glanced at the priest and noticed an odd, nearly cunning look about him, but having impugned the reputation of the village doctor, he didn’t feel it would be wise to go looking for other hot buttons to press.
    The two men continued to walk slowly through the village. Children would, from time to time, run up to the old priest and grab his cassock so that they could have their hair tousled by him or a cheek pinched.
    Julian encouraged the priest to talk about Cappel Vale and its citizens. It was with melancholy and pride that he obliged.
    “The village is dying. Farming and livestock here have been a way of life for many hundreds of years, but that is all changing. Cattle, sheep, crops and pigs are all expensive ventures and lack the lure of technology.
    “The young people want to get away from here and the sooner the better. Many of these farms have been passed from father to son since time out of mind. Those days are finished now, I’m afraid.”
    “There is nothing to be done? There is always something,” Julian said gently.
    “Oi believe you are a kind man, Mr. Blessing, otherwise you would not ask a question you knew the answer to as clearly as I do. You did it politely and it did buoy my spirits for a moment, but sadly, the village of Cappel Vale will soon be no more.
    “There simply is nothing to sustain it. But there’s more. The people here are troubled in their minds. They all know the village will fall away soon enough, but that process is being hurried along.”
    “What do you mean?” Julian asked and concern etched his face.
    “We’ve had a sudden spike in crime and some of it violent. Unusual for this part of Ireland. Acts of vandalism, mysterious digging in the area no one seems to understand. We’ve had a couple of rather vicious assaults and something else, but…” The priest considered.
    “But?”
    “Ach, it makes no difference to a man who is only visiting now does it? No matter, it will pass in time. All things do.”
    The priest talked of people he knew as no one else knew them. He talked of the gentle and the dull, the bright and the bold, the angry and the agreeable. There was no one in the village who could escape his acquaintance. With real warmth and depth of feeling, the priest painted a picture in broad strokes of the inhabitants of his portion of Ireland.
    He talked of his early days, those he knew then and of those whose graves he tended now. He spoke of the living and the dead in a way only one who approaches life from the spiritual viewpoint can do.
    All the time, Julian knew no real secrets were being given away. Everything he was being told was common knowledge. No