The Restorer

Epilogue

Days later, I still didn’t understand how Devlin had found me that night. He said they’d tracked my cell phone signal to the mausoleum, but I didn’t see how that was possible when I’d been so far underground. I couldn’t shake the notion that Robert Fremont had somehow been instrumental in leading Devlin to me, just as he and Shani had guided me out of the chamber. I was indebted to him, but the thought of what he would require of me made my blood run cold.

So many questions…so many mysteries…

I left it all behind to recuperate in Trinity with my parents. I was there for a week and on my first day back home, I dug up the tiny ring I’d buried in the garden and drove down to Chedathy Cemetery, where I placed it in the center of the cockleshell heart. I suppose I meant it as some sort of thank you or maybe even a farewell, but I had a feeling I would be seeing the ghost child again.

Devlin drove up as I was leaving. If he thought it strange to find me there, he didn’t say so. I waited for him at the edge of the cemetery and he caught my hand as he walked by. We stood there for a long moment—I on my way out, he on his way in. I tried to pull away, but he held on to me.

“Are you ever going to tell me what happened that night?” His gaze burned into mine. “Why did you run away from me?”

I shivered and glanced away. “Someday I’ll explain. But not now. It’s not our time.”

He didn’t question me because I think he knew it, too. He had his ghosts and I had my demons.

I slid my fingers from his and walked back to the car.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw him standing at the edge of the cemetery looking forlorn, but not alone. Mariama and Shani were on either side of him, their ghosts as intrinsic to him as my loneliness was to me.

But this was not to be a final goodbye. Our story was not yet finished.

I couldn’t know at that moment, but somewhere out there, a hidden grave awaited my discovery and I would soon become more determined than ever to uncover my father’s secrets.

Directing my gaze to the road, I drove off into the twilight.