Master Naka was tired, having been up for more than 24 hours. The Tai Chi he’d done with David and Leigh earlier had refreshed him somewhat. But the long hours of watching Fr. Jerzy and looking for clues in the dozen cases similar to Jerzy’s had muddled his ability to think clearly. He excused himself and went to bed.

Leigh hadn’t been up quite as long as Master Naka, but staying up late working on the waffle batter and cinnamon rolls, and then getting up early to get the rolls in the oven meant that she hadn’t gotten quite as much sleep as she would have liked. So she also went upstairs to take a nap.

Justin and Karen were waiting impatiently for Aiden to arrive, hoping he had some better way to keep Uncle Jerzy calm and quiet than repeated choke holds. David didn’t even know who Aiden was, other than the guy who may or may not be Angie’s boyfriend, so he wasn’t impatient...just bored. He checked his email again, hoping for something from Angie. No such luck. Just a couple emails from friends, a notice from U of M that single tickets for football games would go on sale soon to the general public, and an ad for a ‘male enhancement’ drug that slipped through his spam filter.

The three heard one of the garage bay doors opening, and Justin and Karen stood, looking expectantly at the door. But it wasn’t Aiden. “What?” Tony asked, looking back at them and holding a couple food bags.

“You aren’t Aiden,” Justin said, sounding disappointed.

“No. I’m much better. Who else’d bring back cannolis from one ‘a da best rest’rants in Liddle Idaly?”

“Sorry, but...we were hoping it was Aiden, because Fr. Jerzy’s gotten much worse,” Karen told him.

“Oh. Well, lemme eat my Coneys, an’ I’ll tell youse whad I found out from Fr. Claudio.” Tony went and sat at the bar and started emptying the bags onto it. “Where’s everyone elts?”

“Master Naka and Leigh are upstairs catching some sleep while they can,” Karen told him.

David’s phone rang, and after looking at the caller ID, he went in the office. A moment later he came out. “So, since nothing much is going on now, is it OK if I take off for a while?” he asked Karen. “I finally got a seat in a really hot poker game that I’ve been trying to get into for a couple weeks now. If I pass it up....”

Karen shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I’d appreciate it, though, if...I mean, I know that Justin usually thinks better when he’s under the hood of a car. If you could keep thinking about the case in the back of your mind while you’re playing...?”

“Sure. No problem. But no promises, either.”

Karen nodded, and David grabbed his coat and headed for the garage.

“Yo, get me a seat in da game nex’ time!” Tony shouted at David’s back as he went out the door.

About 7pm, they heard the garage door open again. This time they knew it had to be Aiden. His poor truck sounded awful, sputtering and coughing, with this kind of screeching-grinding noise of metal rubbing on metal.

Justin met him at the door. “You take care of my uncle...I’ll take care of your piece of shit truck.”

“What? There’s something wrong with it?”

“You can’t tell? No vehicle is supposed to sound like that!”

“It doesn’t have a pulse, so...no, I couldn’t tell.”

It was the first time the Justin and Karen had seen Aiden in a couple months...since Angie went to New York. He looked 10 years older. His forehead was creased with stress lines, and he’d lost weight that he didn’t have to spare.

Justin propped up the hood of the truck, and Aiden stood in the open doorway watching him.

“Wanna Coney?” Tony asked Aiden.

“No, thanks.” They could hear the sound of a rachet turning...turning...tur....

“Maybe you should get a little more sleep and do a little less work...” Karen suggested.

Aiden rolled his eyes.

“There’s other food in the kitchen,” she offered.

“I dunno. I’m not really...” There was a clatter of metal on cement, and some muffled cursing from Justin. He sounded hollow, like he was upside down in a metal trash can. Which was basically his opinion of Aiden’s truck.

“I got cannolis, too,” Tony said. “Fresh from Liddle Idaly.”

“Now you’re talkin’!” Aiden told him. “Why didn’t you say that before?" He went over and grabbed a couple of cannolis and began stuffing one in his mouth before he even got back to the garage door.

“Cannolis aren’t really ‘food,’" Karen objected.

“Cloze enuf,” Aiden said, crumbs dropping from the cannoli and powdered sugar puffing off his lips.

“I got good news and bad news,” Justin hollered from inside Aiden’s engine compartment. He lifted his head up, so he didn't have to yell. “The bad news is I’ll have to keep this thing overnight.”

“Wha’?!‘Ow am I...” Aiden tried to talk around the cannoli, then paused to swallow.

“Anyone here can get you back to the hospital,” Justin told him.

“Ya know, if there’s too much wrong with it, I was kinda thinking of trading it in soon.”

“The good news is that I’m workin’ on it.” Another tool clattered onto the floor.

“I’m starting to question your abilities...” Aiden teased Justin.

“Oh, and we should say the same thing about you...after you put yourself in a coma trying to fix Angie?” Karen countered. She knew that Aiden was just teasing; but there was no better mechanic in Detroit than Justin, and the retort just spilled out before she could stop it.

“OK...OK...you’ve got a point,” Aiden agreed.

“So, what would you be looking for, if we haul this piece of shit to the scrap yard?” Justin asked, wiping his hands on a rag and moving around to the other side of the truck.

“What do you mean ‘piece of shit’? It was all I could afford when I was a starving med student, and it’s not that old! It’s only a ‘96, and it’s done very well for me for the past 6 years!”

Justin just rolled his eyes. Karen just laughed to herself. This was almost identical to the ‘discussion’ she and Justin had last year over her Jeep. The Jeep was even older than Aiden’s truck. But having grown up in Detroit, Karen was more conscientious about keeping up with standard maintenance on it. She wasn’t a ‘gear head’ by any means, but Aiden took absolutely no interest in cars beyond the necessity of having one to haul stuff or get to work dry in the pouring rain.

So Justin and Aiden went back and forth for the next hour, narrowing Aiden’s broad ideas down to some concrete likes and dislikes. A regular car would be too small, and too low for Aiden’s taste. He had a tendency to crack his head on the top edge of the door, getting into something shorter than he was.

Plus he needed some hauling capacity. Not that he hauled that much, or things that were really big. So it didn’t have to be a full-sized pick-up, either. Another of the smaller-sized pick-ups, like the one he had, would be enough. And he seemed fine with something like an SUV or one of the new cross-overs, too. He was also amenable to getting one that used the new hybrid technologies. But he didn’t feel any compulsion to get something new.

When Justin suggested a mini-van, Aiden almost visibly shrank from the idea, with a look on his face that said “Don’t ask.” No one did, but Karen wondered if it was either because his parents had driven one when he was growing up, or if it was because he’d considered getting one if Angie had chosen to keep the baby.

“Maybe I should think about a sports car,” Aiden sighed.

“Two words,” Tony piped up from the bar, “Chick. Magnet. How else do you pick up cheerleading squads?”

“How would you fit them all in?” Aiden and Karen asked at the same time.

“They don’t have to be in it for very long,” Tony said with a grin that bordered on leer.

Karen rolled her eyes. “So, Aiden, would you like....”

“Oh, geez! That’s right! Where is Fr. Jerzy now?” Aiden asked, suddenly remembering why he was there.

Karen and Justin began filling him in on the whole story...how Fr. Jerzy had called Justin pleading for help; what Justin saw at the church after Mass; the story Jerzy told them yesterday evening; how the little sleep he got last night was restless and disturbed by the dreams; the results of their research so far; Fr. Jerzy’s behavior this morning, and then again just a couple hours ago when he’d come around.

“We couldn’t let him leave, so I had to knock him out again and put him in one of the cells, downstairs,” Justin finished, sounding weary. While they were talking, Justin was on the computer in the garage, looking at AutoFinder.com for a ‘new’ vehicle for Aiden that he could get locally. He was hoping that, if it was close enough, he could either have it delivered to the clubhouse by tomorrow or even go get it tonight.

Karen started to lead Aiden toward the stairs, and Tony hopped off his bar stool to follow them. “Whad’ve ya been up ta in da las’ mont’?” Tony asked Aiden.

“Working.”

“Have ya looked in a mirror lately?” Tony asked.

“Why?”

“Ya look like hell.”

“Everyone here is so complimentary,” Aiden said, “it’s a wonder I don’t get a swelled head.”

Justin found a small pick-up for sale in Dearborn. It was only a year old, but the price seemed rather low. Justin wondered what was wrong with it as he dialed the phone number in the ad.

A woman answered, maybe middle-aged from the sound of her voice. Justin started asking some questions about the truck, and the answers the woman gave were the kind of answers he would expect from someone who hadn’t actually been involved in buying the vehicle. That is, they didn’t really give him the information he needed. “So, if you don’t mind my asking, why is the price so...reasonable?” Justin finally asked her.

“It...it belonged to my son,” she said slowly. “He was...just killed in Iraq and...he won’t be...needing it anymore. I guess...just seeing it in the garage reminds me...of him. His...body...hasn’t even been...returned to the States yet.” She didn’t break down as she spoke, but Justin could tell that talking about it wasn’t easy for her.

“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am,” Justin told her with true sympathy. “That always seems to take too long.”

“My husband and I...we divorced years ago, so it was just my son and me. He was only 19. I was so proud of him, not just because of what he’d accomplished, but because he was so proud of himself, so proud to have joined the military, to be part of the job they were doing over there.”

“I understand, ma’am. I was looking at the truck for a friend of mine who served over in Afghanistan...” Justin mentioned.

Upon hearing that, the woman tried to drop the price even lower; but Justin wouldn’t let her. From what she told him, he figured that she was already asking less than it was worth just to get rid of it. And he hadn’t mentioned Aiden’s service just to get a better price. He’d mentioned it to let her know that he truly did understand, at least a little, what she was going through. “It’s already a more than fair price,” he assured her. “If its alright, I could bring you a check tonight. Would a cashiers check be OK, or should I bring a company check? Or would you prefer cash?”

“Gosh, I hadn’t really thought about it. I figured whoever bought it would have to get financing from their bank and all.... I’m sure a check would be fine.” After about 20 minutes of chatting with Justin, she was about ready to invite him over just for coffee, even if he hadn’t wanted to buy the truck. She gave Justin her address, and he told her he’d be there within a couple hours.

Downstairs, Aiden stood by the cell door and waited, looking from the keypad for the digital lock to Karen and Tony, and back to the keypad. “You never gave me the code,” he finally told them with exasperation.

“You’re never around anymore,” Karen retorted, punching in the code as she told it to him.

Through the small window in the door, they could see that Fr. Jerzy was lying still, his face toward the wall. But they couldn’t tell if he was awake or still unconscious. They’d left the lights on low, so they couldn’t make out details very well.

Aiden went in, and when he got close enough to the bed, he could see the strain on Jerzy’s face. He looked around for a chair, and Tony brought one from the outer room. Aiden pulled it close to the bed and sat, speaking softly to Jerzy as he leaned forward over him.

Suddenly Jerzy’s head whipped around, startling Aiden, who jerked back so hard the chair scraped backwards. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to get out of here!” Jerzy began struggling against the restraints.

Aiden tried to take his vitals, but Jerzy wouldn’t lie still. His head was rolling back and forth so much that Aiden was afraid to even try to check his pupils for fear of poking him in the eye. And though the restraints kept his arms from going far, they were moving around enough that it took too much work holding them still for Aiden to get a pulse. Getting a carotid pulse was pretty much out, too. So, finally Aiden pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and tried to at least listen to Jerzy’s heart.

His heart was racing, much too high to be safe. Aiden bent over to dig in his bag. He pulled out a syringe and a small bottle, then thought for a second, calculating the dosage. He drew liquid up into the syringe, tapped the side to loosen bubbles, and squeezed the excess liquid back into the bottle.

When he turned back to Fr. Jerzy, actually administering the medication took less time than measuring it out had, even with Jerzy moving like he was. This, Aiden had experience with.

After a minute or two, Jerzy calmed down, and Aiden examined him as thoroughly as possible without unfastening the restraints. He asked the priest a few questions about what he’d been dealing with, but got answers that were less than useful, because of the drugs.

Aiden’s shoulders sagged, and when he came out he looked really discouraged and more tired than he had before. “I need to get his medical records,” he told Tony and Karen. “I have to know what conditions he has and what meds he’s on, if any.”

“We did have him pack a bag to spend the night here,” Karen told Aiden. “So if he’s on any meds, we should have those here.”

“Maybe I oughta go out ‘a body, and see if anyt’ings changed since yesterday,” Tony told them.

“Not alone,” Karen told him. She got comfortable on the floor beside Tony. They both slipped out of their bodies easily.

“Well, hello there,” Tony said to Karen as they both appeared in the astral plane. It was kind of funny...he always said that. That ‘lounge lizard’ greeting was as much a part of Tony over here as the gold chains and bare chest.

Karen was shocked when they turned to look at Fr. Jerzy. The shadow now obscured his whole head and neck, and tendrils stretched down his body. If the tendrils had been more solid, it would have looked like there were black claws digging into his chest, and arms wrapping around his hips, holding on.

The thread was still there, too...only thicker. Yesterday it had been about the thickness of a finger. Now it was as big around as a forearm. And it.... ‘pulsed’...was the only word Karen could think of to describe the motion. It was like watching a very long neck swallowing repeatedly; and the undulations moved toward Uncle Jerzy’s body, like something was being pumped into him.

“I t’ink we oughta try ta get it off’a him,” Tony told her, staring at the thread as if mesmerized by its motions.

Karen hesitated a moment. What if that only made things worse, made it grab on harder? On the other hand, it had grown considerably since yesterday. If they didn’t do something soon, it would consume him entirely. “I wanna tell Aiden what we’re doing first...in case something goes wrong.”

Karen slipped back into her body. “Aiden, the shadow...it’s covering his whole head and neck now, and grabbing onto his chest and hips. Tony and I are going to see if we can get it off. Maybe you oughta get Justin and anyone else who’s awake....”

Leigh had just woken from her nap, and was disoriented for a minute by the quiet. Usually when she slept here she could hear the TV on, or the sound of video games drifting up the stairs. She’d been sleeping soundly for a change, though, with no nightmares, so it took her a second to remember in which direction the stairs were with no noises to guide her in the dark.

After listening carefully, she could hear various clanking sounds, the clicking of a rachet, the banging of a rubber mallet on metal. Justin must have been doing something in the garage. She went downstairs, and was a little surprised not to see anyone else around. She peeked into the garage, and saw Justin leaning over Aiden’s truck engine. He seemed to be gutting it, since there was as much of the engine carefully laid out on a tarp as there was still inside it. No one was in the kitchen or gym, either, she found.

She went to the security monitor and flipped through the cameras, and saw Karen, Tony and Aiden downstairs by Fr. Jerzy’s cell. Aiden was leaning with his back against the open door of the cell, and Karen and Tony were sitting on the floor outside the cell, with that boneless rag doll look of being ‘out of body.’ She checked on Fr. Jerzy. His eyes were heavily lidded, and she could make out a line of drool running down his cheek.

Aiden hit the intercom button. “Justin? Anyone else up there? You should probably get down here....”

“On my way,” Leigh told him.

Justin had been half-listening to the intercom while he worked. He knew Karen and Tony had gone ‘out’ to check on Uncle Jerzy, and had come back because he’d heard Karen talking. But he didn’t really hear what she said because he’d been trying to ease off a piece of extremely rusted tubing without breaking it. When he heard his own name, he dropped what he was doing and headed for the stairs. He actually beat Leigh down them.

“What’s going on?” he asked a little breathlessly.

“A commando mission, of sorts,” Aiden told him.

Karen barely heard Aiden as she was pushing herself back into the astral plane. It seemed much harder this time, maybe because she’d been expending so much energy already today.

“It really freaks me out when she does that,” Aiden said, with a shudder.

“Yeah,” Justin agreed. “I hope she never does it when we’re in bed....”

Aiden explained to Justin and Leigh what had happened during his exam, and what Karen had told him.

“Well, hello there,” Tony said cheerfully as Karen popped into the astral next to him.

“I was thinking that maybe if we, you know, attacked It at the same time,” Karen whispered to him. “I mean, I don’t know if it’ll make a difference. But I figure maybe it would be a bigger shock to Its system if we do all the damage we can at the same instant, rather than at different times.”

Tony shrugged. “Dunno. But whadever ya like. On t’ree?”

Karen nodded, and Tony counted off with his fingers: “One. Two.” He simply nodded for ‘three,’ and both grabbed at the smoky thread and pulled.

It was like sticking their hands into a freezer at the height of summer. Worse. Like they imagined it would be like to stick their hands into liquid nitrogen. Once they got past the shock of the cold, it felt wet, gooey, and oily like smoke. All in all, it was one of the most unpleasant things Karen had ever felt, ranking right up there with the tentacle of that thing that had been inside her mom.

Then, before they realized it was happening, the thread parted, and the loose end snapped off into the distance faster than they could follow with their eyes, leaving no trace to follow even if they’d wanted.

And they didn’t right now, because the rest of the shadow was bundled around Uncle Jerzy, and it was sucking into his body through every orifice...and even through the minuscule gaps between his skin cells. In only a few seconds, it was gone from sight.

Karen looked helplessly at Tony. “What now?” she asked silently with her eyes.

“Maybe ya oughta do a Sphere,” Tony suggested.

“I...I don’t know if it’ll work over here,” she whispered, as if someone might be listening to her, the Thing that had sent the shadow there in the first place.

“Can’d hurt ta try.”

“Just be prepared to get pushed back to your body,” she whispered. “Remember what happened when Dee did that Sphere when you and I and Fr. Andrew went after Jody?”

Karen took a deep ‘breath,’ and raised the Sphere...

And the shadow shot out of Fr. Jerzy the way it had sucked in, an oily black blob that moved like a swarm of bees, but without the hum. In seconds, it shot away to the outer edge of the Sphere...and then off out of sight.

Karen looked a little woozy to Tony, so he slapped her on the back. “Nice job,” he said, pumping a little energy into her. Hey, if her powers worked out here, then his should, too.

Justin was squatting next to Karen’s body when he heard Uncle Jerzy sigh. He stood, and watched Jerzy’s eyes drop shut and all the tension drain from his body. Justin wasn’t sure what it meant yet, but he figured it had something to do with Karen and Tony’s ‘commando mission,’ and had taken some effort. He knelt back down and put a hand on Karen’s lifeless arm, and pumped some energy into her. Then he did the same for Tony.

Tony and Karen waited, expecting the Thing to come back but not knowing how long it would take. The Sphere had gone down a moment ago, and there was no sign of it returning immediately. If there had been a way to track it, Karen was pretty sure Tony would have been after it already. He seemed eager to do something with the ‘adrenalin rush’ of attacking the Unknown. They looked at one another and decided to hang around as long as they could without having to force themselves to stay out.

When the two didn’t come back right away, Leigh became a little concerned. Justin had pointed out the difference in Fr. Jerzy, so they must have released the creature’s hold on him. But maybe they had to continue to fight it.... When almost a minute had passed and they still weren’t back, Leigh raised a Sphere of her own, hoping it would give Tony and Karen a small break to...well, to help with whatever was happening.

Tony came back first, since his ‘time’ ran out before Karen’s. A couple breaths later, Karen came back. They were surprised to hear that Leigh had also done a Sphere. They hadn’t gotten thrown back into their bodies by it. Maybe it was something different that Dee had done that time.

Aiden noticed right away that both Justin and Karen had been pushing themselves a little too hard today. “Don’t you guys ever sleep?” he asked, putting a hand first on Justin’s shoulder, then on Karen’s hand as he and Justin helped her up, and pumping some energy into both.

“Not when we have to stay up all night working to keep someone from doing something horrifyingly bad and then killing himself,” Karen told him. If he was so devoted to his job that he wasn’t sleeping and eating right, then he would certainly have to accept a similar explanation from them.

“I won’t let him die with sins on his soul,” Justin said, going in to check on his uncle.

“We can’t let anyone do that,” Aiden agreed, understanding implicitly that Justin would have allowed himself to die that way in order to save someone he loved as much as his uncle. He and the others followed Justin into Jerzy’s cell, and Aiden began checking him over, again.

He was still slack-faced and drooling, because of the drugs, and he looked older than his years from the stress he’d been under in the past month and a half. Battling the Unknown, even unwittingly, seemed to do that to people. But there was a subtle difference about him, the release of tension that Justin had seen happen. He was no longer engaged in the struggle against the creature that was trying to ‘move in.’ Even after Aiden had drugged him, the tension had been visible in every muscle. But he was resting peacefully now.

Justin put a hand gently on his uncle’s forehead, and transferred a little of his own energy to the older man. “Maybe that’ll help him fight it off again, if it comes back.”

David came in, and was a little surprised not to see anyone around. The door to the garage was standing open, and there were tools and truck parts lying around. But no sign of Justin...or anyone else. The high-rollers he’d been expecting at the table hadn’t been able to make it tonight; so he’d played a couple hands just to be polite, then headed out. Maybe he should’ve stayed to play longer....

He didn’t want to just wander around shouting ‘Hello. Anybody here?’ for a couple reasons. First, when he’d left, both Leigh and Master Naka were sleeping. But second, and more importantly, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

He didn’t even think that consciously, at first. But this was similar to the one paintball scenario they’d run him through...the one where they were supposedly hunting some psychotic vampire creature in an abandoned warehouse. “Hunh. Maybe that ‘training’ is good for something besides an entertaining date,” he thought to himself.

Then he grinned. That was it. Those nut-jobs were all hiding, waiting for him to go blundering through the building so they could plaster him in the name of ‘training.’ He chuckled. Not this time, ‘Nibwakawikwe Essiban.’

David moved as quietly as he could to the security panel. Leigh had left the monitor on the view of the cell, so he could see Leigh, Karen, Tony, Justin and some other guy clustered around Fr. Jerzy’s bed. He didn’t recognize the new guy, who was pretty good looking. But he looked ‘rode hard and put away wet.’ The guy obviously hadn’t slept in a while, and looked like he could use a good meal.

Aiden stood and stretched, slinging the stethoscope around his neck. “We can wait for the drugs to wear off and see,” he told them, “but I think we can probably let him out when he wakes up.”

When the guy stood and turned, David saw the stethoscope. The guy bent and picked up a medical-looking bag. David wondered if this was the doctor Karen said was a part of the team–-Aiden something, the one Angie might or might not still be dating.

Just to be safe, David moved carefully to the stairs and listened before starting down. Considering the capabilities these people seemed to have with special effects, he wouldn’t put it past them to have rigged the monitor to show something they’d taped while he was gone, to mislead him and make him do something stupid.

David was almost as startled as the others when he got to the cell doorway and almost ran into Tony coming out. “David! Dude! Glad ya made it back! Get knocked outta da game dat fast?”

“No. It wasn’t as hot as I’d been led to believe. So, I take it the exorcism worked?” he said with a smirk, peering past the others to see Fr. Jerzy still unconscious on the bed.

“Well, you could say that,” Aiden told him.

“David Red Elk, this is Aiden Carter...doctor extraordinaire. Aiden, David Red Elk, my ‘student,’” Karen said. “Anyway, it worked for now, except that we did it from the other side, and skipped all the hand waving.” She started up the stairs, and the others followed. “No offence to exorcists or anything.

“But there’s no telling if the Thing will be back. Maybe It’ll just look for an easier target. Or maybe It’ll be back, only pissed off. At least now we know how to tell if It’s attacking him, and It’ll probably have to start from scratch again, so we’ll be able to get It off him before It gets too ‘attached.’”

“So, are you ready to eat something now?” Justin asked Aiden. “I’ve got a little more work to do just to get your piece of shit truck to where it won’t fall apart driving back to the hospital. You may as well use the time constructively.” He turned and headed out to the garage, to get back to that rusted tubing.

“Fine, fine.” Aiden trudged off to the kitchen, hands waving over his head like he was swatting away a swarm of annoying gnats. Big ones. He filled a plate with this and that from the ‘fridge, and carried it out to a couch. Stuffing fork-fulls of food into his mouth like a starving man, he flipped on the TV and started surfing.

The others were sitting around the large table, the printouts of the twelve old cases spread out on it. “So, Tony, what did you find out from your contact in New York?” Karen asked.

“His name’s Fr. Claudio,” Tony started, talking as he went to bring the tray of cannolis from the bar to the table. “Kinda reminded me ob a gnome,” he said around a bite of cannoli. “Tiny, old. Prob’ly ninedy if ‘e’s a day. He mighta been av’rage height...once. But, man, you never saw a dude eat like Fr. Claudio! I met ‘im at dis great place in Liddle Idaly, best pasta in New York. Dat’s where I got da cannolis, too.

“He was really packin’ id away! Pasta, breadsticks, antipasto...an’ washin’ id all down wid glass after glass ‘a Chianti. Id woulda made his sainted mama proud.... I figure he’s got a tapeworm.”

Leigh, Karen and David started laughing, then Karen ‘shushed’ them all. They all continued snickering behind their hands, though. Aiden had been slumping farther and farther into the couch, until they could no longer see the top of his head. Karen tip-toed over to check. Sure enough, he was sound asleep. She motioned toward the kitchen, shooing them all away so they wouldn’t wake him. This time David turned back to grab the nearly empty tray of cannolis.

Once they were gone, Justin dropped the charade of working on the truck and want back to the computer. A new truck deserved a new storage box, something secure enough to store Aiden’s med kit. When he found one he liked, he ordered it and had it shipped the fastest possible way to the shop. That way he didn’t have to worry about no one being here when it got delivered.

Then he called Jerry. He needed to have someone go with him to pick up the new truck, to drive his truck back; but he wanted at least a couple people here if Uncle Jerzy woke. Plus, he’d save a trip out to the shop to get the check cut if Jerry could get it on his way over. He’d drag one of the others out with him if Jerry was busy.

He wasn’t. In fact, he was kind of tired of just sitting around watching TV every evening, so he was glad for the chance to get out of the house. It’d just take him a couple minutes to set his DVR and get shoes on....

“Anyway,” Justin heard Tony saying over the intercom, “firs’ t’ing, he has me tell ‘im everyt’ing about da case. Which wasn’ much, since youse guys hadn’ found out abou’ da udder cases yet. So I do, and he’s getting more an’ more serious lookin’ da more I say. He asked a bunch ‘a questions, I t’ink tryin’ ta make sure it wasn’ jus’ some pervert inta kids.

“Finally he asks if I can tell ‘im da guy’s name. An’ when I say it’s Fr. Jerzy Nadjosinski...I t’ought his grey caterpillar eyebrows was gonna crawl right over ta the back ‘a his head

“‘Oh, well dat's-a diff’rent!’ he says.” Tony was waving his hands and mimicking Fr. Claudio’s heavy Italian accent as he spoke.

“He starts talkin’ about what da Church was like t’irdy years ago, while he’s eatin’ a cannoli and a chunk ‘a tiramisu about da size ‘a his head, and drinkin’ maybe his t’irdyith espresso. He’s da archivist for da New York Diocese, ya know. He seems to know priddy much everyt’ing about da Church.

“Anyway, he leans back an’ puts his hands over ‘is belly. He wuz really skinny before, an’ now dere’s dis bump from all ‘a da food ‘e put away.

“‘Yous-a gonna hafta gimme more info as-a you get dis,’ he says.” Tony went back to mimicking Fr. Claudio. “‘Where you say dis-a happening? Detroit?’

‘Yeah, Detroit,’ I tell ‘im.’” Now, even when he was speaking for himself, Tony was talking with his hands more than he normally did.

“‘Dere’s a kinda spirit,’ he says, ‘I have-a heard about. It’s-a...for lack of a better word...I’d-a call it an-a apostate. Dat’s-a someone who commits apostacy...you know...abandoned a previous-a loyalty, or-a renounced his-a religious-a faith. It-a could-a be. It-a sounds-a like it. But I need-a much-a more informazioni...as-a you get it. It’s-a not exactly a possession...not exactly a demon...it’s-a....’

“He paused so long I t’ought he fell asleep in spite ‘a da espressos!” Tony told them. “Den he finally says,

‘Ah! I can’t-a t’ink ‘a da word, but-a like a svengali. You know-a dat word? Like-a controlling.... It was-a once a devout-a person, who turned away from his-a faith very strongly, no? Den he-a dies in a state of-a sin, full of-a rage against-a da Church and-a mankind. Dis-a ghost is not-a happy. It’s-a not enough-a to turn his-a back on-a God Him-a-self. Now he must-a make others-a do so, too.

‘Dere is-a only one-a way to get-a rid of-a dis type of-a ghost. Dere is-a always some-a article, it-a could-a be anyt’ing dat-a had-a meaning to him, not-a only in-a his faith but in-a his renunciation of-a his faith. But...when I say-a article or-a object...it-a could be a building, a watch-a fob, a doll. You must-a know who da ghost is, and-a find-a dis out.’

“So I told ‘im it was Fr. Berowski,” Tony said, “an’ he says,

‘Ah! I-a remember da Berowski affair-a. Very big-a. Very messy.’

“Den he gave me his card an’ I gave him one ‘a mine.

‘I’ll-a see you in a couple of-a days,’ he says.

“Are you comin’ ta Detroit? I asked ‘im.

“Yes. I’ll-a find-a what I need-a dere. So you must-a find me a nice-a place to stay, no? Maybe at-a da Diocese? I’ll-a give you a call-a when I know when-a my plane is-a land.’

“So I told him ta let me know if he has any trouble gettin’ a flight, ‘cause I could always go get ‘im myself.” Tony shrugged, finally done with his story. He rarely was the center of attention like that, and it kind of wore him out.

“He can probably stay with Uncle Jerzy...or at least at the rectory, if we wanna keep Uncle Jerzy here,” Justin said, walking into the room. “Anyway, I’ve gotta run out to get some parts for Aiden’s piece of shit. Jerry’s gonna go with me, so I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Karen got up and gave him a hug and kiss, and Tony made ‘smoochy noises.’ After he left, the others worked out a schedule so that someone would be keeping an eye on Uncle Jerzy all night. Karen left the schedule taped to the white-board in the garage so Justin would see it when he got back. She knew he’d be out there with his head under the hood until he got the thing in running condition again, even if that was just so that Aiden could drive it to the junkyard.

Fr. Jerzy slept peacefully through the night, his watchers trading off every few hours. Justin sighed when he saw the schedule. At least Karen had given herself the last ‘watch,’ so that she could get some sleep herself. She’d been really putting a lot of energy into this whole thing today, and she looked worn out when she’d hugged him.

On the way out to Dearborn, he and Jerry stopped at Meijers, and Justin got the biggest bow he could find, to put on Aiden’s new truck. It wasn’t exactly a gift, but it was kind of going to be like opening a present on Christmas when Aiden finally saw it. After Jerry left, Justin put the bow on the new truck, and went back to working on the old one.

It was the middle of the night and, except for his uncle’s ‘watcher,’ everyone else was asleep. Justin was tightening a bolt just outside the firewall when he had a revelation. It wasn’t the best place to be for revelations....

“OW!” Justin dropped the wrench. “Shit!” he blurted into the hand covering his mouth, while the other rubbed the spot on the back of his head where he’d connected with the underside of the hood. “Gramma! Why didn’t I think of that before? She must’ve known Fr. Berowski....”