They don’t notice that Sarra is gone until the next day. It is Marcus who realises first and he bellows: “She’s taken the bike!”
“What do you mean?” Asks Helena as she enters the garage. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a stern bun and her make-up is immaculate. Marcus doesn’t know where she finds the time to tend to herself.
“I mean she’s taken the bike,” repeats Marcus, rolling his eyes. “Sarra has taken the bike.”
Helena purses her lips and walks across the garage. Her heels click loudly with every step. A moment later, Chatravati steps into the garage. He is holding a steaming mug of chai tea, from which tendrils of steam arise like wraiths.
It is clear from the look on his face that he has already heard the rest of the conversation, so Marcus doesn’t repeat himself. Instead he asks: “How’s Jeremy?”
“Worse,” Chatravati looks grave. Marcus thinks that Jeremy’s journey to the Crimson Court made the old man realise that the boy isn’t untouchable, after all.
“Do you think that Sarra is involved?” Asks Helena, who has already positioned herself behind a computer terminal. Her slender fingers punch the keys expertly, as though she is playing a musical instrument. “Could it be related to Dane?”
“Not Dane,” says Marcus. “She left that behind a long time ago.” But at the back of his mind, he wonders.
“This could have something to do with it,” says Conor, appearing from the corridor that leads to the vault. In his hands there is a metal box. The side of the box is marked with burns.
“What was inside?” Asks Helena.
Chatravati, who was scratching his beard, answers before Conor gets a chance: “Kalfou’s Gift,” he says. “A musical instrument—a maraca, to be precise.”
“A maraca?” Marcus is thinking of that annoying dance craze. He has never heard the word maraca before now.
“You shake it,” says Helena, motioning with her hand. Marcus raises an eyebrow, but now he remembers. It seems like so long ago now that he first took the instrument away from Jeremy. “What does Sarra need a maraca for?”
“She doesn’t,” said Chatravati. “But Saul DuPont does, because it will complete his pair.”
“I take it that’s a bad thing?” Says Marcus.
Chatravati nods just once. “Saul DuPont has long employed dark spirits to work as his slaves, something I believe that he inherited from his grandfather. DuPont surrounds himself with the undead, but normally the creation of zombies is a lengthy process…”
“At least without using some sort of biological agent,” says Conor.
“True zombies are those created by black magic,” continues Chatravati. “But those instruments… called Kalfou’s Gift, allow the wielder to bypass all ritual. Any corpse that hears the death-rattle will immediately awaken in undeath.”
“So… DuPont makes Jeremy sick and forces Sarra to steal the maraca in exchange for making him well again,” says Helena.
“Exactly,” says Chatravati.
“Where do we find DuPont?” says Marcus.
“His night club might be a good place to start,” offers Helena. She turns the computer monitor around so that is facing towards them. It is open to Club Mojo’s website and it says in big, flashing letters:
Voodoo Dance Party — Tonight!!!
Next episode we take a closer look at the man everyone’s talking about–Saul DuPont. And check back this Friday for Part IV of The Annabel Warrant Files!