Beneath the Veil (2 page)

“We’ll be up,” she said.

He hadn’t told Jen about his disease and scrambled to hide the documents. Moments later, she pushed open the stairwell door with her boyfriend Jackson behind her.

“Hey, man,” Jackson called across the room to Barry.

“Hi, Jackson,” Barry answered.

“Damn, Barry. That stone downstairs is creepy,” Jackson said.

“Yeah, what’s up with that thing?” Jen asked.

I’ll explain on the way,” Barry answered.

C H A P T E R  F O U R

J
ackson drove out of the warehouse and into the alleyway. His van, a late seventies Chevy with blue stripes and chrome rims, had seen better days. Barry looked out the back window and saw a group of street people, but not the man in the green jacket.

“Barry? What’s up with that rock in your elevator?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah, that’s a weird one even for you,” Jen added.

“Weird is right,” Barry answered.

“Who commissioned it? Dr. Kevorkian?” Jackson laughed.

“From the grave,” Jen said in a low voice.

“No,” Barry hesitated. “No one commissioned it, I didn’t even sculpt it.”

“Where’d you get it, then?” Jackson asked.

“Maybe he dug it up,” Jen said laughing.

“It was...” Barry started. “Left for me.”

“Who left you a giant rock?” Jen asked, reaching for a cigarette.

Jackson pulled the van into a parking space in front of his music shop. A neon sign flashed Phoenix Vinyl in the window.

“Maybe we could roll that stone in front of my shop,” Jackson said gesturing towards the store. “Might scare up some business.”

Barry managed to crack a smile.

“I’ll be right back,” Jackson said.

He got out of the van and walked to the front door where a metal gate covered plate glass windows. He unlocked the gate and opened the door. The sound of an alarm system beeped inside the building when he entered.

“So, what’s up with the rock?” Jen asked. “Secret admirer?”

“Not exactly. Someone broke into the warehouse and left it.”

“Shit. Did you call the cops?”

“Yes. But they couldn’t help. By the time they arrived, whoever broke in was gone.”

“Did they take anything?” Jen asked.

“Nothing,” Barry answered.

Jackson opened the door of the van and climbed back in behind the wheel.

“Sorry. I needed to pick up my wallet. I left it on my desk again.”

“Jackson, that wallet spends more time on your desk then it does in your pocket,” Jen said.

“Saves me a lot of money that way,” he answered, then steered the van out of the parking space and merged into traffic.

“Barry’s place was burglarized,” Jen said.

“What?” Jackson looked back at Barry.

“Jackson!” Jen yelled.

He slammed on the brakes narrowly missing the back of a taxi.

“What happened, Barry? You alright?” Jackson asked.

Jen jumped in before he could answer.

“He’s fine. Get this. Someone breaks into his place filled with a gazillion dollars worth of old cars and they don’t take anything. They leave something.”

“What’d they leave?” Jackson asked.

“That creepy freaking stone.”

She dug into her purse and pulled out a small glass pipe. She lit the pipe, took a hit then blew the smoke out.

“Can you believe it, Jackson?”

She handed the pipe to Barry who waived her off.

“Nice. My apartment gets broken into and they steal my PlayStation,” Jackson answered.

He pulled the van to a stop at a valet station in front of the restaurant.

“No joy riding,” he said, handing the keys to a lanky valet.

The valet rolled his eyes and then climbed into the torn driver’s seat.

C H A P T E R  F I V E

J
ackson and Jen stared over their meals at Barry. The tables in the restaurant were made from reclaimed window frames and the walls were lined with ornate tapestries designed to mask the building’s humble beginnings as a produce warehouse.

“You look like shit, Barry,” Jen said. A half eaten bowl of linguini sat in front of her.

“Thanks,” he answered.

“I think you’ve been working too hard man,” Jackson added. “I told you that stone dust is no good for you.”

“Excuse me for a minute,” Barry said.

He got up from the table and walked past a bar crowded with people. The bar, lined with copper, had a waterfall running down the wall behind it. He pushed open a curved wooden door and entered the men’s room. Thankfully, the guy pushing towels and cologne was out of sight. He approached a glass sink, turned on the faucet and splashed cool water on his face. When he opened his eyes, he saw the homeless man in the mirror standing behind him. He spun around and the man was gone. He looked into the mirror again and saw the man wearing a worn green military jacket. He rubbed the mirror with a hand towel and looked back at the empty room. When an older man in a suit walked into the bathroom, Barry turned towards him still holding the towel.

“No thanks,” the man said, gesturing at the towel.

Barry threw the towel down and avoided looking at the mirror as he left the room. He walked back past the bar and rejoined Jen at the table.

“What the hell, Barry? Where have you been?”

“Men’s room. Why, what’s the matter?”

“Jackson looked in there twice. You’ve been gone over an hour. He already paid the bill and went to get the van.”

“Jen, I was gone five minutes tops.”

“Whatever, let’s go.”

They walked through the empty restaurant and out onto the street. Jackson sat parked and waiting in front.

“Hey Houdini, glad we found you,” Jackson said from behind the wheel.

“Sorry. I guess I lost track of time.”

When they climbed into the van, Barry saw the man in the green jacket in the van’s side view mirror. He closed his eyes as Jackson pulled away from the curb.

C H A P T E R  S I X

B
arry waved goodbye to Jen and Jackson after being dropped off at his loft. He started to type the access code to the warehouse door when he heard someone call his name.

“Barry,” a voice whispered.

“Who’s there?” he said.

Shadows moved along the walls of the alleyway with no one visible to cast them.

“Barry,” multiple voices whispered in unison.

He input the wrong code and received a warning beep, then quickly tried again. This time, the door clicked open allowing him into the hallway. Motion lights flickered on as he climbed the staircase to the loft. He slipped inside and locked the door behind him. He scrambled to the wall and flipped on a light switch, illuminating the room. The floor outside the elevator was covered with deep scrapes. The carved stone had been dragged into the loft and sat hulking in front of the kitchen with lettering chiseled into its side.

“Auraria,” Barry read aloud.

After checking the loft and finding no sign of intruders, he walked to the kitchen and opened his ancestry report, then flipped through the index and found the town named Auraria listed. It was the place of his birth and home to a family he had never known. He sat at an antique desk and tapped on the keys of a notebook computer. He typed the name Auraria and pulled up a map to a ghost town which had died after a gold rush there one hundred years before.

“Might be time to pay a visit,” he said aloud.

“Barry,” he heard the whisper again. This time the voice was right behind him.

He stood and spun towards the sound of the voice and then found a pile of dirt sprinkled on the floor and the faint outline of a shoe. Suddenly, all the lights in the room started going off one after another. He raced to the kitchen and pulled a flashlight from a drawer. The beam of the light cut across the darkened loft.

“Who’s there?” he shouted.” What do you want from me?”

“Auraria,” the room whispered back.

He pushed open the bathroom door and slammed it shut behind him, then sat in the dark trying to force the voices out of his head.

C H A P T E R  S E V E N

A
n alarm clock buzzing in the bedroom upstairs shocked Barry awake. He climbed off the bathroom floor and peered into the loft where filtered sunlight shined through the room. He picked up a cordless phone and dialed.

“Morning, Jen,” he said.

“Hey,” she answered sounding groggy.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s okay,” she answered. “I shot pictures of the eclipse last night. I’ve got a magazine that needs them. Got some killer stuff, Barry. You need to check them out.”

“Sure…but the reason I am calling is to let you know I’ll be heading out of town for a few days.”

“Where to?”

“A town north of here named Auraria.”

“I know that place. It’s that ghost town, right? Where those hikers went missing last year?” Jen asked.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Barry answered.

He had forgotten about the hikers. Three men and two women went for a day hike and never returned. Rescuers searched, but never found any trace of them.

“I want to go,” Jen said.

He walked upstairs to his bedroom and pulled a duffel bag from a closet. He held the phone between his ear and shoulder as he filled the bag with clothing.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He heard Jen speaking with Jackson, but couldn’t make out the conversation.

She returned to the phone and said, “Jackson’s coming too.”

“Jen,” Barry started to speak.

“Pick us up in twenty minutes, we’ll be out front. I just need to get my camera gear together.”

“Okay.”

He walked through the loft and then descended the stairs to the warehouse. He flipped on the lights, approached the line of cars and pulled the cover from a gleaming 1964 Land Rover.

C H A P T E R  E I G H T

B
arry arrived at Jen’s apartment and found her sitting on the curb with Jackson. The building was neat, but plain, surrounded by small shops and businesses. They both stood up eagerly and approached his truck.

“Hey, Barry,” Jackson said with a wave. “Thanks for letting us tag along.”

“No problem.”

“Where should I put this?” Jackson asked, gesturing at a pile of luggage and camera equipment.

“Right back here,” Barry answered. He swung open the rear door and cleared a space. “One of you will have to ride in the back seat.”

“I guess that’s me,” Jackson said smiling.

They drove through the city then merged onto the highway, the Rover swaying as it gained speed. Jen cranked down her window and lit a cigarette.

“So, what’s up with Auraria?” she asked.

“Long story, you don’t want to hear it,” Barry replied.

“Try me.”

“Remember a few months ago when I went to see Dr. Hoffman?”

“Yeah, for the headaches.”

“Well,” Barry hesitated. “It turned out to be worse than that.”

“How much worse?”

“Much worse. I’ve got something that’s pretty bad,” Barry confessed.

“What the hell Barry, why didn’t you say something?” Jen asked.

He signaled a right turn and moved into a slower lane.

“I needed time to think things over. To figure out my options.”

“Which are?” Jen asked.

“I shouldn’t say options. The only course of treatment is a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative.”

“But you were adopted. You don’t have any...” she stopped in mid sentence. “Auraria.”

“Yes,” he answered. “I found them, all of them.”

Jen sat back in her seat with a stunned look on her face.

“Still with us, Jackson?” Barry said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I am sorry, man,” Jackson answered.

“Relax guys. Everything will work out fine. I am glad you came along,” Barry said.

He turned on the radio and found a rock station. The music helped mask the quiet suddenly filling the air.

C H A P T E R  N I N E

T
hey drove for hours, reaching the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where the highway changed to two lanes and they were alone on the road. The sun settled behind towering trees as twilight fell. Jen slept in the passenger seat with her jacket blanketed over her head. Barry turned off the highway and onto a deserted country road. He rolled down his window letting cool air wash over him and then abruptly jerked the wheel to avoid a man standing in middle of the road.

“Whoa,” Jackson yelled from the back seat.

Jen woke with a start and looked at Barry. “What happened?”

Barry brought the truck to a stop and then climbed out.

“Stay here,” he said.

The man was still in the road standing behind the Rover.

“Hello,” Barry called out.

The darkened fields surrounding him pulsed with the sound of cicadas. He walked toward the man, but the more steps he took, the further away the man appeared. Finally, he stopped and looked back at the truck, now a hundred yards away.

“Barry?” Jen called out.

He turned and walked back. When he arrived, Jen and Jackson looked concerned.

“What was it?” Jackson asked.

“You didn’t see him?” Barry asked.

“No. I didn’t see anything,” Jackson answered.

“Forget it,” Barry replied climbing back behind the wheel.

They drove on to an area where the stars shined like a million pinpoints in the black sky and trees bent over the road creating a tunnel into the woods. They passed by a steep cliff face covered in markings. Barry stopped and backed up to have a look.

“Wow,” Jen said.

She sprang out of the truck and began snapping pictures of the wall. Barry and Jackson got out and walked up behind her.

“Pretty serious graffiti around here,” Jackson said.

On the wall were hundreds of symbols in different shapes and sizes chiseled into the stone. Barry ran his finger along one of the symbols and found the cuts were smooth and perfect like the stone in his loft.

“Dammit,” Jen said. “The battery’s dead in this camera. I charged it before we left.”

“My phone’s dead, too,” Jackson added, holding up the blackened screen.

Barry walked back to the truck and tried to start the engine. The battery was dead. He walked to the back door, then reached inside and found a long metal rod with a curve on the end. Jackson watched as Barry walked back to the front of the truck and inserted the rod into a hole in the bumper.