Rusty Nails (The Dade Gibson Case Files) by Jason Brannon Page B

beneath the weight of several tons of Detroit steel.
    Samael didn’t wait for Midael to crawl out from under the rubble. Instead, he took to the skies of Crowley’s Point. Although it would probably turn out to be a waste of time, he had a crypt to search.
     

 
    Chapter 18
     
    When the phone rang, Dade thought that it might be Liz. After all that had happened with his father, he desperately needed to hear her voice. He was disappointed when Mrs. Hartwell answered.
    “Richard’s crypt has been ransacked,” she said firmly.
    “Somebody demolished the mausoleum?” Dade said.
    “Tore the whole place up. Broke the stained glass. Even tore the marble columns down.”
    “It just beaks my heart to hear something like that.”
    “Mr. Gibson, let’s not be glib here. If you ever feel the need to rub my nose in my own problems again, just pull those Polaroids out of your wallet and study them for a moment. Maybe that will be enough to keep that mouth of yours shut.”
    “Mrs. Hartwell, since you brought up the pictures I think there’s something you should know,” Dade said. “I just saw my father. He paid me a little visit. In the flesh.”
    The line went silent for a moment as Louise processed the information. “That’s not possible,” she said. “Your father is dead. I’ve seen the bones.”
    This time it was Dade’s turn to be quiet. “You’ve actually seen the bones?” he said for clarification.
    “Yes, I’m not a woman who leaves any stone unturned. If I threaten you, then I make doubly sure I can produce on that threat. I’ve been to your father’s gravesite and seen where his remains lie.”
    “You’re lying,” Dade said. “I saw my father.”
    “Mr. Gibson, I don’t know who it was that paid you a visit, but I would bet my life on the fact that it wasn’t your father.”
    Dade didn’t know what else to say. Strangely enough, he wanted to believe Louise Hartwell about this. He wanted to believe his father was dead. What he had seen made it both difficult and easy to believe. Yes, he had seen the man who looked every bit the carbon copy of his father. And yes, there had been enough inconsistencies about the man to make Dade question what was real and what wasn’t.
    Feeling more than a little sick, Dade laid the phone down gently and grabbed his guns. It was bad enough to have an enemy like Louise Hartwell. It was even worse to think that there might be someone even more dangerous than her out there.
     
     

 
    Chapter 19
     
     
    It wasn’t everyday that you ran across a child like Rush. In fact, Father Benjamin had never seen anything like it in all of his years as a priest.
    Benjamin tried to fathom why God had seen fit to place the boy in his care, why God had directed him to look down that alleyway and see the boy in need. He tried to fathom why God had given this child the ability to heal angels. But he didn’t have answers for any of it. He simply had faith that God knew what He was doing.
    He tried to keep that mindset when he answered the phone. The call came from one of his parishioners whose wife had been admitted to the hospital because the terminal cancer had reached the final stages and her organs were beginning to shut down. It was a sad situation, and Benjamin had been there from the start, watching this once vital woman turn into an old crone before his very eyes. Like so many other slow deaths he had witnessed, this one didn’t seem fair either.
    Rush walked in as he was hanging up the phone. The boy wore a tiny smirk on his face. It was the look of a secret, like he knew something that no one else knew. It was the look of a boy who has just pulled a prank and wants everyone to know he’s responsible without actually telling them.
    Although it was a long shot, Benjamin couldn’t help wondering if Rush could do for this woman what he did for angels wounded in battle. Maybe angels weren’t the only reason the boy had been sent here. Maybe he could cure Mamie