Fiction

Vengeance From The Grave Part 2

A Henry James And Roberto De La Cruz Series

My name is Henry Allen James and I’m Roberto De La Cruz and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth magazine.

“Okay, Gorgie I ain’t saying you’re making this up, but I need you to tell us again. When did you see this whatever it was?”

“Well, it was after Mr. Donnie dropped mom and Ms. Cynthia off at the place.”

“The place?”

“Yeah, Henry. Alexander Investments? Work?”

“Oh right. Okay, then what.”

Gorgie shrugged his shoulders and dropped his attention to the bottle of water he was holding against the chair between his legs. As he swung his feet he picked at the paper label around the bottle.

“It was then.”

“Just sit tight Gorgie. I’ll tell uncle Henry what you told me okay?”

“Kay.”

“Henry, ya gotta understand. Gorgie thinks everybody will start thinking he’s gone off the deep end seeing ghosts and all. According to him, this isn’t the first time. He’s just been keeping it to himself.”

“Is that true Gorgie?”

The boy nodded and continued to focus on his water bottle.

“All hell son, Ms. Sunny and I have seen a ton of ghosts. Ask aunt Sunny. She’ll tell ya.”

“Really?”

“Sure thing. And we’ve talked to ’em too. I still think it’s strange as hell when it happens to us, but hey it’s not something you asked for is it, son?”

“Uh, uh.”

“So tell uncle Henry what happened.”

“You won’t think I’m a spaz?”

“Son, I don’t even know what that is.”

Gorgie snorted a laugh, then leaned forward and propped his elbows on the conference table and held his head in his hands, closing his eyes in concentration. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and stared across the table, his mahogany chocolate eyes seeming to peer through us as he concentrated.

“So we’d just finished playing video games at the arcade and we were sitting at the food court.”

“Where is that?”

“Me and Gorgie go to the Blue Mesa mall every Monday after we drop Ms. Cynthia and his mother at work. Then we have lunch at the food court.”

“Ah, the Blue Mesa. Yeah, they have some awesome video games huh Gorgie.”

“Yeah, uncle Henry. And Donnie sucks at most of ’em.”

“Hey boy, I keep telling you I’ll beat your butt at pinball if we can ever find a decent place that has ‘em.”

“I don’t even know what a pinball is Mr. Donnie.”

“Uh, the food court?”

“Oh, sorry Roberto. So we were sitting there enjoying nachos and drinks when Gorgie says he spotted him.”

“I did see him. He was sitting there looking right at me. I saw him as good as I can see all of you right now.”

“What did he look like?”

“He was kinda pale looking. Kinda like somebody had put powder all over him. His hands, his neck, his face. All really pale.”

“What was he wearing?”

“Huh?”

“What was this man wearing a suit, a pair of shorts, a dress maybe?”

Gorgie giggled and shook his head.

“No, uncle Henry. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, oh and he had sunglasses and a hat on. You know, like a baseball cap?”

“Gorgie I need you to concentrate real hard now okay son? Think about the cap. What color was it?”

“Oh, that’s easy. It was brown.”

“Light or dark?”

“Light.”

“Donnie, Roberto? You two weren’t with us at the time, but I know you both know what happened to Dante Alexander right?”

“Yeah Henry. I read the story.”

“Then Roberto you should know there’s some significance about that hat.”

“Hang on.”

We watched as Roberto pulled his phone from his back pocket and tapped one of the icons. Quickly he thumb-typed a few words, then scrolled until he found what he was looking for. With a pinch of his thumb and index finger, he enlarged a photograph then slid his phone across the table in front of Gorgie.

“Was that on the cap Gorgie?”

“Yes.”

Donnie leaned over and inspected the phone then sat back.

“A Browning insignia?”

“Yeap, I gave Dante a Browning cap for his birthday the year before. He was wearing it when he was abducted and killed.”

“Oh, my God.”

“Is this for real Henry?”

“I think it is Roberto. So Gorgie. Mr. Donnie said he spoke to you is that right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’d he say?”

“Well, it didn’t make much sense. I’m mean one of the words I've never heard before.”

“Try to remember son.”

“Uh okay. He said, uh, he said there was too much double dribbling going on off the court…and it was time for…vegans or something like that.”

“Vegans?”

“No that doesn’t sound like what he said. It was ven chance. or something.”

“Vengeance maybe?”

“Yes, Mr. Roberto, that’s it. He said there was too much double dribbling going on off the court and it was time for some vengeance.”

“Okay, Donnie you and Gorgie need to keep a lid on this for now. This is going to be like pulling a scab off an already sore wound. Roberto and I are going to have to ease into this. Got it?”

Both Donnie and Gorgie nodded and then stood and we watched them leave the conference room — David strolling side by side his very own Goliath — on their way to the elevators.

“Henry. I read that story. I know what you and the family went through then and afterward as you hunted Dwayne Macy down. I saw how it tore you guys apart. I was kind of hoping our first real Dark Side’s story wouldn’t be as bad as this.”

“Yeah, this one’s going to be rough.”

“So what now?”

“Well, first we need to sit the family down and tell them what we know. If the shock doesn’t kill them or they don’t decide to run us both out of town on a rail, we then start asking questions. Questions guaranteed to bring us to more questions. You know the drill.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I like the part about being run out of town on a rail. I just got this job, remember?”

“Ya know what Roberto? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Oh por el amor de dios.”

“You just said a mouthful boy.”

Read On — Vengeance From The Grave Part 3

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